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|---|---|
| City | Lynchburg, Virginia |
| Channels | |
| Branding | The CW Virginia |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WFXR | |
| History | |
First air date | March 23, 1986 (39 years ago) (1986-03-23) |
Former call signs | WJPR (1986–2006) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Went with brand of CW cable channel as "WCW5" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 24812 |
| ERP | 938kW |
| HAAT | 503.1 m (1,651 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°19′15″N79°37′57″W / 37.32083°N 79.63250°W /37.32083; -79.63250 |
| Repeater(s) | WFXR 27.2 Roanoke |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
WWCW (channel 21) is atelevision station licensed toLynchburg, Virginia, United States, serving as theCW outlet for theRoanoke–Lynchburgmarket. It isowned and operated by network majority ownerNexstar Media Group alongside Roanoke-licensedFox affiliateWFXR (channel 27). The two stations share studios at the Valleypointe office park on Valleypointe Parkway in northeasternRoanoke County; WWCW operates an advertising sales office on Airport Road, along Lynchburg's southwestern border withCampbell County. The station's transmitter is located onThaxton Mountain inunincorporated centralBedford County. WFXR broadcasts WWCW's CW programming from its transmitter onPoor Mountain in Roanoke County as one of its subchannels andvice versa.
The construction permit for channel 21 in Lynchburg was awarded to communications consultant James E. Price in 1982, but Price sold the station to several different investor groups before Lynchburg–Roanoke Television Partners, led by Thomas F. Carney, built the station. WJPR began broadcasting on March 23, 1986, as anindependent station, adding affiliation with Fox in October 1986. The market proved unable to bear both WJPR and Roanoke's WVFT (channel 27), which had gone on the air later that year, due to insufficient advertising revenue and signal issues; in November 1988, WJPR filed for bankruptcy protection. In 1990, Henry A. Ash ofTampa, Florida, acquired both stations out of bankruptcy, receiving a federal waiver to own the combination. On August 20, 1990, they began simulcasting as "Fox 21/27", the Fox affiliate for the market; WJPR had been airing Fox programming since October 1986.
WVFT and WJPR were acquired in 1993 byGrant Communications, and WVFT changed its call sign to WFXR-TV. Under Grant, the stations began airing a local newscast produced byWSLS-TV and also acquiredThe WB and later The CW affiliation in the market, which was initially aired in overnight hours and then on a local cable channel. With the conversion to digital broadcasting, the Fox and CW services were broadcast assubchannels in both Roanoke and Lynchburg, with channel 21 recognized as the originating station for The CW. Nexstar acquired WFXR and WWCW in 2013 and moved them into new, larger studios two years later, allowing them to begin producing their own news programming.
Channel 21 atLynchburg picked up no interest until communications consultant James E. Price ofChattanooga, Tennessee, applied for the channel in 1982 under the name Lynchburg Television Associates.[2][3] Theconstruction permit was awarded in November 1982, took the call sign WJPR, and then was sold to a new investor group led by Price.[4] The permit changed hands two more times before the station was launched, first to Carney Communications of Virginia—owned by Thomas F. Carney ofBal Harbour, Florida—and then to a partnership led by Carney known as Lynchburg–Roanoke Television Partners.[5] One of the partners in the firm wasRalph Renick, a longtime television news anchor inMiami.[6][7]
Construction began in October 1985 at the Thaxton Mountain tower after approval came from Bedford County officials, and the station announced its existence as the first independent in the market.[8] It stated it would launch by the end of 1985, but that date was missed.[9] So too was a target date of February 10,[10] with winter weather being the culprit.[11]
WJPR debuted on March 23, 1986, giving the market a general-entertainmentindependent station and being the second of three new station launches that year in western Virginia (the others being Christian stationWEFC on channel 38, which started January 3,[12] andFamily Group Broadcasting-owned independent WVFT on channel 27 in November 1986[13]).[14] Programming was a typical mix of sitcoms, children's shows, and sports, includingBaltimore Orioles baseball. It broadcast from studios and offices in a convertedKroger grocery store in Lynchburg's Forest Hills Shopping Center.[10] TheFox network was added to the station's lineup when it launched that October,[15] as well as local high school football telecasts.[16]
WJPR and WVFT gave the Roanoke–Lynchburg market two independent stations in a short amount of time. Channel 21 had a slow start; some cable systems, notably in Lynchburg itself, balked at carrying the new station, and there were few immediate local advertisers.[11] Neither station was able to find sufficient advertising revenue, and it became clear that the Roanoke-Lynchburg market was not large enough to sustain what were essentially two independent stations. Like most early Fox affiliates, WJPR was still programmed largely as an independent.[17] In November 1988, three months afterParamount Pictures sued the station for a debt of $950,000, Lynchburg–Roanoke Television Partners filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.[6] It was joined in Chapter 11 status by WVFT in April 1989.[18]
On September 13 and 15, 1989, bankruptcy courts in Lynchburg andTampa, Florida, gave NewSouth Broadcasting, a company owned by Timothy Brumlik ofAltamonte Springs, Florida, permission to purchase WJPR and WVFT with the intention of consolidating their programming. The deal began to fall apart on the 15th, however, when Brumlik was arrested on charges of laundering up to $12 million in Colombian drug money.[19] Officials alleged that Brumlik's ownership ofTeleOnce inPuerto Rico was a front for two important Latin American media men:Remigio Ángel González, reported to be a business partner withManuel Noriega in a Panamanian television station, and Julio Vera Gutiérrez, a Peruvian citizen.[20]
The indictment scrambled the picture for the stations Brumlik sought to buy. At the time of his arrest, he had been approved by bankruptcy courts or the FCC to buy WJPR and WVFT;WKCH-TV inKnoxville, Tennessee; and the then-unbuiltWGNM inMacon, Georgia.[19][20][21] With regard to WJPR and WVFT, his arrest and indictment caused him to be unable to fulfill commitments required by the bankruptcy courts. Instead, Henry A. Ash, a Tampa life insurance broker, bid on both stations with the same goal: to combine them.[22] Ash's Roanoke–Lynchburg TV Acquisition Corporation—with WJPR majority owner Thomas Carney as a stockholder—received court approval to buy both stations, paying $2.95 million for WJPR and $1.25 million for WVFT, in February 1990. It then filed with the FCC for a waiver of its rule that prohibited ownership of stations with overlapping signal coverage areas, believing that the market could bear one independent station but not two.[23]
On August 20, 1990, with the purchases pending at the FCC, WVFT began simulcasting WJPR, expanding Fox network coverage to the market's western portions for the first time.[24] FCC approval followed the next month.[25] Key in winning approval was the fact that adding channel 27 to channel 21 provided Fox service to an additional 213,000 people; the commission found it unlikely that the stations could exist separately given their financial problems and local terrain.[26]
On September 15, 1993, WVFT and WJPR were purchased by Grant Communications, owned byMilton Grant. The sale to Grant came after Carney and Ash opted to split their interests in Roanoke–Lynchburg TV Acquisition Corporation.[27] In October 1993, WVFT had its call letters changed to WFXR-TV.[28] Grant also upgraded the station's equipment, and the Fox network itself matured during the first years of Grant ownership.[29]
WJPR–WFXR became a secondary affiliate ofThe WB in 1999, when the network ceased airing its programming onSuperstation WGN nationally.[30] Programs aired in overnight hours until February 1, 2001, when WJPR/WFXR launched a cable-only WB affiliate known as "WBVA-TV" and seen on Cox Communications channel 5. It was also announced at that time that "WBVA" would become a full-power service on channel 21 in May 2001,[31] though instead it was broadcast as a subchannel from the WJPR transmitter beginning in April 2002.[32] In 2006, when The WB andUPN merged intoThe CW, channels 21 and 27 obtained the rights to the affiliation in the market, with the cable channel going by "WCW5-TV" and the call letters on channel 21 changing to WWCW.[33][34] As early as 2007, The CW was airing in high definition from the WWCW transmitter and in standard definition from the WFXR transmitter (andvice versa for Fox), ensuring coverage of both services in the Roanoke and Lynchburg areas.[32]
On November 6, 2013, theIrving, Texas–basedNexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WFXR and WWCW, for $87.5 million. The sale was approved by the FCC on November 3, 2014, and was finalized one month later on December 1.[35][36][37][38]
In March 2015, Joseph McNamara—who was appointed as vice president for the stations three months earlier in December 2014—announced that Nexstar planned to move WFXR/WWCW's operations and staff into a new, larger 14,830-square-foot (1,000 m2) studio facility at the Valleypointe office park in northeasternRoanoke County, nearRoanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport.[39] WFXR and WWCW migrated their operations into the new facility—which cost $3 million to build—during the week of September 14, 2015.[40][41]
On January 27, 2016, Nexstar announced it would acquireMedia General for $4.6 billion. Nexstar opted to retain WFXR and WWCW over Media General-ownedWSLS-TV, which was divested toGraham Media Group.[42][43][44]
WJPR and WFXR began airing a local newscast produced by produced byWSLS-TV in 1996.[45] The newscast continued on the Fox subchannel until October 1, 2015, when news production was taken in-house with the move to the Valleypointe studios.[40][41][46]
WWCW and WFXR broadcast two shared channels (The CW on 21.1 and 27.2 and Fox on 21.2 and 27.1) and two uniquediginets each. Also broadcast on the WWCW multiplex are two subchannels ofWZBJ-CD as part of the market'sATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) hosting arrangement.
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WWCW-HD | The CW |
| 21.2 | WFXR-HD | Fox (WFXR) | ||
| 21.3 | 480i | Rewind | Rewind TV | |
| 21.4 | Grit | Grit | ||
| 24.2 | 480i | 16:9 | Cozi | Cozi TV (WZBJ-CD) |
| 24.3 | Decades | Catchy Comedy (WZBJ-CD) |
WWCW ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20, usingvirtual channel 21.[48]
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