Richmond combo going noncom under Eppersons

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An AM-FM combo is being donated to the Delmarva Educational Association, a noncommercial radio group that lists Nancy and Stuart Epperson among its directors. The stations are in the Richmond market, where members of the Epperson family are already associated with a commercial AM.


The stations are WZEZ-FM Goochland VA and WGGM-AM Chester VA. The AM is licensed to Hoffman Communications Inc. and the FM to WZEZ Inc., with Hubert N. Hoffman III signing off on the applications.

The donations are being treated as a charitable contribution for tax purposes, and the package includes 27 acres of real estate. The stations will be run as noncommercial operations.

Already active in the market is Chesapeake Portsmouth Broadcasting Corporation, licensee of commercial Christian/Talk station WLES-AM. It is a Class D on 580 kHz licensed to Bon Air VA. It has 201 W-D, 27 W-N off a non-directional antenna, and a CP to upgrade its daytime power to 600 W and nighttime power to 58 W. It serves the yellow part of the Richmond geographical map.

WZEZ is a Class A located well northwest of Richmond. A Standards station according to the BIA chart accompanying the application, its 2.6 kW, 509’ operation puts only a secondary signal over the market.

WGGM does a better job of getting into Richmond, with a Class B 10 kW-D, 1 kW-N DA2 signal beaming up from the south on 820 kHz. It is said to be using a Gospel format.