ABC affiliate in Charlottesville, Virginia
WVAW-LD
(channel 16) is a
low-power television station
in
Charlottesville, Virginia
, United States, affiliated with
ABC
. It is owned by
Lockwood Broadcast Group
alongside dual
CBS
/
Fox
affiliate
WCAV
(channel 19). The two stations share studios on Rio East Court in Charlottesville; WVAW-LD's transmitter is located on Carters Mountain south of the city.
Due to WVAW-LD's low-power status, its
broadcast radius
only covers the immediate Charlottesville area. Therefore, it relies on
cable
and
satellite
to reach the entire market.
History
[
edit
]
Former logo until 2021.
What is now WVAW-LD originally debuted on June 12, 1979, on
analog
UHF channel 64 with the call sign W64AO. The station was a low-powered
translator
of
WHSV-TV
in
Harrisonburg
, which was the area's default ABC affiliate. At the time, WHSV-TV was owned by Worrell Newspapers along with the
Charlottesville Daily Progress
.
On April 9, 2004, W64AO moved to UHF channel 16, changed call letters to WVAW-LP, upgraded power, and separated from WHSV-TV. WVAW-LP was the
market
's third local station after
WVIR-TV
(channel 29) and WCAV.
In early 2005, after the launch of WCAV and WVAW,
Gray Television
launched a third station in the area, Fox affiliate
WAHU-CA
. WVAW was temporarily taken off-the-air by a fire on its transmitter tower at the top of Carters Mountain on November 9, 2006. The signal was restored on November 13. On December 28, WVAW moved to
Comcast
channel 3.
The new set of stations replaced out-of-market stations from
Richmond
and
Washington, D.C.
, as the primary network affiliates on local
Comcast
cable. Washington's
WTTG
and Richmond's
WRIC-TV
,
WWBT
and
WTVR-TV
remained available for some time in less prominent channel assignments on basic, then digital tiers before being gradually removed.
Gray announced the sale of WVAW-LD and WCAV to
Lockwood Broadcast Group
on March 4, 2019. The sale was concurrent with Gray's purchase of rival WVIR-TV from Waterman Broadcasting. The WAHU-CD license was not included in the sale, and would be retained by Gray as a translator to WVIR-TV, eventually moving to the
WVIR-CD
call; WAHU's programming with
Fox
,
MeTV
and
AccuWeather
affiliations were redistributed among WCAV and WVAW-LD subchannels.
[2]
[3]
[4]
The transaction was completed on October 1.
[5]
Newscasts
[
edit
]
WVAW presently broadcasts
17
+
1
⁄
2
hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with
3
+
1
⁄
2
hours each weekday and 30 minutes each on Saturdays and Sundays).
WVAW and its sister stations employ the largest television news team dedicated exclusively to the Charlottesville market. While WVIR dedicates some staff to adjacent areas, WVAW focuses its coverage solely on the counties that comprise the Charlottesville television market. As the primary station in the
CBS19 News
operation, WCAV airs the most newscasts. WVAW simulcasts the
2
+
1
⁄
2
hours of
Good Morning Charlottesville
on weekday mornings from 4:30 to 7 a.m., as well as simulcasting
CBS19 News at 6
and
CBS19 News at 11
.
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WVAW shut down its analog signal, over
UHF
channel 16, on February 16, 2009, and "
flash-cut
" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 16.
[7]
It also changed its calls to the current WVAW-LD with "LD" standing for low-power digital.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WVAW-LD"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
Aycock, Jason (March 4, 2019).
"Gray Television changing stations in Virginia"
.
Seeking Alpha
. Retrieved
March 4,
2019
.
- ^
"Gray Television to acquire NBC 29 from Waterman Broadcasting"
.
The Daily Progress
. March 4, 2019.
- ^
"Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License"
.
CDBS Public Access
.
Federal Communications Commission
. March 4, 2019
. Retrieved
March 6,
2019
.
- ^
"Consummation Notice"
,
CDBS Public Access
,
Federal Communications Commission
, October 2, 2019, Retrieved October 2, 2019.
- ^
RabbitEars TV Query for WVAW
- ^
"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
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
- WVAW-LD
(16.1
ABC
, 19.2 CBS 19 WX, 27.2
MeTV
)
- WCAV
(19.1
CBS
, 19.4
Ion
, 27.1
Fox
)
- WVIR-TV
/
WVIR-CD
(29.1
NBC
, 29.2
Outlaw
, 29.3
CW+
, 29.4
Crime
, 29.5
Grit
, 29.6
The365
)
- WHTJ
(41.1
PBS
/VPM, 41.2 PBS/VPM+,
41.3
World
, 41.4
PBS Kids
, 41.5
Create
)
- WNVC
(41.3
World
)
|
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ABC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the Commonwealth of
Virginia
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Primary*
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Secondary**
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of Virginia's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Virginia
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sorted by primary channel network affiliations
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ABC
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CBS
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The CW
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Fox
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Independent
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NBC
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- 1
These stations broadcast these networks on their digital subchannels.
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