WUPV
Encyclopedia
WUPV is the CW-affiliated television station
for Richmond, Virginia
that is licensed to Ashland
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter northeast of the city in King William County
along the Hanover County
line. Owned by Southeastern Media Holdings
, the station is operated by Raycom Media
though a shared services
agreement (SSA) as sister to NBC
affiliate WWBT
. The two stations share studios on Midlothian
Turnpike (U.S. 60
) in Richmond. Syndicated
programming on WUPV includes: The King of Queens
, Tyler Perry's House of Payne
, TMZ on TV
, and Judge Mathis
.
cable TV channel 32 on what is now Comcast
in Henrico County
running religious
programming around 1980. Christal Inc. run by James Campana, the company leasing the channel, later decided it wanted a full time broadcast station. It later applied for analog UHF channel 65 in Ashland. But it took most of the 1980s to get the station on-the-air. First, Christal had to pay off a competing applicant then Hanover County denied the company permission to construct a tower in its county. So the station was forced to build a tower site in neighboring King William County. It finally signed-on March 9, 1990 as a religious television station, with the calls WZXK, owned by Christal Broadcasting.
Originally offering only Christian
programs such as The 700 Club
and Trinity Broadcasting Network
's Praise The Lord, it began branching into general entertainment programs in the later afternoon/early evening hours over the next few years. By 1993, WZXK upgraded to 24-hour operations and increased non-religious programming to occupy about a third of its daily schedule. For a while, the station was calling itself "Fun 65".
Two years later, Bell Broadcasting purchased WZXK and affiliated it with the fledgling WB
network while changing the calls to WAWB and identifying itself as "WB65". In 1997, Bell Broadcasting sold the station to Virginia based Lockwood Broadcasting which negotiated with WRLH to move the UPN
affiliation from being secondary on WRLH to primary on WAWB. With this move, WAWB took the temporary calls of WZYX and shortly after took the current calls of WUPV.
Shortly after this move, Act III Broadcasting
(owner of Fox affiliate WRLH-TV
) was purchased by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
which was in the midst of changing many of its stations to The WB and was legally enjoined from doing so in Richmond due to the contract signed by Bell Broadcasting after much trying. After the affiliation swap, WB programming moved to NBC
affiliate WWBT-TV in 1998 where programming aired in overnight hours through Summer 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 line up due to time limitations, so the station opted not to carry the network's Friday Night schedule. Kids WB programming was cleared on WRLH.
In 1998, WUPV carried Pax as a secondary affiliate until the network placed a 24-hour cable channel on most systems in Richmond. It later evolved into Ion Television. In the early-2000s, several attempts to launch a standalone WB affiliate in the market
fell through among them low-power
channel 48 (later reallocated and now Daystar
-owned WRID-LP
) and full-power channel 19 (reallocated to Charlottesville
and now CBS
affiliate WCAV
). Some UPN affiliates aired a repeat of either America's Next Top Model
or Veronica Mars
from that week during the weekend. WUPV aired Veronica Mars on Saturday mornings at 11 but quickly replaced it with infomercials in early-June 2006. This station was known on air as "UPN 65" from 1997 to 2002. From 2003 to 2006, it was known as "UPN Richmond".
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
unit of Time Warner
. As the only available UPN or WB affiliate in the Richmond market, it was announced on April 4 that WUPV would affiliate with The CW. On May 29, a month after the announcement, the station started airing commercials promoting its CW affiliation which took effect on September 18.
The station continued to carry UPN programming, except for its weekend movie, until the network's closure. After WWBT dropped The WB as a secondary affiliation in late-August 2006, WUPV picked up the final two weeks of the network's programming on selected nights but did not air the final night of the network on September 17. WRLH, which offered Kids WB, began offering the other new network (News Corporation
-owned MyNetworkTV
) on September 5 via a new second
digital subchannel.
In 2006, the station was sold to Southeastern Media Holdings (a division of Raycom) and became sister station to WTVR-TV
. WUPV moved operations into that channel's studios on Broad Street
(U.S. 33
/U.S. 250
) in the North Side area of Richmond. A new website for WUPV was launched a short time afterward. In November 2007, Raycom purchased WWBT from Lincoln Financial Media
which was closed on April 1, 2008. Raycom was prohibited from owning two major "big four" network affiliates (ABC
, NBC, CBS, and Fox) in the same market so WTVR was chosen for divestiture. The first proposed buyer turned out to be the Sinclair Broadcast Group but the United States Department of Justice
refused permission for the sale under a consent decree with Raycom. On March 31, 2009, WTVR was swapped to Local TV
for a station in Birmingham, Alabama
. WUPV had is operations moved again to WWBT's facilities. On September 16, 2011, the station opened its second subchannel in preparation for the Bounce TV
network which premiered on September 26.
stations. Airing from a secondary set, this is streamed live on WUPV's website.
The CW News at 6:30
(weeknights 6:30 to 7)
Additional personnel from WWBT are seen on this station. See that article for a complete listing.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
that is licensed to Ashland
Ashland, Virginia
Originally known as Slash Cottage, Ashland is located on the Old Washington Highway U.S. Route One and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, a busy north-south route now owned by CSX Transportation...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter northeast of the city in King William County
King William County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,146 people, 4,846 households, and 3,784 families residing in the county. The population density was 48 people per square mile . There were 5,189 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile...
along the Hanover County
Hanover County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 86,320 people, 31,121 households, and 24,461 families residing in the county. The population density was 183 people per square mile . There were 32,196 housing units at an average density of 68 per square mile...
line. Owned by Southeastern Media Holdings
Southeastern Media Holdings
Southeastern Media Holdings is a broadcasting company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It owns television stations in several cities in the Southeastern United States.-Fox Affiliates:* WXTX-TV, Columbus, Georgia* WSFX-TV, Wilmington, North Carolina...
, the station is operated by Raycom Media
Raycom Media
- History :Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations....
though a shared services
Shared services
Shared services refers to the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the providing department effectively becomes an...
agreement (SSA) as sister to 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 WWBT
WWBT
WWBT is the NBC-affiliated television station for Richmond, Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter at its studios on Midlothian Turnpike in the city. Owned by Raycom Media, the station operates CW affiliate WUPV through a shared services...
. The two stations share studios on Midlothian
Midlothian, Virginia
Midlothian is an unincorporated community in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Founded over 300 years ago as a coal mining village, it is now a suburban community located in the Southside of Richmond well beyond the city limits of Richmond in the Richmond–Petersburg region.It was named...
Turnpike (U.S. 60
U.S. Route 60 in Virginia
U.S. Route 60 in Virginia runs west to east through the central part of the state, generally close to and paralleling the Interstate 64 corridor, except for the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in the South Hampton Roads area....
) in Richmond. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WUPV includes: The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
, Tyler Perry's House of Payne
Tyler Perry's House of Payne
Tyler Perry's House of Payne is an American comedy-drama television series created and produced by playwright, director, and producer Tyler Perry. The show revolves around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta, Georgia led by patriarch Curtis Payne and his wife Ella...
, TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV, or simply TMZ and TMZTV, is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates, though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates...
, and Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis is a syndicated television legal reality show produced originally by Black Pearl Productions. In 2008, it entered its tenth season produced by AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures. It is taped at NBC Tower in Chicago, but includes cases and litigants from other U.S....
.
History
This channel actually began as Leased accessLeased access
Leased access is airtime that the Federal Communications Commission mandates must be provided by cable operators for use by independent cable programmers and producers who are not owned by the operators...
cable TV channel 32 on what is now Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
in Henrico County
Henrico County, Virginia
Henrico is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of 2010, Henrico was home to 306,935 people. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...
running religious
Religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
programming around 1980. Christal Inc. run by James Campana, the company leasing the channel, later decided it wanted a full time broadcast station. It later applied for analog UHF channel 65 in Ashland. But it took most of the 1980s to get the station on-the-air. First, Christal had to pay off a competing applicant then Hanover County denied the company permission to construct a tower in its county. So the station was forced to build a tower site in neighboring King William County. It finally signed-on March 9, 1990 as a religious television station, with the calls WZXK, owned by Christal Broadcasting.
Originally offering only Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
programs such as The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
and Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
's Praise The Lord, it began branching into general entertainment programs in the later afternoon/early evening hours over the next few years. By 1993, WZXK upgraded to 24-hour operations and increased non-religious programming to occupy about a third of its daily schedule. For a while, the station was calling itself "Fun 65".
Two years later, Bell Broadcasting purchased WZXK and affiliated it with the fledgling WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
network while changing the calls to WAWB and identifying itself as "WB65". In 1997, Bell Broadcasting sold the station to Virginia based Lockwood Broadcasting which negotiated with WRLH to move 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...
affiliation from being secondary on WRLH to primary on WAWB. With this move, WAWB took the temporary calls of WZYX and shortly after took the current calls of WUPV.
Shortly after this move, Act III Broadcasting
Act III Broadcasting
Act III Broadcasting was a company that owned several television stations that started as independents, and later became Fox affiliates. The stations were located in medium-sized markets, and the company existed from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, eventually to be sold to Abry in 1994...
(owner of Fox affiliate WRLH-TV
WRLH-TV
WRLH-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Richmond, Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter at the studios of PBS affiliates WCVE-TV/WCVW in Bon Air. The station can also be seen on Comcast and Verizon FiOS channel 11. There is a high...
) was purchased by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
which was in the midst of changing many of its stations to The WB and was legally enjoined from doing so in Richmond due to the contract signed by Bell Broadcasting after much trying. After the affiliation swap, WB programming moved to 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 WWBT-TV in 1998 where programming aired in overnight hours through Summer 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 line up due to time limitations, so the station opted not to carry the network's Friday Night schedule. Kids WB programming was cleared on WRLH.
In 1998, WUPV carried Pax as a secondary affiliate until the network placed a 24-hour cable channel on most systems in Richmond. It later evolved into Ion Television. In the early-2000s, several attempts to launch a standalone WB affiliate in the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
fell through among them low-power
Low-power broadcasting
Low-power broadcasting is electronic broadcasting at very low power and low cost, to a small community area.The terms "low-power broadcasting" and "micropower broadcasting" should not be used interchangeably, because the markets are not the same...
channel 48 (later reallocated and now Daystar
Daystar Television Network
The Daystar Television Network is an American evangelical Christian television religious broadcasting network headquartered near Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Bedford, Texas...
-owned WRID-LP
WRID-LP
WRID-LP is a low-power religious television station in Richmond, Virginia, broadcasting on analog channel 48 as a Daystar Television Network owned and operated affiliate.-History:...
) and full-power channel 19 (reallocated to Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
and now CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WCAV
WCAV
WCAV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Charlottesville, Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Carters Mountain. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 212...
). Some UPN affiliates aired a repeat of either America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
or Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...
from that week during the weekend. WUPV aired Veronica Mars on Saturday mornings at 11 but quickly replaced it with infomercials in early-June 2006. This station was known on air as "UPN 65" from 1997 to 2002. From 2003 to 2006, it was known as "UPN Richmond".
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. As the only available UPN or WB affiliate in the Richmond market, it was announced on April 4 that WUPV would affiliate with The CW. On May 29, a month after the announcement, the station started airing commercials promoting its CW affiliation which took effect on September 18.
The station continued to carry UPN programming, except for its weekend movie, until the network's closure. After WWBT dropped The WB as a secondary affiliation in late-August 2006, WUPV picked up the final two weeks of the network's programming on selected nights but did not air the final night of the network on September 17. WRLH, which offered Kids WB, began offering the other new network (News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
) on September 5 via a new second
WRLH-DT2
WRLH-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Richmond, Virginia. The station is a second digital subchannel of Fox affiliate WRLH-TV owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 26.2 from a transmitter at the...
digital subchannel.
In 2006, the station was sold to Southeastern Media Holdings (a division of Raycom) and became sister station to WTVR-TV
WTVR-TV
WTVR-TV, virtual channel 6, is a CBS television affiliate based in Richmond, Virginia owned by Local TV, the broadcasting arm of Oak Hill Capital Partners...
. WUPV moved operations into that channel's studios on Broad Street
Broad Street (Richmond, Virginia)
Broad Street is a 15-mile long road located in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia and adjacent Henrico County. Broad Street is significant to Richmond due to the many commercial establishments that have been built along it throughout Richmond's history...
(U.S. 33
U.S. Route 33 in Virginia
U.S. Route 33 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from Elkhart, Indiana to Richmond, Virginia. In Virginia, the U.S. Highway runs from the West Virginia state line near Rawley Springs east to its eastern terminus at SR 33 in Richmond. US 33 is the primary east–west highway of...
/U.S. 250
U.S. Route 250 in Virginia
U.S. Route 250 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from Sandusky, Ohio to Richmond, Virginia. In Virginia, the U.S. Highway runs from the West Virginia state line near Hightown east to its eastern terminus at US 360 in Richmond...
) in the North Side area of Richmond. A new website for WUPV was launched a short time afterward. In November 2007, Raycom purchased WWBT from Lincoln Financial Media
Lincoln 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...
which was closed on April 1, 2008. Raycom was prohibited from owning two major "big four" network affiliates (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...
, NBC, CBS, and Fox) in the same market so WTVR was chosen for divestiture. The first proposed buyer turned out to be the Sinclair Broadcast Group but the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
refused permission for the sale under a consent decree with Raycom. On March 31, 2009, WTVR was swapped to Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
for a station in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
. WUPV had is operations moved again to WWBT's facilities. On September 16, 2011, the station opened its second subchannel in preparation for the Bounce TV
Bounce TV
Bounce TV is a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans," Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011 and features programming geared toward blacks in...
network which premiered on September 26.
Newscasts
On March 5, 2007, WUPV launched a 35 minute weeknight newscast produced by WTVR called CW News at 10. This competed against WRLH's nightly broadcast, Fox News at 10, that is produced by WWBT. Weekend newscasts began on October 20, 2007 and ended a year later on October 19. The final weeknight show aired on November 7. Three days later, WTVR announced that the WUPV broadcasts had been canceled due to high financial production costs. Meanwhile, WWBT became the first in the area to broadcast local newscasts in high definition on July 27, 2008. However, the WRLH shows were not included in the upgrade because that channel currently lacks the necessary equipment to transmit local or syndicated programming in HD. As a result, WRLH presents the WWBT news shows in pillar-boxed 4:3 standard definition. On January 5, 2009, WWBT began producing a new weeknight show for WUPV in high definition which airs against the national news on the big threeBig Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
stations. Airing from a secondary set, this is streamed live on WUPV's website.
The CW News at 6:30
(weeknights 6:30 to 7)
- Anchor:
- Matt Lincoln
- Weather:
- Jim Duncan
Additional personnel from WWBT are seen on this station. See that article for a complete listing.