WVNS-TV
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Lewisburg/Bluefield/ Beckley, West Virginia United States |
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| Branding |
CBS 59 or WVNS (general) 59 News (newscasts) Fox 59 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Working For You |
| Channels |
Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 59 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | |
| Affiliations | |
| Owner |
Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| Founded | June 18, 1992 |
| First air date | August 12, 1995 |
| Call letters' meaning | West Virginia's News Station |
| Sister station(s) | WOWK, WTRF, WBOY, WFXR, WHAG |
| Former callsigns | WVGV-TV (1995–1996) WVSX (1996–2003) |
| Former channel number(s) | 59 (UHF analog, 1995–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
The WB (1995–1996) Fox (1996–2001) |
| Transmitter power | 3.68 kW |
| Height | 577 m |
| Facility ID | 74169 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°46′22.6″N 80°42′25.8″W / 37.772944°N 80.707167°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | wearewvproud.com |
WVNS-TV, channel 59, is a television station licensed to Lewisburg, West Virginia, USA. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WVNS is the primary CBS affiliate for the Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill television market, which also covers portions of southwestern Virginia. WVNS also carries programming from Fox and MyNetworkTV over its second digital subchannel (59.2). The station's studios are located on Old Cline Road in Ghent, West Virginia, and its transmitter is near Alderson, West Virginia.
The station began broadcasting on August 12, 1995 as The WB affiliate WVGV-TV. It was the first station in the market not affiliated with one of the big three networks. The station was originally set to sign-on in 1994 as a Fox affiliate. However, after the station's launch was delayed past the start of the 1994-95 season, Fox canceled the affiliation. WVGV was not successful due to difficulty in selling advertising time in the primarily urban-oriented programming that dominated The WB's schedule at the time as well as the difficulty competing with a UHF signal in a market used to receiving VHF stations. Furthermore, the late sign-on made it difficult to get carriage on the area's cable systems. This was a serious problem since cable is a must for acceptable television in this market, most of which is very mountainous.
By May, when cable systems in the area were ready to carry the station, WVGV had agreed to be sold to High Mountain Broadcasting. The new owners took the station dark in order to relocate the studios from Lewisburg to Ghent (between Beckley and Bluefield) and move the transmitter site from Cross Mountain to a more central location to better serve Beckley and Bluefield as well as Lewisburg. The station returned to the air on December 24, 1996 as Fox affiliate WVSX. However, due to problems with the transmitter's unique power supply design, it did not transmit regularly until after January 1, 1997. The station continued to struggle financially.
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Wikipedia