WLWC

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WLWC ("UPN28") is the UPN owned and operated television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts and serving the Providence, Rhode Island market. Owned by the CBS Corporation, the station's headquarters is in Providence, with master control operated out of the studios of WBZ-TV and WSBK in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to being a UPN affiliate, the station is also an affiliate for the WB Television Network. Its transmitter is located in East Freetown, Massachusetts.

History

When NBC bought out Outlet in early 1996, the future of the LMA was put into doubt given the fact that NBC did not want to run stations outside their core owned-and-operated outlets. NBC during this time pushed Fant to sell the stations, and so in September 1997, NBC came up with a three-way swap in which Fant exchanged WLWC and sister station WWHO in Columbus, Ohio to Paramount/Viacom for that group's NBC affiliate in Hartford, WVIT which then would go to NBC. With the ownership change, WLWC became more or less a UPN O&O, in 1998, the affiliation arrangement was changed to UPN primary, WB secondary.

After the merger of Paramount/Viacom and CBS in 2000, WLWC's master control and some internal operations were merged with that of sisters WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV in Boston. In 2002, WBZ-TV added their morning newscast, their Sports Final program, and WSBK's "Red Sox This Week" to channel 28's lineup to serve viewers inconvinenienced by Cox Cable's dropping WBZ-TV from their Rhode Island systems. By 2004, WLWC had dropped WBZ's program in favor of The Daily Buzz. The other two shows remain.

With the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW Television Network in September 2006, WLWC will become an affiliate of the network based on both having cleared both networks and its ownership by CBS (which will own 50% of the network).

In WLWC's short history, there have been several interesting connections between the station and stations in the Columbus, Ohio market.

• WLWC's arrangement with WJAR was an outgrowth of a similar arrangement in Columbus with Outlet's WCMH-TV and Fant's WWHO. WLWC and WWHO continued to lead near-identical existances for nearly a decade sharing graphics, voiceovers, and more through several owners.
• Before being bought by Outlet in 1977, the WLWC call letters belonged to what today is WCMH. Outside of being controlled by a common owner in the mid 1990s, there is no connection between the two stations.
• WWHO was sold in 2005 to the Providence-based LIN TV, owners of WPRI and controllers of WNAC.

Logos

Programming

In addition, WLWC airs Phantom Gourmet from WSBK-TV every Saturday morning. Channel 28 also airs WBZ-TV's Sports Final tape-delayed by one half-hour at midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Beginning with the 2005 season, WLWC (along with WSBK) began airing Jefferson Pilot's syndicated broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games as Boston College's move to the conference has created regional interest for the ACC.

As a primary WB affiliate, WLWC aired Kids WB programming, but that was dropped after the primary affiliation became UPN, and was not even picked up after UPN cancelled its own children's block in 2003. With the CW affiliation, Kids WB will return to WLWC.

See also

• WBZ-TV
• WSBK-TV

External links

• [Official website]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WLWC]

.54 billion USD (2005) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [CBS] | Website: [www.cbscorporation.com]

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