User:Teblick/WLEE (defunct)

WLEE was a radio station in Richmond, Virginia. It began broadcasting on October 1, 1945, on 1450 KHz in the AM band.

Network affiliations
WLEE initially was an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System and the Associated Broadcasting Corporation.

In its first year of operation, WLEE was one of three stations that formed a network carrying broadcasts of the Washington Redskins professional football team.

Personnel
WLEE's founding owner was Thomas Tinsley. Its first station manager was Irvin G. Abeloff.

In 1947, Harvey Hudson, a WLEE announcer, was named program director for the station. Hudson, who joined WLEE's announcing staff in 1942, worked there for 34 years, leaving in 1976.

Facilities
In 1945, WLEE had five studios and offices in downtown Richmond in the Broad-Grace Arcade and a "new transmitter, located by the James River."

In 1947, Tinsley was granted a construction permit for an FM transmitter that would broadcast on 102.9 MHz with 21 KW power.

Power and schedule
WLEE initially broadcast from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily with 250 W power. On November 26, 1945, the FCC granted a license for unlimited hours except when WBBL was on the air. (On the same day, WBBL, owned by Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond, had its frequency changed to 1450 KHz, the same as that of WLEE.) WLEE later moved to fulltime operation with 5 KW power.<ref name=bc082167)

Call letters
Plans originally called for the station's call letters to be WALV. Before it went on the air, however, the Federal Communications Commission approved the change to WLEE to "commemorate the famed Lee family of Virginia".

FM
In September 1946, the FCC awarded Thomas Garland Tinsley Jr. a conditional grant for an FM station to be affiliated with WLEE. The grant specified broadcasting on 97.9 MHz with 21 KW power.

Sale
In 1967, Tinsley, sole owner of WLEE, sold the station to Nationwide Communications, which simultaneously bought WXEX-TV for a combined total of $7,150,000.