Don Ansell, who was hosting the morning show "Talk Of The Town", bought the station and ran it until selling it to Cumulus in 1997.
After Hurricane Diana hit the area in September 1984, WAAV had just started its news/talk format, and it was the only radio station on the air, using a diesel generator named "Old Bessie".
[9] For their two years in the area, WAAV also aired the games of the minor league baseball Port City Roosters.
[9] On December 21, 2006, Ansell retired after 22 years as WAAV morning host;[6] on January 2, 2007, Marty Shirah took over, and remained there until May 28, 2010.
[citation needed] On June 1, 2010, Curtis Wright, conservative host of "The Morning Beat", previously heard on WLTT/WNTB, debuted a new conservative talk radio morning show on the station and on Cumulus sister station WFNC in Fayetteville.
As is true for most corporate broadcast entities, shaving costs to increase the bottom line have cost the station much of its live programming and is providing less of its own news content, utilizing local TV station WECT for news updates.