WEHC


WEHC is a Public Radio-formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Emory, Virginia, serving the Abingdon/Marion area. WEHC is owned and operated by Emory and Henry College.

History

The original incarnation of WEHC was a 100-watt AM station, which signed on October 24, 1929 on 1370 kHz. This WEHC was the first station to go into operation in Virginia outside of Richmond and Norfolk. The station was programmed mostly by students and represented to the FCC by faculty member W. Byron Brown. After three years of operation, the Great Depression prompted the college to sell to Brown for $5,000 in the fall of 1932. The station went off the air that December as Brown moved the physical facilities to Charlottesville, Virginia, where it is still in operation as WCHV.
The current WEHC, which is legally unrelated to the original station, was founded in 1992. The original station kept the WEHC callsign until 1935, but it was never reused and remained available for the new station.

New transmitter and tower

WEHC worked with US Representative Rick Boucher to raise the $187,932 needed to build a brand new 199 foot tower and increase the station's power from 500 watts to nearly 10,000. On October 27, 2009, WEHC turned on their new transmitter, dramatically increasing their power from 500 to 8,700 watts.