WMYV

WMYV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina that is licensed to Greensboro. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 33 (virtual channel 48) from a transmitter in Randleman along I-73/U.S. 220. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station is sister to ABC affiliate WXLV-TV and the two share studios on Myer Lee Drive in Winston-Salem along I-40. Syndicated programing on WMYV includes: Two and a Half Men, The Simpsons, The Office, and Tyler Perry's House of Payne. The station also airs Fox's Weekend Marketplace Saturday morning infomercial block as it is not carried by the area's Fox affiliate, WGHP-TV.

History

An earlier Independent station with the call letters WUBC had operated on analog UHF channel 48 in Greensboro during the late-1960s but went dark. The current incarnation of the station signed-on May 9, 1981 as WGGT-TV running a general entertainment format featuring cartoons, old movies, classic sitcoms, religious shows, and CBS shows preempted by WFMY-TV. It was owned locally by Guilford Broadcasting. The station was initially a strong competitor with the area's other independent station, WJTM-TV. However, it took a toll financially.

The Triad was too small at the time to support two independent stations, and there was not enough programming to go around. Also, WGGT's signal was considerably weaker than WJTM's. WGGT fell further behind when TVX Broadcast Group bought rival WJTM in 1983 and changed its call letters to WNRW. With stronger ownership, WNRW was able to pick most of the better programming clean as well as outbid WGGT for the Triad's Fox affiliation in 1986. In the mid-1980s, a new program aired on Sunday Morning called Pet Pals. This showcased a variety of information for people and pets. Co-hosted by Greensboro's Jerry Cunningham, Pet Pals was North Carolina's first weekly program dedicated to pets and became a hit. The most visible on-air personality at WGGT was "Billy Bobb", (created by comedian Dana Lowell). He hosted "Billy Bobb's Action Theater" and "Billy Bobb's Fun Club" from January 14, 1987 until December 18, 1991.

By 1987, WGGT was forced to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. However for a time, it stayed on-the-air, albeit with far more barter programming. The financial woes continued unabated and it was close to filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1991. At the end of December 1991, Act III Broadcasting, which had bought WNRW in 1988, stepped in and bought WGGT's stronger programming, then merged it onto WNRW's schedule. WGGT began simulcasting WNRW, creating a strong combined signal with over 60% overlap in the market. The two stations became known as the "Piedmont Superstation". At that time, the crew of WGGT were laid off due to the merger, and only one master control technician and the station secretary stayed on board as the station now began to be fully managed by Act III.

Act III Broadcasting was bought by Abry in 1993 but the simulcast would continue. WNRW and WGGT took a secondary UPN affiliation on January 16, 1995 while retaining Fox affiliation. They then became the market's ABC affiliates in September of that year after WGHP dropped the network and became a Fox station. In 1996, Abry merged with Sinclair and Glencairn bought WGGT from Guiliford Broadcasters. However, since 90 percent of Glencairn's stock was owned by Sinclair's founders (the Smith family), the company effectively owned both stations and now had a duopoly in the Triad in violation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by ending the simulcast and taking control of WGGT's operations under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with WNRW (now WXLV) as senior partner. Under the terms of the LMA, UPN programming remained on channel 48, which changed call letters to WUPN-TV after Glencairn officially took control on June 19. The station was purchased outright by Sinclair in 2001.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters represented the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also designed to compete with The CW.

Sinclair decided that all of its UPN and WB affiliates would join MyNetworkTV except for one station in those markets where it owned both UPN and WB affiliates. This cleared the way for WTWB-TV (now WCWG) to take the CW affiliation. On June 19, WUPN changed its call letters to the current WMYV in anticipation of this affiliation switch. On February 2, 2009, Sinclair told cable and satellite television providers via e-mail that regardless of the exact mandatory switchover date to digital-only broadcasting, the station would cease airing in analog on February 17.^[1] At 11:59 p.m. on that date, its analog signal switched to "nightlight" service and went dark permanently during the week ending March 13. This move made WMYV and WXLV the first digital-only broadcast stations in the market.

Out-of-market cable and DirecTV coverage

In North Carolina, WMYV is available on Charter Communications in Siler City, which is part of the Raleigh media market. WMYV is also available on Fibrant in Salisbury, which is part of the Charlotte market.

In Virginia, WMYV is available on DirecTV in Grayson County, which is part of the Roanoke market.

Newscasts

From Fall 2003 until August 2005, WUPN aired a nightly 10 o'clock newscast known as UPN 48 News at 10 featuring former WFMY anchor Frank Fraboni. As part of Sinclair's News Central operation, local news originated from its studios while national news, sports, and weather aired from Sinclair's headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland. A broadcast on WXLV, known ABC 45 News Late Edition, aired weeknights at 11 from 2004 until 2005 that also featured the News Central format. Both newscasts were pulled by Sinclair due to poor ratings. WMYV currently airs no newscasts. However, there is a taped public affairs show called Triad Today that airs Sunday nights at 10 hosted by Jim Longworth.

Issue With Time Warner Cable

Sinclair Broadcast Group is currently involved in a retransmission dispute with Time Warner Cable, whose original agreement ended on December 31, 2010. The issue involves fees that TWC is willing to pay for programming on MyNetworkTV.^[2] Negotiations between the two parties were extended for another two weeks and are set to expire on January 15, 2011 if an agreement is not reached. Any blackout would, in effect, limit access for WMYV to a number of cable households within the Triad market. However, only local and syndicated programming from sister station WXLV would be affected, since TWC would likely replace ABC programming from an alternate feed.^[3]

Digital Television

Currently, TheCoolTV is not offered on Time Warner or Charter digital cable.

References

External links

• WMYV "My 48"
• WXLV-TV "ABC 45"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMYV