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WDCW (channel 50), branded DCW 50, is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, serving as the local outlet for
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
. It is
owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by network majority owner
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
alongside
Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...
–licensed
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
WDVM-TV (channel 25); the two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington's Glover Park neighborhood. Through a channel sharing agreement with
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...
station WFDC-DT (channel 14), WDCW transmits using WFDC's spectrum from a tower in the
Tenleytown Tenleytown is a historic neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest, Washington, D.C. History In 1790, locals began calling the neighborhood "Tennally's Town" after area tavern owner John Tennally. Over time, the spelling has evolve ...
area of Washington's Northwest quadrant. The station began broadcasting in November 1981 as WCQR, culminating a 17-year struggle to get the station on air that included the death of the original permittee, bankruptcy, and years in the FCC's comparative hearing process. The station launched primarily as a vehicle for
subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
(STV) programming from Super TV, which served the Washington and
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
areas. After the station was sold in 1985, it became WFTY and dropped the subscription content, operating as the Washington area's third independent station. After a foreclosure sale in 1993, it affiliated with
The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
in 1995, improving its programming and market standing, and was sold to
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television station, television and radio stations thro ...
. WDCW was one of the charter affiliates of The CW in 2006. Over the years, the station has had several partial attempts at airing or producing local newscasts; the most recent, ''DC News Now'', debuted in 2022.


History


Pre-broadcasting history

The history of channel 50 in Washington, D.C., began in 1964 when the first application was received for the channel from All American Television Features, owned by record executive and conductor
Mitch Miller Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...
. That application was joined by three others. Theodore (Ted) Granik had once hosted '' The American Forum of the Air'', a debate program on NBC Radio; his Washington application was one of seven he planned nationwide, primarily in the northeastern U.S. O. Roy Chalk, then-owner of DC Transit, applied through his company, Transportation Communications of America. The Greater Washington Educational Television Association, owner of WETA-TV (channel 26), sought to establish channel 50 as a second educational channel. WETA dropped out of the channel 50 race when the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) moved channel 32 from
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania Lock Haven is a city in, and the county seat of, Clinton County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven Micropolitan ...
, to Washington for
non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...
use, but a fourth applicant, Washington lawyer Vincent B. Welch, entered the proceeding under the banner of the Colonial Television Corporation. Comparative hearings were held in January 1966. Though Miller did not exactly impress with his failure to recall the names of important D.C. public officials, he did enough to get the initial nod from examiner Basil P. Cooper, who lauded Miller's proposal to move to Washington, host a Saturday night program, and take an active hand in management. Miller, however, was bumped from the lead when the FCC review board opted to strike a different note. In a July 1967 decision, the board chose the application of Granik, a 29-year Washington resident, over that of Miller, a New York resident who would only have been at the station full-time during its start-up period. Miller and Chalk appealed the decision, but the full commission declined the appeals in March 1968. Granik moved forward with his plans to house the station in the Sheraton Park Hotel, where
WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television service, Class A Telemundo outlet W ...
had once been based until it built new facilities in 1958. Proposed programs had such titles including ''Women Want to Know'', ''Report From Congress'', and ''Washington People Speak''. The call sign WGSP-TV was selected, for the owner and location—Granik and Sheraton Park. While a September 1968 debut was announced, WGSP-TV never launched. On September 21, 1970, Granik died in New York; his obituary in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' stated that the station was to go on the air in late October. It was never to be. A failure to get financial backing led WGSP-TV to declare bankruptcy in May 1971; Theodore's son William declared of the station, "As of now, it's dead." Granik's estate did not include sufficient funding for the television station to start. A trustee, Lee Cowan, was named in the bankruptcy case, and he found a buyer. Richard S. Leghorn of
Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...
, initially offered $15,000 for the permit; Leghorn then teamed up with Black telecommunications consultant Theodore S. Ledbetter Jr. to form Trans Community Broadcasting, which paid $45,500 at bankruptcy auction and awaited FCC approval of the transfer of license. Trans Community, which was 58 percent Black-owned, also sought approval from the FCC to broadcast
subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
(STV) programming. The applications necessary to get WGSP-TV going would take years to materialize. In December 1974, Channel 50 Inc., a group owned by Ledbetter and the Model Cities Economic Development Corporation, filed with the FCC to acquire the construction permit from Cowan for $75,000 (equivalent to $ in ). However, the STV portion of the Ledbetter consortium's plans caused another delay. At the time, the FCC had a policy of one STV service in a market, and WDCA-TV (channel 20) had also filed for authority for subscription broadcasts. In 1976, the two STV proposals and WGSP-TV's assignment of construction permit were consolidated in one hearing, with Channel 50 Inc.'s financial qualifications an issue in the proceeding. Channel 50 argued that Washington had enough broadcast television service and was large enough to provide sufficient free service with two STV stations, but WDCA-TV had established better financial backing. The cases awaited hearing for more than three years, but the matter became moot when the FCC amended its STV policy in 1979 to permit multiple STV stations if the market had four or more conventionally operating TV stations. In July 1980, the FCC finally greenlit the assignment of the permit to Channel 50 Inc., and it also approved WGSP-TV's STV programming, which was initially to be provided by Teleprompter Inc., a cable television programmer and part-owner of Showtime. However, Teleprompter lost interest in over-the-air STV and helped Ledbetter, a former manager of WBNB-TV in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to find a replacement. A joint venture of Clint Murchison Jr. and
Field Enterprises Field Enterprises, Inc. was a private holding company that operated from the 1940s to the 1980s, founded by Marshall Field III and others, whose main assets were the '' Chicago Sun'' and '' Parade'' magazine. For various periods of time, Field En ...
, Subscription Television of Greater Washington (STVGW), was formed to provide the STV service for WGSP-TV as well as $3 million in financing (equivalent to $ in ) to construct channel 50, which would go on the air in 1981.


WCQR

After a call sign change and the construction of facilities, channel 50 debuted on Washington screens on November 1, 1981, as WCQR. During the day, the programming was "freeform" in nature, with variety shows and eclectic fare from independent producers; there was little need to generate advertising revenue because of the STV lease. At night, WCQR offered Super TV, the subscription service from Subscription Television of Greater Washington. Super TV presented first-run movies, college basketball games, and an optional late-night adult service to paying subscribers; the base service cost $19.95 a month and came with a $49.95 installation charge. Super TV got off to an uneven start; a computer problem caused some 20 percent of its 5,000 customers in the first month to not receive full service, while customer service phone lines were jammed. However, Super TV hit its stride quickly, with 45,000 subscribers in greater Washington by the summer of 1982 plus 10,000 more in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, where separately owned WNUV-TV signed on simulcasting Super TV's subscription programming. In 1983, Super TV peaked at 85,000 total subscribers, 55,000 in Washington and 30,000 in Baltimore. The freeform programming gave way in late 1983 to the Financial News Network, which signed channel 50 as its 14th affiliate. Prior to that, the station was airing a live camera feed of the skyline as seen from
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...
, largely because Super TV installers needed the station to broadcast a picture to aid in their work. In late 1984, Independent American Broadcasters (IAB), a group headed by Nolanda Hill, filed to buy WCQR and a 50 percent stake in Super TV for $12 million (equivalent to $ in ) plus the assumption of $3 million in debt. The STV service was showing a profit, but the new ownership began to plan the station's transition to ad-supported commercial broadcasting. Hill noted that Ledbetter had gotten the station going but lacked the capital to move forward.


WFTY

On July 1, 1985, WCQR changed its call sign to WFTY. In late October, the station announced that Super TV would come to an end over channel 50 on January 1, 1986. Former Metromedia executive Allen Ginsberg was hired to supervise the purchasing of new programming and promotion for the new commercial independent station. Super TV continued on channel 54 in Baltimore until March 31, 1986, when it left the air as one of the last over-the-air STV services still in business. The newly retooled WFTY stepped out into an independent television world in turmoil. Independent stations were becoming squeezed by high programming prices and a softening advertising market. The ''Post'' described its first full television season as "grueling". The station signed with Viacom for programs, but the station's plans to air ''
I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian ...
'' were dashed by competing independent
WTTG WTTG (channel 5) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station WDCA (cha ...
, which decided to renew the show. By October, the station was owing $1.14 million on its $12 million, seven-year contract (equivalent to $ in ) with the company; Viacom took shows including '' Perry Mason'', then the highest-rated program on WFTY, off the station's air. Further, two executives were replaced amid mismanagement charges that led to breach of contract lawsuits, and Hill moved her corporate headquarters from Dallas to the station's facilities in
Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth ...
, renaming the group from Hill Broadcasting to Corridor Broadcasting. In 1990, WRC-TV made a proposal to WFTY to spend $1,000 a weeknight to program the 7:30 p.m. half-hour with a newscast, which it would produce and sell advertising for. The program, ''7:30 News Headlines'', debuted on January 14, 1991, anchored by Wendy Rieger and seeking to cater to an upscale audience. It was the first such news-share program ever announced and the second to air. However, the newscast attracted worse ratings than the show it replaced, '' The Avengers''. It was doomed by low ratings, a poor economy, and the
Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
, which scrambled news viewing habits right as the program started; as a result, WRC-TV ended the arrangement effective October 25, 1991. The station also tried its hand at producing a local show on issues from a youth perspective, ''Kids Point of View Television''. Hill's broadcast stations would be mired in a series of financial issues in the early 1990s that ultimately led to a foreclosure on her two television properties. A November 1993 report in the ''Post'' revealed that Corridor Broadcasting had contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic political campaigns but owed the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a State-owned enterprises of the United States, United States government corporation supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks. The FDIC was cr ...
(FDIC) $26 million (equivalent to $ in ). It also detailed ties between Hill and Ron Brown, then the
United States Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
(and revealed to be her romantic partner after his death); a company named Harmon International, named after Brown's middle name, owned a small portion of channel 50's equipment and leased it to Hill. An executive with broadcasting industry analyst Paul Kagan Associates labeled WFTY as "in distress", claiming it had "never had a dime of cash flow"; it was attracting too small of an audience to show in ratings books, and it had reportedly lost money for multiple years running. The $26 million loan had belonged to Sunbelt Savings & Loan, a Dallas financial institution that failed; the FDIC refused to foreclose on the loan because it did not want to run a TV station. The FDIC received a $3.1 million (equivalent to $ in ) offer for the failed loan from John and Barbara Foster of
Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
, through their Jasas Corporation. The Fosters specialized in acquiring businesses at foreclosure. They proceeded to foreclose on the note in August 1993 and have WFTY and WHLL in
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
, transferred to them; they paid Hill to continue managing the stations, an arrangement that later led to investigations by the FDIC inspector general and a
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
committee as to whether she illegally retained a financial interest after foreclosure. John Foster told the ''Post'', "We've found a lot more problems than I ever anticipated and a lot more costs. I'm in the thing for substantially more money than I thought it was going to be." The Massachusetts station was sold in early 1995, but Jasas opted to hold on to WFTY after initially putting it on the market. Hill was later indicted in 1998 for siphoning more than $200,000 from Corridor and additional money from related companies, spending the money on shopping expenses; she received a four-month jail sentence in 1999.


WB and CW affiliations

WFTY joined
The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
on February 20, 1995, six weeks after the network started broadcasting. The closest network affiliate to Washington was
WJAL WJAL (channel 68) is a television station licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C., area as an affiliate of Merit TV. Owned by Entravision Communications, it is sister station, sister to Washington-licens ...
(channel 68) in
Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...
, which did not reach the District on cable or over-the-air. Since WB programming consisted of a single block on Wednesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. at the time, WFTY ran WB programs on six consecutive weeknights in order to catch up and begin airing new episodes in line with the network on March 1. The call sign was changed on September 6 to WBDC-TV to reflect the network affiliation; by this time, the station had also added substantial local sports programming with
Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays i ...
basketball and
Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The Capitals compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NH ...
hockey telecasts produced by Home Team Sports. In December 1995, Jasas contracted with
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television station, television and radio stations thro ...
, which owned a minority stake in The WB, to manage WBDC-TV in a seven-year deal. In 1999, Tribune bought the station outright from Jasas. On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...
and
CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...
announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
; the day of the announcement, it was revealed that 16 of Tribune's 19 WB stations would be affiliated with the new network, including WBDC-TV. The call sign was changed to the present WDCW in advance of the network's September 2006 launch. In 2010, WDCW debuted the hip-hop music program ''Direct Access with Big Tigger''. This program was later syndicated to two other Tribune stations and WCIU-TV in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. From 2007 to 2018, WDCW aired ''NewsPlus with Mark Segraves'', a local news and culture magazine. Tribune launched WDCW's first full-length newscast in 25 years in 2016, when a nightly half-hour 10 p.m. newscast debuted. The program was produced from WTVR-TV in
Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...
, which Tribune then owned, and featured local reporters and WTVR news presenters. With WTVR bound for purchase by the E. W. Scripps Company to address regulatory issues in the Richmond market from the company's sale to Nexstar, the newscast was canceled effective September 28, 2018.


Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...
, which in the Washington market owns
WJLA-TV WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister ...
, entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion (equivalent to $ in ), plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in Tribune debt. Though it otherwise faced no regulatory issues involving the stations in the Washington television market itself, the deal received significant government scrutiny over Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, prompting the FCC to designate it for hearing and leading Tribune to terminate the deal and sue Sinclair for
breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...
. Following the Sinclair deal's collapse,
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
of
Irving, Texas Irving is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and is an Inner suburb, inner city suburb of Dallas. Irving is noted for its #Demographics, racial and ethnic diver ...
, announced its purchase of Tribune Media on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in cash and debt. The sale was completed on September 19, 2019. In the Washington, D.C., market, the Nexstar purchase united WDCW with WDVM-TV (channel 25) in Hagerstown, Maryland, a former NBC affiliate for Hagerstown which had been converted into an independent station that specialized in hyperlocal news programs for specific areas of the Washington media market. In February 2020, the two stations' staffs were merged under common management by Nexstar.


DC News Now

On May 25, 2022, Nexstar announced that it would combine the operations of WDVM-TV and WDCW at the latter's Washington facility, where it had signed for an additional of office space the year before, and move the production of WDVM-TV's newscasts there. Under the banner of ''DC News Now'', the stations' combined and expanded news service would retain the existing WDVM-TV regional newscasts, with bureaus in Hagerstown;
Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...
; and
Chantilly, Virginia Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the name of an ...
. As part of the expansion, a 10 p.m. newscast would be started for air on WDCW. ''DC News Now'' launched on July 11, 2022, over both stations with minimal publicity, debuting its first marketing campaign in early October. While an expansion for WDVM's existing news operation (with the bulk of newscasts using said brand on that station), it was treated as a ''de facto'' startup, with news director Ben Dobson hiring all of the operation's 80 additional staffers, many of whom were newcomers to the market. In February 2024, WDCW became the television home for Loudoun United FC of the
USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...
. Matches air on both WDCW and WDVM.


Technical information


Subchannels


Analog-to-digital conversion and broadcast spectrum repack

WDCW stopped transmitting on its analog signal, over
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 50, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 51 to channel 50. In April 2017, Tribune sold WDCW's broadcast spectrum to the FCC for $122 million as part of the commission's 2016–17 spectrum reallocation reverse auction. On August 31, 2017, it was announced that WDCW had entered into a channel sharing agreement with Univision affiliate WFDC-DT. WDCW ended broadcasts over its own channel 50 and began sharing WFDC's channel 15 on January 23, 2018.


Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wdcw 1981 establishments in Washington, D.C. Antenna TV affiliates The CW affiliates Nexstar Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1981 DCW