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WEVV-TV (channel 44) 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
Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...
, United States, affiliated with CBS, Fox, and
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
. Owned by
Allen Media Group Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...
, the station maintains studios on Carpenter and Bond Streets in downtown Evansville and a transmitter at John James Audubon State Park in
Henderson, Kentucky Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,781 at the 2020 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville–Henderson, IN–KY Combined Statis ...
. WEEV-LD (channel 47) in Evansville operates as a low-power
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
of WEVV-TV, relaying the Fox and MyNetworkTV programming shown on WEVV-DT2; this station's transmitter is located on Wolf Hills Road in Henderson along the
Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
.


History


Early history

Channel 44 first signed on the air on November 17, 1983, as an
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 ...
. The station was originally owned by Ralph Wilson (owner of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
independent station
KICU-TV KICU-TV (channel 36), branded as KTVU Plus, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Oakland-licensed Fox Broadca ...
, and founder of the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
). It was the first full-market independent station in the Tri-State, and the first full-market commercial television station to sign on in the Evansville market since
WTVW WTVW (channel 7) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, serving as a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station of The CW. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexst ...
(channel 7, now a CW affiliate) debuted 27 years earlier in August 1956. Competing independent station WLCN (channel 19, later
WAZE-TV WAZE-TV (channel 19) was a television station licensed to Madisonville, Kentucky, United States. It served the Evansville, Indiana, television market from 1983 to 2013, and was most recently affiliated with The CW. The station's transmitter wa ...
and now defunct)—which signed one month after WEVV began operations—primarily served the southern part of the market at the time. The station originally operated from studio facilities located on Main Street and Riverside Drive in downtown Evansville.


As a Fox affiliate

The station became an affiliate of the
Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...
on April 5, 1987, when the network debuted its inaugural lineup of prime time programming, which aired on Sunday evenings. However, like other Fox stations during the network's early years, WEVV continued to be programmed as a ''de facto'' independent station, as Fox would not carry seven nights a week of programming until September 1993. Until Fox began airing programming on a nightly basis, WEVV aired
movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
on nights when network programs did not air, usually starting at 7 p.m. Shortly after affiliating with the network, the station began branding as "Fox 44". The station changed its branding to "WEVV Fox TV" in 1994.


CBS affiliation

In May 1995, Banam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of
BankAmerica The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Ca ...
, sold WTVW to Petracom Broadcasting. Fox then acquired a 20% equity stake in Petracom; this led to a three-way affiliation swap in which WTVW ended its affiliation with ABC after 39 years and joined Fox on December 3, 1995. Conversely, the ABC affiliation moved to
WEHT WEHT (channel 25) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to The CW, CW outlet WTVW (channel 7) under ...
(channel 25) ending that station's affiliation with CBS. On July 1, 1995, WEVV signed an affiliation agreement with CBS to become the network's new affiliate for the Evansville market. Although CBS' affiliation agreement with WEHT did not expire until December of that year, channel 25 (which was unhappy about losing its network affiliation with CBS after 42 years) began dropping CBS shows from its schedule in stages. As a result, CBS' programming gradually migrated to WEVV over the next four months, during which the station carried both CBS and Fox programming. ''
The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their The Price Is Right (1956 American game ...
'' was the first CBS program to move to channel 44 on September 18, 1995. WEVV then picked up ''
CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987 to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012 to September 6, 2021. On November 1, 1999, the original incarnation was repla ...
'' in November. The switch to CBS was officially completed on December 3, when the remainder of the CBS programming schedule moved to WEVV. At that point, the station sold much of its syndicated programming inventory to WTSN-LP (channel 56, now
Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...
affiliate
WYYW-CD WYYW-CD (channel 15) is a Low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power, Class A television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network Telemundo. The station is owned by Three Sisters Broadcasting ...
on channel 15). On February 11, 1999, Wilson sold the station to
Communications Corporation of America Communications Corporation of America (also known as ComCorp) was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. It owned and/or operated 20 st ...
for $27.5 million. In June 2006, Comcorp filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...
protection in the Western District of
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
. That September, WEVV began broadcasting a digital high-definition signal; at the time, a digital subchannel was added on virtual channel 44.2, which was originally affiliated solely with MyNetworkTV and was simulcast on WTSN-LP (and as such, was branded as "MyTSN"). The station's relationship with WTSN-LP ended in 2009, at which time WEVV-DT2 rebranded as "My44", with WTSN converting into an
America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.
affiliate. WEVV-TV ended regular programming 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 44, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45, using
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...
44. As part of the SAFER Act, WEVV-TV kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
. On May 11, 2011, WEVV signed an affiliation agreement with Fox on its second digital channel after WTVW (which then became an independent station) lost its affiliation due to a dispute between Fox and Nexstar over Fox's revenue sharing demands of its stations'
retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commerc ...
earnings—in essence, resulting in WEVV regaining the Fox affiliation it had lost 16 years earlier. WEVV added Fox programming to its second digital subchannel on July 1, 2011, on WEVV digital channel 44.2. Consequently, MyNetworkTV programming—which had been carried on the subchannel since it launched with the programming service on September 5, 2006—was moved from the 7 to 9 p.m. to 9 to 11 p.m., immediately following Fox programming. On June 24, 2011, WEVV-TV signed on a new digital low-power translator station on UHF channel 47, under the callsign W47EE-D, to relay WEVV-DT2's programming in
720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...
high definition over-the-air in the immediate Evansville/Henderson area. and to provide an HD signal of the subchannel to local cable and satellite providers.


Bayou City Broadcasting ownership

On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its stations to WEHT owner and WTVW operator Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $270 million, in a deal that also included rights to the local marketing agreements involving stations owned by Comcorp partner company White Knight Broadcasting. Since there are fewer than eight full-power stations in the Evansville market, neither Nexstar nor its partner company (and WTVW owner)
Mission Broadcasting Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 29 full-power television stations in 26 markets in the United States. The group's chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2 ...
could legally buy WEVV. Instead, Nexstar originally opted to sell WEVV to Rocky Creek Communications, a
Denton, Texas Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...
–based company founded by Shirley Green; Nexstar would have operated the station under a
shared services Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the ...
agreement (SSA), which would have formed a virtual triopoly with WEHT and WTVW. However, the deal came soon after the FCC began closely scrutinizing sharing agreements between two or more television stations within the same market to help increase female and
ethnic minority The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...
ownership in television broadcasting. When it was apparent the Comcorp sale would be delayed, Nexstar announced on August 4, 2014, that it would instead sell WEVV to
The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a Special district (United States), special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Greater Houston, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands ...
–based Bayou City Broadcasting (owned by DuJuan McCoy, who is
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
) for $18.6 million; the sale price later increased to $26.85 million by its closure. The sale was completed on January 1, 2015. On January 8, 2015, WEVV and WEVV-DT2 were removed from
Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...
in the Evansville market, due to a carriage dispute spurred by Bayou City and Dish's inability to agree on retransmission consent revenue during negotiations on a new carriage agreement. Bayou City representatives claimed that Dish was trying to gain leverage over the company in negotiations because of the company's smaller size in comparison to other television station groups. Dish, however, claimed the new owners wanted transmission fees higher than those it pays other local broadcasters. The dispute was resolved on February 3, 2015, through the reaching of a multi-year carriage agreement with Dish Network. On August 3, 2015, upon the relaunch of its news department, WEVV moved its operations to WTVW's former studios on Carpenter Street in Downtown Evansville, which had sat vacant since WTVW merged operations with WEHT through a shared services agreement in December 2011. On November 11, 2015, the translator's callsign was changed to the current WEEV-LD.


Allen Media Group ownership

On May 6, 2019, it was announced that
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
–based
Entertainment Studios Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...
, headed by entertainment entrepreneur
Byron Allen Byron Allen (born Byron Allen Folks on April 22, 1961) is an American businessman, film and television producer, and comedian. He is the founder of the American media company Allen Media Group (formerly Entertainment Studios), which has intere ...
, would purchase the Bayou City stations (including WEVV-TV) for $165 million. The sale was completed on July 31, 2019. On June 1, 2025, amid financial woes and rising debt, Allen Media Group announced that it would explore "strategic options" for the company, such as a sale of its television stations (including WEVV and WEEV-LD).


News operation

WEVV started producing a 9 p.m. newscast February 23, 1992, as a Fox affiliate. Once it became a CBS affiliate in 1995, it moved the newscast to 10 p.m. and added additional newscasts. However, none of the changes to its newscasts helped the station in the ratings, and WEVV remained continually in fourth place behind WFIE, WEHT and WTVW. Unable to make any ratings headway, WEVV shut down its news department in July 2001, causing the layoffs of 40 staffers. As a result of the shutdown of the original news department, WEVV became one of the few Big Three affiliates that did not air any local newscasts—a group that includes CBS
owned-and-operated station 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 network af ...
WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division, alongside WKBD-TV (channel 50), an affiliate of The CW. The two ...
in
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, ABC affiliate KDNL-TV in
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
and NBC affiliate
WTWC-TV WTWC-TV (channel 40) is a television station in Tallahassee, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC and Fox. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Deerlake South in unincorporated Leon County, Florida, northwe ...
in
Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...
. In 2002, the station began airing local weather cut-ins on weekday evenings, which were produced by WeatherVision out of its headquarters in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...
. After Bayou City Broadcasting acquired WEVV, Bayou City president DuJuan McCoy announced on December 9, 2014, that the company planned to relaunch a news department in 2015. The newscasts premiered on August 3, 2015, with the debuts of a new weekday morning news program (initially airing from 4:30 to 7 a.m., and is also simulcast on WEVV-DT2/WEEV-LD), a 90-minute news block starting at 5 p.m. and half-hour newscasts at noon and 10 p.m. on its main channel, which have all been produced in high definition since the return of in-house news operations. In addition to producing local newscasts for its main feed, WEVV also produces separate weekday morning and nightly 9 p.m. newscasts for its Fox/MyNetworkTV subchannel. Unlike most CBS affiliates, WEVV carries only a late-evening newscast at 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays (with an hour-long weekend newscast at 9 p.m. for WEVV-DT2/WEEV-LD) as it did not produce an early-evening or weekend morning newscast at launch. On January 17, 2025, Allen Media Group announced plans to cut local meteorologist/weather forecaster positions from its stations, including WEVV, and replacing them with a "weather hub" produced by
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...
, which AMG also owns. The decision was reversed within a week by management in response to "viewer and advertiser reaction".


Notable former on-air staff

* Adam Alexander * Ryan Owens


Technical information


Subchannels

The stations' signals are
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...
: Ever since its inception, the WEVV-DT2 subchannel had been airing in 16:9
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
, and its high definition simulcast was exclusive to low-power WEEV-LD, which meant that Fox programming in HD had only been available on cable and satellite outside the immediate Evansville area; however, since an upgrade to their multiplexer equipment sometime in January 2020, the WEVV-DT2 subchannel started broadcasting in
1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...
full HD over-the-air (rather than the 720p format of most other Fox affiliates). WEVV-DT2 switched to 720p in 2024.


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wevv-Tv 1983 establishments in Indiana CBS affiliates Allen Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1983 EVV-TV