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|---|---|
| City | Danville, Virginia |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WZBJ 24 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WDBJ, WZBJ-CD | |
| History | |
| Founded | March 3, 1988 |
First air date | August 18, 1994 (30 years ago) (1994-08-18) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Disambiguation of WDBJ |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 15507 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 603.6 m (1,980 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°11′42.7″N80°9′22.1″W / 37.195194°N 80.156139°W /37.195194; -80.156139 |
| Translator(s) | WZBJ-CD 24 (19 UHF) Lynchburg |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WZBJ (channel 24) is atelevision station licensed toDanville, Virginia, United States, serving theRoanoke–Lynchburgmarket as an affiliate ofMyNetworkTV. It is owned byGray Media alongside Roanoke-licensedCBS affiliateWDBJ (channel 7). WZBJ and WDBJ share studios onHershberger Road in northwest Roanoke; through achannel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WDBJ's spectrum from an antenna onPoor Mountain inRoanoke County.
WZBJ-CD (channel 24) in Lynchburg operates as atranslator of WZBJ.
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The channel 24 dial position was once occupied by WBTM-TV, which operated in the mid-to-late 1950s. The station only lasted a few years before attempting to become a hybrid commercial and educational station. This request to the FCC was denied, and the station went off the air not long after.
The station first signed on the air on August 18, 1994, asindependent station WDRG (the calls standing for its broad service area of Danville, Roanoke andGreensboro, North Carolina). It was founded by MNE Broadcasting, a locally based company owned by businessman Melvin N. Eleazer. Three months after its sign-on, in November 1994, MNE Broadcasting reached an agreement withTime Warner to become theWB affiliate for the Roanoke DMA; the station joined The WB upon the network's launch on January 11, 1995. On January 1, 1997 (as the FCC was switching from usingArbitron's ADI toNielsen'sDMA system to determine which counties remained part of the Roanoke–Lynchburg market, then ranked as the 67th largest in the United States), WDRG changed its call letters to WDRL-TV, standing for Danville–Roanoke–Lynchburg. On that date, the station concurrently became theUPN affiliate for southwestern Virginia; the WB affiliation moved to primaryFox affiliateWFXR (channel 27) and Lynchburg-based satellite WJPR (channel 21), which carried the network's programming on a secondary basis in late night. (Cable viewers could still see The WB at its regular time onWGN-TV'sformer superstation feed, and programming would later move to cable-only "WBVA-TV", a charter affiliate of The WeB [later known asThe WB 100+ Station Group], when it launched onCox Communications' Roanoke system on September 21, 1998.)
Shortly after this change, WDRL signed on alow-power translator in Roanoke, W54BT (channel 54), to relay WDRL's syndicated and UPN programming into Roanoke, Lynchburg, and theNew River Valley. On March 31, 2005, the FCC ordered the Roanoke translator to cease operations to make way for repurposing the frequency forcellular phone signal relays. The transmitter would soon return to the air on UHF channel 24, broadcasting at the same effective radiated power, but with a more directional antenna to protect WDRL's primary analog transmitter.
On January 24, 2006, theWarner Bros. Entertainment unit of Time Warner andCBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[3][4] On March 28, 2006, it was announced that cable-only WB 100+ affiliate "WBVA" (which adopted the fictional call letters "WCW5-TV" more than two months later as a result) would become the Roanoke–Lynchburg market's CW affiliate. On May 1, 2006, it was announced that WDRL would be converted into an independent station as a result of UPN's pending merger with The CW. "WCW5" formally became a CW affiliate when the network launched just over 4½ months later on September 18.
On March 11, 2007,Liberty University (founded by pastor/televangelistJerry Falwell) agreed to purchase WDRL from Eleazer; the station would initially continue to operate out its current studios with Eleazer serving as general manager, but would eventually move to Lynchburg, where it would be based along with religious independent WTLU-CA (channel 43, nowWZBJ-CD). In May 2008, Liberty University and MNE Broadcasting dissolved the agreement, for unknown reasons. On October 30, 2008, Living Faith Television – whose flagship station isWLFG (channel 68) – announced that it would buy WDRL for $5.25 million.[5] On August 7, 2009, Living Faith Television failed to close due to the expiration date of its contract between the parties.[6]
On July 28, 2010, theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia placed the station into thereceivership ofCharter Communications. Millard S. Younts, representing Charter, shut down the station's over-the-air transmitter on Smith Mountain. The transmitter closedown was in response to a six-year copyright and financial dispute with Charter, which serves portions of the Roanoke–Lynchburg market. The station's owner appealed the decision.[7]
On December 1, 2011, WDRL-TV changed its call letters to WEFC-TV, which had previously been the callsign for the Roanoke-based station on channel 38 (now operating asIon Television owned-and-operated stationWPXR-TV) from 1986 until 1998. In March 2012, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of WEFC to Jones Broadcasting, owner of WAZT-CA (channel 10, nowWDCO-CD) inWoodstock and its repeaters.[8] Jones intended to return the station to the air in August 2012; WEFC was to serve as the company's flagship station, as all of its properties were to be operated from facilities at the Crossroads Mall in Roanoke.[9]
Jones had planned to replace the station's low-power transmitter (which is being operated throughspecial temporary authority) with a transmitter acquired from theMaine Public Broadcasting Network;[10] however, its purchase of the station was called off in April 2013,[11] forcing WEFC to again suspend operations.[10] The receiver continued to find a buyer for the station;[10] in June 2013, a deal was reached to sell WEFC to Morning Star Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Liberty University (marking its second attempt to purchase the station).[12] The new owners changed the station's call letters to WTLU on April 11, 2014.[13][14] The station's call sign was changed to WFFP-TV on March 6, 2015.
On April 30, 2018,Gray Television announced it would purchase WLHG-CD from Liberty University for $50,000. Under the terms of the transaction, Gray would hold an option agreement to acquire WFFP-TV, and enter into a shared services agreement (to take effect on June 15), whereby Gray would provide programming for and receive a share of the programming and advertising revenue accrued by WFFP-TV and WLHG-CD, which would in turn become sister stations to Gray's existing property in the Roanoke–Lynchburg market, CBS affiliateWDBJ-TV (channel 7).[15][16] On August 13, 2018, Gray announced that it would change WFFP-TV's call letters to WZBJ effective September 1 and become aMyNetworkTV affiliate (the affiliation had previously been held by a digital subchannel of WDBJ, and in the interim had been transferred to WLHG-CD on June 15, 2018); as part of the relaunch, the station will also add an hour-long extension of WDBJ's weekday morning newscast and a half-hour WDBJ-produced weeknight prime time newscast.[17] On August 16, Gray exercised its option to make an outright purchase of WFFP-TV.[18] The sale was completed on October 1.[19]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WDBJ | 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WDBJ | CBS |
| 7.2 | 480i | WDBJ365 | The365 | ||
| 7.3 | HEROES | Heroes & Icons | |||
| 7.4 | JUSTICE | True Crime Network | |||
| WZBJ | 24.1 | 720p | WZBJ | MyNetworkTV | |
| 24.4 | 480i | DABL | Dabl |
From 1994 until 2008, WDRL-TV'sanalog broadcast was originated from a transmitter nearPelham, North Carolina, within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the border with Virginia. Coverage in Roanoke and Lynchburg was limited due to the tower's location and relatively short height.[citation needed]
WDRL-DT began broadcasting in digital in 2001 at its Pelham site, at low power. In 2004, the station won permission to move the digital transmitter to Smith Mountain northwesternPittsylvania County. This location was chosen as it is the highest point east of Poor Mountain, where most of Roanoke's other television stations transmit from. WDRL-DT's Smith Mountain transmitter went on the air in May 2006,[21] providing predicted city grade coverage of Lynchburg and Roanoke, the New River Valley and all of the south side of Virginia. Digital coverage was predicted to extend into the north-centralNorth Carolina counties ofCaswell,Rockingham,Person, andStokes. The station moved its digital signal from channel 41 in December 2008.
WZBJ (as WDRL-TV) discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 24, in December 2008. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 41 to channel 24.[22]
On August 1, 2017, it was announced that Liberty University had auctioned off its broadcast spectrum for WFFP-TV on channel 24.[23] WFFP-TV can remain on the frequency for six months, and retained the right to continue broadcasting content by partnering with another broadcast station. On November 22, 2017, a channel sharing agreement with Gray Television-ownedCBS affiliate (and future sister station) WDBJ was filed with the FCC.[1] With a move to WDBJ's Poor Mountain transmitter, this would enable WFFP-TV to greatly expand its over-the-air coverage area.[24][25]