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WVIT (channel 30) is a television station licensed to New Britain, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven Media market. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A Telemundo outlet WRDM-CD (channel 19). The two stations share studios on New Britain Avenue in West Hartford and transmitter facilities on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut.
In January 1955, NBC announced it would purchase the WKNB stations for just over $600,000. Though the network was acquiring both radio and television outlets, the key to the deal was channel 30–as one of the first UHF stations to be owned by a major network, the FCC encouraged the networks to expand their owned-and-operated holdings to include outlets in the new band to help ensure its viability. Indeed, NBC made plans to boost channel 30's signal to cover the entire market.
WKNB-TV began carrying the full NBC programming schedule in October 1955. The FCC approved the sale to NBC in December 1956, nearly two years after it was first announced. The network then renamed channel 30 WNBC (for New Britain, Connecticut) in January 1957. In its first stint as an NBC-owned station, channel 30 failed to gain much headway in the ratings, largely because television manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability until 1964. Viewers had to buy an expensive converter to watch WNBC, and even with one the picture was barely viewable. In addition, plans to relocate the station's tower and to boost transmission power never moved forward.
In September 1957, the Hartford-based Travelers Insurance Company signed on independent station WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB), the state's second and last VHF station. Within a year of its debut (and despite its radio sister having been an NBC radio affiliate for over thirty years) WTIC-TV became Connecticut's CBS affiliate, replacing its owned-and-operated station, WHCT-TV (channel 18, now Univision affiliate WUVN). NBC then realized its UHF experiment was a lost cause (it had shut down WBUF-TV in Buffalo, New York, in October 1958), and in June 1959 sold WNBC and WKNB radio for $750,000 to Plains Television Inc., a joint venture of Transcontinental Properties and H & E Balaban Corporation (WKNB was spun off immediately afterward)."NBC sells WNBC (TV) to Scheftel group." Broadcasting, June 29, 1959, pp. 73–74. Retrieved December 30, 2018. [5] [6]"Changing Hands." Broadcasting, September 28, 1959, pp. 98–100. Retrieved December 30, 2018. [7] [8] As part of the deal, Springfield Television, the owner of fellow NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts, was to have held a one-third share in channel 30; it abandoned this stake before the deal's completion after concerns arose over WWLP and WNBC's overlapping coverage areas, but continued to hold an option to reacquire it for some time afterward pending FCC approval."Conn. sale protest dismissed by FCC." Broadcasting, November 30, 1959, pp. 70–71. Retrieved December 30, 2018. [9] [10] In May 1960, channel 30's callsign changed again – this time to WHNB-TV (for Hartford-New Britain); NBC reclaimed the WNBC calls for its flagship radio and television combination (the former WRCA-AM-WQHT-WNBC) in New York City.
In 1966, WHNB-TV became, once again, one of two NBC affiliates in Connecticut; the network signed with Waterbury-licensed WATR-TV (channel 20) to get its programming into New Haven on a strong signal. By this time, television manufacturers were now required to include all-channel tuning. Channel 30 itself made up for the shortfall in its market coverage by operating two low-power translators (starting in 1971): W79AI (channel 79) in Torrington W79AI and W59AA (channel 59) in New Haven. W59AA New Haven They also operated W79AH in Waterbury in the 1960s.
Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, placing its five-station group (WVIT; KMOV in St. Louis; WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York; WNYT in Albany, New York; and KSLA-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana) under common ownership with the Paramount Stations Group;Foisie, Geoffrey, and Christopher Stern. "Viacom, Paramount say 'I do.'" Broadcasting and Cable, September 20, 1993, pp. 14–16. Retrieved January 5, 2019. [13] [14] [15]Foisie, Geoffrey. "At long last: Viacom Paramount." Broadcasting and Cable, February 21, 1994, pp. 7, 10, 14. Retrieved January 5, 2019. [16] [17] [18] the two groups were formally consolidated in December 1995. The merged company decided to divest itself of all of its major network affiliates to focus on stations that carried its then-upstart United Paramount Network (UPN).Zier, Julie A., and Steve McClellan. "Minority-led group eyes Viacom stations." Broadcasting and Cable, November 7, 1994, pp. 6. Retrieved January 5, 2019. [19] WVIT, the first television outlet Viacom purchased was the last station to be sold, as Viacom agreed to trade channel 30 to former owner NBC in return for future purchase rights to WWHO in Chillicothe, Ohio, and WLWC in New Bedford, Massachusetts, two UPN-affiliated stations NBC was operating by way of local marketing agreements. The sale closed on December 8, 1997, making WVIT an NBC O&O for the second time in its history. It also ended its part-time LMA with WTXX, and the LMA deal was transferred to WTIC-TV.
On December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it would buy Telemundo affiliate WRDM-CD and its Springfield satellite station WDMR-LP from ZGS Communications, as with several other NBC O&Os, WRDM would become a sister station to WVIT, creating the third duopoly in the Hartford–New Haven television market, following the duopolies of Nexstar Media Group's WTNH/WCTX and Tegna's WTIC-TV/WCCT-TV (though as a low-power station, WRDM is exempt from FCC ownership caps, including the duopoly rule). ZGS had sold WRDM's spectrum in the FCC's incentive auction for $10,574,516 and indicated that the station would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement, which occurred with WVIT at the start of the year. The sale was officially completed on February 1, 2018.
On June 7, 2021, WVIT debuted its 7 p.m. newscast, becoming the first and only station in Connecticut to have a prime time newscast.
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