WUPV

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WUPV
Ashland / Richmond, Virginia
Branding	CW Richmond
Channels	65 (UHF) analog, 47 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Southeastern Media Holdings (operated by Raycom Media)
Founded	1990
Call letters meaning	UPN Virginia
Former callsigns	WZXK (1990-1994) WAWB-TV (1995-1997) WZYX (temporary call sign after WAWB became a UPN affiliate 1997-1998)
Former affiliations	Independent (1990-1994) The WB (1995-1997) PAX TV (secondary 1998-1999) UPN (1997-2006)
Website	www.cwrichmond.tv

WUPV, known on air as CW Richmond, is a CW television affiliate servicing the Richmond, Virginia television market and licensed to the nearby town of Ashland. It broadcasts on UHF channel 65, with a digital signal on channel 47. The station is owned by Southeastern Media Holdings, a company wholly owned by Raycom Media, owner of Richmond's CBS affiliate, WTVR-TV. In addition to CW programming, WUPV airs a typical lineup of talk shows, syndicated reruns, court shows, and college sports. Weekend programming usually includes Saturday and Sunday "double features" made up of B-movies. The station currently airs a 10 p.m. newscast produced by WTVR-TV.

Contents 1 History 1.1 From UPN to The CW 2 News Programs 3 External links

[edit] History

Channel 65 began operation in 1990 as a religious television station with the calls WZXK owned by Crystal Broadcasting. Originally offering only Christian programs, it began branching into general entertainment programs in the later afternoon/early evening hours over the next few years. By 1993, WZXK upgraded to 24-hour operations and increased non-religious programming to occupy about 1/3 of its daily schedule.

Two years later, Bell Broadcasting, LLC purchased WZXK and affiliated it with the fledgling WB network, changing the calls to WAWB. In 1997, Bell Broadcasting sold the station to Virginia based Lockwood Broadcasting, which negotiated with WRLH to move the UPN affiliation from being secondary on WRLH to primary on WAWB. With this move, WAWB took the temporary calls of WZYX and shortly after took the current calls of WUPV.

Shortly after this move, WRLH owners Act III Broadcasting was purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which was in the midst of changing many of its stations to WB and was legally enjoined from doing so in Richmond due to the contract signed by Bell Broadcasting after much trying. After the affiliation swap, WB programming moved to NBC affiliate WWBT-TV in 1998, where programming aired in overnight hours through the summer of 2006 (this arrangement led to Richmond being one of the worst markets for WB network ratings) while Kids WB programming was cleared on WRLH.

In 1998, WUPV carried PAX TV (now i) as a secondary affiliate until PAX placed a 24-hour cable channel on most cable systems in Richmond.

In the early 2000s, several attempts to launch a standalone WB affiliate in the market fell through, among them low-power channel 48 (later reallocated and now Daystar-owned WSVL-LP) and full-power channel 19 (reallocated to Charlottesville and now CBS affiliate WCAV).[1]

Some UPN affiliates aired selected shows from UPN such as America's Next Top Model, or Veronica Mars from the previous week during the weekend. WUPV was one of the affiliates used to air Veronica Mars on Saturday Morning at 11AM but for unknown reasons quickly replaced it with infomercials in early June 2006.

[edit] From UPN to The CW

As the only available UPN or WB affiliate in the Richmond market, it was announced on April 4 that WUPV would affiliate with the successor to both networks, The CW, in the fall of 2006.

On May 29, 2006, a month after the announcement, WUPV started airing commercials promoting their CW affiliation, which took effect on September 18, 2006. WUPV, formerly locally known as UPN Richmond, became CW Richmond at midnight on July 27, 2006. However, the station continued to carry UPN programming (except for their weekend movie) until the network's closure.

In 2007, WUPV will operate out of WTVR-TV’s Broad Street studios in Richmond ,but had a new website.

[edit] News Programs

On March 5, 2007, WUPV launch a 35-minute newscast produced by WTVR-TV, called CW News @ 10 , to compete against WRLH's newscast, FOX News @ 10, produced by WWBT-TV.

• CW Richmond News at 10 weeknights 10:00pm-10:35pm. No weekend newscast.

[edit] External links

• WUPV Homepage
• Richmond VARTV Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WUPV

Broadcast television in the Richmond market  (Nielsen DMA #61)
WTVR 6 (CBS/The Tube) - WRIC 8 (ABC) - WWBT 12 (NBC) - WFLV 15 (Rel) - WXOB 17 (Rel) - WCVE 23 (PBS) - WFMA 28 (Rel) - WRLH 35 (Fox/MNTV)  W39CO 39 (TBN) - WKYV 45 (Rel) - WRID 48 (DS) - WCVW 57 (PBS) - WUPV 65 (The CW) Past station:  WVRN 63 (Ind)