WSLS
 
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Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia United States |
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|---|---|
| Branding | WSLS 10 |
| Slogan | Virginia Proud |
| Channels |
Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 10 () |
| Subchannels | 10.1 NBC 10.2 GetTV 10.3 MeTV |
| Owner |
Graham Media Group (Graham Media Group Virginia, LLC) |
| Founded | December 11, 1952 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Shenandoah Life Station (reference to original owner) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 10 (VHF, 1952–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
Both secondary: ABC (1952–1953) CBS (1954–1955) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 592 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 57840 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°12′3″N 80°8′54″W / 37.20083°N 80.14833°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | wsls.com |
WSLS-TV, virtual channel 10 (digital channel 30), is the NBC-affiliated television station in Roanoke, Virginia. Its transmitter is located on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County. The station is owned by Graham Media Group and broadcasts from a studio on Third Street in Roanoke.
The station first signed on the air on December 11, 1952. It is the third-oldest continuously operating station in Virginia, behind Richmond's WTVR-TV and Norfolk's WTKR, as well as the state's oldest station west of Richmond. It was owned by the Shenandoah Life Insurance Company along with WSLS radio (610 AM, now WPLY; and 99.1 FM, now WSLQ); the call letters stand for Shenandoah Life Stations.
The station originally carried programming from all three major networks: NBC, CBS and ABC. Although CBS already had an affiliate in Roanoke, WROV-TV on channel 27, CBS allowed WSLS-TV to cherry-pick its stronger shows due to WROV's weak UHF signal. Channel 10's sign-on and the pending sign-on of WLVA-TV (channel 13, now WSET-TV) from Lynchburg prompted WROV's demise in early 1953. WSLS-TV split ABC with WLVA-TV until 1954, when WLVA-TV became a sole ABC affiliate. The two stations then split CBS until WDBJ-TV (channel 7) signed on in 1955 and took the CBS affiliation.
Examples of locally produced programming in the late-1950s and 60s included: Echo, Klub Kwiz (a competitor to WDBJ's Klassroom Kwiz), Ebb and Andy, Spectrum, Glen Howell, Cactus Joe, and Profile.
In 1969, WSLS-AM-FM-TV were purchased for $7.5 million by Roy H. Park of Ithaca, New York. The all-time high station staff number of 120 began to be reduced to around 50 for "budgetary reasons". Park had to sell off the radio stations in 1972 due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restrictions on cross-ownership.
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