WXVT
| 175px | |
| 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 |
| 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 | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| 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
- Audrey Puente, Meteorologist, now at WNYW
- Hoda Kotb, The Today Show fourth hour co-anchor and Dateline NBC correspondent, now at NBC News, New York
References
- ↑ http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1538748.pdf
- ↑ https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101539488&formid=905&fac_num=25236
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
