Switch to ABC and news launch
On May 23, 1994, as part of a deal between Fox and New World Communications, it was announced that High Point-based ABC affiliate WGHP (channel 8) would change from ABC to Fox. The deal left WNRW–WGGT as a Fox affiliate with an uncertain future once the network moved and ABC without an affiliate in the Triad. In the meantime, during the first season of the NFL on Fox, the station took the step of allowing fans to vote by telephone on which NFC football game it would telecast each week, a year before the Carolina Panthers first took the field. This was particularly unusual because Fox assigned games to stations; when the Greensboro News & Record interviewed the director of media relations for Fox Sports, he reacted, "They're doing what?"[28]
The timing of the affiliation switch in the Triad market was mostly driven by the station ownership juggling that New World had to conduct with WGHP. With 15 stations under option, New World was three stations over the 12-station limit then in force.[29] In February 1995, WGHP finally gave ABC its six months' notice of its plan to disaffiliate from the network, with WNRW–WGGT immediately earmarked as the new ABC affiliate in the market.[30]
The arrival of ABC to channels 45 and 48 came with plans to start a local newsroom. In May 1995, the station hired its first news director,[31] and a total of 33 people—mostly from out of the market, with the notable exception of sportscaster Johnny Phelps—were hired to produce and present the station's newscasts.[32] As channel 45 staffed up its newsroom, the station was sold. In June, Act III Broadcasting merged with ABRY Broadcast Partners;[33] the firm named Dan Sullivan, president of the TV division of Clear Channel Communications, to run Sullivan Broadcasting, a joint venture with ABRY to manage the former Act III portfolio.[34]
Eleven years after the murder of William Rismiller, the station also sought to change its call letters in order to establish a new identity for the station as an ABC affiliate.[35] After discussions with Rismiller's widow, the station announced it would change its call sign to WXLV-TV on September 3, 1995, the date it would become an ABC affiliate; simultaneously, plans were announced to establish a scholarship in his name and dedicate the newsroom in his memory. To obtain permission to share the WXLV call sign from its existing user, the FM radio station at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Pennsylvania, it donated a used audio board.[36]
Founding news director Chris Huston promised a focus on regional coverage and issues, hoping to leave aside a perceived focus on Winston-Salem, Greensboro, or High Point.[37] However, despite ABC's strong national standing, viewers did not flock to WXLV's new 6 a.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. local newscasts. Where WFMY and WXII drew 28 and 25 percent of the news audience at 11, WXLV attracted just 5 percent.[38] An 11:30 a.m. newscast was tested but failed to draw ratings and was canceled after 13 weeks.[39]
After five years, the simulcast of channels 45 and 48 was unwound on September 1, 1996, when channel 48 regained separate programming as full-time UPN affiliate WUPN.[40]
Sinclair acquisition; news department closure
In 1998, Sinclair Broadcast Group bought Sullivan Broadcasting; it also assumed Sullivan's local marketing agreement to program WUPN on behalf of its owner, Mission Broadcasting.[41][42] Sinclair initially invested in the WXLV news operation. To save money, WXLV had discontinued its morning newscast in March 1997. After the sale to Sinclair, the company restored the morning news and bought new equipment for the station.[43] New lead-in The Jerry Springer Show beat the other three stations' 5 p.m. newscasts and also helped the station lift its 6 p.m. news ratings slightly.[44]
However, as the station continued to make little progress at challenging the existing stations in the ratings, Sinclair cut back in the newsroom. In November 2000, the station discontinued its morning and weekend newscasts and laid off 10 full-time employees in hopes of focusing attention on its 6 and 11 p.m. broadcasts.[45]
News Central
While a full-scale news department was scrapped, a new corporate initiative at Sinclair put the restoration of news programming to its Triad stations on the table before 2002 had concluded.[49] The company launched News Central, a hybrid national-local news service designed to service Sinclair's stations that were not producing news. In July 2003, WUPN debuted its News Central newscast; as with others of its type, the newscasts combined local news coverage read by anchors in Winston-Salem with national news and weather from Sinclair's corporate headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland. In January 2004, a second News Central newscast debuted, this time an 11 p.m. broadcast for WXLV.[50] The newscasts aired until August 10, 2005, when the newsroom was shut down and 22 people lost their jobs. At 10 p.m., the WUPN newscast attracted two percent of the audience compared with 15 percent viewing WGHP; the 11 p.m. newscast also attracted two percent of the audience, while 19 percent watched WXII and 16 percent watched WFMY.[51][52]
