WXLV-TV

WGNN-TV and WJTM-TV: Establishment In February 1976, Good News TV Network filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build a new commercial TV station in Winston-Salem, which the commission granted in August 1977. Good News TV had been formed after the local Calvary Baptist Church voted to set aside $139,000 () for the construction of the proposed outlet; one of the directors was Stuart Epperson, the founder of Salem Communications. The station was originally proposed to operate on a non-commercial basis with Christian religious programs and some secular classic films, though it eventually decided to accept some commercial advertising. Delays in equipment delivery and installation pushed the station's start from 1978 back into 1979; the station also had to settle a payment dispute with an equipment installer. From a transmitter on the Wachovia Building in Winston-Salem and studios on its top floor, program testing for WGNN-TV began on September 22, 1979. Shortly before going on air, Good News TV Network had sold the construction permit for the station to a subsidiary of Piece Goods Stores, a chain of fabric stores in Winston-Salem. Piece Goods had stepped in when Good News TV Network ran out of cash to put the station on the air. The proprietors of Piece Goods, twin brothers Dudley and John Simms, also appeared on air giving editorials that were strongly conservative in character. The station's programming turned out to be more middle-of-the-road than the religion-heavy, family-friendly lineup once advertised, including films with sexual mentions and violence, as the Simms brothers sought to make channel 45 profitable. However, the station never attracted more than one percent of the audience. In 1980, Piece Goods sold 85 percent of WGNN-TV and operational control to the Television Corporation of North Carolina, a company controlled by investors from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. After WTVZ in Norfolk, it was the second station to be owned by Television Corporation Stations (abbreviated TVX and later changed to TVX Broadcast Group). The Simms brothers disappeared from the airwaves, while TVX announced it would seek better programming and build a more powerful transmitter facility on Sauratown Mountain. The call letters were changed to WJTM-TV on October 20, 1980, as TVX sought to bring to Winston-Salem the programming style that had made WTVZ immediately competitive in Norfolk. Immediately, and even before the transmitter move to Sauratown in April 1981, ratings ticked up slightly; at the same time, the studios moved to their present site. Even as TVX took over, Piece Goods found itself facing lawsuits for debts the station had owed to a bank prior to the sale. 1984 hostage situation and call sign change to WNRW On June 5, 1984, 32-year-old Ronnell Leverne Jackson drove to the studios of WJTM-TV in Winston-Salem. He fatally shot 48-year-old William Norbert Rismiller, the station's general sales manager, then kidnapped a secretary and took her to his great-aunt's house, where he lived. Having previously made an unsuccessful demand of the station, the hostage-taker agreed to surrender if Winston-Salem station WXII-TV apologized to him. Jackson believed that the two stations and the Christian television program The 700 Club, which they aired, were spying on him through his TV set. It was found out that the home was subscribed to cable television, and the cable system coordinated with WXII to have their personnel record a false apology, which was then played on tape over WXII's channel confined to the home's neighborhood node, resulting in the release of the secretary after more than six hours. Two days after the murder, TVX applied to change WJTM-TV's call sign to WNRW (William Norbert Rismiller, Winston-Salem), which became effective on June 25 and was accompanied by memorial advertising in such publications as Broadcasting. It also increased security at the station. Act III ownership and Fox affiliation TVX announced in August 1985 that it would acquire WLFL, an independent station in Raleigh, and that it expected to have to sell the smaller-market WNRW to complete the purchase, as the two stations had overlapping signals; FCC rules of the time generally prohibited ownership of stations that shared a portion of their coverage areas. The FCC approved the WLFL transaction in February 1986 and gave TVX 12 months to divest itself of WNRW. In November, TVX filed with the FCC to sell the station for $11 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to a new broadcasting group, Act III Broadcasting, owned by television producer Norman Lear. During 1986, WNRW also became the market's first Fox affiliate when the network launched on October 9, 1986. As an independent station in the Triad, WNRW was not alone. In 1981, WGGT had reactivated channel 48 from Greensboro. However, beginning at the end of 1986, that station began to fight through a years-long bankruptcy proceeding, burdened by expensive purchases of syndicated programming. It did not emerge from bankruptcy until July 1991; two months later, in September, WNRW and WGGT signed an agreement to simulcast almost all of the broadcast day, a combination billed as a "super station". WNRW–WGGT also became a secondary affiliate of UPN in January 1995. ==WXLV-TV: ABC affiliate==