WRLH-TV

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WRLH-TV
Richmond, Virginia
Branding	FOX Richmond MyTV Richmond
Slogan	The Right Time for News
Channels	35 (UHF) analog, 26 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	FOX My Network TV (digital subchannel DT-2)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	February 6, 1982
Call letters meaning	W Richmond LH
Former affiliations	Independent (1982-1987) UPN & UPN Kids (secondary 1995-1997) Kids WB (secondary 2001-2003)
Website	foxrichmond.com/ mytvrichmond.com/

WRLH-TV, channel 35, is the Fox television affiliate serving the Richmond, Virginia television market. It is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It offers a mix of talk/reality shows, court shows, sitcoms, paid programming and first-run programming from Fox along with sports. It also carries a 10 p.m. newscast produced by WWBT-TV. WRLH's transmitter is located in Midlothian, Virginia.

Formerly known as "Fox 35," the station currently identifies on-air as "Fox Richmond".

Contents 1 History 2 News Programs 3 Original Programming 4 Logos 5 External links

[edit] History

WRLH began operation on February 6, 1982 as Richmond's first general entertainment independent television station. It was owned by the TVX Broadcast Group, which had launched WTVZ, a successful independent station in the neighboring Norfolk-Portsmouth-Virginia Beach market, in 1979.

The station initially offered a format consisting of cartoons, sitcoms, movies, drama shows, and religious programming (in mid-mornings after the cartoons). When WRNX (channel 63, now dark) signed on in 1983 with a religious format, WRLH's religious programming moved there. Some of those shows moved back to WRLH when WRNX took on the general entertainment format in the summer of 1985 under a new set of call sign (WVRN), and the two stations now competed under the same format.

The competition rendered both stations less profitable than before and TVX sold WRLH to Times Mirror Broadcasting in the spring of 1986. Times Mirror then turned around and sold WRLH (along with WMAR in Baltimore) to Gillett Broadcasting that fall. By then, WRLH was already a Fox network affiliate (the affiliation agreement having been inherited from TVX ownership).

WVRN was put up for sale after its parent company, Sudbrink Broadcasting, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 1986. It was purchased by Act III Broadcasting in 1987, which wanted to improve the station's ratings. Act III offered to buy WRLH's programming, on the condition that WRLH be sold to a different group and turned into a non-commercial station. Gillett declined, but offered instead to sell WRLH outright to Act III. Act III took over WRLH in September 1988, moved WVRN's programming to WRLH and shut down WVRN. The license for channel 63 was turned into the FCC, which then proceeded to delete the license.

The Act III group was purchased by Abry in 1993, giving WRLH new owners. Sullivan Broadcasters (in which Sinclair had an interest) took over the station in 1996 and Sinclair bought the station outright in 1998.

WRLH began to carry a secondary UPN affiliation in 1995. The UPN affiliation moved to WZYX Channel 65 (now WUPV-TV) in 1998; also that year, WRLH began to carry programming from Kids WB (with WWBT-TV carrying The WB programming out of rotation in late-night).

WRLH carries secondary My Network TV affiliation on digital subchannel 35.2 [1].

[edit] News Programs

• Fox Richmond News at 10 weekdays 10:00pm-11:00pm & weekends 10:00pm-10:30pm (reairs at midnight on MyTV Richmond)

[edit] Original Programming

• Dr. Gruesome's Movie Morgue was a (mostly) late night hosted horror movie show that ran on WRLH from 1988 through the early 1990's. The two main characters were Dr. Gruesome and his assistant Skeeter who performed jokes and sketches in between the movie segments. Other characters on the show included Mr. Psycho, Count Dave, Devil Duck and Nurse Gnarla.

[edit] Logos

Former FOX35 Logo (1994-2001)

Former FOX35 Kids Club logo

FOX Richmond News Banner

FOX Richmond's FOX News @ 10 Opener (2005 - Present)

[edit] External links

• Fox Richmond website
• MyTV Richmond website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRLH

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)

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Virginia
WHSV-DT 3.2 (Harrisonburg) - WAHU-CA 27 (Charlottesville) - WFXR 27 / WWCW 21 (Roanoke / Lynchburg) - WRLH 35 (Richmond) - WVBT 43 (Virginia Beach)
See also: ABC, CW, CBS, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Virginia