WRDV is a U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 public radio station serving some northern suburbs of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 area. The radio station studio is located in Hatboro

Hatboro, Pennsylvania

Hatboro is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 7,360 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hatboro is located at ....

 and the broadcast tower in Warminster. WRDV jockeys are volunteers and frequently play their own album collections on the air.

Programming

Music selection varies widely by host. Some of the music includes Blues, Country, Jazz, '20s and '30s, Doo-Wop, A cappella, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Beautiful Music

Beautiful music

Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...

, and Polka.

WRDV serves as a launch pad for many local groups, since it is one of the few stations willing to play their albums on the air.

History

WRDV began broadcasting on Sept 6, 1976 as WCSD, a 10-watt radio station located at the former William Tennent High School on Street Road. Its call letters are the initials of the station's original owner, the Centennial School District. In 1980 the station license was transferred from the School District to the Bux-Mont Educational Radio Association and the station relocated to the basement of the Warminster Township Building/Police Department at Henry and Gibson Avenues in Warminster, Pennsylvania. It began operations there on May 15, 1980 after a 16 month period of silence. In 1981 it increased power to 200 watts and in 1986 changed call letters to WRDV which stand for "Radio in the Delaware Valley." In 1987 WRDV began the "Delaware Valley Radio Network" by simulcasting on a translator in Sellersville/Quakertown at 88.7 and, in 1988, adding a translator at 91.9 FM in Lawrenceville/Trenton.

Also in the late eighties, several members of the station management launched sister station WDVR 89.7 FM, which is now located in Sergeantsville, New Jersey.

In the nineties, 89.3 WRDV-FM increased power to 1000 watts and WRDV's 91.9 relay was reassigned to relay WDVR in Princeton. The Sellersville transmitter was closed and the FCC cancelled its license in 1998. WRDV later added 10-Watt translator relay W297AD at 107.3 in Philadelphia and 84 watt relay W300AA at 107.9 FM in Bensalem, PA. In the late nineties WRDV relocated its studios to Hatboro, Pennsylvania and began simulcasting WRDV programming on co-owned WLBS

WLBS

WLBS is a radio station broadcasting a variety music format. Licensed to Bristol, Pennsylvania, USA, the station is currently owned by Bux-Mont Educational Radio Association....

in Bristol, PA at 100-watts at 91.7 FM. On May 25, 2004, WRDV changed the Bensalem frequency to 97.1 FM, with calls
of W246AR.

Sources

Sellersville Translator and License: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Public_Notices/Brdcst_Actions/ac990507.txt

Levittown Relay:
http://www.bostonradio.org/nerw/nerw-020617.html

WRDV Power increase, WLBS, Philadelphia Relay:
http://paradio.tripod.com/philadfm.htm

WDVR-FM, 91.9 FM relay:
http://www.wdvrfm.org/