| West Point/Columbus/Tupelo/ Starkville, Mississippi |
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|---|---|
| City of license | West Point |
| Branding | WLOV (general) WLOV News This West Point (on DT2) |
| Channels | Digital: 16 (UHF) Virtual: 27 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 27.1 Fox 27.2 This TV |
| Owner | Lingard Broadcasting Corporation (operated through LMA by WTVA, Inc.) |
| First air date | May 29, 1983 |
| Sister station(s) | WKDH, WTVA |
| Former callsigns | WVSB-TV (1983-1991) |
| Former channel number(s) | 27 (UHF analog, 1983-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1983-1995) |
| Transmitter power | 390 kW |
| Height | 508.9 m |
| Facility ID | 37732 |
WLOV-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and portions of West Alabama licensed to West Point, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 (or virtual channel 27.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on County Road 70 in Woodland, Mississippi. The station can also be seen on Cable One channel 9 and Comcast channel 11. There is a high definition feed provided on Cable One digital channel 475 and Comcast digital channel 1011. Locally-owned, WLOV is operated by NBC affiliate WTVA through a local marketing agreement (LMA). The two outlets share studios with ABC affiliate WKDH on County Road 681 in Saltillo, Mississippi. Syndicated programming on this station includes The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Judge Judy, and Judge Joe Brown among others.
Contents |
On WLOV-DT2, Comcast digital channel 420, and Cable One digital channel 476 is This TV.
| Channel | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27.1 | WLOV-DT | 720p | 16:9 | Main WLOV-TV programming / FOX |
| 27.2 | ThisTV | 480i | 4:3 | This TV |
The station signed-on as WVSB-TV (not related to VSB-TV in Hamilton, Bermuda) on May 29, 1983 as the third commercial station in the market. Although it was supposed to launch on May 1, equipment and weather delays pushed the date back. Originally owned by Venture Systems and airing an analog signal on UHF channel 27, WVSB immediately took the ABC affiliation from WTVA where the network had been offered in a secondary nature. From its start, the station had the disadvantage of being a UHF-band television outlet competing with two other well established VHF channels.
Love Communications would buy WVSB in 1991 and changed the call sign to WLOV-TV (a play on the company name). Despite efforts to educate viewers about obtaining the station, competition from WCBI-TV and WTVA was fierce. In May 1992, it entered into a program service agreement (predecessor to local marketing agreement) with Tupelo's WTVA. On November 25 of that year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cleared the deal allowing WLOV to move its facilities from West Point to Tupelo. At first, WLOV moved into offices in the Tupelo Community Antenna (now Comcast) building, but it was eventually integrated into WTVA's studios in Saltillo. Lingard Broadcasting purchased the station in August 1994 while continuing the partnership with WTVA. At the same time, this outlet began carrying programming from Fox in a secondary nature.
In November 1995, WLOV picked up the News Corporation-owned network full-time resulting in ABC being dropped. This move left Northeastern Mississippi and the part of West Alabama the station served without a local affiliate until the launch of WKDH on June 18, 2001. During that period, cable systems in the area piped in WPTY-TV from Memphis, Tennessee or WCFT-TV from Birmingham, Alabama. WLOV's digital signal on UHF channel 16 signed-on August 22, 2004 and upgraded to full-powered high definition level in April 2007. The station ceased analog transmission in 2009 and remained on its pre-transitional digital channel allotment. On April 1 of that year, WLOV launched a new second digital subchannel to be the market's This TV affiliate. Although not initially carried on digital cable systems, WLOV-DT2 was eventually picked up by carriage agreements.
In March 2000, WTVA began producing a Sunday through Friday night prime time newscast on this station. Currently known as WLOV News at Nine, this broadcast can be seen for thirty minutes. It began to have competition on September 8, 2008 when WCBI added a weeknight-only half-hour newscast on its second digital subchannel (which had just affiliated with new Fox sister service MyNetworkTV three days earlier). On April 20, 2009, WTVA became the first station in the market and second in the state to upgrade local news to high definition. Compared nationwide, it was the smallest market outlet that made the change. WLOV News at Nine would not be included in the upgrade until June 22.
Anchors
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