page_title: WWBT
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: WWBT / History
caption_attribution_description: Title: Richmond Council of Churches, WRVA-TV Creator: Adolph B. Rice Studio Date: January 10, 1959 Identifier: Rice Collection 2149A Format: 1 negative, safety film, 4 x 5 in. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Virginia, Prints and Photographs, 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA, 23219, USA, &lt;a href="http://digitool1.lva.lib.va.us:8881/R"&gt;digitool1.lva.lib.va.us:8881/R&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: WWBT, virtual channel 12, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with Ashland-licensed CW affiliate WUPV. The two stations share studios on Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond, where WWBT's transmitter is also located.
  WWBT is one of only a few stations in the country to have been affiliated with all three of the original major American television networks.
context_section_description: In the 1950s, there was competition for the market's third television frequency. WTVR-TV had been on-the-air since 1948 while WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV) had been on-the-air from Petersburg since 1955. The main competitors for the analog VHF channel 12 license were Larus and Brother Tobacco Company, owner of WRVA (AM 1140) and WRVB-FM (94.5, now WRVQ) and Richmond Newspapers, owner of WRNL and forerunner of Media General. Larus later merged its application with Neighborhood Theaters' Richmond Television Corporation, assuming controlling interest. Both applicants had good records and were financially qualified, but RTVC won the license since it did not own a newspaper. At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was concerned about co-ownership of newspaper and broadcast outlets and preferred separation.
  WRVA-TV signed-on for the first time on April 29, 1956 from a converted cow barn near the station's current facility. The studio and transmitter were located in what was then unincorporated Chesterfield County; the area was not annexed into the independent city of Richmond until the early 1960s. It was initially a CBS affiliate due to WRVA's long affiliation with CBS Radio. That station was one of the broadcasting powerhouses of the South, but that success did not transfer to its television sister. For instance, WRVA radio's top anchorman took the same role with channel 12, but was fired within a year when the popularity he had generated over a decade on radio failed to transfer to television. Part of the problem was that the goal of covering all of Central Virginia resulted in a marginal signal in Richmond itself and several close-in suburbs. With channel 12 remaining stubbornly in third place, CBS opted to return to long-dominant WTVR in 1960. Since WXEX was already affiliated with NBC, WRVA was left with struggling ABC. Ratings improved in the next five years leading Larus to try to seek the NBC affiliation, a switch which occurred in 1965. Like its cross-town rival WTVR, it is one of the few stations in the country to have been a primary affiliate of all of the "Big Three" networks. From 1959 until 1969, it broadcast an in-house children's series, The Sailor Bob Show.
  In 1966, the family-owned Larus and Brothers (which had acquired full control of channel 12 in 1960) decided to split its various interests after longtime president William T. Reed died. Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina emerged as the winner for WRVA-TV. It would have bought the radio stations as well, but at the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two clear-channel stations with overlapping nighttime coverage. Larus-owned WRVA's nighttime signal had a significant overlap with the signal of Jefferson Standard flagship WBT in Charlotte; between them, the two would have blanketed most of the eastern half of North America at night. As part of the application, Jefferson Standard requested a callsign change to the current WWBT, which occurred on November 28, 1968. The new owners immediately went to work overhauling the station's look. It was already in second place in the Richmond ratings by then, but by the early-1980s, was the highest-rated station in the market and one of the strongest NBC stations in the country. By this time, Jefferson Standard had changed its name to Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. Also helping matters was NBC's rise in the ratings to become the #1 network as the 1980s went on.
  WWBT added a secondary WB affiliation in 1999, airing WB programming in late-night hours as well as adding Kids' WB programming on weekdays and Saturdays (including the Daytime WB block that replaced weekday cartoons in 2006) in addition to the TNBC block. This ended on August 31, 2006, in anticipation of The WB and UPN merging to form The CW; that network affiliated with former UPN affiliate WUPV. On October 10, 2005, Jefferson-Pilot announced a merger with Lincoln Financial Group. The sale became final on April 3, 2006, with the Jefferson-Pilot stations assuming the new corporate name of Lincoln Financi
caption: Religious broadcast on WRVA-TV, 1959
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