WRLH-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| WRLH-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Richmond, Virginia | |
| Branding | Fox Richmond MyTV Richmond |
| Slogan | The Right Time for News |
| Channels | Analog: 35 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox MyNetworkTV (DT2) |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WRLH Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | February 20, 1982 |
| Former affiliations | independent (1982-1986) UPN (secondary, 1995-1997) |
| Transmitter Power | 2570 kW (analog) 800 kW (digital) |
| Height | 384 m (analog) 327.7 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 412 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.foxrichmond.com www.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".
[edit] History
WRLH began operation on February 20, 1982[1] 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). WRLH is the only Richmond television station that has never changed its network affiliation, having been a Fox affiliate since the network's inception.
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 [2].
Sinclair and Fox recently finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates, including WRLH. WRLH's affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. [3]
WRLH FOX Richmond along with other television stations in Virginia broadcasted for the first time on television on March 14, 2008 showed Virginia High School League championships basketball tournament.
[edit] Logos
 Logo used from 2001 - Present |
[edit] External links
- Fox Richmond website
- MyTV Richmond website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WRLH
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WRLH-TV
|
|||||
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
