WVNS-TV

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WVNS-TV
Beckley - Bluefield - Lewisburg, West Virginia
Branding	CBS 59 (normal) 59 News (newscasts) FOX West Virginia (on DT2)
Slogan	Your Town. Your State. Your Future
Channels	59 (UHF) analog, 8 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS FOX (primary) & MyNetworkTV (secondary) on DT2
Owner	West Virginia Media Holdings
Founded	August 12, 1995
Call letters meaning	West Virginia News Station
Former callsigns	WVGV (1995-1996) WVSX (1996-2003)
Former affiliations	The WB (1995-1996) FOX (1996-2001)
Website	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.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts 3 See Also 4 External Links

[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. The station was originally set to sign on as a FOX affiliate, but FOX cancelled 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. By the time most of the cable systems in the market were prepared to carry the signal, the station had agreed to be sold and was taken "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 sale to High Mountain Broadcasting Corp. was approved by the FCC in May of 1996, network affiliation changed to FOX, and its call letters were changed to WVSX, standing for "West Virginia's Super FoX". WVSX first returned to the air on Christmas Eve, 1996, but due to problems with the transmitter's unique power supply design, did not transmit regularly until after January 1, 1997. The station continued to struggle financially. The station changed its affiliation to CBS on September 29, 2001.

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 News Station. The WVNS callsign is shared with an FM radio station in Nashville, TN.

Bluefield/Beckley/OakHill is a relatively small television market. The station has continued to slowly but steadily grow in audience, even though neighboring CBS stations have always been "imported" by cable systems, cable is required for receipt of acceptable television anywhere in the market, and by the absence of either DBS company providing the signal of local stations in the market. Further, the local economy makes advertising sales as hard to come by as in all of the adjacent television markets.

Before WVNS was flipped to CBS, WDBJ in Roanoke, VA and WOWK in Huntington, WV had served as the market's CBS affiliates.

The Fox affiliation was acquired September 13, 2006, following a Summer 2006 retransmission dispute between Charleston's WVAH 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, relative to state government news and Marshall University sports, and WBOY relative to West Virginia University sports. During all WVNS newscasts, weather is provided by WOWK's meteorologists and originates from that station's studios.

Weekdays

• 59 News at 5 AM (5 to 6 AM)
  • simulcasted on WVNS DT2, rebranded as FOX 59 News at 5 AM
• 59 News at 6 AM (6 to 7 AM)
  • simulcasted on WVNS DT2, rebranded as FOX 59 News at 6 AM
• 59 News at Noon (12 to 12:30 PM)
• 59 News at 5 (5 to 5:30 PM)
• West Virginia Tonight Live (5:30 to 6 PM)
• 59 News at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM)
• FOX West Virginia News (10 to 10:30 PM)
  • shown only on WVNS DT2
• 59 News at 11 (11 to 11:35 PM)

Weekends

• 59 News Weekend Live at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM)
• FOX West Virginia News (10 to 10:30 PM)
  • shown only on WVNS DT2
• 59 News Weekend Live at 11 (11 to 11:30 PM)

(no morning news)

[edit] See Also

• WOWK
• WBOY

[edit] External Links

• Station Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVNS-TV