HISTORY OF BROADCASTING IN WEST VIRGINIA

WMOV, Ravenswood

(Under Construction)

WMOV went on the air in 1957. The calls stood for Mid Ohio Valley.

On Sept. 28, 1957, the Logan (Ohio) Daily News reported, “The Ravenswood radio station will begin operations on Oct. 5 if construction and installation of equipment is completed by that time. It is a brand-new 1,000-watt daytime station that will broadcast on 1360 kiloycycles witha maximum radius of about 5 miles. Ravenswood is the home of the gigantic Kaiser aluminum and chemical plant that employs about 10,000 persons and is expected to make the small city of Ravenswood one of the most prosperous cities in the Ohio Valley.”

The 1958 Broadcasting Yearbook gives a start date of Oct. 14, 1957. It shows WMOV operating on 1360 kc, owned by Gibbs and Gallatin Sts. Phone Browning 3-3544. Valley Broadcasters Inc. (original owner). Joseph M. Handlan, pres; Lloyd R. Daugherty, gen & cml mgr; William W. Watterson, program director & promotion mgr; Junius Gy Caplinger, chief engineer; Roger Hutton, farm director.

In May 1961 the station was purchased by Good Neighbor Broadcasters Inc., which included Rex Osborne, N. S. Tweel, and Robert Ellis, then the mayor of Huntington.

The obituary of Herbert Rex Osborne (1926-2003) stated that he was the owner/operator of WMOV Radio for more than 40 years. It also stated that, following graduation from college, he built and operated radio stations WDOC and WPRT in Prestonsburg, Ky.

The 1976 Broadcasting Yearbook shows WMOV on 136o kHz licensed to Good Neighbor Broadcasters Inc. Format: C&W, MOR, Top 40. Rex Osborne, pres & gen mgr; Sam Jackson, coml mgr; D. Hoyt, prog dir; H. Jones, prog mgr; Ruth Brooks, music dir; I. Hoyt, news dir; C. Marlowe, chiefengr.

From 1998 to 2001 a station with the call letters WMOV-FM was licensed to Ravenswood. In 2005 it was granted a CP to change its city of license to Racine, Ohio. It operates on 93.1 MHz with the call letters WJEH-FM.

In 2014 Oshel Craigo and Thomas Susman purchased WMOV from Allen Media.

In 2021 WMOV was licensed to Ravenswood, operating on 1360-AM with a talk and sports format.

In 2021 W294AF was a translator licensed to Ripley operating on 106.7. W228DJ was a translator on 93.5 licensed to Ravenswood.

The station’s web site is here.