 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WZDC-CD" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | Telemundo 44 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WRC-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | April 1994 (31 years ago) (1994-04) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning | ZGS District of Columbia (former owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 50347 |
| Class | CD |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 244 m (801 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°56′24″N77°4′53″W / 38.94000°N 77.08139°W /38.94000; -77.08139 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WZDC-CD (channel 44) is aClass A television station inWashington, D.C., serving as the market's outlet for the Spanish-language networkTelemundo. It isowned and operated byNBCUniversal'sTelemundo Station Group alongsideNBC outletWRC-TV (channel 4). WZDC-CD and WRC-TV share studios and transmitter facilities on Nebraska Avenue in theTenleytown neighborhood ofnorthwest Washington.
Despite WZDC-CD legally holding alow-power Class A license, it transmits using sister station WRC-TV's full-power spectrum. This ensures complete reception across the Washington, D.C.,television market. WZDC-CD also hosts themaster control forsister stationWRTD-CD inRaleigh, North Carolina, along with itspublic file link on WZDC's website.
The station signed on as W64BW on UHF channel 64 in April 1994, as the Telemundo affiliate in the Washington market. On December 1, 1995, the call letters were changed to WZGS-LP, reflecting the station's ownership,ZGS Broadcasting. On June 27, 2000, the call letters were changed to WZDC-LP. On June 3, 2002, the station began producingSpanish-language local newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. weeknights.
On April 10, 2007, WZDC-LP moved to channel 25, as channel 64 was to be removed from television broadcasting as a result of the2009 digital television transition.
The station receivedclass-A status in September 2008, changing callsigns to WZDC-CA to match. An application to build a new digital signal on channel 26 was dismissed in the same month.[2] WZDC eventually received permission toflash-cut to digital on channel 25 in March 2011, and became WZDC-CD in doing so that September.[3]
In the 2016–17incentive auction, WZDC-CD received $66,182,037 to leave the air, though it indicated that it would maintain over-the-air coverage by entering into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[4]
On September 6, 2017,NBCUniversal internally announced that it would launch a Telemundoowned-and-operated station based out ofWRC-TV (channel 4) in December; a Telemundo spokesperson stated that the sale of WZDC's spectrum "gave us the ability to take back the Telemundo affiliation for this market", without elaborating.[5][6] Subsequently, on December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal'sTelemundo Station Group announced its purchase of ZGS' 13 television stations, including WZDC-CD.[7] As a result of the common ownership, WZDC-CD then entered into a channel-sharing agreement with WRC-TV, under which it ended broadcasts over its own signal on channel 25 and moved to WRC-TV's signal on channel 48.[8] NBCUniversal assumed the operations of WZDC on January 1, 2018, through alocal marketing agreement.[9]
The channel-sharing agreement with WRC-TV took effect on March 7, 2018, at which time WZDC shut off its own signal.[10]
As the channel-share went into effect, WZDC's virtual channel number of 25 presented an issue. Virtual channel 25 is already in use byHagerstown'sWDVM-TV, which covers much of the western part of the Washington market and overlaps the signal of WRC-TV. ThePSIP standard resolves virtual channel conflicts by assigning the new station a virtual channel number equal to the existing station's physical channel number. As WDVM-TV broadcast over physical channel 26 at the time, the rule would assign WZDC-CD virtual channel 26. However,WETA-TV already uses virtual channel 26 in the market, and there is no further remedy prescribed in the PSIP standard. NBC proposed as a second option virtual channel 64, corresponding to WZDC-CD's original analog channel. This introduces another conflict withWDPB, which overlaps the eastern portion of WRC-TV's coverage area. In this case, the same rule assigned virtual channel 44, which was available.[11]
WZDC broadcasts 10 hours of locally produced newscasts each week, at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays, along with morning cut-ins duringHoy Día.[12]
Until the 2023 shift ofMLS regional rights toApple TV+, the station carriedD.C. United games in Spanish on its TeleXitos subchannel, in tandem with English coverage onNBC Sports Washington.[13]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WRC-TV | 4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WRC-HD | NBC |
| 4.2 | 480i | COZI | Cozi TV | ||
| 4.3 | CRIMES | NBC True CRMZ | |||
| 4.4 | Oxygen | Oxygen | |||
| WZDC-CD | 44.1 | 1080i | WZDC | Telemundo | |
| 44.2 | 480i | XITOS | TeleXitos |
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Maryland | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
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 | ||
| ||
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 | ||
| ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Pennsylvania | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
