WMDO-CD
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WMDO-CD (channel 47) is a low-power, Class A television station 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 ...
, affiliated with LATV. It is owned by
Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic community ...
alongside
Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...
–licensed Merit Street affiliate WJAL (channel 68).


History

The station first signed on the air as W14AA on UHF channel 14 in 1976. First owned by Central Virginia Educational Television Corporation, it rebroadcast the signal of PBS member station WNVT from a transmitter in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...
. WNVT's transmitter was located in Independent Hill, Virginia, and was difficult to receive in the built-up parts of the Washington metropolitan area. As Washington's original channel 14, WFAN-TV, had gone dark in 1972, CVETC attempted to have the vacant full-power allocation moved to Fairfax. This stoked controversy, as channel 14 was the last available commercial allocation assigned to Washington. Several competing groups and District of Columbia Mayor Walter E. Washington contested CVETC's application, arguing that Washington was under-served by local television and that the channel should possibly be reserved for a minority-owned station. The request was denied, but channel 56 was allocated to Fairfax as a compromise. CVETC took this allocation and began building what was to become WNVC instead, rendering W14AA unnecessary. CVETC used the translator to broadcast Congressional hearings until WNVC went on the air June 6, 1981. Meanwhile, Los Cerezos Television Co. signed on station KA2XEH on channel 56 on June 29, 1980. The station relayed the programming of the Spanish International Network (SIN, as
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 ...
was then known) via a satellite feed of
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
KWEX-TV in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
. At the time, television translators were limited to the same rules as commercial FM translators and could only repeat a station's signal received over-the-air. As part of an FCC trial, SIN signed on two of these "satellators" under experimental licenses, denoted by the "2X" in the callsign. With the FCC's rules relaxed, Los Cerezos purchased W14AA in July 1981, and SIN programming was on the air soon afterward. Los Cerezos later made two failed attempts to move W14AA to
Wheaton, Maryland Wheaton is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, situated north of Washington, D.C., and northwest of downtown Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton (1833–1903), a career officer in the Uni ...
, where its radio station WMDO (1540 AM) was already located. The license for KA2XEH was deleted effective October 1, 1981, as its channel 56 allocation had been given to WNVC. On November 1, 1988, as the full-powered channel 14 allocation had been awarded to what would become WTMW, W14AA moved to channel 48 and received the new call sign of W48AW. The call letters were changed to WMDO-LP on February 1, 1995. In October 1998, WMDO-LP moved to channel 30, in order to allow NBC owned-and-operated station
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 ...
to launch its digital signal on channel 48. On March 20, 2001, the station changed its call letters to WMDO-CA to reflect an upgrade to Class A status. The WMDO callsign derives not from a former or planned affiliation with competing Spanish-language network
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...
, but from co-ownership by Los Cerezos with WMDO radio. The pair was broken up in 1999, when the television station was sold to Entravision. In 2001, Entravision purchased
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 ...
–based English-language independent station WJAL (channel 68), intending to move it into Washington to replace WMDO-CA, although they were unsuccessful at the time. In November 2003, WMDO-CA moved to channel 47 so that WNVT could sign on its digital signal on channel 30; Entravision complained that WMDO-CA lost 45 per cent of its audience because of the weaker signal. On
January 1 January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in the Gregorian Calendar; 364 days remain until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the year. __TOC__ Events ...
, 2006, Entravision entered into a 16-year joint sales agreement (JSA) with
Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American mass media, media company headquartered in Miami and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mex ...
, owner of then-TeleFutura affiliate WFDC-DT (channel 14). Under the agreement, the Univision affiliation for the Washington market was passed to WFDC in return for Entravision handling its operation and advertising sales. WMDO-CD joined TeleFutura (since renamed to
UniMás UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. ...
) on the same day. The agreement expired on December 31, 2021; WFDC-DT retained the Univision affiliation after that date. In the summer of 2009, WMDO-LD began broadcasting a digital signal on VHF channel 8. This signal was nearly unusable as it received interference from
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 ...
on channel 7, WUSA on channel 9, and distant station WGAL on channel 8. WMDO was forced to accept the interference as there were no other available channels in the area. In March 2011, WMDO filed to move to channel 22; Daystar was to use the channel for WDDN-LD, but accidentally allowed the construction permit to lapse in September 2010. After a legal fight with Daystar over the allocation, on May 22, 2015, the station was licensed to move to channel 22, and it changed its call sign to the current WMDO-CD. WMDO-CD was a winner in the FCC's 2016–17 spectrum reallocation auction, and received $58,231,415 to go off the air.FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction — Auction 1001 Winning Bids
/ref> Winners in the auction who were to leave the air had the option of pursuing a channel-sharing agreement with another station to preserve over-the-air coverage. WMDO-CD reached an agreement with WIAV-CD. The station suspended operations over its own signal on channel 22 and moved to WIAV-CD's signal on channel 44 on December 1, 2017.
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 ...
purchased WIAV-CD in June 2020 with the intent of converting it to Washington's first ATSC 3.0 broadcaster. Consequently, WMDO-CD applied to dissolve its channel-sharing agreement with WIAV-CD and file a new one with co-owned and co-located WDCO-CD (channel 10), which continued ATSC 1.0 service. The FCC granted the dissolution on January 21, with the relocation occurring in March. The channel-sharing agreement with WDCO-CD expired on December 31, 2021, and Entravision did not exercise its option to extend. With no authorized facilities to continue broadcasting, Entravision filed to take WMDO-CD silent pending a new channel-sharing agreement. UniMás programming moved to the fourth subchannel of WFDC-DT in advance of the shutdown. Entravision applied for a third channel-sharing agreement with WWTD-LD (channel 14), located on the
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 ...
tower in northwest Washington, on December 21, 2022. WMDO-CD returned to broadcasting on December 29, three days before its license would have been deleted for inactivity pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The channel-sharing agreement expired on December 21, 2023, and did not contain any provisions for an extension. Despite the contract's expiration, WMDO-CD did not cease operations until March 15, 2024. Entravision indicated it was negotiating with another channel-sharing partner at the time, but resumed operations on WWTD-LD's multiplex on June 27.


Subchannels


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wmdo-Cd 1988 establishments in Washington, D.C. Entravision Communications stations MDO-CD MDO-CD Television channels and stations established in 1988