WTVR-TV

Encyclopedia : W : WT : WTV : WTVR-TV

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WTVR-TV (CBS6) is a CBS television affiliate based in Richmond, Virginia. It is owned by Raycom Media, and broadcasts its analog signal on channel 6. Its transmitter is located in Richmond.

WTVR arose from unlikely roots. Wilbur Havens had started WMBG, a 10-watt station on AM 1380, in 1926 in his auto-parts shop on West Broad Street in downtown Richmond. By 1939, Havens' original $500 investment had turned into a studio on 3301 West Broad, where WTVR-TV operates today. Havens brought FM service to Richmond in 1947 when he signed on WCOD-FM 98.1. No one expected him to go after one of the four channels originally allocated to Richmond for television, so it came as a complete surprise when Havens filed an application for channel 6. With no other applications to consider, FCC approval was a mere formality, and WTVR took to the air on April 22, 1948 as the first television station south of Washington, DC.

It was originally a primary NBC affiliate, carrying secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC and DuMont. Due to a freeze on new television construction permits, it was the only station in town until 1955, when WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV) signed on from neighboring Petersburg and took the NBC affiliation. It was briefly a CBS affiliate sharing ABC with WXEX until 1956, when WRVA-TV (now WWBT) signed on and took the CBS affiliation due to WRVA-AM's long history as a CBS radio affiliate. WTVR then carried on as an ABC affiliate until 1960, when CBS cut a new deal with Havens due to WRVA's low ratings. It has been with CBS ever since and is one of a few stations in the country to have had primary affiliations with all three original television networks. By the 1960s, the radio sisters had taken the WTVR calls as well.

Havens sold WTVR-AM-FM-TV to Park Communications in 1966, reaping a considerable return on his original $500 investment 40 years earlier. Park later sold the radio stations (the former WTVR-AM is now Christian talk station WBTK), but kept WTVR-TV until merging with Media General in 1996. The merger put Media General above the ownership limit at the time, so Media General opted to sell WTVR to Raycom in 1997.

Ironically, Media General, which grew out of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, had previously tried to get into television in its hometown. Its predecessor, Richmond Newspapers, lost a bid for what is now WWBT to Larus and Brothers Tobacco, founders of WRVA, because the FCC opted to give the channel 12 license to an applicant who didn't already own a newspaper.

WTVR was the ratings leader in Richmond until the early 1980s, when WWBT passed it. It now wages a spirited battle for second place with WRIC. For many years, it was the only CBS station between Richmond and Roanoke until WCAV-TV signed on from Charlottesville in 2003.

Some of its local features include For Kids' Sake, Paws for Pets, and Battle of the Brains and a new 24-hour weather news channel broadcast on broadband and digital cable in the area.

WTVR is also known as "The South's first television station."

Logos

Image: WTVR_wagon_logo.jpg |The original WTVR covered wagon Station ID.

External links

• [WTVR website]
• [History of WWBT Television in Richmond]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVR-TV]

Broadcast television in the Richmond market  [(Nielsen DMA #60)]
WTVR 6 (CBS)(The Tube) - WRIC 8 (ABC) - WWBT 12 (NBC/The WB) - WFLV 15 (Religious) - WCVE 23 (PBS) - WFMA 28 (Religious) - WRLH 35 (Fox)(My Network TV) - W39CO 39 (TBN) - WKYV 45 (Religious) - WRID 48 (DS) - WCVW 57 (PBS) - WUPV 65 (UPN/The CW) Past station: WVRN 63 (Ind.)

'''CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Virginia
WTKR 3 () - WTVR 6 () - WDBJ 7 () - WCAV 19 ()
'''See also: , , , , , and stations in Virginia

 

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