WLWC
Encyclopedia
WLWC is the CW
-affiliated television station
licensed to New Bedford
but which operates out of Providence and acts largely as a Rhode Island station despite its licensing. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in the Ashley Heights section of East Freetown, Massachusetts
. It can also be seen on Cox
and Verizon FiOS
channel 9 (in Rhode Island) as well as Comcast
channel 13 (in Massachusetts
). For high definition, it is offered on Verizon FiOS channel 509, Cox channel 705, and Comcast channel 813.
Owned by the Four Points Media Group
and operated through a local service agreement
(LSA) by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
, the station has studios on Westminster Street in Downtown Providence
. Syndicated
programming on WLWC includes: Two and a Half Men
, The Office, Tyra
, and Judge Mathis
. It is one of two major Rhode Island stations (other one being ABC
affiliate WLNE-TV
) with facilities in Providence despite being licensed to the Massachusetts side of the market
.
and secondary UPN
affiliate. It was owned by Fant Broadcasting and operated by NBC
-owned WJAR
under a local marketing agreement
(LMA). It was the first completely new station to sign-on in the Rhode Island market in 34 years. For the first two years of The WB and UPN's existence, Boston
's WLVI-TV
and WSBK-TV
, which had been carried on cable in Rhode Island for decades, doubled as the WB and UPN affiliates, respectively, for Providence/New Bedford as well. The station launched with various syndicated shows as well as a WJAR-produced 10 p.m. newscast, known as TV 28 News at 10, which began airing a few months after the WPRI-TV
-produced effort on Fox affiliate WNAC-TV
.
Fant had signed an LMA with WJAR's previous owner, Outlet Broadcasting
, just months before Outlet's 1996 merger with NBC. Since 1992, Fant's other station, WWHO
in Columbus, Ohio
; had been junior partner in an LMA with Outlet-owned NBC affiliate WCMH-TV
. By the time channel 28 signed on, NBC had let it be known that it not want to run stations outside its core owned-and-operated
(O&O) outlets. NBC, during this time, pushed Fant to sell the stations. In September 1997, NBC came up with a three-way swap in which Fant exchanged WLWC and WWHO to Paramount
/Viacom, while Paramount/Viacom-owned NBC affiliate WVIT
in Hartford became an NBC O&O.
With the ownership change, WLWC became more or less a UPN O&O in 1998; as UPN became its primary affiliation while The WB was relegated to secondary status. The swap also made WLWC a sister station to WSBK. For most of the television era, the FCC had not allowed common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals. Just months earlier, Fox
affiliate WNAC-TV
had to be sold because its previous owner, Argyle Television, had merged with Hearst, owner of Boston's WCVB-TV
--the second time in three years that a Rhode Island station had to be sold after its owner merged with the owner of a Boston station.
After Viacom and CBS
merged in 2000, WLWC's master control and some internal operations was integrated with those of WSBK and WBZ-TV
at WBZ's facility on Soldiers Field Road in the Brighton section of Boston. When Viacom split into two companies in 2005, WLWC, along with the rest of Viacom's television stations, became part of CBS Corporation
. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge into a new combined network called The CW which launched on September 18. At the same time, the new network signed a 10-year affiliation agreement with 11 of CBS' UPN stations, including WLWC. However, it was a near-certainty that WLWC would become an affiliate of The CW in any event, given that it was a dual UPN/WB affiliate. With coming CW affiliation, WLWC rebranded itself as "CW 28" and its web address changed to "cw28tv.com".
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. 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 2007. Subsequently, WLWC's website was converted to an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. On November 26, master control of WLWC moved from WBZ to KUTV's studios on Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake City. The entire group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008.
WLWC permanently turned off its analog transmitter at Midnight on December 9, 2008. The last minutes of transmission were uneventful with the conclusion of Malcolm in the Middle
, some commercials, and the opening title of That '70s Show
. WLWC remained on its pre-transition channel 22 (using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 28) following the February 2009 analog shutdown. Nexstar took over the operations of all of the Four Points stations in March 2009. At one point, the station had studios on State Street in Downtown Providence.
On June 30, 2010, WLWC invoked the FCC's network non-duplication rule. This resulted in Comcast blacking out primetime CW programming on WLVI-TV in Fall River, Massachusetts
. This did not impact the rest of the communities in Bristol County, due to the fact that WLVI-TV still has "significantly viewed" status across Bristol County. However, WLWC filed a request with the FCC to exempt Fall River from significantly viewed status. On August 2, 2010, the station added LATV
on a new second digital subchannel
. This is also seen on Comcast digital channels 299 and 702, Verizon FiOS digital channel 469, and Cox digital channel 809.
On September 8, 2011, Four Points Media announced the sale of its television group, including WLWC, to Sinclair Broadcast Group
. Sinclair was expected to begin operating the stations via a local marketing agreement following antitrust approval and prior to the closing expected in the first quarter of 2012. Sinclair owns one other television station in New England: Portland, Maine
's CBS
affiliate WGME-TV
. Sinclair was also a former owner of Springfield, Massachusetts
's ABC
affiliate WGGB-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. Also, WCMH had used the WLWC calls from its 1949 sign-on until being bought by Outlet in 1976. 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 "warehoused" on channel 28 in order to keep its local competitors from using them. WWHO was sold in 2005 to the Providence-based LIN TV Corporation, who owns CBS affiliate WPRI and operates WNAC under an LMA.
programming but this was dropped after the primary affiliation became UPN. It was not picked up again after UPN canceled its own children's block in 2003. The block, which was replaced with The CW4Kids
in 2008, returned to WLWC when the station began airing CW programming. (The CW4Kids was renamed Toonzai in 2010.) In 2002, WBZ added its weekday morning newscast, Sports Final, and WSBK's Red Sox This Week to this channel's lineup. This was done to serve viewers inconvenienced by Cox's removal of WBZ from its Rhode Island systems.
By 2004, WLWC dropped the morning newscast and Red Sox This Week. In place of the morning show, the station began airing the nationally syndicated morning program The Daily Buzz
. Sports Final was retained (on a half-hour tape delay
) and WLWC also added Phantom Gourmet
from WSBK. Beginning with the 2005 season, WLWC (along with WSBK) began airing syndicated broadcasts of ACC
college football
and basketball
games as Boston College
's move to the conference created regional interest for the ACC.
Until May 2007, two of WBZ's weekday morning personalities were shown on WLWC's broadcast of The Daily Buzz as the station itself had none. During the program's weather reports, meteorologist Barry Burbank did a thirty second local weather cut-in. During commercial breaks, traffic reporter Rich Kirkland would give a quick traffic update. After CBS sold the station to Four Points, Sports Final was dropped and the WBZ morning personalities were removed from The Daily Buzz. That program currently airs weekday mornings from 6 to 8.
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
licensed to New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
but which operates out of Providence and acts largely as a Rhode Island station despite its licensing. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in the Ashley Heights section of East Freetown, Massachusetts
East Freetown, Massachusetts
East Freetown is one of two villages in the town of Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Added to the town in 1747, East Freetown was originally an outpost settlement of Tiverton, Rhode Island, then a part of Massachusetts. It rests on the shore of Long Pond.- History :East...
. It can also be seen on Cox
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
and Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...
channel 9 (in Rhode Island) as well as Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 13 (in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
). For high definition, it is offered on Verizon FiOS channel 509, Cox channel 705, and Comcast channel 813.
Owned by the Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group LLC is a television station holding company founded by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in 2007 with its purchase of seven television stations previously owned by CBS Television Stations, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation.Four Points Media Group took over...
and operated through a local service agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LSA) by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...
, the station has studios on Westminster Street in Downtown Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WLWC includes: Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
, The Office, Tyra
The Tyra Banks Show
The Tyra Banks Show, also known as and shortened to Tyra or The Tyra Show, is an American talk show hosted by Tyra Banks. The last new episode aired on Friday, May 28, 2010.-2005-2009: Syndication:...
, and Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis is a syndicated television legal reality show produced originally by Black Pearl Productions. In 2008, it entered its tenth season produced by AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures. It is taped at NBC Tower in Chicago, but includes cases and litigants from other U.S....
. It is one of two major Rhode Island stations (other one being ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate WLNE-TV
WLNE-TV
WLNE-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Rhode Island and the South Coast of Massachusetts. It is licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, but is headquartered in and operates from studios at 10 Orms Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It is one of two major Rhode Island...
) with facilities in Providence despite being licensed to the Massachusetts side of the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
.
History
WLWC began broadcasting in April 1997 as a primary WBThe WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
and secondary UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate. It was owned by Fant Broadcasting and operated by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-owned WJAR
WJAR
WJAR is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 51 from a transmitter in Rehoboth, Massachusetts...
under a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LMA). It was the first completely new station to sign-on in the Rhode Island market in 34 years. For the first two years of The WB and UPN's existence, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's WLVI-TV
WLVI-TV
WLVI, digital channel 41, is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts which serves as the CW affiliate for the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is a sister station to WHDH, Boston's NBC affiliate. The two stations share studios at...
and WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
, which had been carried on cable in Rhode Island for decades, doubled as the WB and UPN affiliates, respectively, for Providence/New Bedford as well. The station launched with various syndicated shows as well as a WJAR-produced 10 p.m. newscast, known as TV 28 News at 10, which began airing a few months after the WPRI-TV
WPRI-TV
WPRI-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts that is licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter on Homestead Avenue in Rehoboth, Massachusetts...
-produced effort on Fox affiliate WNAC-TV
WNAC-TV
WNAC-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter on Homestead Avenue in Rehoboth, Massachusetts...
.
Fant had signed an LMA with WJAR's previous owner, Outlet Broadcasting
The Outlet Company
The Outlet Company was a corporation based in Providence, Rhode Island, which owned holdings in both retail and broadcasting. The centerpieces of the group was its flagship Providence store and WJAR radio and television, also in Providence....
, just months before Outlet's 1996 merger with NBC. Since 1992, Fant's other station, WWHO
WWHO
WWHO is the Columbus, Ohio television affiliate for The CW Television Network. The station is licensed to Chillicothe, though it operates out of a facility in Columbus with its transmitter located in Williamsport, halfway between Columbus and Chillicothe...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
; had been junior partner in an LMA with Outlet-owned NBC affiliate WCMH-TV
WCMH-TV
WCMH-TV, channel 4, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the NBC television network and owned by Media General. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Columbus. NBC-4 broadcasts from its studio and office complex near the Ohio State University on Olentangy River...
. By the time channel 28 signed on, NBC had let it be known that it not want to run stations outside its core owned-and-operated
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
(O&O) outlets. NBC, during this time, pushed Fant to sell the stations. In September 1997, NBC came up with a three-way swap in which Fant exchanged WLWC and WWHO to Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
/Viacom, while Paramount/Viacom-owned NBC affiliate WVIT
WVIT
WVIT, virtual channel 30, is the NBC owned and operated television station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut....
in Hartford became an NBC O&O.
With the ownership change, WLWC became more or less a UPN O&O in 1998; as UPN became its primary affiliation while The WB was relegated to secondary status. The swap also made WLWC a sister station to WSBK. For most of the television era, the FCC had not allowed common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals. Just months earlier, Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate WNAC-TV
WNAC-TV
WNAC-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter on Homestead Avenue in Rehoboth, Massachusetts...
had to be sold because its previous owner, Argyle Television, had merged with Hearst, owner of Boston's WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
--the second time in three years that a Rhode Island station had to be sold after its owner merged with the owner of a Boston station.
After Viacom and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
merged in 2000, WLWC's master control and some internal operations was integrated with those of WSBK and WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
at WBZ's facility on Soldiers Field Road in the Brighton section of Boston. When Viacom split into two companies in 2005, WLWC, along with the rest of Viacom's television stations, became part of CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge into a new combined network called The CW which launched on September 18. At the same time, the new network signed a 10-year affiliation agreement with 11 of CBS' UPN stations, including WLWC. However, it was a near-certainty that WLWC would become an affiliate of The CW in any event, given that it was a dual UPN/WB affiliate. With coming CW affiliation, WLWC rebranded itself as "CW 28" and its web address changed to "cw28tv.com".
On February 7, 2007, CBS announced it was selling WLWC and seven other stations in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, and West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
to Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...
for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group LLC is a television station holding company founded by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in 2007 with its purchase of seven television stations previously owned by CBS Television Stations, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation.Four Points Media Group took over...
, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007. Subsequently, WLWC's website was converted to an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. On November 26, master control of WLWC moved from WBZ to KUTV's studios on Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake City. The entire group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008.
WLWC permanently turned off its analog transmitter at Midnight on December 9, 2008. The last minutes of transmission were uneventful with the conclusion of Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...
, some commercials, and the opening title of That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
. WLWC remained on its pre-transition channel 22 (using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 28) following the February 2009 analog shutdown. Nexstar took over the operations of all of the Four Points stations in March 2009. At one point, the station had studios on State Street in Downtown Providence.
On June 30, 2010, WLWC invoked the FCC's network non-duplication rule. This resulted in Comcast blacking out primetime CW programming on WLVI-TV in Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...
. This did not impact the rest of the communities in Bristol County, due to the fact that WLVI-TV still has "significantly viewed" status across Bristol County. However, WLWC filed a request with the FCC to exempt Fall River from significantly viewed status. On August 2, 2010, the station added LATV
LATV
LATV is a bilingual music and entertainment network. LATV has been on the air in the Los Angeles market as KJLA since 2001 and is distributed through mostly digital television subchannels throughout the United States and Puerto Rico....
on a new second digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
. This is also seen on Comcast digital channels 299 and 702, Verizon FiOS digital channel 469, and Cox digital channel 809.
On September 8, 2011, Four Points Media announced the sale of its television group, including WLWC, to Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
. Sinclair was expected to begin operating the stations via a local marketing agreement following antitrust approval and prior to the closing expected in the first quarter of 2012. Sinclair owns one other television station in New England: Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
's CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WGME-TV
WGME-TV
WGME-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Southern Maine and Northern New Hampshire that is licensed to Portland. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 38 from a transmitter on Brown Hill west of Raymond...
. Sinclair was also a former owner of Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
's ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate WGGB-TV
WGGB-TV
WGGB-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts licensed to Springfield. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on Mount Tom in Holyoke. The station can also be seen on Charter and Comcast channel 4...
.
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-TVWCMH-TV
WCMH-TV, channel 4, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the NBC television network and owned by Media General. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Columbus. NBC-4 broadcasts from its studio and office complex near the Ohio State University on Olentangy River...
and Fant's WWHO
WWHO
WWHO is the Columbus, Ohio television affiliate for The CW Television Network. The station is licensed to Chillicothe, though it operates out of a facility in Columbus with its transmitter located in Williamsport, halfway between Columbus and Chillicothe...
. WLWC and WWHO continued to lead near-identical existences for nearly a decade sharing graphics, voiceovers, and more through several owners. Also, WCMH had used the WLWC calls from its 1949 sign-on until being bought by Outlet in 1976. 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 "warehoused" on channel 28 in order to keep its local competitors from using them. WWHO was sold in 2005 to the Providence-based LIN TV Corporation, who owns CBS affiliate WPRI and operates WNAC under an LMA.
Programming
When not airing CW network programming, WLWC airs a general entertainment format that includes talk shows, off-network sitcoms, dramas, syndicated programming, and movies which generally air on the weekends. As a primary WB affiliate, WLWC aired Kids' WBKids' WB
Kids' WB! was Warner Bros. American childrens programing division brand for The WB Television Network. In September 2006, the block moved to The CW Television Network. The CW is the result of The WB's merger with UPN in 2006...
programming but this was dropped after the primary affiliation became UPN. It was not picked up again after UPN canceled its own children's block in 2003. The block, which was replaced with The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW Television Network that premiered on May 24, 2008 in the place of Kids' WB...
in 2008, returned to WLWC when the station began airing CW programming. (The CW4Kids was renamed Toonzai in 2010.) In 2002, WBZ added its weekday morning newscast, Sports Final, and WSBK's Red Sox This Week to this channel's lineup. This was done to serve viewers inconvenienced by Cox's removal of WBZ from its Rhode Island systems.
By 2004, WLWC dropped the morning newscast and Red Sox This Week. In place of the morning show, the station began airing the nationally syndicated morning program The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
. Sports Final was retained (on a half-hour tape delay
Broadcast delay
In radio and television, broadcast delay refers to the practice of intentionally delaying broadcast of live material. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity, bloopers, violence, or other undesirable material from making it to air, including more mundane problems such as technical...
) and WLWC also added Phantom Gourmet
Phantom Gourmet
The Phantom Gourmet is a food-related television program with reviews of New England area restaurants from an anonymous critic. The show airs on WSBK-TV in Boston, Massachusetts and WLWC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island each Saturday and Sunday morning, with a half-hour episode composed of older...
from WSBK. Beginning with the 2005 season, WLWC (along with WSBK) began airing syndicated broadcasts of ACC
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
and basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
games as Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
's move to the conference created regional interest for the ACC.
Until May 2007, two of WBZ's weekday morning personalities were shown on WLWC's broadcast of The Daily Buzz as the station itself had none. During the program's weather reports, meteorologist Barry Burbank did a thirty second local weather cut-in. During commercial breaks, traffic reporter Rich Kirkland would give a quick traffic update. After CBS sold the station to Four Points, Sports Final was dropped and the WBZ morning personalities were removed from The Daily Buzz. That program currently airs weekday mornings from 6 to 8.