WFXR-TV
Encyclopedia
WFXR is the Fox
-affiliated television station in Roanoke, Virginia
. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 17. WFXR's transmitter is located on Poor Mountain
in Roanoke County
.
WFXR operates a full-time satellite, WWCW in Lynchburg, Virginia
. WWCW broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 20. WWCW's transmitter is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains
10 miles west of Bedford
.
Together, the two stations are known on-air as "Fox 21 / 27" (though WFXR is the main station) and is the flagship of Grant Broadcasting System II
. The station's main studios are located in Roanoke while additional offices are located in Lynchburg. WFXR and WWCW carry a secondary affiliation with the CW Television Network on their second digital subchannels. WFXR's CW programmning is also offered on local Cox Communications
cable systems; this channel is branded as "CW 5".
, which operated for less than five months in 1953. It was the first UHF station in the country to go dark. Southwest Virginia
is very mountainous and the difficulties faced by UHF stations at the time were magnified by the area's rugged terrain. Its facilities were eventually sold to the Times-World Corporation to launch its new station, WDBJ-TV, in 1955.
Also appearing on the channel 27 frequency was WRFT, which was known to have aired from 1966 to 1974 as an ABC
affiliate. At the time, the area's primary ABC affiliate, WLVA-TV in Lynchburg (now WSET-TV
), provided only marginal coverage of Roanoke.
The current incarnation of channel 27 debuted in March 1986 as a Christian television station WVFT owned by Roanoke Christian Television. Initially, the station ran only religious programming but was sold soon after sign on to Family Group Television. Beginning in the fall, the station began transitioning towards a general-entertainment format, and by 1987 the station was a conventional independent station.
) stepped in and bought the station in September 1985. After resolving the difficulties, in February 1986, WJPR (for Jefferson Pilot Radio) was launched as the area's first general independent station. airing cartoons, off-network programs, movies, and some religious programs. In October 1986, WJPR became a charter Fox affiliate.
(despite its 4.1 million-watt ERP). Some areas of the New River Valley, along with other rural portions of the market, were among the few parts of the country where cable television still wasn't readily available.
On September 15, 1993; UHF television pioneer Milton Grant bought both WVFT and WJPR. The simulcast continued, though WVFT began serving as the main station. In October 1993, WVFT was renamed WFXR-TV. It was also announced that the two stations would eventually split from each other, with one reverting to independent status. However, this plan never manifested itself during the remainder of the analog era.
In January 1995, WFXR/WJPR acquired a secondary affiliation with the newly-launched United Paramount Network
, running UPN shows on weekends and some late nights. In 1996, the stations reached a deal with NBC
affiliate WSLS-TV
, allowing WSLS to produce a 10:00 p.m. newscast for WFXR/WJPR. The Fox 10 O'Clock News premiered on October 28, 1996.
In the spring of 1997, the market's UPN affiliation moved to WDRG-TV (now WDRL-TV), and WFXR/WJPR picked up a secondary alliance with the WB Television Network. Meanwhile, WFXR and WJPR operated the area's cable-only WB affiliate, known by the fictional calls "WBVA-TV". It was offered on Cox cable channel 5 and as a result was known on-air as "WB 5".
Plans were still underway to separate the two stations, and in 2001, the "WB 5" intellectual unit and the WBVA calls were set to move to WJPR, leaving Fox on WFXR. The two stations would still share some syndicated programs. However, the separation plan was canceled due to concerns about reception problems in the 40 percent of the market only served by one station over the air. Many of these areas still didn't have access to cable, and neither DirecTV
nor Dish Network
had much penetration in the market at the time.
When WJPR's digital signal signed on in April 2002, "WBVA" was the sole programming aired on it (Fox was added and WBVA made a subchannel in early 2003). The WB affiliate was also offered on DirecTV and Dish Network. When WFXR's digital signal began airing programming in December 2003, it aired both Fox and WBVA in the same arrangement as WJPR.
On January 24, 2006, the UPN
and WB networks announced that they merge into the CW Television Network. On March 28, 2006, it was announced that WBVA would become the area's CW affiliate. To reflect this, the fictional WBVA calls were changed to "WCW5-TV" in June 2006. The CW network began broadcasting on September 18, 2006; the cable-only station changed its branding to "CW 5" simultaneously.
On June 30, 2006, the call letters of WJPR were changed to WWCW. The new call letters matched the new affiliation agreement with the CW network, which appears on both stations' digital subcarriers. This immediately led to speculation that channel 21 would split off and become the area's CW affiliate. Had this happened, both stations could have aired on each other's digital subcarriers to make up for the shortfall in coverage. This is common practice for many duopolies where one station's signal is weak. However, Grant Broadcasting has not as of yet announced plans to completely split off the two stations. Fox programming continued to air on both WFXR and WWCW, with both analog and digital signals, until the June 2009 analog shutdown. At that point, the two stations were effectively (though not entirely) separated, with WWCW's primary digital channel now airing CW programming in HD, with Fox programming airing in SD on WWCW's second subchannel. Conversely, WFXR carries Fox programming in HD on its primary signal, with CW programming airing in SD on WFXR's second subchannel.
After the analog television shutdown
on June 12, 2009, WFXR and WWCW remained on their respective, pre-transition channel numbers (17 and 20) using PSIP
to display virtual channel
s for both stations corresponding to their former analog channels.
Fox 21/27 Ten O'Clock News
(10 to 11 P.M.)
Weeknights
Fox 21/27 Ten O'Clock News
(10 to 10:30 P.M.)
Weekends
WFXR/WWCW features additional news personnel from WSLS-TV. See that article
for a complete listing.
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
-affiliated television station in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 17. WFXR's transmitter is located on Poor Mountain
Poor Mountain
Poor Mountain is a ridge of high peaks located in Roanoke County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Virginia. At 3,928 feet, Poor Mountain is the tallest mountain in the immediate area. The mountain is under consideration for the placement of a wind farm...
in Roanoke County
Roanoke County, Virginia
Roanoke County is a county located in the U.S. state of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area and located within the Roanoke Region of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 85,778. As of 2010, the population was 92,376...
.
WFXR operates a full-time satellite, WWCW in Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
. WWCW broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 20. WWCW's transmitter is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
10 miles west of Bedford
Bedford, Virginia
Bedford is an independent city located within the confines of Bedford County in the U.S. state of Virginia. It serves as the county seat of Bedford County. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 6,222. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Bedford with surrounding Bedford...
.
Together, the two stations are known on-air as "Fox 21 / 27" (though WFXR is the main station) and is the flagship of Grant Broadcasting System II
Grant Broadcasting System II
Based in Roanoke, Virginia, Grant Broadcasting System II is an owner of various television stations in the United States....
. The station's main studios are located in Roanoke while additional offices are located in Lynchburg. WFXR and WWCW carry a secondary affiliation with the CW Television Network on their second digital subchannels. WFXR's CW programmning is also offered on local Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
cable systems; this channel is branded as "CW 5".
Channel 27 origins
The channel 27 frequency in Roanoke was originally home to WROV-TVWROV-TV
WROV-TV, UHF Channel 27 in Roanoke, Virginia, was the second-oldest TV station in Roanoke . Established February 15, 1953, it left the air on July 13, 1953, becoming the first UHF television station in the United States to have ceased operations.- History :In 1950s, the Federal Communications...
, which operated for less than five months in 1953. It was the first UHF station in the country to go dark. Southwest Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
is very mountainous and the difficulties faced by UHF stations at the time were magnified by the area's rugged terrain. Its facilities were eventually sold to the Times-World Corporation to launch its new station, WDBJ-TV, in 1955.
Also appearing on the channel 27 frequency was WRFT, which was known to have aired from 1966 to 1974 as an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate. At the time, the area's primary ABC affiliate, WLVA-TV in Lynchburg (now WSET-TV
WSET-TV
WSET-TV is the ABC television network affiliate for the Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia market. The station is licensed to Lynchburg, and transmits its digital signal on VHF channel 13. WSET is owned by the Allbritton Communications Company. Its transmitter is located near Thaxton, Virginia...
), provided only marginal coverage of Roanoke.
The current incarnation of channel 27 debuted in March 1986 as a Christian television station WVFT owned by Roanoke Christian Television. Initially, the station ran only religious programming but was sold soon after sign on to Family Group Television. Beginning in the fall, the station began transitioning towards a general-entertainment format, and by 1987 the station was a conventional independent station.
Channel 21 origins
In 1984, channel 21 in the Lynchburg area was slated to sign on with a general entertainment format. But due to financial and engineering problems, original owner Carney Communications was unable to sign the station on. Jefferson-Pilot Communications (now Lincoln Financial MediaLincoln Financial Media
Lincoln Financial Media is a subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owns radio stations in the United States.-History:In April 2006, Lincoln Financial acquired Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media. The group owns 14 radio stations in...
) stepped in and bought the station in September 1985. After resolving the difficulties, in February 1986, WJPR (for Jefferson Pilot Radio) was launched as the area's first general independent station. airing cartoons, off-network programs, movies, and some religious programs. In October 1986, WJPR became a charter Fox affiliate.
Merger
The Roanoke-Lynchburg market was too small at the time to support what were essentially two independent stations (Fox wouldn't air a full week's worth of programming until 1993), and both channels 21 and 27 suffered from the tight competition. However, by 1989, WVFT's financial problems were more pronounced; the station suffered from lower ratings and was unable to pay for stronger syndicated programming. Jefferson-Pilot, then-owner of WJPR, offered to merge WVFT's stronger programming onto WJPR's schedule and begin simulcasting WVFT on WJPR. WVFT readily accepted, and the simulcast began later that year. The two stations provide a strong combined signal with 60 percent overlap. This gave Fox a strong signal throughout the market. Although channel 21 decently covers Roanoke, its analog signal left much to be desired in the New River ValleyNew River Valley
The New River Valley is a region in the eastern United States along the New River in the Commonwealth of Virginia . The valley comprises the counties of Montgomery , Pulaski, Floyd, Giles and the independent City of Radford...
(despite its 4.1 million-watt ERP). Some areas of the New River Valley, along with other rural portions of the market, were among the few parts of the country where cable television still wasn't readily available.
On September 15, 1993; UHF television pioneer Milton Grant bought both WVFT and WJPR. The simulcast continued, though WVFT began serving as the main station. In October 1993, WVFT was renamed WFXR-TV. It was also announced that the two stations would eventually split from each other, with one reverting to independent status. However, this plan never manifested itself during the remainder of the analog era.
In January 1995, WFXR/WJPR acquired a secondary affiliation with the newly-launched United Paramount Network
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
, running UPN shows on weekends and some late nights. In 1996, the stations reached a deal with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WSLS-TV
WSLS-TV
WSLS-TV, channel 10 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Roanoke, Virginia. Its transmitter is located on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County. The station is owned by Media General who also owns local newspapers The News & Advance and Danville Register & Bee...
, allowing WSLS to produce a 10:00 p.m. newscast for WFXR/WJPR. The Fox 10 O'Clock News premiered on October 28, 1996.
In the spring of 1997, the market's UPN affiliation moved to WDRG-TV (now WDRL-TV), and WFXR/WJPR picked up a secondary alliance with the WB Television Network. Meanwhile, WFXR and WJPR operated the area's cable-only WB affiliate, known by the fictional calls "WBVA-TV". It was offered on Cox cable channel 5 and as a result was known on-air as "WB 5".
Plans were still underway to separate the two stations, and in 2001, the "WB 5" intellectual unit and the WBVA calls were set to move to WJPR, leaving Fox on WFXR. The two stations would still share some syndicated programs. However, the separation plan was canceled due to concerns about reception problems in the 40 percent of the market only served by one station over the air. Many of these areas still didn't have access to cable, and neither DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
nor Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
had much penetration in the market at the time.
When WJPR's digital signal signed on in April 2002, "WBVA" was the sole programming aired on it (Fox was added and WBVA made a subchannel in early 2003). The WB affiliate was also offered on DirecTV and Dish Network. When WFXR's digital signal began airing programming in December 2003, it aired both Fox and WBVA in the same arrangement as WJPR.
On January 24, 2006, the UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
and WB networks announced that they merge into the CW Television Network. On March 28, 2006, it was announced that WBVA would become the area's CW affiliate. To reflect this, the fictional WBVA calls were changed to "WCW5-TV" in June 2006. The CW network began broadcasting on September 18, 2006; the cable-only station changed its branding to "CW 5" simultaneously.
On June 30, 2006, the call letters of WJPR were changed to WWCW. The new call letters matched the new affiliation agreement with the CW network, which appears on both stations' digital subcarriers. This immediately led to speculation that channel 21 would split off and become the area's CW affiliate. Had this happened, both stations could have aired on each other's digital subcarriers to make up for the shortfall in coverage. This is common practice for many duopolies where one station's signal is weak. However, Grant Broadcasting has not as of yet announced plans to completely split off the two stations. Fox programming continued to air on both WFXR and WWCW, with both analog and digital signals, until the June 2009 analog shutdown. At that point, the two stations were effectively (though not entirely) separated, with WWCW's primary digital channel now airing CW programming in HD, with Fox programming airing in SD on WWCW's second subchannel. Conversely, WFXR carries Fox programming in HD on its primary signal, with CW programming airing in SD on WFXR's second subchannel.
Digital television
The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:| WFXR | WWCW | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| 27.1 HDTV | 21.2 SDTV | Fox Television Network |
| 27.2 SDTV | 21.1 HDTV | The CW The CW Television Network The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB... |
After the analog television shutdown
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
on June 12, 2009, WFXR and WWCW remained on their respective, pre-transition channel numbers (17 and 20) using PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
to display virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
s for both stations corresponding to their former analog channels.
Newscasts
WFXR and WWCW's nightly 10:00 p.m. continues to be produced by WSLS-TV. Whenever Fox programming or sports delays the newscast on WFXR and WWCW, it is aired live on "CW 5".Fox 21/27 Ten O'Clock News
(10 to 11 P.M.)
Weeknights
- Anchors:
- Becky Freemal
- Jay Warren (10 to 10:30 half only)
- Weather:
- Jeff Haniewich
- Sports:
- John Appicello
Fox 21/27 Ten O'Clock News
(10 to 10:30 P.M.)
Weekends
- Anchor:
- Lindsey Ward
- Weather:
- Alyssa Corfont
- Sports:
- TBD
WFXR/WWCW features additional news personnel from WSLS-TV. See that article
WSLS-TV
WSLS-TV, channel 10 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Roanoke, Virginia. Its transmitter is located on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County. The station is owned by Media General who also owns local newspapers The News & Advance and Danville Register & Bee...
for a complete listing.