2016 . jump to navigation search not to be confused with wlaj . wjla tv washington d.c. united states branding abc 7 general abc 7 news newscasts slogan on your side channels digital 7 vhf virtual 7 psip affiliations .1 abc .2 metv .3 comet owner sinclair broadcast group acc licensee llc 1 first air date october 3 1947 ; 69 years ago 1947 10 03 call letters meaning joe l. allbritton 1 founder of allbritton communications former owner of station sister station s newschannel 8 former callsigns wtvw 1947 wmal tv 1947 1977 former channel number s analog 7 vhf 1947 2009 digital 39 uhf 2000 2009 former affiliations primary cbs 1947 1948 secondary cbs 1948 1949 transmitter power 52 kw height 235.6 m 773 ft facility id 1051 transmitter coordinates 38 57 1 n 77 4 47 w 38.95028 n 77.07972 w 38.95028 ; 77.07972 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wjla.com wjla tv channel 7 is an abc affiliated television station serving the american capital city of washington d.c. . the station is owned by hunt valley maryland based sinclair broadcast group which also operates local cable channel newschannel 8 . the two stations share broadcast facilities located on wilson blvd in the rosslyn section of arlington virginia ; wjla tv s transmitter is located in the tenleytown neighborhood of northwest washington . contents 1 history 1.1 acquisition by sinclair broadcast group 1.2 logos and imaging 2 digital channels 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the district of columbia s third television station began broadcasting on october 3 1947 as wtvw owned by the washington star along with wmal radio 630 am and 107.3 fm now wrqx . it was the first band iii vhf television station channels 7 13 in the united states . a few months later the station changed its callsign to wmal tv after its radio sisters . wmal radio had been an affiliate of the nbc blue network since 1933 and remained with the network after it was spun off by nbc and evolved into abc . however channel 7 started as a cbs station since abc had not yet established its television network . when abc launched on television in 1948 wmal tv became abc s third primary affiliate ; the station continued to carry some cbs programming until woic channel 9 now wusa signed on in 1949 . during the late 1950s the station was also briefly affiliated with the nta film network . 2 note the wtvw call letters were later picked up by what is now wisn tv the abc affiliate in milwaukee wisconsin when it signed on in 1954 . now the callsign is residing in evansville indiana on a cw affiliated station that is also on channel 7 . in 1975 houston businessman joe allbritton the owner of washington based riggs bank purchased a controlling interest in the star s media properties which by that time also included wlva radio and wlva tv now wset tv in lynchburg virginia ; and wciv in charleston south carolina . 3 as a condition of the purchase allbritton was given three years to break up the washington newspaper broadcast combination which the federal communications commission fcc was seeking to prohibit under the tightening of its concentration of media ownership policy . 4 wmal tv was separated first from its radio sisters when abc purchased wmal am fm in march 1977 . 5 upon the radio transfer channel 7 changed its call letters to the current wjla tv after the owner s initials . 6 in april 1977 allbritton negotiated a deal to trade the station to combined communications corporation in return for koco tv in oklahoma city 7 but called off the deal due to last minute complications despite receiving fcc approval . 8 allbritton instead sold the washington star to time inc. in january 1978 and retained wjla tv and the lynchburg and charleston television stations for what would eventually become allbritton communications . 9 rumors abounded from the mid 1990s onward that abc might buy wjla tv effectively reuniting it with its former radio sisters . indeed in the summer of 1998 abc s corporate parent the walt disney company discussed a possible acquisition of allbritton communications but a sale agreement failed to materialize . 10 abc eventually sold most of its radio properties including wmal and wrqx to citadel broadcasting corporation in june 2007 . even so wjla remained an abc affiliate under allbritton because the company had an exclusive affiliation deal with the network . after wjz tv in baltimore switched to cbs in 1995 wjla became abc s longest tenured television affiliate . in december 2007 wjla began simulcasting wtop fm on its weather now digital sub channel ; this continued through late july 2009 . until july 28 2008 wjla tv offered local point tv on 7.2 which was a local version of current featuring five minute video segments created by area residents . abby fenton the station s director of community relations said in an interview with broadcasting & cable media industry magazine that the station likes the local point programming and is pondering where else it might fit . 11 retro television network retro tv a new syndicated digital national broadcast network with older re runs of classic television series from the 1950s 60 s and 70 s replaced local point tv at 10 00 a.m. on july 28 2008 . 12 in late october 2008 wjla began simulcasting on local low powered station wwtd lp ; the station continued to broadcast an analog feed of wjla after the digital transition . in late july 2009 wjla dropped its locally produced weathernow channel for the local accuweather channel on its dt2 subchannel under the doug hill s weathernow brand . on march 13 2012 wjla dropped the local accuweather channel in favor of forecasts from their own meteorologists . with that the name of the channel was slightly changed to abc7 s weathernow . wjla began carrying me tv a competing syndicated digital broadcast tv network with older classic and re runs of television series on march 2013 on wjla s digital subchannel 7.2 replacing abc7 s weathernow on channel 7.2 . 13 on june 12 2009 wjla tv terminated its analog signal on vhf channel 7 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 14 the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 39 to vhf channel 7 for post transition operations . while 90 % of the station s viewers received wjla s signal via cable or satellite many of the over the air viewers had problems after the final transition . some needed to rescan and others needed a vhf antenna . 15 wjla applied on august 29 2009 for special authorization by the fcc to increase its effective radiated power erp to 52 kw . the power increase was put into effect on september 18 2009 . wjla already ran 30 kw of erp which was higher than the other three vhf stations in the area wusa 12.6 kw wbal tv 5 kw and wjz tv 28.8 kw post transition power levels . 16 on may 1 2012 wjla tv announced it would add the disney abc owned live well network to digital subchannel 7.3 on july 1 2012 replacing rtv . 17 acquisition by sinclair broadcast group edit on may 1 2013 reports surfaced that allbritton was planning to sell its television stations so it could put more of its focus on running its political website politico . 18 allbritton announced nearly three months later that it would sell all of its stations to sinclair broadcast group for 985 million . 19 after nearly a year of delays the deal was approved by the fcc on july 24 2014 . 20 the deal was finalized on august 1 2014 . 21 the new ownership meant that wjla by default became the washington affiliate of sinclair s american sports network which launched in the same month ; however on the main signal abc s sports coverage from espn takes preference over asn s lower tier conference rights and it is generally carried over the station s 7.2 and 7.3 subchannels instead . logos and imaging edit wjla s circle 7 logo from 1975 to 2001 seven network in australia used a logo identical to that of wjla tv . since 1970 wmal tv wjla has used a variation of the circle 7 logo which has long been primarily associated with abc affiliates . from 1970 to 2001 wmal wjla used its own version of the logo with the 7 modified to accommodate the circle . in 1984 it saw a minor update with rounded ends on the 7 being modified to use sharp straight edges like the logo later used by australia s seven network . this version of the logo was probably the longest continuously used numeric logo in washington s television history . the only real modification came in 1998 after it began calling itself abc 7 on air and added the abc logo to the left side . in 2001 wjla adopted the standard version of the circle 7 logo refueling speculation that abc would purchase the station . wjla tv is the largest abc affiliate to use the circle 7 that is not an abc owned and operated station . in addition sister station katv in little rock arkansas has used the standard circle 7 since the 1960s longer than all wjla versions combined . digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 7.1 720p 16 9 wjla hd main wjla tv programming abc 7.2 480i 4 3 wjla wx metv 7.3 wjlartn comet programming edit as one of the largest abc stations not owned and operated by the network the station generally clears all abc programming . however locally produced sports and election specials preempt the first hour of the network s primetime lineup on a few days in late summer and early fall while the low rated saturday night network lineup is occasionally preempted during the summer months in favor of a feature film broadcast . if needed wjla reschedules network programming at its earliest convenience usually during the overnight hours . in most cases any preempted network programming can be seen on baltimore s wmar tv which is receivable in washington and its close suburbs with a rooftop antenna . in the 2014 season wjla began to air additional college football games through sinclair s american sports network . 22 news operation edit wjla tv presently broadcasts a total of 30 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 5 hours on weekdays two hours on saturdays and 1 hours on sundays . the station has the largest news team in the washington area which includes around 40 on air staff members . as the flagship station of the allbritton communications station group wjla provided national news headlines for other allbritton owned stations . prior to 2001 wjla s newscasts had long placed third in the market s news ratings behind wusa and nbc owned wrc tv . the station scored a major coup in 1999 when it hired maureen bunyan former longtime anchor at wusa . in 2003 former cnn anchor leon harris joined the station as an anchor . in 2004 wjla hired bunyan s former anchor desk partner gordon peterson ; the two have since been reunited as anchors for the 6 00 p.m. newscast . these personnel moves combined with wusa s recent ratings troubles have led to a resurgence in the ratings . in the may 2010 sweeps it placed number one at 5 00 p.m. in total viewers and in the 25 54 demo