WCON

**WCON** (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Hampton Roads area. The station has been owned by the Price Media Group since 2017. The station has been on the air since 1957, and has been consistently the number-three station in the market, behind WHRT and WATN. Its studios are located on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard in downtown Newport News, while its transmitter is on Ballahack Road in Chesapeake.

## History

### Sign-on and early years

WVAV-TV signed on the air on August 10, 1957, as an affiliate of the ABC television network. The station was built and signed on by Timothy Toland, who also owned the WCON-AM radio station in Norfolk, as well as WTTT, the CBS television affiliate in Durham, North Carolina. WVAV's stood for **V**irgini**a**'s **V**irginia Beach, a city served by the station. WVAV was the first television station in the area, but not for long, as longtime rival WHRT signed on the air in 1960.

WHRT launched a 15-minute nightly newscast in 1964, airing weeknights at 11:15 p.m. WVAV had been the number one station in the Hampton Roads area since its sign-on, but after WHRT's newscasts debuted, they switched places. WVAV launched a 30-minute 11:00 p.m. newsmagazine, *Virginia At Issue*, in 1965. This newscast, which catered to a different, younger audience, was successful, but still did not beat WHRT.

In 1967, another edition of *Virginia At Issue* debuted in the 5:30 p.m. slot as a lead-in to the ABC's *World News Tonight*. This broadcast was hosted by Donny Wenokur, who was a longtime anchor for the station, fronting the weeknight 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. at the time of his retirement in 2002. WVAV won this slot, as WHRT did not air a newscast at that time (and they didn't until *Hard Copy* ended its run in 1999).

In February 1973, general manager Charlie Boynton contacted rhythm and blues singer Ruth Brown, who was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was interested in having Brown, who had mostly left the public eye by that point, host a weekly music program for WVAV. She agreed, and *Ruth Brown's Hour of Music* debuted on April 5, 1973 at 1:00 p.m. The program preempted *All My Children* and *Let's Make a Deal*, both of which were aired by a newer station, WOCH in Manteo. The program was a huge success, and by August, it was airing bi-weekly, with a rerun on Mondays at 11:00 a.m.

### Sale to Spartan Communications

On March 4, 1975, Toland announced that he was bowing out of television to focus on his radio station. WVAV would be sold to Spartan Communications as their second television station. The sale was completed on July 1, 1975. The *Hour of Music* was picked up by sister station, WANC in Asheville, North Carolina. The station aired it Fridays at 4:00 p.m. In late 1975, WVAV's newscasts began using a more traditional format, and rebranded to *WVAV News Hampton Roads*. Early in 1976, the station hired John Friedman as their chief meteorologist. Friedman was the first television weather forecaster in the market to have an AMS Seal of Approval. He retired in 2017.

In 1978, the coverage area for the *Hour of Music* expanded when the Chesapeake Television Corporation (now known as the Sinclair Broadcast Group) began airing the program on its two independent stations in Baltimore, Maryland and Columbus, Ohio. However, both stations dropped the show in early 1980 as it did not do as well in those areas. In July 1982, WVAV moved the show to air Fridays at noon. WANC dropped it from their lineup that same year.

In 1985, *Ruth Brown's Hour of Music* ended its run on WVAV after nearly 12 years on the air. The last episode aired on June 21, 1985, and was also aired by their Asheville sister station. The broadcast featured an interview with Boynton, and ended with Brown (whose role on the show was usually limited to interacting with musicians and introducing their performances) singing one of her own songs, "Oh What a Dream". A tape containing the episode is held at the station's studios, and is rebroadcast on June 21 every year.

In September 1986, the station began carrying *The Oprah Winfrey Show* in the 10:00 a.m. slot. In the summer of 1987, a noon newscast launched. The broadcast featured Art Ginsburg's syndicated *Mr. Food* cooking segments, which were a staple of the broadcast. Today, *Mr. Food's Test Kitchen*, a spinoff of the segment, airs during the broadcast.

In 1990, a half-hour morning newscast, *Hampton Roads Sunrise*, launched at 6:30 a.m. Later that year, weekend evening newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays launched in place of syndicated programming. The Saturday edition was followed at 11:30 p.m. by reruns of the *Hour of Music*, marking that program's return to channel 16's airwaves. In 1994, the program was replaced by reruns of *Beverly Hills, 90210*.

### Rebrand to 3 ABC

On September 27, 1995, the station changed call letters to WCON, for **C**ity **o**f **N**orfolk, and also changed channel numbers, moving to channel 3. This change was accompanied by a rebrand to 3 ABC. At the same time, the morning newscast expanded by an hour, starting at 5:30 a.m. In June 1996, the station dropped *Donahue*, which was airing in the 4:00 p.m. slot. UPN affiliate WECN-LP picked up the show, airing it at 3:00 a.m. for its last months on the air. WCON replaced the program with *Oprah*, while the 10:00 a.m. slot was filled by ABC's *Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends*, which was preempted by the station until then.

In 1998, the station launched weekend morning news, airing Saturdays at 6:00 a.m. Shortly after, a weeknight 7:00 p.m. broadcast launched, the first in the market. This was replaced by *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?* in 2002. Sunday morning news launched in 2000.

### Sale to Media General

In 2000, it was announced that all of the stations owned by Spartan Communications, including WCON, would be sold to Media General, based in Richmond. Not long after the sale was completed, WCON received a new logo using the "Media General curve", an updated variant of which is still used today. Additionally, a new graphics package, Media General's "Clouds" look, and a new theme, Metropolis by Stephen Arnold Music, launched.

In September 2005, it was rumored that Media General was exploring the sale of WCON and two other stations to Hoak Media, whose stations were mostly in the Great Plains. On September 21, 2005, the company released a statement saying that they had been interested in such a sale, but did not go through with it as they could not come to an agreement with Hoak. In 2006, after *The Tony Danza Show* ended, WCON moved *Live with Regis and Kelly* to the 10:00 a.m. slot and premiered a 9:00 a.m. newscast.

In 2007, a Sunday morning public-affairs show, *Norfolk Community Forum*, debuted in the 11:00 a.m. slot, airing after *This Week*. In 2008, the show was renamed *WCON Listens*, and widened its scope to cover the entire Hampton Roads market. From 2009 until 2015, various *WCON Listens Special Report* news specials aired in primetime following major events (such as the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013).

### Media General acquisition and sale to Price Media Group

On January 27, 2016, it was announced that Media General and its stations had been acquired by Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $4.6 billion. However, Nexstar already owned WATN, the CBS affiliate licensed to Portsmouth. As both WATN and WCON are top four stations in the market, the FCC would not allow Nexstar to own both stations. So, on May 27, 2016, it was announced that WCON, along with WIND in Terre Haute, Indiana, would be divested to the Price Media Group. The transaction was completed along with the rest of the Media General sale on January 17, 2017.

In October 2017, Price added Buzzr to WCON's DT3 subchannel. On May 15, 2018, WCON debuted a new graphics package and adopted Image News by Gari Media Group as their theme. However, the station continues to use the Media General-era logo with a crescent.

## News/station presentation

### Newscast titles

* Virginia At Issue (1965-1975)
* WVAV News Hampton Roads (1975-1995)
* 3 ABC News (1995-present)

### News themes

* Virginia At Issue Theme - Oliver Manfield (1965-1975)
* Stardrive: Pulsar - Stardrive (1975-1982)
* Newsbeat - TM Productions (1982-1987)
* Power News - 615 Music (1987-1995)
* 3 ABC News Theme - Stephen Arnold Music (1995-1998)
* Absolute News - Non-Stop Music (1998-2001)
* Metropolis - Stephen Arnold Music (2001-2006)
* Media General News Package - JDK Music (2006-2013)
* Canvas - Stephen Arnold Music (2013-2018)
* Image News - Gari Media Group (2018-present)

### Voiceover artists

* No voiceover (1965-1975)
* Kevin Hurley (1975-1986)
* Donny Wenokur (1986-2002)
* Chris Clausen (2002-2009)
* Bill Ratner (2009-2018)
* Fred North (2018-present)

## Programming

Syndicated programming seen on WCON includes *Live with Kelly and Mark*, *Access Hollywood*, and *Tamron Hall*. Since 2015, the station has broadcast *Good Morning Hampton Roads*, a daily lifestyle show airing weekdays at 9:00 a.m., with "best-of" shows airing Sunday mornings at 5:30 a.m.

## Technical information

### Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 3.2
 3.3