Fredericksburg's oldest radio station and its newer sister station are being sold.

Date published: 4/19/2007

BY CATHY JETT

The Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce advertised nearly 70 years ago for someone to build the city's first radio station.

Richard Lewis, a former radio station operator and radio engineer, and his wife, Marion, decided to move to Fredericksburg from California and start WFVA-AM using capital supplied by eight local businessmen.

Today their sons are in negotiations to sell WFVA and sister station WBQB-FM, as well as the four other stations in their Winchester-based Mid Atlantic Network Inc., for an undisclosed sum to Centennial Broadcasting II LLC, a privately held North Carolina company.

"We received inquiries over the last few years about our radio stations," said John P. Lewis, Mid Atlantic's president, in a prepared statement.

"Some of them came from large broadcasting companies. We did not feel comfortable selling the stations to a large, public company. But, when privately held Centennial expressed an interest, we listened," he said. "Centennial has a long and commendable history of owning and operating radio stations dedicated to the communities they serve. That was a major factor for us."

John Lewis, who owns Mid Atlantic with brothers David and Howard Lewis, said his lawyer had advised him not to talk about the sale since the contract had not been signed.

But he was willing to talk about the history of the WFVA, which is located at 1914 Mimosa St. in Stafford County. He said it was originally a small operation with his late father serving as station manager, engineer and broadcaster.

The Lewis family moved to Winchester in 1941 to build WINC-AM while continuing to run WFVA. Legendary country singer Patsy Cline, a Winchester native, made her her first broadcast appearance on WINC.

Richard Lewis eventually bought out the other shareholders, who included Benjamin T. Pitts, who opened some of the earliest movie theaters in Fredericksburg.

Mid Atlantic also owns WINC-FM in Winchester, WWRT-FM in Strasburg and WWRE-FM in Berryville.

Allen B. Shaw, Centennial's president and CEO, is at a conference and was unavailable for comment yesterday. But, according to an article in The Winchester Star, he said it is rare for one family to own a radio station for so long, and he complimented the Lewises for serving their stations' communities exceptionally well.

Shaw added in that interview that it is daunting to take over stations with an "incredible tradition and legacy," and that both markets "are being operated exactly the way they should be."

Date published: 4/19/2007