two of wrva's more popular personalities were fictional characters. in the 1950s and 1960s, when the studio was located across capitol square from the virginia state capitol in the hotel richmond, wrva's capitol squirrel imparted wisdom and tossed an occasional snowball at lawmakers and local government using a voice created by speeding up the recording in manner later made famous by david seville and his "alvin and the chipmunks" characters. in the 1970s, the millard the mallard character carried on dialogue with announcers during the morning rush hour traffic reports.