WLWC
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WLWC | |
|---|---|
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| New Bedford, Massachusetts / Providence, Rhode Island |
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| Branding | CW 28 |
| Channels | Analog: 28 (UHF) Digital: 22 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | Four Points Media Group (Providence Television Licensee Corporation) |
| First air date | April of 1997 |
| Former affiliations | UPN (secondary 1997-1998, primary 1998-2006) The WB (primary 1997-1998, secondary 1998-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 5,000 kW (analog) 350 kW (digital) |
| Height | 220 m (analog) 203 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 3978 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | cw28tv.com |
WLWC, channel 28, is the CW-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts, licensed to New Bedford. Its transmitter is located in the Ashley Heights section of East Freetown, Massachusetts. Owned by Four Points Media Group, the station has studios on State Street in downtown Providence. WLWC is one of two major Rhode Island stations (the other one being ABC affiliate WLNE-TV) with facilities in Providence even though it is licensed to the Massachusetts side of the market.
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[edit] Digital television
In 2009, WLWC will be leaving analog channel 28 and will be digital channel 22.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 28.1 / 22.1 | main WLWC programming / The CW HD |
[edit] History
WLWC began broadcasting in April of 1997 as a primary WB and secondary UPN affiliate. It was owned by Fant Broadcasting and controlled by Outlet Broadcasting-owned WJAR under a local marketing agreement (LMA). The station signed on with various syndicated shows as well as a WJAR-produced 10 P.M. newscast (known as TV 28 News at 10) which began airing nearly a year prior to the WPRI-TV-produced effort on WNAC-TV. 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. In September of 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, Connecticut, WVIT. That station would then go to NBC. With the ownership change, WLWC became more or less a UPN O&O in 1998 as its affiliation arrangement was changed to primary UPN and secondary WB. After Paramount / Viacom and CBS merged in 2000, WLWC's master control and some internal operations was integrated with those of sister stations WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV in Boston.
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. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new sister network to Fox would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to go up against The CW.
The network was also created in order to give WB and UPN stations, not named as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was a given that WLWC would become an affiliate of The CW based on having cleared both The WB and UPN and its ownership by CBS (which would own half of The CW). With coming CW affiliation, WLWC's web address changed to "cw28tv.com" and the station received a new CW logo. On August 11, MyNetworkTV's website began listing Fox affiliate WNAC as being an affiliate. On August 24, it was confirmed that WNAC would become a secondary affiliate of the network. WNAC began broadcasting MyNetworkTV on September 5 while WLWC began broadcasting The CW on September 18.
On February 7, 2007, CBS announced it was selling WLWC and seven other stations in Austin, Texas, Salt Lake City, Utah, and West Palm Beach, Florida to Cerberus Capital Management for $185 million dollars. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June of 2007. Subsequently, WLWC's website became an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. On November 26, 2007, master control of WLWC moved from WBZ to KUTV's studios in Salt Lake City. The entire group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008. WLWC's broadcasting signal is only produced in high defintion. Once the signal arrives at the transmitter site, it is downconverted for use on the analog transmitter. This will change once the analog to digital conversion take place on February 19, 2009.
[edit] Columbus, Ohio connections
In WLWC's short history, there have been several interesting connections between WLWC and television stations in the Columbus 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 existences 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. In the mid-1990s, a Columbus low-power station owned by Premier Broadcasting Corporation announced that it would be using the WLWC call letters. Because of the historic value of the WLWC calls, Outlet arranged to have the callsign used on the New Bedford station in order to keep its local competitor from using them. WWHO was sold in 2005 to the Providence-based LIN TV, who owns CBS affiliate WPRI and are the controllers of WNAC.
[edit] Programming
When not airing CW network programming, WLWC airs a general entertainment format that includes talk shows, off-network sitcoms, dramas, as well as syndicated programming and movies which generally air on the weekends. In 2002, WBZ added their weekday morning newscast, Sports Final program, and WSBK's Red Sox This Week to channel 28's lineup. This was done to serve viewers inconvenienced by Cox's dropping of WBZ from their Rhode Island cable systems. By 2004, WLWC dropped WBZ's morning newscast and Red Sox This Week. Instead, the station began airing The Daily Buzz. Sports Final remained on the station and it added Phantom Gourmet from WSBK. Sports Final aired tape-delayed by one half-hour at Midnight on Monday morning.
Until May of 2007, two of WBZ's weekday morning personalities were shown on WLWC. This was because WLWC had none. The Daily Buzz has weather reports like other national morning shows. This was when meteorologist Barry Burbank did a 30 second weather report. During commercials, traffic reporter Rich Kirkland would give a quick traffic update. As a primary WB affiliate, WLWC aired Kids' WB programming, but was dropped after the primary affiliation became UPN. It was not picked up again after UPN canceled its own children's block in 2003. With CW affiliation, children's programming returned to WLWC.
Beginning with the 2005 season, WLWC (along with WSBK) began airing Jefferson Pilot's syndicated broadcasts of ACC college football and basketball games as Boston College's move to the conference has created regional interest for the ACC. Until recently, is was unclear how much off-network programming, such as Atlantic Coast Conference sports, would remain on the station after the sale from CBS. That deal were done under the common ownership of WLWC and WSBK. According to current television listings on WLWC's website, ACC sports are still shown. In addition, Phantom Gourmet remains on the station. However, Sports Final was dropped.
[edit] External links
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