WSLS TV: История ростовского телеканала

NBC affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia

WSLS TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving the Roanoke–Lynchburg market as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Graham Media Group, the station maintains studios on Fifth Street in Roanoke, and its transmitter is located on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County. It is the third oldest continuously operating station in Virginia, behind Richmond's WTVR TV and Norfolk's WTKR, as well as the state's oldest station west of Richmond.

WSLS TV first signed on the air on December 11, 1952, by the Shenandoah Life Insurance Company, after which the station was named ("Shenandoah Life Stations"). WSLS TV was co owned with two of Roanoke's first radio stations, WSLS (610 AM) and WSLS FM (99.1). In 1955, WSLS TV moved from the Shenandoah Building on First Street to a new studio on Third Street. All CBS programming was dropped when WDBJ TV signed on in 1955 as Roanoke's primary affiliate. In the late 1950s and the 1960s, WSLS TV also aired locally produced programming, including Echo, Klub Kwiz (a competitor to WDBJ's Klassroom Kwiz), Ebb and Andy, Spectrum, Glen Howell, Cactus Joe, and Profile. The station was first to broadcast in "full living color," telecast from a remote location, use video tape and electronic news gathering equipment, broadcast network programming in stereo, and broadcast live local news in HD in the Roanoke/Lynchburg market. In 1969, WSLS TV was purchased from Shenandoah Life Insurance Company by Roy H. Park for $7.5 million. This separated it from its radio sisters, now WPLY and WSLQ; due to FCC rules, the television station was the only one to retain the original WSLS call sign. In 1992, WSLS TV launched "The Spirit of Virginia" promotional campaign, emphasizing the station's new "down home" news philosophy that included more features and a stronger emphasis on soft, community oriented news. In September 1995, WSLS TV ended "The Spirit of Virginia" campaign and revamped the look and focus of the station, shedding the "down home" philosophy in favor of a more hard news approach. In 1996, WSLS TV signed a deal with Grant Broadcasting, the owner of Roanoke's Fox affiliates WFXR and WJPR, to produce a 10 p. m. newscast for the Fox stations. The Fox 10 O'Clock News with Frances Scott and John Carlin premiered on October 28, 1996. On January 1, 1997, Media General acquired Park Communications and became the station's new owner. The station was rebranded to match WFLA TV, Media General's flagship station in Tampa, Florida. On April 14, WSLS TV re launched itself as NewsChannel 10 during the 5 p. m. newscast. A new campaign called "10 Listens" was launched, which encouraged viewers to set up a "10 Listens Community Forum". Through the forums, viewers communicated directly with its news anchors and management about concerns facing their community, yielding exclusive story ideas for WSLS TV and improved its image within the market. A combination of factors caused the station to eventually abandon the forum concept. In 1999, Media General began the process of renovating the WSLS TV studios in downtown Roanoke, moving the station's news department to a larger newsroom on the first floor adjacent to the news studio. On October 1, 2015, the news sharing agreement between WSLS TV and WFXR ended when the latter launched its own in house news department. On January 27, 2016, Media General announced that it would be acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group in a deal valued at $4.6 billion. Since Nexstar already owned WFXR and WWCW through satellite exemptions and the Roanoke–Lynchburg market had too few stations to permit a duopoly, on May 27, Nexstar announced that it would sell WSLS, along with WCWJ in Jacksonville, Florida, to the Graham Media Group for $120 million. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on January 11, 2017, and completed on January 17. In February 2018, WSLS TV announced it had purchased a warehouse on Fifth Street to build a new television studio and would sell its existing Third Street facilities upon moving into the new building.

WSLS TV has produced several local talk shows throughout its history. In the 1950s, Betty Bond, often referred to as Roanoke's "first lady of television" and wife of American author Nelson S. Bond, hosted Roanoke's first local television talk show, The Betty Bond Show. She interviewed notable locals on the women oriented program and also shared fashion tips and household interests, among other topics. In 1983, Greta Evans was hired at WSLS TV as a reporter and community affairs coordinator to host Reaching Out, a community affairs program examining community issues that aired monthly on Sundays. In March 2010, Natalie Faunce, a former anchor from WFXR, and Jay Prater, a radio disc jockey from WROV FM, helped launch Our Blue Ridge, an entertainment oriented talk show focusing on community and lifestyle news that replaced the traditional hour long noon newscast. Daytime Blue Ridge was condensed by 30 minutes in November 2014 and began airing at 12:30 p. m.

WSLS TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, 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 30, using virtual channel 10.