WTVW

WTVW, virtual channel 7 (UHF digital channel 28), is a CW-affiliated television station located in Evansville, Indiana, United States. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting; the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which owned the station outright from 2003 to 2011 and presently owns ABC affiliate WEHT (channel 25), operates WTVW under a shared services agreement. The two stations share studio facilities located on Marywood Drive in Henderson, Kentucky; WTVW's transmitter is located near Chandler, Indiana.

Before joining The CW, WTVW was the market's Fox affiliate from December 3, 1995 to June 30, 2011 (serving as an independent station after disaffiliating from the network until January 30, 2013); before that, it served as Evansville's original ABC affiliate from its August 21, 1956 sign-on to December 2, 1995.

History

As an ABC affiliate

WTVW began operations on August 21, 1956 as an ABC affiliate locally owned by Evansville Television, Inc. and operating on VHF channel 7. It was Evansville's third television station, and the first on the VHF band. In its early years on the air, WTVW fought an attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to deintermix the market, which would have moved the station to UHF channel 31 (making Evansville a UHF island; its rivals, WEHT and WFIE, had operated on UHF since their inceptions in 1953) and reallocated channel 7 to Louisville, Kentucky. The station's original studio faciities were located on Carpenter Street in downtown Evansville.