WCHS-TV branded as WCHS TV-8 held by Sinclair Broadcast Group is an ABC affiliate broadcasting in Charleston, West Virginia and serves Charleston-Huntington market. Established on Aug 15, 1954, the channel shares duopoly with Cunningham Broadcasting-owned Fox affiliate WVAH airing on Ch 11. Channel 8 has its studios on Piedmont Road in Charleston with transmitter installed on Coal Mountain south of Scott Depot, West Virginia. WSYX in Columbus also is an ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group that serves in Parkesburg-Marietta while WCHS is operating in West Virginia portion of the market.
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Catchphrase: West Virginia’s Source for News
Sub-channels: WCHS-DT
Antenna
Charge!
TBD
Sisters: WVAH-TV
Website: www.wchstv.com/
History
WCHS dates backs its launch to Aug 15, 1954 under the original ownership of Tierney Company which also held WCHS 580 AM. It was the second commercial outlet in the market after WKNA in Charleston; WKNA, an ABC linked station aired on UHF Ch 49 but got silent in 1955 due to very low viewership. The service was originally a CBS affiliate that shared ABC affiliation with WSAZ: Ch 3 however, it became a full time CBS affiliate when WHTN in 1995 joined ABC following its launch. It also recorded its affiliation with NTA Film Network in late 50’s for a short period of time.
It swapped CBS affiliation with WHTN to became an ABC outlet. The radio and television sisters were purchased by Rollins Telecasting in 1960 under which the swap was reversed and it once again became a CBS service in 1962. However, it didn’t carry CBS Evening News for a couple of years since its return as CBS affiliate for unknown reasons. Ch 8 once again became an ABC affiliate when it exchanged CBS affiliation with WOWK-TV on June 1, 1986. Rollins Telecasting and Heritage Broadcasting amalgamated in 1987 to establish Heritage Media. The offices of the channel were moved to Piedmont Road in Charleston in Dec 1987 while the AM-radio sister of the TV was sold in 1991. The remaining assets of the group including WCHS-TV were taken over by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1997 with Heritage itself being submerged into News Corporation. The acquisition of WCHS prompted Sinclair to release WVAH to Glencairn because of FCC restrictions on duopolies. Sinclair and WCHS are known for having been involved in carriage disputes with Dish, Timer Warner and other networks. The channel is available online with latest news, weather updates, sports stories under Eyewitness News banner. Trending and entertaining stuff, featured videos, special reports, Cabell and Putnam news are also part of the web-portal. Get connected with the service using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Here is the website: https://wchstv.com/
