WXLV-TV

WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV (channel 48). The two stations share studios on Myer Lee Drive (along US 421) in Winston-Salem; WXLV-TV's transmitter is located in Randleman (along I-73/US 220).

Channel 45 went on the air in 1979 as WGNN-TV, a Christian-oriented TV station. It was sold to Television Corporation Stations—later renamed TVX Broadcast Group—in 1980 and changed its call sign to WJTM-TV, becoming the Triad's first general-entertainment independent station. After a gunman killed the general sales manager in 1984, TVX renamed the station WNRW, incorporating his initials. WNRW became the market's first Fox affiliate in 1986; TVX then sold it to Act III Broadcasting in 1986 in order to acquire a station in the adjacent Raleigh market. Act III combined the station's schedule and programming with Greensboro independent WGGT in 1991, creating a simulcast.

In 1995, as a result of regional ABC affiliate WGHP switching to Fox, channel 45 became an ABC affiliate under new WXLV call letters and began broadcasting local news programming. It also picked up a secondary affiliation with UPN, which became channel 48's primary programming when the simulcast was split the next year. Sinclair acquired WXLV in 1998. The station's local newscasts failed to make headway against the established stations in the Triad. Sinclair shuttered the local news department in January 2002. Since then, Sinclair has implemented smaller-scale news programs for the station, first as part of the News Central service, then with cable news channel News 14 Carolina (later Spectrum News North Carolina) and since 2021 with local reporters and anchors at a Sinclair station in Texas.

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 (equivalent to $768,000 in 2024) 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.

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.

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 $32 million in 2024) 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.