WUVT

**WUVT**, virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 11), is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Parkland, North Carolina, United States and serving the Richardstown Metro area. It is owned by FITNE Communications, an broadcast division of FITNE Films.

## WUVT

### Branding

WUVT 9CityPoint CW (The CW Plus DT2)

WUVT 9 Plus (Weather Forecast 24/7 DT3)

MeTV CityPoint (MeTV DT4)

### Affiliations

**9.1:** NBC (originally primary from 1978-1985, returned in 1991)**9.2:** The CW Plus

**9.3:** Weather Forecast 24/7

**9.4:** MeTV

### Former affiliations

The Carolinas Network/Fox Carolinas (primary) 1985-1991
NBC (secondary) 1985-1991

UPN (DT2) 1997-2006

NBC Weather Plus (DT3) 2001-2008

RTV (DT3) 2011-2014

## History

It was Parkland's first NBC station, when it first aired in 1978, before that year, WEET could be seen on analog tv channel lineups.

It was also notable for airing a few throwback NBC shows with an agreement with National Telefilm Associates.

In 1985, its original owner Greg Carlos, sold this station to TCN Holdings, the then owners of The Carolinas Network, which marked TCN's return to broadcast industry. NBC became a secondary affiliate, while the primary was replaced by The Carolinas Network.

In 1991, TCN Holding Corp, the owners of The Carolinas Network by that time, was sold to News Corporation, and The Carolinas Network was renamed Fox Carolinas. Since FCC regulations do not allow foreign companies to own more than a 25% interest in a television station (although News Corp's owner Rupert Murdoch was an American citizen that he had filed back in 1986 to purchase Metromedia's broadcasting assets), TCN sold WUVT to Herce Broadcasters, which later was sold to Ellis Communications in 1994.

Ellis was a longtime fan of his hometown's long-dominant ABC-affiliated station, WSB-TV, and styled his new broadcast group after that station, resulting in WUVT (one of six Ellis stations that initially adopted such logos, along with WMC-TV in Memphis and WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina) adopted a WSB-inspired logo in November 1995, after it adopted a graphics package originally developed for WMC-TV. (WUVT continues to use the 1995 logo, albeit slightly modified to this day.)

On May 16, 1996, Ellis Communications announced it would sell its fifteen television and two radio stations and sports production/syndication firm Raycom Sports to Atlanta-based Ellis Acquisitions Inc. (founded by Boston-based M&A lawyer Stephen Burr, with financing from Montgomery, Alabama-based pension fund administrator Retirement Systems of Alabama) in an all-cash deal worth $732 million; the Ellis Communications stations as well as subsequent purchases of television stations owned by AFLAC and Detroit-based Federal Enterprises Inc. served as the charter properties of Raycom Media. The purchase of WUVT and the Ellis stations received FCC approval on July 26. 1996.

However, Raycom could not keep WUVT for long due to a slight signal overlap with Richardstown's WEET, an Ellis property that was also part of the deal. WUVT's city-grade signal reaches the northern portion of the Richardstown market. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap. FITNE Communications bought this station in 1997.

Because it is owned by FITNE, this station also sometime airs Best of FITNE block.

On November 2, 2019, Hudson announced to sell FITNE Films to Greg Delord, a notable motion film assistant in the Richardstown area. The broadcast assets (including WUVT) however will be sold to FITNE Communications Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of CityPoint Capital Group, after the sale of the studio is completed.

## Programming

Syndicated programming on WUVT includes Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Alan Landsburg Productions produced shows (e.g. In Search of...), Law & Order, majority of 13 Studio and FITNE Films content, post-1986 MGM movies, One Tree Hill, and a few others.