WWCW

Early years

Channel 21 at Lynchburg picked up no interest until communications consultant James E. Price of Chattanooga, Tennessee, applied for the channel in 1982 under the name Lynchburg Television Associates.[1][2] The construction permit was awarded in November 1982, took the call sign WJPR, and then was sold to a new investor group led by Price.[3] The permit changed hands two more times before the station was launched, first to Carney Communications of Virginia—owned by Thomas F. Carney of Bal Harbour, Florida—and then to a partnership led by Carney known as Lynchburg–Roanoke Television Partners.[4] One of the partners in the firm was Ralph Renick, a longtime television news anchor in Miami.[5]

Construction began in October 1985 at the Thaxton Mountain tower after approval came from Bedford County officials, and the station announced its existence as the first independent in the market.[6] It stated it would launch by the end of 1985, but that date was missed.[7] So too was a target date of February 10,[8] with winter weather being the culprit.

WJPR debuted on March 23, 1986, giving the market a general-entertainment independent station and being the second of three new station launches that year in western Virginia (the others being Christian station WEFC on channel 38, which started January 3,[9] and Family Group Broadcasting-owned independent WVFT on channel 27 in November 1986[10]).[11] Programming was a typical mix of sitcoms, children's shows, and sports, including Baltimore Orioles baseball. It broadcast from studios and offices in a converted Kroger grocery store in Lynchburg's Forest Hills Shopping Center. The Fox network was added to the station's lineup when it launched that October,[12] as well as local high school football telecasts.[13]

WJPR and WVFT gave the Roanoke–Lynchburg market two independent stations in a short amount of time. Channel 21 had a slow start; some cable systems, notably in Lynchburg itself, balked at carrying the new station, and there were few immediate local advertisers.[14] Neither station was able to find sufficient advertising revenue, and it became clear that the Roanoke-Lynchburg market was not large enough to sustain what were essentially two independent stations. Like most early Fox affiliates, WJPR was still programmed largely as an independent.[15] In November 1988, three months after Paramount Pictures sued the station for a debt of $950,000, Lynchburg–Roanoke Television Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.[16] It was joined in Chapter 11 status by WVFT in April 1989.[17]

Merger with WVFT

Subchannels

WWCW broadcasts from a transmitter on Thaxton Mountain in central Bedford County. WWCW and WFXR broadcast two shared channels (The CW on 21.1 and 27.2 and Fox on 21.2 and 27.1) and two unique diginets each. Also broadcast on the WWCW multiplex are two subchannels of WZBJ-CD as part of the market's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) hosting arrangement.

{{legend|#E6FFF7|Simulcast of subchannels of another station}} {{legend|#DFEBF6|Broadcast on behalf of another station}}

Analog-to-digital conversion

WWCW ended regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20, using virtual channel 21.[21]