WVIR-TV
NBC/CW affiliate in Charlottesville, Virginia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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WVIR-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on East Market Street (US 250 Business) in downtown Charlottesville, and its primary transmitter is located on Carters Mountain south of the city.
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First air date | March 11, 1973 (51 years ago) (1973-03-11) |
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Call sign meaning | Virginia |
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Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 70309 |
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HAAT | 367.9 m (1,207 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 37°59′1″N 78°28′53″W |
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Website | www |
WVIR-TV began broadcasting as the first television station in Charlottesville on March 11, 1973. It took Charlottesville considerable time to develop a local TV station in part because half the city sits in the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, which constricted acceptable broadcast facilities in the region. In part as a result, it remained the only full-service commercial television station in Charlottesville for 31 years after being built and came to dominate the market. Waterman Broadcasting acquired the station in 1986 and would later lead the station through digitalization, the addition of the CW subchannel, and the introduction of high-definition local news in 2008, early for a market of Charlottesville's size.
In 2019, Waterman sold WVIR-TV to Gray Television, which then sold the station's direct competition—WCAV and WVAW-LD—to make the purchase. WVIR-TV switched to the VHF band in 2020, causing technical issues. WVIR-CD operates in the Charlottesville area as a rebroadcaster on the UHF band.