WTVR-TV

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WTVR-TV
Richmond, Virginia
Branding	CBS 6
Slogan	First • Fair • Everywhere
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 25 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS (secondary 1947-55, primary affiliate 1955-56, 1960-) The Tube - DT3
Owner	Raycom Media
Founded	April 22, 1948
Call letters meaning	TeleVision Richmond
Former affiliations	NBC (1947-55) ABC (1947-60; secondary until 1956) DuMont (1947-56)
Website	www.wtvr.com

WTVR-TV (CBS6) is a CBS television affiliate based in Richmond, Virginia. It is owned by Raycom Media, and broadcasts its analog signal on channel 6. Its transmitter is located at 3301 West Broad Street in Richmond. In addition to Channel 6, the tower is also the transmitter tower for former sister station WTVR-FM "Lite 98" at 98.1, and non-commercial WCVE-FM at 88.9 ( The Virginia Voice for The Print Handicapped which maintains a service for sight challenged subscribers and broadcasts on WCVE's FM's subcarrier frequency ). The 800 foot self supporting tower is one of the tallest and oldest broadcast towers in Central Virginia and is considered part of the Richmond skyline and can be seen for miles around Richmond, especially at night when the tower lights are activated.

WTVR arose from unlikely roots. Wilbur Havens had started WMBG (which stood for "Magnetos, Batteries, and Generators"), a 10-watt station on AM 1380, in 1926 in his auto-parts shop on West Broad Street in downtown Richmond. By 1939, Havens' original $500 investment had turned into a studio on 3301 West Broad ( a former bus garage ) , where WTVR-TV operates today. Havens brought FM service to Richmond in 1947 when he signed on WCOD-FM 98.1. No one expected him to go after one of the four channels originally allocated to Richmond for television, so it came as a complete surprise when Havens filed an application for channel 6. With no other applications to consider, FCC approval was a mere formality, and WTVR took to the air on April 22, 1948 as the first television station south of Washington, DC.

It was originally a primary NBC affiliate, carrying secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC and DuMont. Due to a freeze on new television construction permits, it was the only station in town until 1955, when WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV) signed on from neighboring Petersburg and took the NBC affiliation. It was briefly a CBS affiliate sharing ABC with WXEX until 1956, when WRVA-TV (now WWBT) signed on and took the CBS affiliation due to WRVA-AM's long history as a CBS radio affiliate. WTVR then carried on as an ABC affiliate until 1960, when CBS cut a new deal with Havens due to WRVA's low ratings. It has been with CBS ever since and is one of a few stations in the country to have had primary affiliations with all three original television networks.

Havens sold WTVR-TV, WMBG-AM, and WCOD-FM to Ithaca NY based Roy H. Park Communications in 1966, reaping a considerable return on his original $500 investment 40 years earlier.After taking ownership of the properties, the radio stations adopted the TV station's " WTVR " call letters.During the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Park's TV, Radio, and Newspaper empire grew and he eventually became one of the largest owners of broadcast stations in the country.During the 60s, and early 70s, the radio & TV stations were all located in the 3301 W. Broad location. In 1974, the needs of the TV station grew and the radio stations were moved into a pair of town houses located on Cutshaw Avenue, which bordered the rear of the Channel 6 property, where they remained until the year 2000. In the late 80s, the television station grew and expanded into an adjoining space that had been a restaurant for many years. (Although the official reason given for the expansion was a need for more studio, production, and office space, there was a rumor floating around local broadcast circles that for years, station employees had been sneaking alcoholic beverages from the restaurant, called "Tony's", back into the station while on duty, and that frustrated station management had long been trying to figure out a way to get rid of the restaurant). There were a few other unconfirmed rumors that made the local media circles. One was that crosstown competitor WWBT , in order to " enhance " it's news image, had made a tentative deal to switch network affiliations from NBC to CBS. And that Park had to pay a heavy price to outbid WWBT and retain his longtime CBS affiliation on Channel 6. And, a short time later, a new young local manager, not aware of Mr. Park's loyalty to CBS, had tried to dump CBS and it's "staid" image as a network that only targeted older audiences, and get the then younger targeted "hot" Fox Network affiliation away from competitor WRLH, but when he got wind of it, Mr. Park killed the deal. Roy H. Park died in 1993, and the company's assets were later sold to a Lexington, Kentucky group of investors who named their company "Park Acquisitions" after the former owner. Park Acquisitions later sold off their radio properties separately to various owners (WTVR- AM & FM were sold to Clear Channel in 1995. WTVR-FM is still owned by Clear Channel,and still sports it's original WTVR calls, but is now extremely popular heritage adult contemporary station " Lite 98 ", and during the Clear Channel/AM-FM merger, WTVR-AM, by then was an Adult Standards format, was sold to Cox Radio who changed the calls to WVBB, but kept the Adult Standards format. A few years later, Cox sold the station to Salem who changed the calls to WBTK, and instituted a religious format. The station is now owned by Mount Rich Media and is now running a Hispanic religion format ) Park Acquisitions sold the majority of the remaining Park television stations and newspapers to Media General in 1996. The sale put Media General in conflict with the media crossownership rules in Richmond, since Media General already owned the local Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper , so Media General was forced to sell WTVR-TV to Raycom Media in 1997.

Media General, which grew out of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, had previously tried to get into television in its hometown. Its predecessor, Richmond Newspapers, lost a bid for what is now WWBT to Larus and Brothers Tobacco, founders of WRVA, because the FCC opted to give the channel 12 license to an applicant who didn't already own a newspaper. For many years, the paper owned WRNL AM ( 910 ) and WRNL-FM ( 102.1 , now WRXL-FM ) but sold them in 1970 due to revised newspaper - broadcast station cross-ownership rules .

WTVR was the ratings leader in Richmond until the early 1980s, when WWBT passed it. It now wages a spirited battle for second place with WRIC. For many years, it was the only CBS station between Richmond and Roanoke until WCAV-TV signed on from Charlottesville in 2003.

Some of its local features include For Kids' Sake, Paws for Pets, and Battle of the Brains and a new 24-hour weather news channel broadcast on broadband and digital cable in the area. The station recently started broadcasting Raycom's 24/7 music television format "The Tube" on HD.

WTVR is also known as "The South's first Television Station."

[edit] Logos

The original WTVR covered wagon Station ID.

Logo from mid-90s until 2000.

News 6 Network logo used until 2003.

CBS 6 logo from 2003-Present

[edit] External links

• WTVR website
• History of WWBT Television in Richmond
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVR-TV

Broadcast television in the Richmond market  (Nielsen DMA #61)
WTVR 6 (CBS/The Tube) - WRIC 8 (ABC) - WWBT 12 (NBC) - WFLV 15 (Rel) - WXOB 17 (Rel) - WCVE 23 (PBS) - WFMA 28 (Rel) - WRLH 35 (Fox/MNTV)  W39CO 39 (TBN) - WKYV 45 (Rel) - WRID 48 (DS) - WCVW 57 (PBS) - WUPV 65 (The CW) Past station:  WVRN 63 (Ind)

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Virginia
WTKR 3 (Norfolk) - WTVR 6 (Richmond) - WDBJ 7 (Roanoke) - WCAV 19 (Charlottesville)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Virginia