WJAL (channel 68) is atelevision station licensed toSilver Spring, Maryland, United States, serving theWashington, D.C., area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Altavision. Owned byEntravision Communications, it issister to Washington-licensedWMDO-CD (channel 47). WJAL shares transmitter facilities withCBS affiliateWUSA (channel 9) on Wisconsin Avenue in theTenleytown section ofnorthwest Washington.^[3]

Owned by Good Companion Broadcasting, a Christiannon-profit organization, WJAL first broadcast on August 1, 1984, originally licensed toHagerstown, Maryland, as that city's third television station (afterWHAG-TV andWWPB). By virtue of being licensed to Hagerstown, which placed it in theWashington, D.C.television market, WJAL was the fourthindependent station in that market (afterWTTG,WDCA, andWCQR) and the first based outside the city proper. However, WJAL's offices were located inChambersburg, Pennsylvania (within theHarrisburg market), and its original transmitter was located 15 miles (24 km) west of Chambersburg and 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Washington, atopTuscarora Mountain near the town ofMcConnellsburg.

WJAL was the Washington market's charterWB affiliate when the network launched on January 11, 1995. Six weeks later, The WB added WFTY (channel 50, nowCWowned-and-operated station WDCW), based in Washington proper. As WJAL was not seen in Washington either over-the-air or on cable, both stations aired the network's programming.^[4] The station ended its WB affiliation on September 14, 1998, as Good Companion felt the network's programming did not fit with their desired family-friendly image.^[5]

In August 2001, Good Companion sold WJAL-TV to Entravision for $10.3 million.^[6][7] The main impetus of the purchase of WJAL for Entravision was to attempt to move the station's license to Silver Spring, Maryland, as a replacement for its low-power WMDO-CA (now digital WMDO-CD), which at the time was a Univision affiliate.^[8] WJAL first attempted to move its then-proposed digital signal on channel 16 to Silver Spring in 2002. The application was denied as theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) determined local television service to Hagerstown would be unfairly affected. The proposed signal would also cause unacceptable interference to adjacent channel 17, which is used for public safety services in Washington. Entravision submitted an appeal in 2006, as it had changed WJAL's choice for its post-digital-transition channel from 16 to 39. By this time, the FCC had decided to stop considering the relocation of a station's city of license in preparation for the 2009 digital television transition. After the freeze, the FCC decided it would no longer support such a move and dismissed the application in 2012.^[9][10] Thus, WJAL continued to run a family-friendly English format for Hagerstown, a market with a low need for aSpanish-language outlet.

In the FCC'sincentive auction, WJAL sold its channel 39 allocation for $25,492,333 and indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.^[11] On July 28, 2017, WJAL submitted a channel-sharing agreement with WUSA (channel 9).^[3] WJAL retained its existing callsign and virtual channel number, but moved its city of license to Silver Spring, Maryland.^[12][1] The over-the-air signal from Tuscarora Mountain wentdark at midnight on September 30, 2017, and the station immediately moved to WUSA's transmitter in the early morning of October 1.^[13][14]

Although Entravision's stated goal was to convert WJAL to aUniMás affiliate, WJAL broadcastLATV instead. Entravision andUnivision Communications entered into a 16-yearjoint sales agreement on January 1, 2006, under which Entravision operated Univision affiliateWFDC (channel 14). Current UniMás affiliateWMDO-CD (channel 47) was additionally bound to the network until the contract's expiration on December 31, 2021.^[15] A provision prohibiting Entravision from operating another station with a "Spanish-language format" in the Washington market was removed in a revision that took effect on the first weekday after the channel-share was implemented, October 2, 2017, allowing WJAL to air LATV.^[16]

In May 2018, WJAL switched its affiliation to theHeartland network.^{[citation needed]} LATV has since returned to its previous location on WMDO-CD's second subchannel. WJAL flipped again to thebrokeredSonlife Broadcasting Network on June 15, joiningWWTD-LD as the second SBN station in Washington.^[17]

In September 2021, WJAL began airingNTD America programming. This was flipped tohome shopping programming fromShopHQ in November 2023.^[18]

From August 21, 2024, to July 1, 2025, WJAL was an affiliate ofMerit TV.^[19]

Until its move to Washington, WJAL aired a mix ofreligious programming (especially on Sundays),public affairs programming,syndicated shows,sitcomreruns,movies, andchildren's programs.

WJAL produced a local newscast from the end of its WB affiliation in 1998 through October 2001, when it was suspended due to financial issues.^[5][20]

Until 2016, the station also carriedWest Virginia Tonight fromWBOY-TV inClarksburg, West Virginia; the program moved to WHAG-TV after WHAG's owner,Nexstar Broadcasting Group, acquired theWest Virginia Media Holdings stations.

WJAL shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 68, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 39, usingvirtual channel 68.^[22]

• 1987 establishments in Maryland
• Defy (TV network) affiliates
• Entravision Communications stations
• Montgomery County, Maryland
• Television channels and stations established in 1987
• Television stations in Maryland
• Television stations in Washington, D.C.

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from March 2024
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles using infobox television station
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2018