Move to New Jersey (2014–present)
Soon after its purchase of the station, PMCM TV sought to reallocate KVNV to Monmouth County, New Jersey, as part of a legal loophole that allows any VHF station that moves to a state with no FCC-licensed commercial VHF stations to receive automatic permission to move. Nearly all commercial TV stations serving New Jersey are based in New York City or Philadelphia; the only commercial VHF station in the state, Secaucus–licensed WWOR-TV, moved to UHF after the 2009 digital television transition. The FCC denied the request in a December 18, 2009, letter.[7] The full commission denied PMCM's application for review in a memorandum opinion and order released on September 15, 2011;[8] however, this denial was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on December 14, 2012.[9] KVNV applied for a construction permit to move on May 28, 2013, to Middletown Township, New Jersey (though its transmitter location would be at the Condé Nast Building in midtown Manhattan to serve the entire New York media market).[10]
In January 2014, MeTV announced that KVNV, would become its New York City affiliate, replacing Bridgeport, Connecticut-based WZME.[11] In its June 2014 bill, Comcast systems in central New Jersey stated that KVNV would be added to its lineup on July 31, 2014. This was delayed because of objections from WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, who voiced concerns to the FCC about signal overlap and disruption of its Fairfield County, Connecticut, channel lineup. WFSB's owner at the time, Meredith Corporation, also suggested that the FCC assign virtual channel 33 (which is WFSB's RF channel) to KVNV instead of 3.[12] On September 12, 2014, the FCC Media Bureau issued a public notice seeking comment on an alternative virtual channel proposal set forth by PMCM, under which KVNV would broadcast on virtual channel 3.10 to not interfere with WFSB and would seek cable carriage on channel 3 throughout the New York market, except in Fairfield County, Connecticut.[13]
KVNV commenced test broadcasting on September 29, 2014, at approximately 2:30p.m. on RF channel 3 (virtual channel 3–10). This test transmission consisted of an EBR test pattern with a black text field bearing text – Line 1: "KVNV TV" static, Line 2: "WJLP-TV" static. Immediately at the base of the black text box, a white rectangular square rapidly moved back-and-forth horizontally. No audio or tones accompanied the test pattern. The test broadcast ended on September 30, 2014, at approximately2 p.m. The station made a brief return to the air on October 1, 2014, at approximately 12:30p.m.; this transmission lasted approximately five minutes.
On October 1, 2014, at 5:01p.m., KVNV signed-on its transmitter with intentions to officially commence programming at 6p.m. The 5p.m. transmission consisted of an EBR test pattern with a black text field, this time bearing text – Line 1: "KVNV-TV" static, Line 2: "CHANNEL 3.10" static. Immediately at the base of the black text box, a white rectangular square rapidly moved back-and-forth horizontally. No audio or tones accompanied the test pattern. The intention of this 58 minute broadcast was to allow for potential viewers to re-scan their tuners in order to add channel 3 as an active channel. At 5:59p.m., the test pattern gave way to a solid black screen.
At 6p.m., KVNV commenced regular programming from MeTV with an episode of CHiPs. The launch consisted of no sign-on message and was basically a soft launch. The station's TVCT information during this time identified the station as KVNV-HD using virtual channel 3.10.
On October 3, 2014, the call letters were changed to WJLP.[14]
The FCC assigned virtual channel 33 on an interim basis to WJLP on October 23, 2014; this followed an October 3 joint filing by Meredith, CBS Television Stations, and Ion Media Networks urging the FCC to take this action because CBS-owned KYW-TV and Meredith's WFSB use virtual channel 3 and Ion-owned WPXN-TV was carried on cable channel 3 on most Cablevision systems in the New York market.[15]
On November 7, 2014, following another joint complaint from Meredith, CBS and Ion, the FCC ordered that WJLP suspend operations effective at noon on November 10 unless the station remapped its virtual channel from 3.10 to 33.1. On November 10, 2014, PMCM TV filed an appeal with the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The station asked the court for a stay until a final solution regarding the channel 3 dispute could be made. The station hoped that the court would review the appeal and make a decision on November 12, 2014. Simultaneously, WJLP also filed two petitions with the FCC.
At approximately midnight on November 11, 2014, WJLP ran a video message from Lee Leddy, Group Station Manager for PMCM TV, LLC and the owner and licensee of WJLP, that explained the situation and what he called "erroneous complaints" to the FCC by CBS, Ion, and Meredith.[16][17][18] Channel 3 then signed off the air. WZME resumed its place as the sole MeTV outlet for the New York area.
WJLP returned to the air a day after with a bumper that explained that the station was granted an emergency stay to continue broadcasting until at least December 1, 2014. On November 25, 2014, a federal court upheld the stay and allowed WJLP to continue broadcasting on channel 3.10. On March 16, 2015, the station remapped its virtual channel from channel 3 to channel 33 on an "interim" basis following an order from the FCC.
