WVNS-TV
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| WVNS-TV | |
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| Lewisburg/Bluefield/Beckley, West Virginia | |
| Branding | CBS 59 (general) 59 News (newscasts) Fox West Virginia (DT2) |
| Slogan | Your Town. Your State. Your Future. |
| Channels | Analog: 59 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS Fox (sole affiliate) & MyNetworkTV (secondary) on DT2 |
| Owner | West Virginia Media Holdings, LLC |
| First air date | August 12, 1995 |
| Call letters’ meaning | West Virginia's News Station |
| Former callsigns | WVGV-TV (1995-1996) WVSX (1996-2003) |
| Former affiliations | The WB (1995-1996) Fox (1996-2001) |
| Transmitter Power | 1910 kW (analog) 3.68 kW (digital) |
| Height | 568 m (analog) 577 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 74169 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.cbs59.com |
WVNS-TV is the CBS network affiliate for the Bluefield - Beckley - Oak Hill, West Virginia television market. The station is owned by West Virginia Media Holdings, licensed to Lewisburg, and has studios located in Ghent. WVNS broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 59 and a digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter located on Keeney's Knob, between Alderson and I-64. The station is known on-air as "CBS 59". On Suddenlink cable systems, WVNS can be seen on channel 11.
WVNS operates a primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate on its DT2 digital subchannel. The channel is known as "Fox West Virginia". The Fox station is also offered on Suddenlink cable systems. In Beckley it is on channel 10, in Hinton and Princeton on channel 3, and on channel 2 in Bluefield. Programming from MyNetworkTV airs weeknights from 11 PM to 1 AM. On Sunday mornings, it runs 12:30 to 2:30 AM. WVNS's weekday morning newscasts are simulcasted on the Fox station and WVNS produces a daily 10 PM newscast for the Fox station as well. Although there is a logo for the Fox station, there is no separate website. Master control and operations of the Fox station are located at WVNS's studios.
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[edit] History
The station signed on as WVGV-TV, standing for "West Virginia's Greenbrier Valley," on August 12, 1995, as an affiliate of the WB. It was the first station in the market not affiliated with one of the Big Three networks.
The station was originally set to sign on as a Fox affiliate, but Fox canceled when the sign-on was delayed past the start of the fall season in 1994. Due to difficulty in selling advertising time in the WB's then primarily urban-oriented programming, and the difficulty in competing with a UHF signal in a market used to receiving VHF stations, the station was not successful. Furthermore, the late sign-on made it difficult to get carriage on the area's cable systems--a serious problem, since cable is a must for acceptable television in this market.
By May, when cable systems in the market were ready to carry the station, the station had agreed to be sold to High Mountain Broadcasting. The new owners took the station "dark" in order to relocate the studios from Lewisburg to Ghent, between Beckley and Bluefield, and to relocate the transmitter site from Cross Mountain to a more central location to better serve Beckley and Bluefield as well as Lewisburg.
The station returned to the air on Christmas Eve 1996 as Fox affiliate WVSX (West Virginia's Super Fox). However, due to problems with the transmitter's unique power supply design, didn't transmit regularly until after January 1, 1997. The station continued to struggle financially. The station changed its affiliation to CBS on September 29, 2001. Prior to 2001, WOWK-TV in Huntington served as the CBS affiliate for the West Virginia side of the market, while WDBJ in Roanoke served the Virginia portion; both stations are still available on most of the area's cable systems.
On February 28, 2003 the station was again sold, this time to West Virginia Media Holdings, where it forms the southern part of a four station statewide network. The callsign was changed on June 7, 2003 to WVNS-TV, standing for West Virginia's News Station. The WVNS callsign is shared with an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee.
Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill is a relatively small television market. The station has continued to slowly but steadily grow in audience. However, it not only has to contend with local competitors WVVA and WOAY-TV, but still has to contend with WOWK and WDBJ, both of which are still available on cable. It is also hampered by lack of satellite coverage; as of 2007 neither DirecTV nor Dish Network offer local feeds for the area. Further, the local economy makes advertising sales as hard to come by as in all of the adjacent television markets.
The Fox affiliation was acquired September 13, 2006, following a Summer 2006 retransmission dispute between Charleston's WVAH-TV and Suddenlink Communications, the cable system serving Beckley; the demise of the Foxnet cable network on September 12, 2006 has also played a role. Though it is carried on a digital subchannel, this is practically a return of the Fox network to WVNS, which was dropped three years earlier for CBS.
[edit] Newscasts
The station produces its own newscasts, taking advantage of the statewide network to share news content from sister stations WOWK (for state government news and Marshall University sports) and WBOY-TV (for West Virginia University sports). During all WVNS newscasts, weather is provided by WOWK's meteorologists and originates from that station's studios in Huntington.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Station Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WVNS-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVNS-TV
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