WJLA-TV

:Not to be confused with KJLA, WJAL or WLAJ.
==WTVW==
===1947===
The District of Columbia's third television station began broadcasting on October 3, 1947 as WTVW, owned by the Washington Star, along with WMAL radio (630 AM, now WSBN, and 107.3 FM, now WLVW). It was the thirteenth overall and first high-band VHF television station (channels 7-13) in the United States, plus the third TV station in the nation's capital. Channel 7 started as a CBS station since ABC had not yet established its television network.
==WMAL-TV==
===1947–1951===
A few months later, the station changed its call letters to WMAL-TV after its radio sisters. WMAL radio had been an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network since 1933, and remained with the network after it was spun off by NBC and evolved into ABC. When ABC launched on television in 1948, WMAL-TV became ABC's third primary affiliate; the station continued to carry some CBS programming until WOIC (channel 9, now WUSA) signed on in 1949. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
===1951–1971===
===1971–1975===
===1975–1977===
In 1975, Houston businessman Joe Allbritton, the owner of the now-defunct Washington-based Riggs Bank, purchased a controlling interest in the Star's media properties, which by that time also included WLVA radio and WLVA-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia; and the former WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina. As a condition of the purchase, Allbritton was given three years to break up the Washington newspaper/broadcast combination, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was seeking to prohibit under the tightening of its concentration of media ownership policy.
==WJLA-TV==
===1977–1984===
As FCC regulations at the time prevented separately-owned stations from sharing the same call sign, WMAL-TV became WJLA-TV on April 25, 1977, after Allbritton's initials. The station would keep its 1975 circle-split 7 logo even with the change.
===1984–2001===
====1984–1998====
Notice the "7" in this version has a slight notch on it and is squared off as opposed to rounded off previously. Australia's Seven Network would use a logo similar to that of WJLA from 1989 to 1999. After WJZ-TV in Baltimore switched to CBS in 1995, WJLA-TV became ABC's longest-tenured television affiliate.
====1998–2001====
===2001–present===
In 2001, WJLA-TV adopted the standard version of the "Circle 7" logo, refueling speculation that ABC would purchase the station, a deal that would never come to pass. WJLA-TV is the largest ABC affiliate to use the Circle 7 that is not an ABC owned-and-operated station. In addition, sister station KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, has used the standard Circle 7 since 1965, longer than all WJLA-TV versions combined.
====2001–2007====
====2007–2013====
====2013–2019====
====2019–2021====
A similar design is shared with ABC O&Os WABC-TV in New York City and KGO-TV in San Francisco, which the latter used until 2003.
====2021–present====
For the first time since 2001 when the ABC network logo was added to the station's logo, the ABC network logo is moved from the center left to the bottom left of the circle, following suit of two of ABC's owned and operated stations, KGO-TV and its West Coast flagship station, KABC-TV.
==External links==
Category:Television stations in the United States
Category:ABC network affiliates
Category:Comet network affiliates
Category:Former CBS network affiliates
Category:Former MeTV affiliates
Category:Washington, D.C.
Category:Sinclair Broadcast Group
Category:Allbritton Communications Company
Category:Television stations using the Circle 7 logo
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1947