nashville tennessee radio station which once used the wvns fm callsign see wprt fm . wvns tv lewisburg bluefield beckley west virginia united states branding cbs 59 or wvns general 59 news newscasts fox 59 on dt2 slogan working for you channels digital 8 vhf virtual 59 psip subchannels see article affiliations cbs owner west virginia media holdings operator nexstar broadcasting group full acquisition of station pending first air date august 12 1995 ; 21 years ago 1995 08 12 call letters meaning west virginia s news station sister station s wowk wtrf wboy former callsigns wvgv tv 1995 1996 wvsx 1996 2003 former channel number s 59 uhf analog 1995 2009 former affiliations the wb 1995 1996 fox 1996 2001 transmitter power 3.68 kw height 577 m facility id 74169 transmitter coordinates 37 46 22.6 n 80 42 25.8 w 37.772944 n 80.707167 w 37.772944 ; 80.707167 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wearewvproud.com wvns tv channel 59 is a television station licensed to lewisburg west virginia usa . owned by west virginia media holdings wvns is the primary cbs affiliate for the bluefield beckley oak hill television market which also covers portions of southwestern virginia . wvns also carries programming from fox and mynetworktv over its second digital subchannel 59.2 . the station s studios are located on old cline road in ghent west virginia and its transmitter is near alderson west virginia . wvns tv is one of four west virginia television stations owned by west virginia media holdings ; the others are fellow cbs affiliates wowk tv in huntington and wtrf tv in wheeling ; and nbc affiliated wboy tv in clarksburg . contents 1 digital channels 2 history 3 programming 4 news operation 5 references 6 external links digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 59.1 1080i 16 9 wvnscbs main wvns tv programing cbs 59.2 720p wvnsfox fox 59 history edit the station began broadcasting on august 12 1995 as the wb affiliate wvgv tv . it was the first station in the market not affiliated with one of the big three networks . the station was originally set to sign on in 1994 as a fox affiliate . however after the station s launch was delayed past the start of the 1994 95 season fox canceled the affiliation . wvgv was not successful due to difficulty in selling advertising time in the primarily urban oriented programming that dominated the wb s schedule at the time as well as the difficulty competing with a uhf signal in a market used to receiving vhf stations . furthermore the late sign on made it difficult to get carriage on the area s cable systems . this was a serious problem since cable is a must for acceptable television in this market most of which is very mountainous . by may when cable systems in the area were ready to carry the station wvgv had agreed to be sold to high mountain broadcasting . the new owners took the station dark in order to relocate the studios from lewisburg to ghent between beckley and bluefield and move the transmitter site from cross mountain to a more central location to better serve beckley and bluefield as well as lewisburg . the station returned to the air on december 24 1996 as fox affiliate wvsx . however due to problems with the transmitter s unique power supply design it did not transmit regularly until after january 1 1997 . the station continued to struggle financially . relief really didn t come until wvsx changed its affiliation to cbs on september 29 2001 . prior to 2001 bluefield beckley oak hill was one of the few markets in the eastern time zone without full service from the big three networks . in fact cbs programming hadn t been available over the air at all in the area since abc affiliate woay tv dropped the cbs evening news and captain kangaroo from its schedule in the early 1970s ; it had dropped most of its cbs programming in 1967 . since the arrival of cable in the market in the late 1970s huntington charleston s cbs affiliate wchs tv until 1986 and future sister station wowk since then had served as the default cbs affiliate for the west virginia side of the market while wdbj in roanoke served the virginia portion . both wowk and wdbj are still available on most of the area s cable systems . on february 28 2003 the station was again sold this time to west virginia media holdings . as a result the company owns three of the four cbs affiliates serving the state . the call sign was changed on june 7 to the current wvns tv . recent personnel moves allowed wvns to move past woay tv as the market s number two station though it is still well behind long dominant wvva . the fox affiliation on a new second digital subchannel was acquired september 13 2006 following a summer 2006 retransmission dispute between charleston s wvah tv and suddenlink communications the cable system serving beckley . the demise of the foxnet cable network on september 12 also played a role . although it is carried on a digital subchannel this is practically a return of fox to wvns after a five year absence . wvns turned off its analog signal on uhf channel 59 at 12 30 p.m. on february 17 2009 . although wvns transmits its digital signal on channel 8 it remaps to channel 59 using psip . on november 17 2015 nexstar broadcasting group announced that it would purchase the west virginia media holdings stations including wvns tv for 130 million . under the terms of the deal nexstar will assume control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in december 2015 with the sale of the license assets expected to be completed in late 2016 . 2 programming edit syndicated programming on wvns includes jeopardy wheel of fortune the ellen degeneres show the dr. oz show and rachael ray ; all of which are distributed by cbs domestic television . news operation edit soon after west virginia media bought the station it launched a news department . the station also takes advantage of the statewide network to share news content from sister stations wowk for state government coverage and marshall university sports and wboy for west virginia university sports . during all wvns newscasts weather forecasts are provided from wowk s studios in charleston . west virginia media produces a half hour evening newscast that airs at 5 30pm . the newscast titled west virginia tonight live is broadcast live from the charleston studios in high definition on all 4 station and is anchored by april kaull . it features stories from all four stations . in addition there is a public affairs program called decision makers hosted by company president and ceo bray cary . this is simulcast on saturday mornings at 9 and sunday mornings at 8 on all west virginia media holdings stations . every night at 10 wvns dt2 offers a live hour long 10 o clock newscast known as fox 59 news . weekday mornings at 7 there is a rebroadcast of the second hour of the main channel s weekday morning show . on march 28 2013 wvns became the first station in the market and the third station owned by west virginia media holdings to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition . with the upgrade came new graphics and a new set . references edit http www.rabbitears.info market.php request station search & callsign wvns station nexstar buys 4 w.va . tvs for 130m . tvnewscheck . november 17 2015 . retrieved november 17 2015 . external links edit wvns tv website wvns dt2 fox west virginia query the fcc s tv station database for wvns tv v t e broadcast television serving bluefield beckley oak hill west virginia and bluefield virginia reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations wvva 6.1 nbc 6.2 cw 6.3 metv wswp 9.1 pbs wvpb wlfb 40.1 ind. woay 50.1 abc wvns 59.1 cbs 59.2 fox mntv adjacent locals charleston wv wchs 8.1 abc wvah 11.1 fox roanoke lynchburg wdbj 7.1 cbs wsls 10.1 nbc wset 13.1 abc wbra 15.1 pbs wfxr 27.1 fox 27.2 cw tri cities wcyb 5.1 nbc wjhl 11.1 cbs wsbn wmsy 47.1 52.1 pbs hazard wkha 35.1 pbs ket wymt 57.1 cbs west virginia broadcast television bluefield clarksburg weston huntington charleston parkersburg washington dc wheeling virginia broadcast television areas by city bristol bluefield charlottesville harrisonburg norfolk richmond roanoke washington dc v t e cbs network affiliates in the state of west virginia wdtv 5 weston wtrf 7 wheeling wowk 13 huntington wiye 47 parkersburg wvns 59 lewisburg see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in west virginia v t e west virginia media holdings corporate staff bray cary president & ceo weekly newspaper the state journal television stations cbs network affiliates wowk wtrf wvns fox network affiliates wvns dt2 mynetworktv affiliate wtrf dt2 wvns dt2 nbc network affiliate wboy abc network affiliate wboy dt2 wtrf dt3 secondary only website wvmh.com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wvns tv & oldid 742351002 categories cbs network affiliatestelevision stations in west virginiatelevision channels and stations established in 1995 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 3 october 2016 at 05 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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