2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 170
Commending WRVA.
Agreed to by the Senate, March 5, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, March 9, 2026
WHEREAS, for the past century, WRVA, an AM broadcast that is one of the oldest radio stations in the Commonwealth, has greatly served the Greater Richmond community; and
WHEREAS, in April 1925, Pleasant Larus Reed, vice president of Larus and Brother Company, resolved to bring the miracle of radio to Richmond; and
WHEREAS, Pleasant Larus Reed ordered a 1,000-watt Western Electric radio station and directed his administrative assistant, Calvin T. Lucy, to oversee its assembly atop the Larus Building on East Main Street and its operation; and
WHEREAS, the entire front page of the October 31, 1925, edition of the Richmond News Leader was devoted to articles anticipating the initial broadcast of the city's first radio station; and
WHEREAS, at 9:00 p.m. on November 2, 1925, studio director Elmer Hoelzel began WRVA's now 100 years of broadcasting by stating, “Radio world, this is the opening night of station WRVA”; and