WVFX

WVFX

Clarksburg–Weston– Fairmont, West Virginia United States
City	Clarksburg, West Virginia
Channels	Digital:13 (VHF) Virtual:10
Branding	Fox 10 Clarksburg CW 10.2 (on DT2)
Programming
Affiliations	10.1:Fox 10.2:CW+ for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
Sister stations	WDTV
History
First air date	February 8, 1981(1981-02-08)
Former call signs	WLYJ (1981–1998)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:46 (UHF,1981–2009) Digital:10 (VHF, 2003–2020)
Former affiliations	ReligiousInd.(1981–1998)
Call signmeaning	West Virginia's Fox
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	10976
ERP	110 kW
HAAT	212.2 m (696 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	39°18′2″N80°20′36″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wdtv

WVFX(channel 10) is atelevision stationlicensed toClarksburg, West Virginia,United States, servingNorth-Central West Virginiaas a dual affiliate ofFoxandThe CW Plus.It is owned byGray TelevisionalongsideWeston-licensedCBSaffiliateWDTV(channel 5). The two stations share studios on Television Drive inBridgeport(alongI-79/Jennings RandolphExpressway); WVFX's transmitter is located in anunincorporated areabetween Clarksburg andArlington.

History

The station signed on February 8, 1981, and aired ananalogsignal onUHFchannel 46. It was areligiousindependent stationusing the calls WLYJ (standing for "We Love YouJesus"). Much of the programming consisted of national religiousevangelicalsand local fund-raising appeals to continue operation of the station. In 1998, WLYJ was sold to Davis Television and converted to a full commercial operation, also becoming the area's first Fox affiliate and changing their call letters to WVFX to match. Prior to WVFX's affiliation with Fox, the network's programming was only available on cable viaPittsburghaffiliateWPGH-TV;as the market's primaryNFLteam, thePittsburgh Steelers,only featured two home games on Fox as part of the network'sNFC-specificpackage, the network's priority of affiliating with a station in the market had been low before Withers picked up the affiliation.

Davis Television sold WVFX toWithers Broadcastingin 2007. Since the Clarksburg–Weston–Fairmontmarket has only five full-power stations, this amount is too few to allow a duopoly under normalFederal Communications Commission(FCC) guidelines, but Withers was able to acquire WVFX under a failed station waiver issued by the FCC, as it was able to demonstrate that due to the market's conditions and channel 46's struggles to remain on the air as WLYJ and under Davis's ownership, that independent ownership was unlikely to turn WVFX around as a going concern. Withers initially maintained WVFX's on West Pike Street/SR 20in downtown Clarksburg, merging its full operations into the WDTV facility over time. Before the digital transition and the relocation of its transmitter to WDTV's site north of Clarksburg, WVFX struggled with reception over-the-air across the market, since much of the region is a ruggeddissected plateau.Most stations in the market depend primarily onmultichannel video programming distributorsfor most of their viewership. After moving to the WDTV transmitter site with the digital transition, it began to use its newVHFchannel 10 for its on-air branding, and withdrew all mention of channel 46.

Fairmont is technically themarket's largest city becauseMorgantown(though only 20 miles (32 km) north) has the largest population of any city in the geographic area but it is part of the Pittsburgh market. Locations around Morgantown are within reach of over-the-air signals from Pittsburgh stations. Over time, availability of WPGH-TV has been withdrawn in the market in preference to WVFX due to Fox's 'one to a market' carriage policies inretransmission consentnegotiations.

On May 13, 2016, Withers sold WVFX and WDTV to Gray Television for $26.5 million to complete its withdrawal from the television industry.Gray was approved to continue owning WVFX with WDTV under the 2007 failing station waiver originally sought by Withers, and assumed operational control of the stations through alocal marketing agreementon June 1.The sale was completed on May 1, 2017.

Newscast

Further information:WDTV § News operation

WDTV has carried a 10 p.m. primetime newscast on WVFX-DT1 since late 2010.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WVFX

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
10.1	720p	16:9	WVFX-DT	Fox
10.2	480i		WVFX-D2	The CW Plus
10.3			WVFX-D3	Start TV
10.5			WVFX-D5	Grit

Analog-to-digital conversion

WVFX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 46, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal broadcasts on its pre-transition VHF channel 10, and also converted theirvirtual channelto 10 on the same date to take advantage of that channel number's better branding potential.The station shifted to transmitting on channel 13 in 2020 as a part of the FCC's spectrum reallocation, and continues to use channel 10 as its virtual channel.