WOWK-TV


WOWK-TV, virtual channel 13, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Huntington, West Virginia, United States and serving the Charleston–Huntington television market. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. WOWK-TV's studios are located on Quarrier Street near the Charleston Town Center in Charleston, and its transmitter is located in Milton, West Virginia.

History

The station went on-air October 2, 1955 as WHTN-TV, an ABC affiliate owned by the Greater Huntington Theater Corporation. After only a year, the station was bought by Cowles Communications. WHTN swapped affiliations with WCHS-TV and became a CBS station for the first time in 1958. In 1960, Cowles sold Channel 13 to Reeves Telecom. It went back to ABC in 1962 and stayed with that network for 24 years. Reeves Telecom sold the station to Gateway Communications in 1974. The following March, it changed its call letters to the current WOWK-TV to reflect the three states it serves. On June 1, 1986, it changed affiliations again, returning to CBS.
The station was headquartered at the Radio Center Building in Huntington from its inception until 1984 when WOWK moved to a location on Fifth Avenue. Gateway merged with SJL Broadcasting in 2000. SJL sold it to West Virginia Media Holdings in 2002. After the sale to West Virginia Media, it sold its Huntington building to regional radio conglomerate Kindred Communications and moved its studio and offices to Charleston. WOWK does retain a newsroom in their former building in Huntington and its transmitter is still located at the Milton location.
On November 17, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WOWK-TV, for $130 million. Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017. Nexstar CEO Perry A. Sook was a former employee of WOWK.
On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with Katz Broadcasting for the Escape, Laff, Grit, and Bounce TV networks, bringing one or more of the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including WOWK-TV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
13.11080iWOWK-CBSMain WOWK-TV programming / CBS
13.2480iESCAPECourt TV Mystery
13.3480iLAFFLaff
13.4480iGRITGrit TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOWK-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, in early 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 47 to VHF channel 13. On January 25, 2009, an ice storm damaged the primary analog VHF channel 13 transmitter. Rather than repair it for two more months of service, the station shut down its analog transmission early and brought its digital channel 13 transmitter on-line.

News operation

WOWK-TV airs the market's only 7 p.m. newscast. The station also airs a 5 p.m. newscast. It provided weather forecasts for WVNS-TV in Beckley–Bluefield until late 2016.
On May 16, 2011, WOWK expanded its morning newscast to a 4:30 a.m. start time. It was the first station in the market, as well as in the state, to do so. The morning news expansion is a growing trend across the United States.
WOWK produces a state-wide evening newscast, West Virginia Tonight, which is simulcast across all of the former West Virginia Media Holdings stations, as well as Nexstar's existing WDVM-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland.