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WUPV
ATSC 3.0 station
CityAshland, Virginia
Channels
BrandingCW Richmond
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WWBT, WRID-LD
History
First air date
March 9, 1990 (34 years ago) (1990-03-09)
Former call signs
  • WZXK (1990–1994)
  • WAWB (1994–1997)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 65 (UHF, 1990–2009)
  • Digital: 47 (UHF, 2002–2019)
  • Independent (1990–1995)
  • The WB ((primary, 1995–1997), (secondary, September 2006, temporary CW transition)
  • UPN (1997–2006)
  • Laff (DT4, 2019–2024)
Call sign meaning
UPN Virginia, referencing previous affiliation
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID10897
ERP30 kW
HAAT257 m (843 ft)
Transmitter coordinates37°44′32″N 77°15′14″W / 37.74222°N 77.25389°W / 37.74222; -77.25389
Translator(s)WRID-LD 65.6 (36.8 UHF) Richmond
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.nbc12.com/cw-richmond/

WUPV (channel 65) is a television station licensed to Ashland, Virginia, United States, serving the Richmond area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Richmond-licensed NBC affiliate WWBT (channel 12) and WRID-LD (channel 48). The stations share studios on Midlothian Turnpike (US 60) in Richmond, while WUPV's transmitter is located northeast of Richmond in King William County, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) west of Enfield. WRID repeats its main channel from the WWBT transmitter behind the studios in the inner ring of Richmond on its third subchannel, mapped to WUPV-DT6.

Established as a religious TV station in 1990, WZXK joined The WB in 1995 (as WAWB) and switched to UPN in 1997, adopting its present call sign. The result of the switch was to leave The WB without a full-time outlet in Richmond. The station joined The CW on its 2006 launch and today serves as one of two ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) transmitters in central Virginia. The station airs one local newscast from the WWBT newsroom.

History

Christel Inc., run by James E. Campana, had broadcast leased-access religious programming on cable systems in Henrico County since 1978. In 1986, he was granted a construction permit for channel 65 in Ashland after settling with a competing applicant and began a years-long construction process that would involve more than $2 million in funds.[2] The call letters WZXK were chosen at the suggestion of an attorney who knew they'd be available and after 10 suggestions were turned down by the FCC.[3] Meanwhile, a tower was built in King William County in 1989 after Hanover County refused to concede a zoning variance to build the mast.[4] Construction was almost halted on the rest of the project due to a sudden cash crunch; the transmitter was left sitting in a warehouse in Kentucky for a time because Christel needed to pay another $118,000.[5]

Channel 65 finally appeared on March 9, 1990. It aired primarily religious programming with some secular shows.[6] However, it also dealt with financial and technical struggles which sometimes converged. In 1992, the station's transmitter failed, but it took time to raise the funds to replace it.[7] That fall, the amount of family secular programming increased.[8]

In February 1994, locally based Bell Broadcasting purchased WZXK, with Christel continuing to program religious fare on the station. That fall, WZXK reached an affiliation deal with the soon-to-launch WB network and became WAWB "WB 65".[9] In 1997, Bell Broadcasting sold the station to Lockwood Broadcasting of Hampton, Virginia,[10] which negotiated to take the primary UPN affiliation.[11] With this move, WAWB took the current call sign of WUPV; it branded first as "UPN 65"[12] and then "UPN Richmond" during its tenure with the network.[13]

After the affiliation swap, there was no over-the-air carrier of WB programming in Richmond until selected shows turned up on NBC affiliate WWBT in 1999;[14] some programs aired first in the afternoon and then in overnight hours through August 31, 2006. This arrangement led to Richmond being one of the worst markets for WB network ratings. One problem was that WWBT could not carry the entire WB prime time lineup; due to time limitations involved in timeshifting network programs and removing show promotions, the station opted not to carry the network's Friday night schedule.[15] Kids' WB programming was cleared on WRLH. While an attempt was made to launch a new station which would have been run by ACME Communications,[16] the proposal died in a technical morass related to the removal of channels 60–69 and 52–59 from television use. The original application, which had been made by Television Capital Corporation of Richmond, specified channel 63 (last used in 1988 when WVRN-TV folded), had to be amended twice to change its channel (first to 52 and then to 39), and was contested on procedural grounds by Lockwood.[17]

In 2006, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW. With The CW effectively forced by default to affiliate with WUPV for full-market distribution, Lockwood entered into a long-term affiliation agreement for three of its stations in April 2006.[18] Just days before the new network's launch that September, Lockwood sold WUPV to Southeastern Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings. That company's stations were all operated under local marketing agreements, covering all station functions but ad sales, by Raycom Media, then-owner of Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR-TV.[19] WUPV moved operations into WTVR's Richmond studios for what would turn out to be a temporary arrangement, as Raycom sold off WTVR the next year to purchase the market-leading WWBT from Lincoln Financial Media. Its operations moved again into WWBT's studios once WTVR was sold off to Local TV LLC.

In 2011, Community Newspaper Holdings sold Southeastern Media Holdings and its four stations (including WUPV) to Thomas Henson (which later transferred in the same year its shares to American Spirit Media, which he owned) for $24 million and the assumption of $50 million in debt.[20][21]

Sale to Gray Television

On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, and Gray's 93 television stations) under the former's corporate umbrella in a cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion.[22][23][24][25] In advance of the merger, Raycom exercised its options to purchase WUPV and KYOU in Ottumwa, Iowa, outright from American Spirit Media.[26][22][23][24][25] The sale was approved on December 20 of that year[27] and was completed on January 2, 2019.[28]

Newscasts

Further information: WWBT § News operation

On March 5, 2007, WUPV launched a 35-minute weeknight newscast produced by WTVR called The CW News @ 10. This competed against WRLH's nightly hour-long broadcast, then produced by WWBT. Weekend newscasts began on October 20, 2007, and ended a year later on October 19, 2008; the final weeknight show aired on November 7. The change was cited as a business decision.[29]

In January 2009, a new 6:30 p.m. newscast from WWBT was launched on WUPV.[30] The newscast moved to 4:30 p.m. in 2017 and was absorbed by WWBT's existing 4:00 p.m. newscast in 2019. The only local news program on WUPV is a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast, NBC12 News on CW Richmond, started in January 2020.[31]

Technical information

Subchannels

WUPV provides five subchannels, which are carried in ATSC 1.0 format on the multiplexes of the other stations participating in the ATSC 3.0 arrangement.

Subchannels provided by WUPV (ATSC 1.0)[32]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming ATSC 1.0 host
65.1 1080i 16:9 WUPV-DT Main WUPV programming / The CW WWBT
65.2 480i Bounce Bounce TV WTVR-TV
65.3 Grit Grit WRLH-TV
65.4 The365 The365 WRIC-TV
65.5 StartTV Start TV

In the immediate Richmond area, WRID-LD provides second transmissions of the main program streams of WWBT (12.6) and WUPV (65.6) on the UHF band.[33]

ATSC 3.0 lighthouse

On April 11, 2022, WUPV and WCVW launched ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) signals in the Richmond area. The WUPV multiplex transmits all five of Richmond's commercial stations in the format.[34]

Subchannels of WUPV (ATSC 3.0)[35]
Channel Res. Short name Programming
6.1 1080p WTVR CBS (WTVR-TV)
8.1 720p WRIC-TV ABC (WRIC-TV)
12.1 1080p WWBT-HD NBC (WWBT)
35.1 720p WRLH Fox (WRLH-TV)
65.1 1080p WUPV-HD The CW

Analog-to-digital conversion

WUPV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 65, on June 12, 2009, 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 47.[36]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WUPV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Christel Broadcasting gets OK on Christian TV station". Richmond News Leader. December 15, 1986. p. 19.
  3. ^ Durden, Douglas (January 27, 1989). "Road has been long for new station". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-10.
  4. ^ Phillips, Katherine (January 26, 1989). "Religious TV Channel 65 nears air time". Richmond News Leader. p. 17.
  5. ^ Phillips, Katherine (July 15, 1989). "Channel 65's signals jammed by cash problems". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. A-13.
  6. ^ Durden, Douglas (March 8, 1990). "WZXK: Religious station was dream". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-1.
  7. ^ Setzer Epps, Kim (July 27, 1992). "Channel 65 to replace transmitter: Financial problems plague area's only religious station". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-6.
  8. ^ Phillips, Katherine (September 26, 1992). "Independent religious TV station adopts increasingly secular image". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. E-15.
  9. ^ Phillips, Katherine (August 27, 1994). "WZXK joining fledgling WB network". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. F-4.
  10. ^ "Hampton firm to buy WAWB-Channel 65". Richmond Times-Dispatch. May 31, 1997. p. C-10.
  11. ^ Durden, Douglas (August 23, 1997). "'Moesha,' 'Star Trek: Voyager' to have a new home—Channel 65". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. F4. Retrieved April 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Durden, Douglas (June 23, 2000). "WUPV dents ratings, is recognized by UPN". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. D-5.
  13. ^ Durden, Douglas (September 6, 2002). "Stations slate syndicated series". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-5.
  14. ^ Durden, Douglas (September 3, 1999). "Premiere week no longer spans just seven days". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-1.
  15. ^ Durden, Douglas (August 8, 2004). "Television stations". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. 85.
  16. ^ Durden, Douglas (October 20, 2000). "WB affiliate may be here eventually". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-7.
  17. ^ Durden, Douglas (June 29, 2001). "WB's Richmond future still seems up in the air". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-3.
  18. ^ Durden, Douglas (April 5, 2006). "Merged WB-UPN network to air here". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. C-1.
  19. ^ Rayner, Bob (September 14, 2006). "WUPV being sold to Ala. firm - The station will become the local affiliate for the CW network on Sunday". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-9.
  20. ^ Jessell, Harry A. (January 3, 2011). "Community Newspaper Selling 4 Stations". TVNewsCheck.
  21. ^ "BALCDT-20110829ABS Application for Consent to Assign Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License, or to Transfer Control of Entity Holding Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". Federal Communications Commission.
  22. ^ a b "Gray and Raycom to Combine in a $3.6 Billion Transaction". Raycom Media (Press release). June 25, 2018.
  23. ^ a b Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  24. ^ a b John Eggerton (June 25, 2018). "Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
  25. ^ a b Dade Hayes (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
  26. ^ "Form 10-Q". Gray Television. May 8, 2019. p. 13.
  27. ^ "FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger". Broadcasting & Cable. December 20, 2018. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  28. ^ "Gray Closes On $3.6 Billion Raycom Merger". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. January 2, 2019. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  29. ^ Ruggieri, Melissa (November 11, 2008). "'CW News @ 10' a thing of the past". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-10.
  30. ^ Ruggieri, Melissa (November 26, 2008). "NBC12's Cox chosen to anchor CW newscast". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-10.
  31. ^ "WUPV Quarterly List of Programming Providing the Most Significant Treatment of Community Issues" (PDF). publicfiles.fcc.gov. March 31, 2022.
  32. ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WWBT". rabbitears.info. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  33. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WRID-LD". rabbitears.info. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  34. ^ Eggerton, John (April 11, 2022). "ATSC 3.0 Signals Now Blanketing Richmond". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  35. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WUPV". rabbitears.info. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  36. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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