is the
Fox network affiliate in the
Huntington /
Charleston, West Virginia television market. It is licensed to Charleston, with studios in
Teays Valley , an unincorporated suburban community near Huntington that shares a
Post Office with
Hurricane . It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation, but operated by
Sinclair Broadcast Group in a
Local Marketing Agreement with Sinclair-owned
ABC affiliate
WCHS-TV . However, Sinclair effectively owns WVAH due to Cunningham's financial structure (see below). The station shares news operations with WCHS.
The station was founded in
1982 on channel 23 after the West Virginia legislature forced the state educational broadcasting authority to withdraw its application for the channel, which had tied up its assignment for over a decade. It was the first independent station in West Virginia and the first commercial
UHF station to sign on in the state since WKNA-TV in Charleston went off the air in
1955 . Prior to WVAH's sign-on, the Huntington-Charleston market had been the biggest market in the country without an independent station. It became a charter Fox affiliate in
1986 .
However, the UHF signal was not nearly strong enough to reach the entire market, which is the second largest in area east of the
Mississippi River . The Charleston-Huntington market covers 61 counties in central West Virginia, northeastern
Kentucky and southern
Ohio . Most of this area is a very rugged
Dissected Plateau , making it difficult for a UHF station to cover such a large area. It also knocked
WSAZ-TV 's low-power relay for the Kanawha Valley, also on channel 23, off the air on several occasions. Because of this, WVAH was permitted to switch to
VHF channel 11 in
1989 . However, the station was wedged in between
WPXI in
Pittsburgh and
WJHL-TV in
Johnson City, Tennessee . WVAH must conform its signal to protect WJHL, making the signal hard to receive in the southwestern portion of the market. The station's digital signal, on channel 19, has no such restrictions.
UPN programming, most notably , began airing on WVAH in 1995 in overnight timeslots. However, Fox 11 could not clear the entire UPN schedule, and was forced to drop the network in early 2000.
WVAH carries
NCAA sports from the
Southeastern Conference .
Following a tower collapse in
2002 , the station moved its transmitter and almost all of its facilities to WCHS' studio in Charleston. WVAH's main studio, however, remains in Teays Valley.
In
2000 , WVAH was bought by Glencairn Ltd. Its president, Edwin Edwards, was a former Sinclair executive. The Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair, owned nearly all of Glencairn's stock, so in effect Sinclair owned WCHS and WVAH. Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting in
2001 . Sinclair has tried to buy WVAH outright, but this would violate
FCC rules which prohibit one person from owning two of the four largest stations in a single market. This matter is the subject of protracted litigation. However, Sinclair is the de facto owner of WVAH since Cunningham is owned by trusts controlled by members of the Smith family.
