WCHS-AM 580 Radio went on the air September 15, 1927 at 580 kHz.  The station was the third station in West Virginia to go on the air.  Its first call letter were actually WOBU, with the first location being in the Ruffner Hotel on Kanawha Boulevard.  It was founded by Walter Fredericks who had an electric shop but could not sell radios with no local stations.  So he built one, later calling it WCHS (acronym for Charleston).  Fredericks was a contractor who built homes in Charleston area for many years.  The station moved into Middleburg Auditorium, then named it"WCHS Auditorium".  Offices were on a U-shaped balcony.  The auditorium was used for various events.  On Friday nights, the "Old Farm Hour" , pulling as many as 2,000 people with its hill talent was broadcat successfully.  It was alos the location for dances, rented out for such big bands as Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw and Stan Kenton.  One of the early shows broadcast was the "Miss 580 Club", and from 1938 to 1948, it was hosted by Mrs. Melva Chernoff, wife of Howard Chernoff, one of the earliest managers of the station.

"Miss 580 Club" was a highly successful "phone in" show with Melva giving advice to the lovelorn, recipes and other information.  Once a year there was an annual party, a big event,  for all the club members, held and broadcasted from the auditorium.

The founder and first president of the West Virginia Broadcaster's Association was at the time general manager of WCHS.  Howard Chernoff sent letters to all West Virginia stations, getting about twelve members of the informal group together in 1946.  In a recent conversation with Executive Director Fletcher, Chernoff recalled some sories from those early years.  He said that WCHS had the first full-time news director named Harold Miller, who was drafted into the marines in 1940, who later became News Director for WCHS after World War II.  An outstanding reporter, Miller is now a Washington, D.C. lobbyist with his company Miller Associates.  When Senator Harley kilgore was campaigning in 1946, Miller was hired as Kilgore's Administrative Assistant.  Following Miller in the news slot was Ross Edwards.  According to Harry Brawley, Edwards was a brilliant newsman who ended his career at WCHS by committing suicide,

Other air personalities included Sam Poland and Tom Murphy, who made up the popular early morning team of "Sam 'N Denzil".  Murphy was also active in directing local theater and musical groups.  With a real love of opera and knowledge of foreign languages, Murphy was a total opposite with his 'hillbilly' character on the air at WCHS.  Murphy died in 1986.  He lef the radio business some years prior to that, working with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, where he did a weekly television prgram for cable broadcast.

Sports broadcasting attained local prominence when Ernie Saunders joined the station.  His brother was program director Bert Sonis in 1945.  Ernie was Sports Director and additionally Sales and General Manager simultaneously for many years with the longest continuous sportscast in the state, "The Sportspage of the Air".  In retirement he continues to appear on WCHS sports programs with John Dickensheets.  Other personalities at the station throughout the years include: Elton "Butch" McClung, John Kristof, Bill Richards, Ned Skaff and Joe Farris, just to name a few.

Howard Chernoff thinks that WCHS may be the only station in West Virginia to win a Peabody Award.  In 1942, Harold Miller wrote "The Home Front", with Bert Sonis narrating the program.  Wives of servicemen who were having problems receiving their military allotment checks were encouraged to send or phone in their problem to the station; from there the station would try to assist in those situations.  "The Home Front" won a Peabody Award for their efforts and active role in the community.  Chernoff went to Europe to serve as a reporter during World War II, where he interviewed military personel and also held the claim that he was the first broadcaster from an independent network (The West Virginia Network) to be a correspondent in the war.  He sought out West Virginians to interview and sent his taped segments to CBS in New York, where they were put on 'platters' to be broadcast.  Occasionally, Chernoff broadcasted live from Europe, which was a very expensive operation sponsored by Cohen Drug Company.  In 1981, Chernoff gave his colelction of war platters to the West Virginia Historical Society.  The war platters are currently stored at the Cultural Center in Charleston, WV.

In 1945, Chernoff had many of his interviews published in a book titled, ANYBODY HERE FROM WEST VIRGINIA?  The introduction was written by Edward R. Murrow, who was at the time the European Director for CBS.  (A copy of this book is available in the WCHS Radio files.)  In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Chernoff were brought back to West Virginia by then Governor Rockefeller and were made honorary West Virginians.  Service personnel from World War II, whom Howard had earlier interviewed, were brought in from all the country for this special occasion.  (Other articles from his private collection of papers and speeches have been donated to the Archives of Contemporary History, University of Wyoming.)

Chernoff tried to retire in 1948 but instead went to work for the founder of the West Virginia Network, John A. Kennedy in California with KFMB.  He did later retire from broadcasting, from there he went to the United States Information Agency.  Later he became the U. S. Ambassador to Expo '70 in Japan with the U.S. State Department on a mission to Mongolia.  John A. Kennedy, who founded West Virginia Network in 1936, died at the age of 88 years old in 1987.

In 1945, Chernoff hired Harry Brawley to be Director of Public Affairs and Education at WCHS and for West Virginia Network.  In that job Harry fed programs from Charleston for coverage in the Huntington, Clarksburg and Parkersburg markets.   Harry began what was the forerunner of public broadcasting's educational programs when he started in-school listening programming in many subjects.  More comprehensive reviews of his broadcasting career may be found in his book, TWENTY YEARS ON AN OASIS IN THE "VAST WASTELAND", published in 1981.

WCHS was recognized by CBS in 1947 for having done the best job in the nation promoting their "School of the Air".  In 1954, Brawley began TV Classroom in addition to the radio programs.  He also continued as an Associate Professor at Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston) until 1978.  Brawley left the station in 1965 to become the Executive Secretary of the West Virginia Educational Broadcast Authority.  (He is now retired.)

WBES-FM, sister station of WCHS went on the air September 16, 1969 at 96.1 mHz, 50 kw stereo.  Located in the same building at 1111 Virginia Street East in Charleston.  It began as a Beautiful Music format and was later changed to "Warm 96-WVNS" in 1988.

Morgantown based West Virginia Radio Corporation purchased WCHS and WBES-FM (96.1) in 1991.  The WBES 96.1's call letters were changed to WKWS and station's format was changed to country.  WVAF-FM and WCAW AM 680 were added to the corporation's growing radio family in Charleston in 1993.  WVAF  is known as V100 today, playing Adult Contemporary music.  WCAW is now an Oldies Format specializing in the music of the mid-50's through the mid-60's.  The Charleston radio group was completed in 1995 with the addition of WKAZ-FM and WSWW 1490.  WKAZ-FM has had several format changes in recent years from intense "oldies" , music variety, to the most recent Classic Top 40, playing the Super Hits from the mid-60's, 70's and mid-80's.  WSWW-AM 1490 is all Sportstalk with ESPN.

The WCHS evolution continued in 2000 when West Virginia Radio Corporation moved its news division from the Morgantown based MetroNews Radio Network to Charleston.  The network's sports base remains in Morgantown but network newscasts broadcasted statewide via satellite,orginate from the Charleston WCHS studios. The WCHS newsroom is a seamles operation of providing state and local news coverage.