On June 5, 1984, a 32-year-old man drove to the studios of WJTM-TV in Winston-Salem. 1984 hostage situation and call sign change to WNRW Even as TVX took over, Piece Goods found itself facing lawsuits for debts the station had owed to a bank prior to the sale. Immediately, and even before the transmitter move to Sauratown in April 1981, ratings ticked up slightly at the same time, the studios moved to their present site. The call letters were also changed to WJTM-TV on October 20, 1980, as TVX sought to bring to Winston-Salem the programming style that had made WTVZ immediately competitive in Norfolk. The Simms brothers disappeared from the airwaves, while stronger shows were added and TVX announced it would build a more powerful transmitter facility on Sauratown Mountain. After WTVZ in Norfolk, it was the second station to be owned by Television Corporation Stations (abbreviated TVX and later changed to TVX Broadcast Group). In 1980, Piece Goods sold 85 percent of WGNN-TV and operational control to the Television Corporation of North Carolina, a company controlled by investors from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. The station's programming turned out to be more general-entertainment than the religion-heavy, family-friendly lineup once advertised. The proprietors of Piece Goods, twin brothers Dudley and John Simms, also appeared on air giving editorials that were strongly conservative in character. Piece Goods had stepped in when Good News TV Network ran out of cash to put the station on the air. Shortly before going on air, Good News TV Network had sold the construction permit for the station to a subsidiary of Piece Goods Stores, a chain of fabric stores in Winston-Salem. From a transmitter on the Wachovia Building in Winston-Salem and studios on its top floor, program testing for WGNN-TV began on September 22, 1979. Delays in equipment delivery and installation pushed the station's start from 1978 back into 1979 the station also had to settle a payment dispute with an equipment installer. The station was originally proposed to operate on a non-commercial basis with Christian religious programs and some secular classic films, though it eventually decided to accept some commercial advertising. Good News TV had been formed after the local Calvary Baptist Church voted to set aside $139,000 for the construction of the proposed outlet one of the directors was Stuart Epperson, the founder of Salem Communications. In February 1976, Good News TV Network filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build a new commercial TV station in Winston-Salem, which the commission granted in August 1977. Since then, Sinclair has implemented smaller-scale news programs for the station, first as part of the News Central service, then with cable news channel News 14 Carolina (later Spectrum News North Carolina) and since 2021 with local reporters and anchors at a Sinclair station in Texas.Īs an independent station and Fox affiliate WGNN-TV and WJTM-TV: Establishment Sinclair shuttered the local news department in January 2002. The station's local newscasts failed to make headway against the established stations in the Triad. It also picked up a secondary affiliation with UPN, which became channel 48's primary programming when the simulcast was split the next year. In 1995, as a result of regional ABC affiliate WGHP switching to Fox, channel 45 became an ABC affiliate under new WXLV call letters and began broadcasting local news programming. Act III combined the station's schedule and programming with Greensboro independent WGGT in 1991, creating a simulcast. WNRW became the market's first Fox affiliate in 1986 TVX then sold it to Act III Broadcasting in 1986 in order to acquire a station in the adjacent Raleigh market. After a gunman killed the general sales manager in 1984, TVX renamed the station WNRW, incorporating his initials. It was sold to Television Corporation Stations-later renamed TVX Broadcast Group-in 1980 and changed its call sign to WJTM-TV, becoming the Triad's first general-entertainment independent station. Both stations share studios on Myer Lee Drive (along US 421) in Winston-Salem, while WXLV-TV's transmitter is located in Randleman (along I-73/ US 220).Ĭhannel 45 went on the air in 1979 as WGNN-TV, a Christian-oriented TV station. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV (channel 48). WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region.
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