cw affiliated television station in chicago illinois wgn tv or its sister station kwgn tv in denver colorado . wgnt hampton roads virginia united states city portsmouth virginia branding wgnt 27 general news 3 newscasts channels digital 50 uhf virtual 27 psip subchannels 27.1 the cw 27.2 antenna tv affiliations the cw 2006 present owner dreamcatcher broadcasting llc local tv virginia licensee llc operator tribune broadcasting first air date december 6 1953 ; 62 years ago 1953 12 06 call letters meaning greater norfolk television sister station s wtkr former callsigns wtov tv 1953 1956 wyah tv 1961 1989 former channel number s analog 27 uhf 1953 2009 former affiliations dumont 1953 1956 independent 1953 1956 1961 1995 dark 1956 1961 upn 1995 2006 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 306 m facility id 9762 transmitter coordinates 36 48 43 n 76 27 45 w 36.81194 n 76.46250 w 36.81194 ; 76.46250 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wgnt.com wgnt channel 27 is a television station licensed to portsmouth virginia usa serving as the cw television network affiliate for the hampton roads area of virginia comprising the cities of portsmouth norfolk newport news hampton virginia beach and environs and the outer banks region of north carolina . wgnt is owned by dreamcatcher broadcasting llc and is part of a duopoly with cbs affiliate wtkr channel 3 ; tribune broadcasting operates wtkr and wgnt under a shared services agreement . the two stations share a studio office facility on boush street in downtown norfolk ; wgnt s transmission tower is located in suffolk virginia . contents 1 history 1.1 the cbn years 1.2 wgnt today 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 newscasts 5 out of market cable carriage 6 references 7 external links history edit wgnt is one of the oldest surviving uhf licenses in the country . it first signed on december 6 1953 as wtov tv a commercial independent station owned by commonwealth broadcasting . it was the third television station in the hampton roads area and the second on the uhf band wvec tv which later moved to vhf channel 13 signed on over channel 15 three months earlier . wtov later became an affiliate of the dumont television network . channel 27 was on the air for limited hours and had very limited viewership because it was impossible at the time to watch uhf stations without buying a converter ; television set makers were not required to include uhf tuners until 1964 . even with a converter wtov s picture was not very clear . as such it was never a factor in the hampton roads market . the death knell for channel 27 sounded in late 1958 when tidewater teleradio owners of wavy radio now wgpl won a construction permit for a new vhf station on channel 10 which became wavy tv when it signed on in september 1957 . combined with dwindling revenues and the impending loss of dumont programming at the end of the 1955 56 season wtov went dark in 1958 . the wtov call letters are now used on an nbc affiliate in steubenville ohio . the cbn years edit in 1961 m.g. pat robertson son of virginia united states senator a. willis robertson and an attorney turned southern baptist minister purchased the dormant channel 27 license . under the ownership of robertson s christian broadcasting network the station returned to the air on october 1 as wyah tv with yah standing for yahweh according to some sources including pat robertson s autobiography shout it from the housetops and you are holy according to others . pat robertson s first choice for call letters was wtfc television for christ . those call letters were announced by robertson to local media before the federal communications commission fcc informed him that they were unavailable . 1 wyah initially broadcast from studios on spratley street west of downtown portsmouth . at first wyah was on the air four hours a day 6 to 10 p.m. monday through saturday and was dark on sunday . most of these hours were occupied by a locally produced programs hosted by robertson . the rest of the day was occupied by teaching programs produced by local churches and some syndicated televangelists repeats of sunday programs . the station almost went dark in 1963 and so it conducted a special telethon urging 700 people to donate 10 a month continuing to hold such telethons bi monthly . a few years later the locally produced daily talk program would be named for the telethons the 700 club . beginning in 1966 jim and tammy faye bakker hosted and produced a local children s program called come on over later called jim and tammy . this consisted of puppet shows skits prayers singalongs games stories and religious short films such as davey and goliath and jot . the program was eventually seen in canada and achieved widespread syndication throughout the united states . pat robertson also appeared on camera as well as host of additional bible teaching programs . weekends consisted of televangelists such as oral roberts kathryn kuhlman jerry falwell and billy graham and local church services . wyah was one of the first christian television stations in the united states and was a viewer supported non commercial station though it sold blocks of time to other ministries . by 1966 the station was somewhat financially solvent . by september 1967 wyah tv was broadcasting in color and began commercial operation part time about an hour a day . initial fare was low budget films travelogues and local productions . the station was now on about 6 hours a day . the first secular shows on the station included victory at sea fury leave it to beaver jeff s collie and a couple others . in june 1970 channel 27 activated a new more powerful transmitter that boosted its effective radiated power to 2.25 million watts . this not only gave it a coverage area comparable to hampton roads big three stations but also provided secondary coverage to the eastern fringe of the richmond market . robertson sent a newsletter to donors boasting that channel 27 was now the most powerful station in virginia . in 1972 the station had increased to about 9 hours a day began repeating 700 club at their sign on time of 2 p.m. ran a mix of secular shows until 6 p.m. jim & tammy at 7 p.m. and a couple secular shows till 8 p.m. and christian shows after 8 including the first run of 700 club . by then the 700 club was being sent to a dozen other stations . early in 1973 the station increased its broadcast day to 15 hours a day and added shows like riflemen lone ranger popeye bugs bunny and friends gilligan s island dick van dyke show hazel and others . jim & tammy s show was dropped early in 1973 to make room for more mainstream shows . about this time the bakkers had departed from the station and cbn to co found the trinity broadcasting network before going on their own in 1975 . by september 1973 wyah tv was on the air 20 hours a day as more of a mainstream independent station with an expanded lineup of syndicated shows and religious programming including airings of the 700 club three times a day ; sundays were still devoted entirely to religious programs . by then shows like star trek flintstones among other shows were being added . also in 1972 pat robertson stepped down from his role as general manager and hired one to grow the station and be responsible for day to day operation while robertson would concentrate on taking his 700 club program national which occurred in 1974 . by 1977 the station had acquired shows like i love lucy brady bunch tom & jerry partridge family and others . the hampton roads area had become one of the smallest markets in the u.s. with a commercial independent station . but while wyah tv had evolved into a conventional independent station by this time its programming policy was decidedly conservative in keeping with robertson s baptist charismatic religious views . for many years it muted any dialogue containing profanity . in some cases it opted to preempt whole episodes out of concern for their subject matter . for example at least two episodes of gilligan s island never aired on the station because of content centering albeit in a comical fashion around ghosts and vampires . however wyah offered a wide variety of programming and was a stronger independent than many secular owned independent stations at that time . still hampton roads viewers got other choices once cable arrived in the area in the late 1960s as wttg and wdca from washington d.c. became available on cable systems as well . in the 1980 s the station had acquired shows like little house on the prairie jeffersons wkrp in cincinnati diff rent strokes scooby doo too close for comfort night court family ties and others . the station was on the air almost the entire day . with wyah s growth and profitability years before back in the early 70 s cbn began expanding to other markets . the ministry launched wanx in atlanta purchased 33 kxtx tv an existing outlet in dallas in 1972 where the station combined assets with kdtv 39 and moved the kxtx unti onto channel 39 and signed on wxne in boston in 1977 . these stations formed the continental broadcasting network a wholly owned subsidiary of cbn with wyah tv as the flagship station . locally channel 27 faced competition for the first time in 1979 when wtvz channel 33 was signed on by tvx broadcast group . the new locally owned independent purchased general entertainment programming many of which was passed over by cbn having been deemed too racy for the ministry s liking . the impact was near immediate as wtvz equalled then surpassed wyah in viewership . by the late 1980s continental broadcasting had become too profitable to remain under the cbn banner without endangering cbn s non profit status . with this in mind robertson began selling off his over the air stations and eventually sold off his directly owned cable network the cbn family channel the latter going to his son tim s company international family entertainment . in 1989 wyah was sold to centennial broadcasting . the new owners renamed the station wgnt on september 13 which stands for greater norfolk television . wgnt today edit after centennial took control wgnt initially ran shows inherited from the cbn days but ended the station s decades long practice of censoring the small amount of profanity from off network syndicated programming . as the 1990s began centennial began mixing in more modern programming such as talk shows like the rush limbaugh show ricki lake and jerry springer and the prime time entertainment network programming service . in 1991 it dropped the 11 p.m. repeat of the 700 club . by 2003 the series was completely dropped from wgnt s schedule removing the last link to its cbn days . however it has aired on numerous outlets in the area in the years since then ; and in september 2016 the 700 club returned to wgnt 2 after wtkr launched a local lifestyle program called the coast live . 3 on january 16 1995 wgnt became a charter affiliate of the united paramount network and branded itself as upn 27 . in 1997 paramount stations group bought wgnt for 42.5 million making it a upn owned and operated station . 4 this made wgnt the only network owned station in the hampton roads market . viacom paramount s owner later bought cbs as well . when viacom split into two separate