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| Channels for WDCO-CD | |
| Channels for WIAV-CD | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Roar |
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| History | |
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First air date |
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Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning |
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| Technical information[2][3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID |
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| Class | CD |
| ERP |
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| HAAT | 151.2 m (496 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 38°56′24.2″N77°4′52.5″W / 38.940056°N 77.081250°W /38.940056; -77.081250 |
| Links | |
Public license information |
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WDCO-CD (channel 10) is alow-power,Class A television station licensed toWoodstock, Virginia, United States, serving theWashington, D.C. metropolitan area with programming from thedigital multicast networkRoar.Owned and operated bySinclair Broadcast Group, it issister toABC affiliateWJLA-TV (channel 7) and localcable channelWJLA 24/7 News. WDCO-CD's transmitter is located inWard Circle in Washington'snorthwest quadrant.
Co-owned and co-locatedWIAV-CD (channel 58), licensed to Washington, relays WDCO-CD's Roar programming in the newATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard.
The station has operated since September 30, 1985, when it was put on the air as areligiousindependent station by Ruarch Associates, LLC (its original calls were W10AZ, with the WAZT calls, introduced in 1994, apparently being derived from it), and once had a radio sister station,WAZR in nearbyHarrisonburg.
The WAZT network offered some programming fromCornerstone and other religious networks, but it generally did not show them in-pattern with those networks, and it also broadcast somesecularsyndicated programming and classic television shows.
WAZT once broadcast a local newscast at 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (entitledNews 10), but this was discontinued on December 26, 2005. In January 2006, WAZT began airingCBN'sNewsWatch program.
Ruarch sold WAZT to JLA Media & Publications (no relation to WJLA-TV) in 2006. Jones Broadcasting acquired the station out ofChapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011.[4]
In 2012, Jones Broadcasting reached a deal to buy the struggling and bankruptDanville-based independentWEFC-TV, located in the largerRoanoke–Lynchburg market, with plans to move operations to Roanoke and make it the new groupflagship.[5] The sale fell through in the spring of 2013, withLiberty University buying the station instead;[6] Jones then sold the WAZT group of stations to Venture Technologies Group that December.
Venture immediately began moving WAZT and its sister stations to the far larger Washington, D.C., television market. At the time, WAZT transmitted from a hill nearToms Brook, Virginia. After agreeing to purchase the WAZT network, Venture obtained aconstruction permit to move the station's analog signal to theWZRV tower nearFront Royal, Virginia. Later in 2014, it filed for a digital signal at a new transmitter site nearThe Plains, Virginia, which signed on in March 2015.[7] Venture also purchased Washington-based WIAV-CD in 2014, which expanded the network's footprint into the city proper.[8]
After spending most of its time as a religious broadcaster branded as simply "WAZT", the station and its relays changed to the branding "Faith Television Network" under Venture's ownership.
WAZT-CD's callsign was changed to WDCO-CD on October 11, 2017. On the same day,Winchester repeater WAZW-CD becameWAZT-CD.[9] On January 24, 2018, Faith Television Network announced it would cease broadcasting. All four remaining stations in the network became full-time affiliates ofJewelry Television on January 31.[10]
As a result of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s 2016–17 spectrum reallocationincentive auction, channels 24 and 30—occupied byWNVC andWNVT, respectively—became available in the Washington market in 2018. WDCO-CD applied to take over WNVC's channel 24 facilities at its tower inMerrifield, Virginia, which would place it firmly in the Washington market, while WIAV-CD applied to move to channel 30. After WNVC was unable to find a channel-sharing partner and went off the air, it sold the tower and transmitter building. Left without a transmission site, WDCO-CD moved to temporary low-powered facilities shared with WIAV-CD at theWRC-TV (channel 4) tower in northwest Washington, and reapplied to permanently build there.[7]
The new WAZT-CD later relocated from Winchester toBlue Ridge Mountain in extreme southernJefferson County, West Virginia, near the Virginia–West Virginia state line but also within the Washington market. After an additional "hop" to a tower inLeesburg, Virginia, this license was also moved into Washington proper and sold toWeigel Broadcasting, who operates it asWDME-CD.[11]
On June 25, 2020, Venture Technologies Group filed an agreement with the FCC to sell WDCO-CD and WIAV-CD to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $8.5 million.[12][13] The sale was completed on October 15,[14] making them Sinclair's second and third properties in the Washington market, alongside WJLA-TV. On the same day, WDCO-CD and WIAV-CD flipped to Sinclair's TBD multicast network. WAZT-CD was not included in the sale and continued to air Jewelry TV programming; it was later sold toWeigel Broadcasting and is nowWDME-CD.
Sinclair's express intention for the purchase of the two stations was to convert WIAV-CD to Washington's firstATSC 3.0 broadcaster. WDCO-CD is to continueATSC 1.0 service and honor the existing channel-sharing agreement withUniMás affiliateWMDO-CD (channel 47).[15][16] To clear the way for ATSC 3.0 conversion work, WMDO-CD switched its channel-share from WIAV-CD to WDCO-CD at the end of 2020.[17]
Sinclair subsequently commenced ATSC 3.0 operation over WIAV-CD on March 25, 2021.[18]
WDCO-CD and WIAV-CD satisfy the requirement thatClass A stations broadcast at least three hours per week of locally produced programming by airing WJLA's weekday 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts on a two-hour delay from 7 to 8:30 p.m.[19] The entire TBD schedule remains available on streaming and over-the-air on WJLA-DT4 andBaltimore'sWUTB.
WDCO-CD formerly operated five other relays:
WAZC-LP went on the air on March 29, 1988, as W16AA, a translator for Charlottesville's NBC affiliate,WVIR-TV owned byRockingham County with a transmitter onMassanutten Peak. In 1998, it was sold to Ruarch and moved toLuray. On November 5, 2004,WJAL inHagerstown, Maryland, received the allocation for its digital signal, resulting in WAZC-LP being forced to move to channel 35 on March 31, 2006. Aconstruction permit for WAZC-LD on channel 35 expired in June 2010 without being built. This station was not included in the 2013 sale to Venture and later went off the air. Its license was cancelled by the FCC on October 2, 2020.[20]
WAZM-CA signed on for the first time on December 26, 1996 (as W25CC, later W25AZ) and was a relay for Staunton andWaynesboro. In April 2012, Jones Broadcasting sold this station toGray Television, who converted it to digitalCBS/Fox affiliateWSVF-CD in October of that year.
WAZF-CD signed on for the first time on June 7, 1994, as W28AZ, becoming WFAZ-CA on October 19, 2000, and WAZF-CA on January 5, 2001. This station was licensed toFront Royal, Virginia, and in the analog era broadcast on channel 28 from the same Winchester tower as then-WAZW-CA; WAZF-CA's signal was pointed toward Front Royal while WAZW-CA's was pointed towardCharles Town, West Virginia. On March 13, 2014, this station signed on a digital signal on UHF channel 20 (virtual channel 28.1) from a transmitter onShort Hill Mountain southeast ofHarpers Ferry, West Virginia. WAZF-CD's license was sold for $513,526 in the spectrum reallocation auction, and was taken off the air on August 3, 2017.[21][22]
WAZH-CD which was founded on January 4, 1989, as W24AZ, signed on for the first time on April 16, 1992, and on October 5, 2000, it briefly took the callsign WWAZ-CA before becoming WAZH-CA on January 5, 2001. Although its callsign implied it was to be the relay forHarrisonburg, in the analog era it broadcast from a ridge aboveBasye with a directional signal pointed atMount Jackson. After the digital transition, the new WAZH-CD moved toSignal Knob nearStrasburg, which was the same location as then-WAZW-CD.[23] The station operated on UHF channel 14 and virtual channel 24.1. Venture sold WAZH-CD's channel 14 allocation for $12,042,490 in the spectrum reallocation auction, missed the subsequent deadline to reach a channel-sharing agreement with another Harrisonburg station, and elected to surrender the license on April 23, 2018.[24][21][25]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WDCO | Roar |
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58.1 | 1080p | 16:9 | WIAV | Roar |
| 58.5 | 24/7MMT | WJLA 24/7 News |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofVirginia | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Virginia | ||
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| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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