WPCE

The Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation obtained a construction permit for a new daytime-only radio station on 1590 kHz in Portsmouth on July 25, 1946. The construction permit was given the call sign WCKA. The call letters were changed to WLOW before signing on the air.{{r|hc}} The station made several attempts to change frequency and gain nighttime authorization.

It finally succeeded when the FCC allowed the station to move to 1410 kHz in 1949 and was granted approval to broadcast at night. Another move, this time to 1400 kHz, was made the next year.{{r|hc}} Mark Scott, a sportscaster for the station, went on to broadcast Hollywood Stars Pacific Coast League games.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56954277/|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=September 4, 1952|title=Mark Scott...|page=8|first=Charles|last=Karmosky|work=Daily Press}} The station also owned the short-lived Norfolk UHF television station WTOV-TV (channel 27).{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56971184/|access-date=August 8, 2020|title=Sale Of Norfolk TV Station Asked|date=February 5, 1955|work=Daily Press|page=11|agency=Associated Press}}

In 1955, after its first WTOV-TV experience, WLOW wanted to make a second go-around at television, this time on the VHF band. It asked the FCC to move channel 13 from New Bern, North Carolina, to Princess Anne.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37070641/wlow-seeks-tv-channel-13-for-princess/|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=October 6, 1955|page=3|work=Daily Press|agency=Associated Press|title=WLOW Seeks TV Channel 13 For Princess Anne}} (The commission denied the appeal in January 1956.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37070652/|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=January 13, 1956|title=TV Petition Denied|agency=Associated Press|page=24|work=Daily Press}}) That same year, it was sold to a group that had also been burned by UHF television, the Winston-Salem Broadcasting Company, owner of WTOB radio and television in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for $212,500.{{Cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1955/1955-11-28-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=November 28, 1955|page=104|work=Broadcasting|title=For the Record}} Winston-Salem sold the station to the James Broadcasting Company two years later,{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1957/1957-06-17-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=June 17, 1957|work=Broadcasting|title=Bob Hope Group Pays $3 Million For WREX-TV|pages=90–91}} Tim Elliot, the owner of station WICE at Providence, Rhode Island, acquired WLOW for the same price four years later{{Cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1961/1961-03-20-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=March 20, 1961|work=Broadcasting|page=58|title=Changing Hands}} and changed the call letters to WHIH on July 1.{{r|hc}} Daytime power was increased to 1,000 watts the next year.{{r|hc}}

WHIH went bankrupt in 1964 and was assigned to trustees; Speidel Broadcasting Company of Virginia purchased the station out of bankruptcy. Speidel specialized in radio stations for the Black community, and the new acquisition adopted the same R&B format that characterized the chain.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1966/1966-11-07-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=November 7, 1966|work=Broadcasting|pages=84–89|title=Stations identify with their audience}} The station ran one promotion that attracted unexpected results. In 1967, WHIH ran a competition to determine which local school had the most spirit by receiving slips of paper with the schools' names written on them. It expected 15,000 total entries, but in the end, competition among the 20 participating schools was so high that the station rented an empty warehouse to store the nearly 180 million total votes and asked students to count their own submissions. The winner was George Washington Carver High with 54,272,025 votes.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/60s/1967/CB-1967-06-17.pdf|date=June 17, 1967|work=Cash Box|page=41|title=Platter Spinner Patter|access-date=August 8, 2020}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56963009/|work=The Progress-Index|agency=Associated Press|title=Radio Station Hit With Paper Blizzard|page=3|date=May 6, 1967|access-date=August 8, 2020}}

Baron Broadcasting acquired WHIH in 1971.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1971/1971-02-01-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=February 1, 1971|work=Broadcasting|page=74|title=For the Record}} Effective June 11,{{r|hc}} the call letters were changed to WWOC—representing "We Will Overcome"—with the station maintaining a soul format.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56966056/|title=WWOC: New Sound in Black & White|date=June 13, 1971|work=Daily Press|page=E3|access-date=August 8, 2020}} However, a year later, Baron flipped WWOC to a primarily contemporary music format.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1972/1972-06-26-BC.pdf|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=June 26, 1972|work=Broadcasting|page=31|title=Changing formats}} That did not last long, either, as WWOC changed to country on April 15, 1973.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1973/1973-05-21-BC.pdf|page=46|title=Changing formats|work=Broadcasting|date=May 21, 1973}}

In October 1974, Metro Communications Corporation (later Willis Broadcasting Corporation), owned by Levi Willis, struck separate deals to acquire WWOC and WOWI (102.9 FM); the AM station fetched $365,000.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1974/1974-10-28-BC.pdf|page=30|work=Broadcasting|title=Changing Hands|date=October 28, 1974|access-date=August 8, 2020}} The deal was a watershed moment for radio ownership in Hampton Roads, as WWOC and WOWI became the first two Black-owned stations in the market,{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45779111/fcc-hearing-to-question-radio-ownership/|access-date=February 28, 2020|date=July 29, 1977|title=FCC Hearing To Question Radio Ownership|agency=Associated Press|work=Daily Press|page=42}} competing against white-owned but African American-oriented WRAP.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45779088/black-group-buys-two-radio-stations/|access-date=February 28, 2020|date=October 24, 1974|page=9|work=Daily Press|title=Black Group Buys Two Radio Stations|agency=UPI}} The call letters of WWOC were changed to WPCE on July 1, 1975,{{r|hc}} and the station initially converted to an R&B format before flipping to gospel by 1977.{{r|hc}}

The late 1970s brought legal peril to the Willis operation. In 1977, after a months-long investigation, the FCC moved to designate both stations' license renewals for hearing. Key in the case were three allegations: one that the station's sales manager in 1975 and 1976 used coercion and threats of boycotts to secure advertising from Coca-Cola, Sears and a Norfolk tire shop; another about the airing of misleading advertising and information about illegal lotteries; and another alleging Willis had taken over station WBLU at Salem.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45779103/|work=Danville Register|agency=Associated Press|title=Owner Of Black-Oriented Stations May Lose License; Abuses Alleged|page=5-B|date=June 10, 1977|access-date=February 28, 2020}} The case was ended in 1982 when an administrative law judge recommended a $10,000 fine to Willis and the renewal of its licenses.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45779143/fines-urged-for-radio-stations/|access-date=February 28, 2020|title=Fines Urged For Radio Stations|work=Daily Press|page=3|date=February 6, 1982|agency=Associated Press}}

Willis sold WOWI in 1989;{{cite news|title=Transactions: Ragan Henry Buys Norfolk FM For $8.3 Million|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1980s/1989/RR-1989-05-19.pdf|work=Radio & Records|date=May 19, 1989|page=8|access-date=February 28, 2020}} by this time, what had started with the two Hampton Roads stations had grown into a major radio chain owning 22 stations from Arkansas to Pennsylvania.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1989/1989-BC-YB.pdf|page=A-55, A-56 (73–74)|title=Willis Broadcasting Corp.|date=1989|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|access-date=August 8, 2020}} Many of the stations, including WPCE, carried a satellite-fed gospel format that originated at Willis's WWCA in Gary, Indiana, and included Willis's long-running Crusade for Christ program.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56969600/|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=February 6, 1993|title=More markets get bishop's gospel program|first=David|last=Nicholson|work=Daily Press|page=D1}}

The Willis group had grown to 40 outlets by the early 2000s, but Levi Willis's failing health and a series of unpaid debts to the Internal Revenue Service caused financial problems for the chain. In 1997, the company paid more than $700,000 to settle claims of unpaid royalties for songs played on its stations.{{r|dies}} In 2003, the city of Norfolk seized the Willis Broadcasting Corporation headquarters after the company failed to pay $150,000 of property taxes over a five-year period.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56969915/|access-date=August 8, 2020|title=City moves to capture radio chain's back taxes|agency=Associated Press|work=Daily Press|date=April 24, 2003}} Willis died in 2009.{{cite news|url=https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_df710afa-c411-50aa-9ac4-96f842941115.html|work=The Virginian-Pilot|first=Steven|last=Vegh|title=Influential Hampton Roads Bishop Levi E. Willis Sr. dies|date=February 20, 2009|access-date=August 8, 2020}}

WPCE, WGPL (1350 AM), and WBXB (100.1 FM) in Edenton, North Carolina, were the last stations owned by the former Willis group, which restructured in 2018 and became known as the Christian Broadcasting Corporation (no relation to the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network).{{cite news|url=http://thenewjournalandguide.com/christian-radio-company-keeps-focus-on-serving-community/|access-date=August 8, 2020|date=January 4, 2019|first=Leonard E.|last=Colvin|title=Christian Radio Company Keeps Focus On Serving Community|work=The New Journal and Guide}} The general manager and program director of the group, Chester Benton, had previously worked at WHIH in the 1960s and then at WOWI after Willis bought it.{{r|colvin}}

In August 2020, the Friendship Cathedral Family Worship Center, Inc., controlled by Katrina Chase, the executrix of Willis's estate, filed to acquire the three Christian Broadcasting Corporation stations in exchange for the cancellation of $90,591 in debt.{{cite news|url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/195902/station-sales-week-of-8-14/|work=RadioInsight|title=Station Sales Week of 8/14|date=August 14, 2020|first=Lance|last=Venta|access-date=August 14, 2020}} The transaction was consummated on November 10, 2020.

{{reflist}}

• [http://churchwebcast.com/wpce.html Peace 1400 Online]

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PCE

Category:Gospel radio stations in the United States

PCE

Category:Radio stations established in 1946

Category:1946 establishments in Virginia