| Crossville/Knoxville, Tennessee | |
|---|---|
| Branding | The CW 20 |
| Slogan | TV to Talk About Expect More (newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 20 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 20.1 The CW |
| Owner | Lockwood Broadcasting Group (Knoxville TV, LLC) |
| First air date | unknown |
| Call letters' meaning | The WB (former affiliation) and XX (Roman numeral 20) |
| Former callsigns | WCPT (1979-1982, added "-TV" suffix in 1979) WINT-TV (1982-1997) |
| Former channel number(s) | 20 (UHF analog, 1997-2009) |
| Former affiliations | The WB (1997-2006) UPN (secondary, 2001-2002) |
| Transmitter power | 652 kW |
| Height | 735 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 72971 |
| Website | cw20tv.com |
WBXX-TV is the CW-affiliated television station for Eastern Tennessee licensed to Crossville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 20 from a transmitter in unincorporated Southwestern Anderson County. The station can also be seen on Comcast and Knology channel 7 as well as Charter channel 12. Owned by the Lockwood Broadcasting Group, WBXX has studios on Cogdill Road in unincorporated Western Knox County. Syndicated programming on the station includes How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy and King of the Hill, among others.
Contents |
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main WBXX-TV programming / The CW |
WBXX began operation in October 1997; the station is the only one that was ever built by ACME Communications from the ground up (KWBQ in Albuquerque, New Mexico was also signed on by ACME but its construction permit originally belonged to another entity). Originally branded as "WB20," WBXX was primarily an affiliate of The WB Television Network from its sign-on until 2006, though it did run select UPN programming during 2001 and 2002 as that network did not have a Knoxville affiliate at the time.[1]
WBXX was consistently one of the highest-rated WB stations in the country, and was recognized as such by The WB network. WBXX rebranded as "East Tennessee's WB" in September 2003, and later became "East Tennessee's CW" in 2006, when the station took affiliation with The CW Television Network. WBXX rebranded again, to its current "CW20" moniker, in August 2008.
WBXX is the only full-powered Knoxville-market station to be licensed in a city in the Central Time Zone; Cumberland County (where Crossville is located) and Fentress County are the two counties in the Knoxville market that observe Central Time, one hour earlier than Knoxville, in Eastern Time. However, while national CW programming is promoted with both Eastern and Central Time listings, WBXX local programming is promoted with only Eastern Time listings. In February 2011, ACME Communications announced a deal to sell the station to Virginia-based Lockwood Broadcasting Group.
The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 21 with the consummation being completed on May 6. [2] [3] [4] From 1998 until 2004, the station aired a series of interstitials during childrens' programming called "WB 20 Kids Club" (later "Dubba Clubba") hosted by comedian Jackson Bailey (known as "Joe Cool"). The interstitials featured information and contests to viewers in several vignettes each weekday covering topics such as science, biology, conservation, music, and pet care.
On weekday mornings, WBXX airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz from 6 until 9. The program is produced by ACME Communications, and during the company's ownership of this station, there were local weather cut-ins focusing on the Knoxville area. It is unknown if these updates are still provided with WBXX's ownership change to Lockwood. At one point in time, NBC affiliate WBIR-TV (owned by the Gannett Company) began producing a nightly newscast on this station through an outsourcing agreement.
Known as 10 News at 10, the broadcast only aired for twelve minutes in an abbreviated format featuring the day's top stories along with an updated weather forecast. The broadcast originated from WBIR's facility on Hutchinson Avenue in Knoxville's Lincoln Park section (official address is Bill Williams Avenue). It was offered as an alternative to Fox affiliate WTNZ which had nightly local news produced by ABC affiliate WATE-TV. In early-March 2011, WTNZ terminated its news share agreement with WATE after entering into another contract with WBIR. As a result, the latter station stopped producing the nightly update for WBXX.
On August 1, 2011, WATE (owned by New Young Broadcasting) returned to the prime time newscast race with a new nightly 35 minute broadcast on WBXX (known on-air as The CW 20 News at 10) through another outsourcing agreement. Corresponding with the addition, WATE/WBXX will upgrade to high definition newscasts later in the fall becoming the third local news operation in Knoxville to make the change. The CW 20 News at 10 originates from WATE's studios in Camp House on North Broadway Northeast/SR 33/SR 71/US 441 in the city's Old North Knoxville section [5] [6] [7]
Anchors
Reporters
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||