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 Studios in Lynchburg | |
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|---|---|
| City | Lynchburg, Virginia |
| Channels | |
| Branding | ABC 13 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
| Founded | February 8, 1953 (72 years ago) (1953-02-08) |
Former call signs | WLVA-TV (1953–1977) |
Former channel numbers | |
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Call sign meaning | Television set[2] |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 73988 |
| ERP | 40 kW |
| HAAT | 627 m (2,057 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°18′55″N79°38′5″W / 37.31528°N 79.63472°W /37.31528; -79.63472 |
| Translator(s) | W05AA-D Roanoke |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wset |
WSET-TV (channel 13) is atelevision station licensed toLynchburg, Virginia, United States, serving as theABC affiliate for theRoanoke–Lynchburgmarket. The station is owned bySinclair Broadcast Group, and has studios on Langhorne Road in Lynchburg; its transmitter is located atop Thaxton Mountain, nearThaxton, Virginia.
Channel 13 began operations on February 8, 1953, as WLVA-TV from a transmitter on Tobacco Row Mountain west ofSweet Briar. The station was owned by Lynchburg Broadcasting Corporation, which also ownedWLVA radio (580 AM).[4] The station's footprint reached as far asCharlottesville, where residents reported good reception during testing, from this transmitter site.[5] The station was originally aCBS affiliate, but also carried programs from ABC,NBC, andDuMont as well.[6]
By the end of 1954, Roanoke and Lynchburg had been collapsed into a single market. Accordingly, channel 13 built a new transmitter inEvington in order to improve its coverage of Roanoke and the western part of the market. Since Roanoke was already served by NBC affiliateWSLS-TV (channel 10), WLVA-TV opted to become a primary ABC affiliate—Virginia's first, and the longest-tenured south ofWashington, D.C. WLVA-TV and WSLS-TV split CBS programming untilWDBJ-TV (channel 7) signed on from Roanoke in 1955.
Channel 13 spent its first 30 years in a battle to improve its reception in the market's more rugged western portion. While its transmitter in Evington provided a city-grade signal to most of the market's eastern portion, it was roughly 35 miles (56 km) from Roanoke proper, portions of which were shielded by mountains. As a result, the station's signal was spotty at best in portions of Roanoke, and could not be seen at all in much of the market's western portion. The station made numerous requests to move its transmitter closer to Roanoke. However, they were all turned down by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to protectWLOS-TV inAsheville, North Carolina, and WHTN-TV (nowWOWK-TV) inHuntington, West Virginia. In particular, the FCC believed that the Roanoke–Lynchburg and Huntington–Charleston markets were close enough that the two channel 13 transmitters had to be as far apart as possible to avoid interference. Its signal was so weak in Roanoke that ABC granted an affiliation to a second station in the market,WRFT-TV (channel 27), from 1966 through 1975.
In the early 1960s, the station set uptranslator W05AA to improve its signal in Roanoke. WLVA-TV was not alone in installing low-VHF Roanoke translators; the early 1960s also saw W02AE put on the air to translate WSLS-TV and W04AG put on the air to translate WDBJ-TV. In 1965, Lynchburg Broadcasting merged with theWashington Star Company, which also ownedWMAL-AM-FM-TV in Washington.[7] In 1970, the Star Company sought to move WLVA-TV's transmitter toPoor Mountain overlooking Roanoke, where the other major stations in the market operated their transmitters. This was once again turned down by the FCC, in order to protect WRFT-TV and WHTN-TV.
Joe Allbritton purchased a controlling interest in theStar in 1975.[8][9] By this time, however, the FCC had tightened its rules oncross-media ownership. Due to the manner in which Allbritton's takeover was structured, the FCC considered it to be an ownership change. It told Allbritton that he had to sell off either the radio or television stations. Allbritton chose to sell off the company's non-television assets, including WLVA radio, in April 1977.[10] He then reorganized the Star Company's former television division asAllbritton Communications.
On August 17, 1977, WLVA-TV changed its call letters to the current WSET-TV. The change was brought on by a now-repealed FCC regulation that stated that TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership that must have different call signs.[4][11] The station's new calls originated fromtelevision set and management wanting an easily remembered and marketable set of call letters,[2] which would be taken advantage of in the mid-80s for the station's news branding of the time,Newset 13, aportmanteau which contains WSET consecutively.
Allbritton immediately set about finding a solution to channel 13's longstanding reception problems in the western portion of the market. In 1980, WSET won FCC approval to relocate its transmitter to Thaxton Mountain nearBedford, halfway between Roanoke and Lynchburg. WSET activated its new transmitter in 1982, which gave the station a clear signal in most of Roanoke for the first time ever, though with the caveat of its signal range being significantly conformed to protect WOWK. As a result, some areas of the western part of the market, including parts of Roanoke itself, only received a grade B signal, depending on other means of reception for a clear signal from WSET. The channel 5 translator remains in operation to serve the few viewers in the market's western portion without access to cable or satellite, which are all but essential for acceptable television in this part of the market, and is unusual in the digital age for not having any change of calls or channel position since its launch.
Beginning in October 2005, it was one of only two ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone to air ABC'sWorld News Tonight at 7 p.m.;WSB-TV inAtlanta is the other. However, WSET has returned the national program to the 6:30 p.m. time slot, shifting its local newscast to 7 p.m.
Allbritton, and in turn, WSET, was acquired bySinclair Broadcast Group, in August 2014.[12][13]
On March 11, 2002, WSET preempted an episode ofOnce and Again, "The Gay-Straight Alliance", which contained a scene in which two female characters kiss one another, and ran a prime timeinfomercial instead.[14] WSET was the only ABC affiliate to preempt the episode. The decision, which station management refused to explain, provoked condemnation fromGLAAD.[15]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: information on the history of WSET's news department. You can help byadding to it.(September 2011) |
WSET presently broadcasts 27 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Its newscasts primarily focus on the eastern part of the Roanoke–Lynchburg market.
On September 12, 2011, WSET began broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition, the station is the third in the Roanoke–Lynchburg market to make the transition to HD.
FormerGood Morning America co-host andABC World News anchorCharles Gibson began his television career at the station; he was a reporter/anchor for WLVA-TV during the late 1960s.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 720p | 16:9 | ABC | ABC |
| 13.2 | 480i | Charge! | Charge! | |
| 13.3 | Comet | Comet | ||
| 13.4 | ROAR | Roar | ||
| 24.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WZBJ24 | MyNetworkTV (WZBJ-CD) |
WSET-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. In October 2009, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 34 to VHF channel 13.[17] The station's over-the-air coverage in much of the western part of the market, especially the New River Valley, is somewhat marginal due in part to the mountainous terrain. W05AA was converted to digital operation in late 2009, which helped to fill in coverage holes in Roanoke.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofVirginia | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Virginia | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWest Virginia | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of West Virginia | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
