WTKR

Early history

On April 21, 1948, the WTAR Radio Corporation—owner of WTAR (790 AM) and associated with Norfolk's two daily newspapers, The Virginian-Pilot and the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch—applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build a new television station on channel 4 in Norfolk.[3] The FCC made a conditional grant to WTAR on August 18, 1948; that day, the station announced it would build a new radio and television complex to house its radio operations and the new channel 4.[4] The station divulged more details of the project the next month, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of WTAR radio:[5] it would be a three-story facility encompassing a television studio, a theater with seating for 175, and a 400 ft transmitter tower for the TV station.[6] The FCC upgraded the conditional grant to a regular grant on October 7; days before, the commission imposed a freeze on new TV station grants to sort out possible changes to television broadcast standards.[7]

As construction proceeded on the Boush Street facility, in July 1949, work began on the transmitter tower at the site. WTAR-TV also secured a primary affiliation with NBC; network programming would arrive in Norfolk via a microwave transmission system from Richmond, which was on the coaxial cable network for the broadcast of network TV shows.[8] A mobile unit for televising programs outside the studio arrived in Norfolk in December,[9] while the station began broadcasting a test pattern daily on March 1, 1950.[10]

WTAR-TV formally began broadcasting on April 2, 1950, as the first television station in southeastern Virginia, broadcasting to 600 area TV sets. That evening, 1,800 people filled the Center Theater for the station's inaugural program. Nineteen local programs, ranging from children's shows to an all-Black variety show, were among channel 4's first local productions.[11] In addition to NBC, the station aired programs from the other three television networks of the day: CBS, ABC, and DuMont, channel 4 joining the latter a month and a half after it started.[12][13][14] WTAR-TV was the first station to use the Boush Street facility; WTAR radio moved in June 1950, and the building was not dedicated until September.[15][16] By the station's first anniversary, WTAR-TV was airing 30 local shows, representing ten hours of output a week, and more than half the top TV shows in the country.

In April 1952, the FCC lifted the freeze after three and a half years with major changes to television allocations, including the addition of ultra high frequency (UHF) channels to the existing 12 in the very high frequency (VHF) band and new station spacing requirements. In doing so, it made a total of 30 changes to the channels of existing stations, including WTAR-TV, which would be moved from channel 4 to channel 3.[17] WTAR-TV was successful in rebuffing the originally proposed relocation to channel 8 or 12, both high-band VHF channels that would have required additional changes in transmitter equipment; instead, it received channel 3, which had originally been allocated to Richmond. However, WTAR-TV would not make the channel switch for more than two years, as it paired the channel change with the installation of a new, 1049 ft tower and maximum-power transmitter facility near Driver.[18] The new tower was touted as the highest man-made structure in Virginia.[19] The channel switch took place on May 1, 1954. On that day, the station held a beauty pageant at the transmitter site, crowning a North Carolina woman "Miss WTAR-TV"; the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch called the new tower the tallest maypole in the world.[20]

The end of the freeze also unblocked the development of other TV stations in the Hampton Roads area surrounding Norfolk. By October 1952, there were eight applications on file with the FCC for four channels, both VHF and UHF, in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News.[21] With station construction in the pipeline, in May 1953, the WTAR Radio Corporation opted to change its radio and TV stations to primary CBS affiliates beginning in September.[22] NBC signed in June with a new-to-air station in Hampton, WVEC-TV (then channel 15),[23] which began broadcasting in September.[24] ABC followed suit in September and affiliated with the new WTOV-TV (channel 27) in Portsmouth.[25] However, ABC and DuMont continued to also be affiliated with WTAR-TV.[26] DuMont ceased its existence as a network in 1955,[27] while a full-time ABC affiliate debuted when WAVY-TV signed on channel 10 in 1957.[28]

In 1967, Norfolk-Portsmouth Newspapers—which owned the two Norfolk daily newspapers, the WTAR stations, and WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina, among other holdings—was reorganized as Landmark Communications.[29]

License challenge

In 1969, WTAR-TV's broadcast license came up for renewal at the FCC. Three members of a Norfolk law firm—Gordon E. Campbell, Wayne Lustig, and I. L. Hancock—formed the Hampton Roads Television Corporation and proceeded to file a competing application for a license to broadcast on channel 3. At the time, several incumbent broadcasters in other markets across the U.S. were facing competing "strike" applications for their channels.[30] In January 1970, the FCC designated WTAR-TV's renewal and Hampton Roads Television's application for comparative hearing.[31] Hampton Roads Television also challenged a new FCC policy on comparative hearings which resulted in an appeals court ruling and a redesignation of the WTAR-TV license challenge hearing.[32]

In 1973, FCC administrative law judge David Kraushaar recommended that the commission renew WTAR-TV's license. However, on appeal, the FCC Broadcast Bureau asked for reconsideration, citing lawsuits against Landmark and related companies in Virginia concerning the alleged publication of false information about a failing savings and loan whose director was one of Landmark's officers. It believed this issue called the company's character into question.[33] In August 1974, the FCC remanded the case to the administrative law judge after Hampton Roads Television claimed that Landmark intentionally waited to make a change in senior management until after the initial decision.[34] Kraushaar ruled in January 1975, finding the management change had no effect on his comparative selection of WTAR-TV over Hampton Roads Television.[35] However, the commission reopened the comparative hearing and added a character issue against Landmark.[36]

In 1979, Landmark reached an agreement with Hampton Roads Television. It reimbursed the challengers for their expenses in exchange for them dropping the ten-year-old challenge. Additionally, the company committed to sell WTAR-TV within two years, retaining ownership of the Norfolk newspapers and radio stations.[37] In announcing the agreement, Landmark chairman Frank Batten cited FCC policy encouraging the unwinding of situations where newspapers and TV stations in the same market were co-owned as well as the drain of continued litigation in the license challenge; Lustig and Campbell noted they were less interested in running a TV station than ten years prior and that their law practice had expanded.[38] Landmark initially reached an agreement with Scripps-Howard Broadcasting in April 1980 to swap WTAR-TV for WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee. Like Landmark in Norfolk, Scripps-Howard was looking to reduce its cross-ownership load in Memphis, where it owned AM and FM radio stations and the city's two daily newspapers.[39] Two months later, the deal fell apart for economic reasons; Landmark, which was required to dispose of WTAR-TV by March 1, 1981, put the station on the market.[40]

Knight-Ridder and Narragansett ownership

In August 1980, Landmark entered into an agreement with Knight-Ridder to purchase WTAR-TV for $48.3 million, which was higher than what Landmark was reportedly seeking for the station.[41][42] Knight-Ridder took over control of channel 3 on March 3, 1981, and changed the call sign to WTKR.[43]

By 1988, Knight-Ridder owned eight stations. That October, the company announced its intent to sell its station group to reduce a $929 million debt load[44] and finance a $353 million acquisition of online information provider Dialog Information Services.[45] Narragansett Television acquired WTKR and WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, from Knight-Ridder on June 30, 1989, for $150 million.[46][47]

Narragansett put the two stations on the market in late 1994; the company had not intended to sell but began taking offers after receiving several unsolicited expressions of interest. Narragansett chairman Jonathan Nelson stated, "[W]e feel we have a fiduciary responsibility to respond to inquiries from well-qualified prospective buyers."[48] The New York Times Company acquired WTKR in 1995, making it the company's largest-market television property.[49]

Local TV and Dreamcatcher/Tribune ownership

On January 4, 2007, The New York Times Company sold WTKR and its eight sister television stations to Local TV LLC, a holding company operated by private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, for $530 million;[50] the sale was finalized on May 7.[51] Local TV LLC shared broadcast group management with the Tribune Company, by way of The Other Company, run by Tribune executive Randy Michaels.[52] During this time, in 2010, Local TV LLC acquired WGNT (channel 27), the local affiliate of The CW, from the CBS Television Stations group.[53] The station also increased its share of Hampton Roads-market TV advertising revenue by five percentage points from 2008 to 2012.[54]

On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its 19 stations would be acquired by the Tribune Company, the owner of the Daily Press in Newport News, for $2.75 billion;[55] Since this would conflict with FCC regulations that prohibit newspaper-television cross-ownership within a single market,[56] Tribune spun off WTKR and WGNT, as well as WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Dreamcatcher Broadcasting, an unrelated company owned by former Tribune Company executive Ed Wilson. Tribune provided services to the stations through a shared services agreement and held an option to buy back WTKR and WGNT outright in the future.[57] The sale was completed on December 27.[58] Dreamcatcher continued to own the stations even though Tribune completed a split of its broadcasting and publishing businesses into separate companies in 2014.[59]

Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar and resale to Scripps

Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of MyNetworkTV affiliate WTVZ-TV (channel 33), entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media in 2017. Sinclair would have had to select one of WGNT or WTVZ-TV to keep alongside WTKR; no divestiture plan was announced.[60] However, the transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal in August 2018.[61]

In 2019, Nexstar Media Group, owner of WAVY-TV and WVBT, announced it would acquire Tribune.[62] Nexstar opted to retain its existing stations and sold WTKR–WGNT to the E. W. Scripps Company.[63][64]

Notable former on-air staff

• Ed Hughes – anchor and reporter, 1968–2004[92]
• Bob McAllister – children's show host[93]
• Paula Miller – reporter, 1984–1999[94]
• Judi Moen – host of the program Forty Plus during the mid-1990s[95]
• Andy Roberts – TV host and weather presenter, 1956–1992[96]
• Stephanie Sy – military reporter, 2001–2003[97]
• Jim Vicevich – economics reporter until 1980[98]
• William Whitehurst – commentator and reporter in the 1960s[99][100]

Subchannels

WTKR's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia. The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WTKR began digital broadcasts on channel 40 on March 11, 2002.[102] The station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal on June 12, 2009, as part of the digital television transition;[103] the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 40, using virtual channel 3.[104]

WTKR relocated its signal from channel 40 to channel 16 on July 2, 2020, as a result of the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction.[105][106]

Eastern Shore translator

On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Accomack County owns two translators, W18EG-D and W25AA-D (licensed to Onancock and broadcast from Mappsville), that provide the main channel of WTKR alongside those of WAVY-TV, WVEC, and WHRO-TV.[107][108]