WXVT

WXVT
Greenville/Greenwood, Mississippi
United States
Branding WXVT CBS 15 (general)
Delta News (newscasts)
Slogan More Local News
Channels Digital: 15 (UHF)
Subchannels 15.1 CBS
Owner H3 Communications, LLC
(operated by Commonwealth Broadcasting Group; sale to John Wagner pending; to be operated by Cala Broadcast Partners thereafter)
First air date November 7, 1980 (1980-11-07)
Call letters' meaning XV (Roman numeral 15) Television
Sister station(s) WABG, WNBD
Former channel number(s) 15 (UHF analog, 1980–2009)
Former affiliations UPN (1995–2006, secondary)
Transmitter power 330 kW
Height 269 m
Facility ID 25236
Transmitter coordinates 33°39′26″N 90°42′18″W / 33.65722°N 90.70500°W / 33.65722; -90.70500
Website www.yourdeltanews.com

WXVT is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Delta area of Northwestern Mississippi that is licensed to Greenville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter northeast of Shaw. Owned by H3 Communications, LLC, the station is operated by Commonwealth Broadcasting Group under a shared services agreement, making it a sister station to ABC affiliate WABG-TV and low-powered NBC affiliate WNBD-LD. The station has studios on East Reed Road in Greenville. Syndicated programming on WXVT includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Divorce Court, and Judge Joe Brown.

History

Its first broadcast was on November 7, 1980. It has been a CBS affiliate for its entire existence. Before this, WJTV in Jackson had served as the default affiliate. The station was originally owned by Big River Broadcasting. Future sister station WABG was actually the Delta's original CBS affiliate when it launched back in October 1959. However a few months later, WJTV complained that WABG was encroaching on its service area. This is because WABG's signal reaches the far northern fringes of the Jackson market. Big River Broadcasting sold the station to Lamco Communications in 1984. Lamco then sold WXVT to a local ownership group in 1991. Saga Communications purchased WXVT in 1999, David Cavileer became the VP/General Manager and remodeled the station and News Set.

On May 4, 2012, an application was filed with the FCC to transfer ownership of WXVT from Saga Communications to H3 Communications. H3 Communications is owned by the adult children of Charles Harker, president of Commonwealth Broadcasting Group, which owns WABG and WNBD. On January 28, 2013, the FCC granted the sale of WXVT, and it was completed two days later.[1][2] Commonwealth then took over WXVT's operations, effectively bringing all of the Delta's Big Three network stations under the control of one company.

H3 Communications agreed to sell WXVT to Cala Broadcast Partners for $3.7 million on October 30, 2015;[3] concurrently, Cala will purchase WABG-TV, WNBD-LD, and WFXW-LD from Commonwealth Broadcasting Group.[4] Cala is jointly owned by Brian Brady (who owns several other television stations, mostly under the Northwest Broadcasting name) and Jason Wolff (who owns radio and television stations through Frontier Radio Management).[4] On November 30, 2015, Cala assigned its right to purchase WXVT to John Wagner for $100,000.[3]

Newscasts

WXVT's news department is quite small compared with other Big Three stations, even considering the size of the market. It has always been well behind WABG in the ratings. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Central Time Zone, this station does not air midday news during the week. It also does not offer a full two-hour weekday morning show. WXVT has won numerous Mississippi Associated Press awards including first place for "Best Newscast", "Best Weathercast", "Best Feature Story", "Best Sport Story", and "Best Spot News Story".

Notable Alumni

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.