WVAH-TV
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WVAH-TV is the FOX network affiliate in the Huntington / Charleston, West Virginia television market. It is licensed to Charleston, with studios in Teays Valley, an unincorporated suburban community equidistant between Charleston and Huntington that shares a post office with Hurricane. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation, but operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group in a local marketing agreement with Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate WCHS-TV. However, Sinclair effectively owns WVAH due to Cunningham's financial structure (see below). The station shares news operations with WCHS. WVAH's transmitter is located in St. Albans, West Virginia.
History
The station was founded in 1982 on channel 23 after the West Virginia legislature forced the state educational broadcasting authority to withdraw its application for the channel, which had tied up its assignment for over a decade. It was the first independent station in West Virginia and the first commercial UHF station to sign on in the state since WKNA-TV in Charleston went off the air in 1955. Prior to WVAH's sign-on, the Huntington-Charleston market had been the biggest market in the country without an independent station. It became a charter Fox affiliate in 1986.However, the UHF signal was not nearly strong enough to reach the entire market, which is the second largest in area east of the Mississippi River. The Charleston-Huntington market covers 61 counties in central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio. Most of this area is a very rugged dissected plateau, making it difficult for a UHF station to cover such a large area. It also knocked WSAZ-TV's low-power relay for the Kanawha Valley, also on channel 23, off the air on several occasions. Because of this, WVAH was permitted to switch to VHF channel 11 in 1989. However, the station is short-spaced to WPXI in Pittsburgh and WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tennessee. WVAH must conform its signal to protect WJHL, making the signal hard to receive in the southwestern portion of the market. The station's digital signal, on channel 19, has no such restrictions.
UPN programming, most notably , began airing on WVAH in 1995 in overnight timeslots. However, Fox 11 could not clear the entire UPN schedule, and was forced to drop the network in early 2000.
WVAH carries NCAA sports from the Southeastern Conference.
Following a tower collapse in 2002, the station moved its transmitter and almost all of its facilities to WCHS' studio in Charleston. WVAH's main studio, however, remains in Teays Valley.
Relationship to Sinclair
In 2000, WVAH was bought by Glencairn Ltd. Its president, Edwin Edwards, was a former Sinclair executive. The Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair, owned nearly all of Glencairn's stock, so in effect Sinclair owned WCHS and WVAH. Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting in 2001. Sinclair has tried to buy WVAH outright, but this would violate FCC rules which prohibit one person from owning two of the four largest stations in a single market. This matter is the subject of protracted litigation. However, Sinclair is the de facto owner of WVAH since Cunningham is owned by trusts controlled by members of the Smith family.Problems with Suddenlink
When the deal with Suddenlink Communications purchasing cable systems from Charter Communications came to a close on July 1st. Sinclair is wanting a $40 million on time fee and $1 per subscriber per month from Suddenlink for rights to carry WCHS and WVAH on local cable systems.[link] The channels have been pulled from the Becky area by Sinclair and subscribers in that area are reciving ABC programming from that local affiliate and are recieving Fox programming through Foxnet.[link] The FCC ruled that the stations could not be pulled during a major sweeps period and must remain on all Suddenlink cable systems until July 26.External links
| Broadcast television in the Huntington / Charleston market [(Nielsen DMA #64)] | ||
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| WSAZ 3 / W16CE 16 (NBC - MNTV on DT2 in 9/06) - WCHS 8 (ABC) - WVAH 11 (FOX) - WOWK 13 (CBS) - W14CU 14 (HSN) - WOUB 20 (PBS) - WKPI 22 / WKAS 25 (PBS / KET) - WLPX 29 (i) - WQCW 30 / WOCW 21 / WVCW 45 (The WB / UPN - to be The CW in 09/06) - WPBY 33 (PBS / WVPB) - WPBO 42 (PBS) - WYMT 57 (CBS) - WTSF 61 (DS) |
| WVAH 11 () - WVFX 46 () - WTAP-DT 49.3 () | |
| See also: , , , , , and Stations in West Virginia | |
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Corporate Staff: David D. Smith (COB and President & CEO) | Frederick G. Smith | J. Duncan Smith | Robert E. Smith | Daniel C. Keith | Martin R. Leader | Lawrence E. McCanna | Basil A. Thomas | David B. Amy | Lucy A. Rutishauser | Barry M. Faber | David R. Bochenek | Nat S. Ostroff | Donald H. Thompson | Thomas I. Waters III | Darren Shapiro | Gregg Siegel | Jeff Sleete | M. William Butler | Steven M. Marks | Delbert R. Parks III | Joe DeFeo
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ABC Network Affiliates: KDNL | WCHS | WEAR | WGGB | WICD | WICS | WKEF | WLOS | WSYX | WXLV
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CBS Network Affiliates: KGAN | WGME
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Fox Network Affiliates: KABB | KBSI | KDSM | KOKH | WBFF | WDKY | WMSN | WPGH | WRGT | WRLH | WSMH | WSYT | WTAT | WTTE | WUHF | WUTV | WVAH | WYZZ | WZTV
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NBC Network Affiliate: WTWC
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UPN Network Affiliates: WABM¹ | WCGV¹ | WMMP¹ | WMYV¹ | WRDC¹ | WUXP¹
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WB Network Affiliates: KMYS¹ | KOCB² | KVMY¹ | WDKA¹ | WLFL² | WMYA¹ | WNAB² | WNYO¹ | WNUV² | WNYS¹ | WPMY¹ | WSTR¹ | WTTA¹ | WTTO/WDBB² | WTVZ¹ | WUCW² | WVTV²
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Independent Television Stations: KVCW² | WFGX¹
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¹ Stations that have been announced as My Network TV affiliates.
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² Stations that have been announced as CW affiliates.
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| Annual Revenue: .24 billion USD (2004) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: [SBGI]| Website: [www.sbgi.net] |
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