| |
---|---|
City | Hagerstown, Maryland |
Channels | |
Branding | DC News Now |
Programming | |
Affiliations |
|
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
WDCW | |
History | |
First air date | January 3, 1970 |
Former call signs | WHAG-TV (1970–2017) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
| |
Call sign meaning | West Virginia, District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland |
Technical information [1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 25045 |
ERP | |
HAAT | |
Transmitter coordinates | |
Translator(s) | WDCW-DT 25.1 (15.7 UHF) Washington, D.C. |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WDVM-TV (channel 25) is an independent television station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C., television market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WDCW (channel 50). The two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in the Glover Park section of Washington; WDVM-TV's transmitter is located on Fairview Mountain, west of Clear Spring, Maryland.
The station signed on the air as WHAG-TV on January 3, 1970. It was originally owned by Warren Adler along with WHAG radio in Halfway (AM 1410 and FM 96.7, now WDLD). WHAG-TV's original analog transmitter was to be on top of the Hagerstown Motor Inn (now the Alexander House) but was rejected due to structural incompatibility. A site on Fairview Mountain would become the location of the analog signal on UHF channel 25. The station was an NBC affiliate; network anchors Chet Huntley and David Brinkley welcomed the station to the network during their newscast that night. [4]
Adler Communications sold WHAG-TV to Sheldon and Samuel Magazine of Washington, D.C., in 1973. The Magazine brothers then sold it to local aviation pioneer Richard Henson in 1977. Henson then sold the station to Great Trails Broadcasting in 1981. Great Trails then exited broadcasting and sold WHAG along with 2 of its stations—WFFT-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and KSVI in Billings, Montana, to Quorum Broadcasting in 1998 for $65 million. [4] [5]
On September 8, 2003, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would acquire Quorum Broadcasting and its stations (including WHAG-TV) for $230 million. [6] [7] The sale was completed on December 31, 2003. [8]
NBC confirmed to The Herald-Mail that it was declining to renew its affiliation with WHAG on February 19, 2016; the station ceased broadcasting network programming on July 1. A factor in this decision was perceived competition with network-owned WRC-TV, and the network taking a 'one in each market' approach to affiliates for ratings purposes. Since 2014, NBC revoked affiliations from several affiliates, including WHAG-TV, WMGM-TV (whose broadcast area was served by network-owned WCAU), and KENV-DT (whose broadcast area was served by KSL-TV), that functioned as secondary NBC stations serving outlying areas of their larger markets. [9] In addition to expanding local news, WHAG-TV also added programs from Heroes & Icons at the time. [10] The last NBC program to air on WHAG was Last Call with Carson Daly .
On July 1, 2017, the station rebranded itself and adopted the call sign WDVM-TV. The change came after the station expanded its coverage area by 1.2 million households, with news director Mark Kraham stating that "we wanted to make it clear that we're not just a Hagerstown station". [11] The callsign had previously been used in the market by what is now WUSA from 1978 through 1986.
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media—which has owned Washington-based CW affiliate WDCW (channel 50) since 1999—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on September 16 and was completed on September 19, 2019, forming a nominal duopoly with WDCW. [22]
On July 1, 2019, all Heroes & Icons programming was dropped in favor of additional syndicated programming. [23] Nexstar began repositioning WDVM-TV as a news-intensive independent station focused on the Washington market, first combining the operations of their two stations by bringing WDCW and WDVM-TV under the same management in February 2020. [24] Later in the year, WDVM-TV added rebroadcasts of syndicated programming seen on WDCW, while that station added a standard-definition simulcast to allow over-the-air coverage of WDVM-TV to the entire market along with expanded cable and satellite carriage. In December 2023, Nexstar applied to the FCC to move WDVM-TV's transmitter site to a tower at Blue Mountain near Front Royal, Virginia, along with a power increase to 1,000 kW; this move is to substantially increase over-the-air coverage of Washington and suburban northern Virginia while still covering the Hagerstown area. [2] [3]
After the FCC requested several rounds of reports and technical changes to minimize the population in rural Maryland and Pennsylvania that would lose what the commission considers adequate local broadcast television coverage (within the Longley-Rice noise-limited contour of five full-power or Class A stations), the relocation was approved on February 12, 2024. The relocation has yet to occur, as the presence of Daystar's WDDN-LD and WDWA-LD on channel 23 in Washington and Burke, Virginia, respectively, present another technical obstacle.
Right from the start (January 3, 1970), WHAG began offering local newscasts with The Valley News which aired weeknights at 6, 7, and 11 p.m. The original anchors were Bob Witt with news, Glenn Presgraves with sports, and Bill Wolfinger forecasting the weather. Bill Wolfinger also did a Saturday night horror movie show where he would be in costume similar to Lon Chaney. The news department expanded in 1972 to include weekend evening broadcasts at 11 that totaled six hours of local news per week. By the year 2000, news content increased to over 22 hours of broadcasts per week. In 1997, WHAG added a microwave truck allowing the transmitting of live breaking news from the viewing area. [4] On February 12, 2010, WHAG dropped the "NBC 25" branding for "WHAG" and switched its news branding from NBC 25 News to WHAG News.
Outside of a few senior staffers, the station's news department mainly acted as a "farm team" operation that features new journalists and behind the scenes staff who have graduated from their schools looking for experience at a small-market television station and serve as "one man band" personnel that shoot, write, and edit their own stories, and eventually move on to further opportunities in larger markets. The station operates a bureau on East Patrick Street (MD 144) in Frederick.
On August 30, 2010, WHAG added a half hour to its weekday noon and 5 p.m. newscasts. Until this point unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, the station had not aired a broadcast weeknights at 5:30. It still does not offer a full two-hour weekday morning show. There is now a half hour broadcast seen Monday through Saturday nights at 7. On weekends, an hour-long morning show at 6 a.m. as well as a half hour Sunday morning broadcast at 9 p.m. were added. In addition, a Northern Virginia Bureau covering Chantilly, Leesburg, Berryville, and Winchester was opened. Although not a full news department, this is now the second local news operation established in those areas after TV3 Winchester launched back on March 5, 2007. All of the preceding changes required the expansion of WHAG's personnel. [25] [26] On October 21, 2013, WHAG began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.
Nexstar undertook a major expansion of WDVM-TV's news operation that launched on July 1, 2016, the same day the station lost its NBC affiliation. While it broadcasts standard newscasts at 5:30 a.m., 6 a.m., noon, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m., the 7 a.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m. hours are also set aside for Maryland- ( I-270 News) and Northern Virginia-specific (Nova News) coverage. WDVM-TV also simulcasts Nexstar-owned WOWK-TV's Tonight Live at 5:30 p.m. [27] [28] [29]
On July 11, 2022, Nexstar moved WDVM-TV's primary studios from Hagerstown to Washington and rebranded newscasts as DC News Now, along with changing many of the on-air personalities and anchor lineup. The former WDVM-TV studios in Hagerstown are now used as a bureau, alongside the existing Frederick and Chantilly bureaus. On July 25, 2022, another newscast expansion occurred, with the morning news expanding to four hours, the 5 p.m. news expanding to an hour (which also resulted in the move of the WOWK-produced Tonight Live to 11:30 p.m.), and the addition of a new 9 p.m. newscast. WDVM-TV's 10 p.m. newscast moved to WDCW and the 11 p.m. newscast was replaced by a half-hour sports program. [30]
The station's signal is multiplexed:
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
25.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WDVM-DT | Main WDVM-TV programming |
25.2 | 480i | ION Mys | Ion Mystery | |
25.3 | Rewind | Rewind TV | ||
25.4 | HSN | HSN |
WHAG's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009. [32] [33]
As part of the spectrum repacking process following the FCC's incentive auction, WDVM changed from channel 26 to 23 on August 2, 2019. However, its virtual channel number remains 25. [34]
The effective reach of WDVM-TV's signal is the valley stretching from Hagerstown to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Winchester, Virginia, far from the core of the Washington market. Its main channel only is simulcast in 480i widescreen standard definition (virtual channel 25.1) on the Washington-based signal of WDCW in order to cover the rest of the market. [35]
Recently,[ when? ] [36] it has been added to the Dish Network lineup of local offerings and is available to subscribers that currently receive the Washington, D.C. market locals. WDVM-TV had also been seen on Dish as the default NBC affiliate for the Salisbury television market, as that market did not have an NBC affiliate of its own until June 2014, when WRDE-LD in nearby Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, switched its affiliation to NBC. It is also viewed in widescreen standard definition on Verizon FiOS in Montgomery County, Maryland.
On February 26, 2020, WDVM-TV was added to DirecTV's lineup of local offerings and, like with rival Dish, is also available to subscribers that currently receive the Washington, D.C. market locals. It is seen on channel 25 and only in high definition. [37]
WOOD-TV is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed dual ABC/CW affiliate WOTV and Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WXSP-CD. The three stations share studios on College Avenue Southeast in Grand Rapids; WOOD-TV's transmitter is located southwest of Middleville.
WXMI is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive on the northern side of Grand Rapids, and its transmitter is located southwest of Middleville.
WDCW, branded on-air as DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the local outlet for the The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independent station WDVM-TV ; the two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington's Glover Park neighborhood. Through a channel sharing agreement with Univision station WFDC-DT, WDCW transmits using WFDC's spectrum from a tower in the Tenleytown area of Washington's Northwest quadrant.
WTNH is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX, also licensed to New Haven. WTNH and WCTX share studios on Elm Street in downtown New Haven; per a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WTNH's spectrum from a tower in Hamden, Connecticut.
WZDC-CD is a Class A television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group alongside NBC outlet WRC-TV. WZDC-CD and WRC-TV share studios and transmitter facilities on Nebraska Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington.
WOWK-TV is a television station licensed to Huntington, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston–Huntington market as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Quarrier Street near the Charleston Town Center in downtown Charleston, and its transmitter is located in Milton, West Virginia.
WTVR-TV is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Its studios are located on West Broad Street on Richmond's West End, and its transmitter is located in Bon Air near the studios of PBS member stations WCVE-TV and WCVW. WTVR-TV's former transmitter is located behind the station's studio, and only WTVR-FM broadcasts from that tower today. It still remains as part of WTVR-TV's history.
WCTX is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WTNH, also licensed to New Haven. WCTX and WTNH share studios on Elm Street in downtown New Haven; per a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WTNH's spectrum from a tower in Hamden, Connecticut.
KCWI-TV is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for the Des Moines area. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside ABC affiliate WOI-DT, also licensed to Ames. The two stations share studios on Westown Parkway in West Des Moines; KCWI-TV's transmitter is located in Alleman, Iowa.
WDAF-TV is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hill section of Kansas City, Missouri.
WAVY-TV is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Virginia Beach–licensed Fox affiliate WVBT. The two stations share studios on Wavy Street in downtown Portsmouth; WAVY-TV's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia.
WVBT is a television station licensed to Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Portsmouth-licensed NBC affiliate WAVY-TV. The two stations share studios on Wavy Street in downtown Portsmouth; WVBT's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia.
WYZZ-TV is a television station licensed to Bloomington, Illinois, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Peoria area. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of CBS affiliate WMBD-TV, for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on North University Street in Peoria, with a secondary studio and news bureau on East Lincoln Street in Bloomington. WYZZ-TV's transmitter is located near Congerville, a village of Montgomery Township, Woodford County.
WHTM-TV is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on North 6th Street in Harrisburg. Through a channel sharing agreement with Red Lion–licensed religious independent station WLYH, the two stations transmit using WHTM-TV's spectrum from an antenna on a ridge north of I-81 along the Cumberland–Perry county line.
WPMT is a television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Susquehanna Valley region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on South Queen Street in Spring Garden Township. Through a channel sharing agreement with Harrisburg–licensed PBS member WITF-TV, the two stations transmit using WITF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in Susquehanna Township.
WBOY-TV is a television station licensed to Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States, serving North Central West Virginia as an affiliate of NBC and ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on West Pike Street in downtown Clarksburg, and its transmitter is located east of downtown and US 50.
WHBF-TV is a television station licensed to Rock Island, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Quad Cities area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Burlington, Iowa–licensed CW owned-and-operated station KGCW ; Nexstar also provides certain services to Davenport, Iowa–licensed Fox affiliate KLJB under a shared services agreement (SSA) owner Mission Broadcasting. The three stations share studios in the Telco Building on 18th Street in downtown Rock Island; WHBF-TV's transmitter is located in Bettendorf, Iowa.
WJAL is a television station licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C. area as an affiliate of ShopHQ. Owned by Entravision Communications, it is sister to Washington-licensed low-power, Class A station WMDO-CD. WJAL shares transmitter facilities with CBS affiliate WUSA on Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown section of northwest Washington.
KFTA-TV is a television station licensed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Arkansas River Valley and Northwest Arkansas. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Rogers-licensed NBC affiliate KNWA-TV and Eureka Springs–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KXNW. The stations share studios at the Underwood Building on Dickson Street in downtown Fayetteville, with a satellite studio in Rogers. KFTA-TV's transmitter is located in unincorporated northeastern Crawford County.
WGHP is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on Francis Street ; its transmitter is located in Sophia, North Carolina.