WUPV

WUPV is the CW-affiliated television station for Central Virginia that is licensed to Ashland. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 (virtual channel 65.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter northeast of Richmond in King William County along the Hanover County line. Owned by American Spirit Media, the station is operated by Raycom Media though a shared services agreement (SSA) as sister to NBC affiliate WWBT. The two outlets share studios on Midlothian Turnpike/U.S. 60 in Richmond.

History

This channel actually began as Leased access cable TV channel 32 on what is now Comcast in Henrico County running religious programming around 1980. Christal Inc. run by James Campana, the company leasing the channel, later decided it wanted a full-time broadcast station. It later applied for analog UHF channel 65 in Ashland. But it took most of the 1980s to get the station on-the-air. First, Christal had to pay off a competing applicant then Hanover County denied the company permission to construct a tower in its county. So the station was forced to build a tower site in neighboring King William County. It finally signed-on March 9, 1990 as a religious television station, with the calls WZXK, owned by Christal Broadcasting.