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WTVR-TV
CityRichmond, Virginia
Channels
BrandingCBS 6
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
April 22, 1948
(76 years ago) (1948-04-22)
Former call signs
WTVR (1948–1966)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 6 (VHF, 1948–2009)
  • Digital: 25 (UHF, until 2020)
  • NBC (1948–1955)
  • CBS (secondary 1948–1955, primary 1955–1956)
  • ABC (secondary 1948–1956, primary 1956–1960)
  • DuMont (secondary, 1948–1956)
  • NTA (secondary, 1956–1961)
Call sign meaning
Television Richmond
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID57832
ERP410 kW
HAAT346 m (1,135 ft)
Transmitter coordinates37°30′45.6″N 77°36′4.8″W / 37.512667°N 77.601333°W / 37.512667; -77.601333
Links
Public license information
Websitewtvr.com

WTVR-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Its studios are located on West Broad Street on Richmond's West End, and its transmitter is located in Bon Air near the studios of PBS member stations WCVE-TV and WCVW.[2] WTVR-TV's former transmitter is located behind the station's studio, and only WTVR-FM broadcasts from that tower today. It still remains as part of WTVR-TV's history.

WTVR-TV is one of only a few stations in the country to have been affiliated with all three of the original major American television networks.

History

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Early history

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When the channel 6 license in Richmond came up for bids before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it was assumed that the license would go to either Larus and Brother Company, owner of WRVA, or Richmond Newspapers, owner of WRNL, since they were considered Virginia's leading broadcasters. However, for reasons that remain unknown, neither station submitted a bid. The only applicant was auto parts dealer Wilbur Havens and his Richmond Broadcasting Company, which already owned WMBG (AM 1380) and WCOD (98.1 FM). FCC approval was a mere formality, and WTVR debuted on April 22, 1948.[3] It was the first television station to sign on in the state of Virginia, and the first south of Washington, D.C. It became an NBC affiliate June 1, 1948.[4] For many years, it used a colorized version of its original ID slide to open newscasts. Then, as now, the station operated from a converted bus garage on West Broad Street, where WMBG had been based since 1939.

As it was one of the last stations to get a construction permit before an FCC-imposed freeze on new permits, WTVR was the only station in town until 1955. It carried programming from all four networks of the time—NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont—but was a primary NBC affiliate. In 1953, WTVR switched to its current tower, a self-supporting 840-foot (256 m) tower near its studios. The tower has long been reckoned as a fixture of the Richmond skyline.

Channel 6 finally got competition in 1955, when WXEX-TV (channel 8, now WRIC-TV) signed on from neighboring Petersburg and took the NBC affiliation. WTVR then had a brief stint becoming a primary CBS affiliate; this ended in 1956 when Larus-owned WRVA-TV (channel 12, now WWBT) signed on and took the CBS affiliation due to WRVA radio's long history as a CBS radio affiliate. WTVR then carried on as an ABC affiliate until 1960, when CBS cut a new deal with Havens due to channel 12's low ratings. WTVR has been with CBS ever since and is one of the few stations in the country to have been a primary affiliate of all of the "Big Three" networks, like WWBT locally. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[5] Although Richmond Broadcasting was nowhere near as large as Larus and Richmond Newspapers, WTVR's eight-year head start allowed it to become the ratings leader in Richmond for the better part of its first three decades on the air.

Havens sold WTVR, WMBG, and WCOD to Roy H. Park Communications in 1966, earning a handsome return on his original $500 investment when he started WMBG in 1927. After taking ownership of the properties, the radio stations adopted the TV station's "WTVR" call letters. When Park died in 1993, the company's assets were sold to a Lexington, Kentucky group of investors that sold the radio properties separately to various owners, with WTVR-AM-FM going to Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) in 1995. WTVR-FM is now owned by Audacy, who acquired iHeartMedia's Richmond stations in 2017, while the AM station, bought by Salem Communications in 2001 and programmed as Christian talk, was later sold by Salem and is now Spanish religious station WBTK. The WMBG call letters are currently used on an AM radio station in Williamsburg, Virginia.

WTVR began suffering in the ratings in 1994 when CBS lost the rights to broadcast National Football League games to Fox (CBS returned to NFL broadcasting in 1998). However, it recovered by the turn of the century and since then has been a solid runner-up, sometimes waging a spirited battle for second place with WRIC in news ratings.

Raycom ownership

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Park merged with Media General, the successor to Richmond Newspapers, in May 1997. However, Media General could not keep WTVR alongside its flagship newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, because FCC rules of the time did not allow cross-ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. As a result, Media General swapped WTVR to Raycom Media in exchange for WJTV in Jackson, Mississippi, its semi-satellite WHLT in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia, two months later.

WTVR-TV was the only CBS station between Richmond and Roanoke until WCAV-TV signed on in Charlottesville in 2004.

Local features and community programs have included "For Kids' Sake", "Paws for Pets", and Battle of the Brains and a 24-hour weather news channel called "CBS 6 Xtra" broadcast on broadband, digital cable, and digital sub-channel 6.2 in the area. The station carried Raycom's 24/7 music television format "The Tube" on WTVR-DT3 until its shutdown on October 1, 2007. In March 2011, WTVR-DT3 became the new home of CBS 6 Xtra, while 6.2 carries Antenna TV (see below).

Swap to Local TV; Tribune ownership; twice-aborted sales to Sinclair

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WTVR-TV's first logo as "CBS 6," versions of which were used from October 2003 until April 2015. The "6" has been used in WTVR's logos since the late 1980s.

On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced its intention to purchase the television broadcasting and production properties of Lincoln Financial Media, including rival WWBT. Because WWBT and WTVR ranked as two of the four highest-rated stations in the Richmond market, FCC rules required one of the stations to be divested. Raycom decided to keep the higher-rated WWBT and sell WTVR to another owner.[6] On June 24, 2008, Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase WTVR and sell local Fox affiliate WRLH-TV (channel 35), which it had owned since 1996.[7] However, the Justice Department, under provisions of a consent decree with Raycom Media, denied Raycom permission to sell WTVR-TV to Sinclair in August 2008.[8]

On January 6, 2009, Raycom resolved the ownership issue by trading WBRC, the Fox affiliate for Birmingham and $83 million to Local TV LLC in exchange for WTVR-TV. The transfer closed on March 31, 2009.[9] As a result of the trade, Local TV owned Virginia's two largest CBS affiliates; it already owned WTKR-TV, the CBS affiliate in Norfolk, the market just to the east of Richmond. Local TV added Hampton Roads CW affiliate WGNT in 2010 after buying it from CBS.

For three months after the swap deal was completed, WTVR's website remained in the old Raycom-era format. This changed in late June 2009, a few days after WBRC relaunched its website, when WTVR migrated its website to the Tribune Interactive platform used by the websites of other Local TV-owned stations. As of 2012, Local TV migrated its websites to WordPress.com VIP. On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its stations would be acquired by the Tribune Company.[10] The sale was completed on December 27.[11]

On August 21, 2015, WTVR-TV's newsroom was named in honor of Stephanie Rochon, who anchored the weeknight newscasts from 1999 to 2014. Rochon had died that June after a long struggle with cancer.[12][13]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune.[14] It intended to keep WTVR, selling WRLH and eight other stations to Standard Media Group.[15] The transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal the next month.[16]

Sale to Nexstar Media Group and resale to Scripps

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On December 3, 2018, Irving, Texas–based Nexstar Media Group—which has owned ABC affiliate WRIC-TV (channel 8) since January 2017 (it had been Media General's flagship station when that company merged with Nexstar)—announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt.[17] Due to FCC regulations prohibiting Nexstar from owning both WTVR and WRIC, the company had to sell one of the stations to a separate, unrelated company to address the ownership conflict.[18] On March 20, 2019, the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company announced it would purchase WTVR from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, marking Scripps' entry into Virginia, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Scripps and Tegna Inc. in separate deals worth $1.32 billion. The sale was completed on September 19.[19][20][21]

News operation

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WTVR was the overall ratings leader in Richmond until the late 1980s, when WWBT surpassed it, mainly in local news ratings and due to strength from WWBT's affiliation with NBC and its top rated prime time lineup then. For most of the time since then, the station has waged a spirited battle with WRIC for second place. During the late 1980s, early 1990s and into the 2000s, WTVR won numerous awards, including the RTNDA News Operation of the Year for two consecutive years.

On August 10, 2010, starting with the Noon newscast, WTVR became the second commercial station (behind WWBT) to broadcast local news in high definition. The change also came new graphics, music (an updated version of "The CBS Enforcer Music Collection" by Gari Media Group) and a new news set. On January 23, 2013, WTVR used on-air graphics that were also used on then sister station KDVR, a Fox affiliate in Denver, Colorado[22] until April 20, 2015, when they debuted new graphics and music ("Moving Forward" by 615 Music) that are also used by then sister station WTTV (which became a CBS affiliate in January of that year) in Indianapolis. These were changed to Scripps' standardized graphics package and custom-made music from Stephen Arnold Music, in September 2020, almost a year after the company bought the station.

Between 2016 and 2018, WTVR produced a half-hour newscast for then Washington, D.C., sister station WDCW, with presentation originated from the former's studios, along with reporter's based in Washington. It was cancelled on September 28, 2018, after Tribune announced budget cuts amid the failed Sinclair transaction.[23]

Notable former on-air staff

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Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WTVR-TV[25]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
6.1 1080i 16:9 WTVR-HD CBS
6.2 480i CBS6ANT Antenna TV
6.3 CBS6XTR CBS6 Xtra (Independent)
6.4 CourtTV Court TV
6.5 ION Ion Television
6.6 Scripps Scripps News
6.7 HSN HSN
65.2 480i 16:9 Bounce Bounce TV (WUPV)
  Broadcast on behalf of another station

The station became a charter affiliate of Antenna TV upon its launch in March 2011. It is carried on digital subchannel 6.2.[26] Channel 6.3 had been carrying a loop of current weather maps and recorded weather forecasts until mid-2015 when it switched to live simulcasts of the station's newscasts with repeats of the most recent newscast airing when there wasn't a live newscast. The subchannel also airs required E/I programming on weekend mornings.

On April 11, 2022, WTVR-TV began hosting WUPV's 65.2 subchannel, as a result of WUPV converting to ATSC 3.0; in turn, WUPV simulcasts WTVR-TV in the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard.[27]

Analog-to-digital conversion

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WTVR-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, in the late morning of June 12, 2009, after more than 60 years, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25,[28] using virtual channel 6. Prior to the transition, the audio component of WTVR-TV's analog channel 6 signal at 87.75 MHz had been heavily promoted as available to listeners tuning to 87.7 on a standard FM radio receiver.[citation needed] WTVR-TV lost this benefit of the analog channel 6 allocation when analog transmission ended. WTVR-TV ended its telecasts on analog channel 6 with "The Star-Spangled Banner", featuring images of WTVR-TV's history and the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. WTVR-TV moved its digital signal from the tower it shared with former sister station WTVR-FM to a shared tower with PBS member stations WCVE-TV and WCVW as a result of the 2009 analog to digital conversion.[2]

Out-of-market cable coverage

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Outside of the Richmond market, WTVR is carried on cable in Northern Virginia in Front Royal and Luray. In central Virginia, it is carried on service providers in Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Madison and Staunton. In southside Virginia in Mecklenburg County, WTVR is carried near the North Carolina state line in Bracey along Lake Gaston. It is also carried in Chase City and South Hill.

Past cable coverage

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In the 1970s and 1980s, WTVR was once received as far south in Halifax and Enfield in North Carolina. In southern Maryland, WTVR was once carried in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County.[29]

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTVR-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ a b "TV Query Results". Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  3. ^ "WTVR (TV) to Start April 22, Channel 6" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 19, 1948. p. 26. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  4. ^ "Gov. Tuck Speaks At WTVR Inaugural" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 26, 1948. p. 41. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
  5. ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, archived from the original on June 14, 2009
  6. ^ "Raycom Grabs Lincoln Financial Stations - 11 December 2007 2:44:00 PM - Broadcasting & Cable". Archived from the original on November 16, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  7. ^ "Sinclair Broadcast Group". Archived from the original on June 28, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008.
  8. ^ "Sinclair news release". Archived from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2008.
  9. ^ Malone, Michael (March 31, 2009). "Local TV Closes on WTVR". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
  10. ^ Channick, Robert (July 1, 2013). "Acquisition to make Tribune Co. largest U.S. TV station operator". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  11. ^ Company Completes Final Steps of Transaction Announced in July Archived December 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Tribune Company, December 27, 2013
  12. ^ "WTVR Newsroom dedicated to longtime anchor Stephanie Rochon". August 21, 2015. Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  13. ^ "'She will always be a part of CBS 6:' Newsroom named in honor of beloved anchor Stephanie Rochon". August 21, 2015. Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  14. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (May 8, 2017). "Sinclair Broadcast Group Sets $3.9 Billion Deal to Acquire Tribune Media". Variety. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  15. ^ Jessell, Harry A. (April 24, 2018). "Sinclair Spins Off 23 TVs To Grease Trib Deal". TVNewsCheck. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  16. ^ Flint, Joe (August 9, 2018). "Tribune Terminates $3.9 Billion Sinclair Merger, Sues Broadcast Rival". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  17. ^ Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Buying Tribune Media For $6.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  18. ^ Jessell, Harry A.; Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar To Spin Off $1B In Stations". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Scripps Closes Acquisition of Eight TV Stations from Nexstar-Tribune Merger Divestitures" Archived February 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, E. W. Scripps Company, September 19, 2019, Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  20. ^ Miller, Mark K. (March 20, 2019). "Nexstar Selling 19 TVs In 15 Markets For $1.32B". Tv News Check. NewsCheck Media. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  21. ^ Ahmed, Nabila; Sakoui, Anousha (March 20, 2019). "Nexstar to Sell Stations to Tegna, Scripps for $1.32 Billion". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg, L.P. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  22. ^ "Our new look at CBS 6 News". Facebook. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. [user-generated source]
  23. ^ Delgadillo, Natalie (September 7, 2018). "D.C. Loses Another Local News Outlet As DCW50 News at 10 Folds". DCist. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  24. ^ "More former CBS 6 sports anchors share their most vivid Richmond memories". April 28, 2023. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  25. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WTVR". Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  26. ^ Antenna TV Affiliates Archived November 27, 2010, at archive.today
  27. ^ "Licensing and Management System". Enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. March 24, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  28. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  29. ^ "Search Entities & File Names". Retrieved September 12, 2023.
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