WAGT CD

History

The license for W67BE (the call letters reflected its original location on UHF channel 67) was first granted on March 28, 1985, airing, at first, a collection of grainy black-and-white cowboy movies, infomercials, syndicated (and not well known) shows and series such as 'Sewing with Nancy.' It later became Augusta's first Fox affiliate before the emergence of WFXG (channel 54) in 1991. The station would eventually re-make itself, and on January 2, 1995 the station became WBEK-LP, an affiliate of The WB. During this period, the station was known locally as "The WB on WBEK 67".

In 1999, WBAU, a local affiliate of The WB 100+, signed on, appearing on cable systems in the August area; as a result, WBEK lost its WB affiliation. The station then became an affiliate of UPN, and for a few years sold advertising on WBAU, before these rights went to WRDW-TV (channel 12; this changed hands once more before The WB 100+ was replaced with The CW Plus). In 2001, WBEK moved to its present channel location, channel 16, and obtained class A status (modifying its call sign to WBEK-CA).

After the affiliation switch, the station attempted to maintain its status as a "top" local affiliate. The station's move to channel 16 had come with a loss in power, and viewership began to decline. The station picked up a secondary affiliation with America One during this period. In 2004, the station lost the UPN affiliation to WRDW's digital subchannel 31.2 (UPN Augusta). In 2015, the station converted to digital broadcasting and became WBEK-CD. That same year, America One and cable network Youtoo TV merged to become Youtoo America.

On August 27, 2015, longtime owner AVN agreed to sell WBEK-CD to Gray Television, owner of WRDW-TV, for $550,000. The sale did not include the station's existing cable carriage on Comcast or the WBEK call letters; Gray thus applied to change the station's call letters to WRDW-CD. The sale was completed on October 27, 2015, at which time the call sign change to WRDW-CD took effect.

In September 2015, Gray announced its purchase of Schurz Communications and its NBC affiliate WAGT. Gray proposed to consolidate the station into WRDW's facilities (replacing a previous shared services agreement with Media General), and offer its wireless spectrum during the FCC's upcoming spectrum reallocation auction. However, as Gray could not own both WRDW and WAGT because they are within the top 4 stations of the market, Gray had proposed a waiver in which it would shut down WAGT upon closure of the deal. In January 2016, Gray requested special temporary authority for WRDW-CD to immediately move to the same operating facilities and UHF channel 30 as WAGT. As it would cause interference, Gray stated that WAGT would simultaneously discontinue its full-power signal, effectively replacing it with WRDW-CD. This request implied that Gray intended to transfer WAGT's NBC programming to the low-power signal upon the completion of its purchase, as they are not subject to FCC duopoly rules. On February 1, 2016, the station's call letters changed to WAGT-CD.

The FCC approved the sale of Schurz to Gray on February 12, 2016, and approved Gray's waiver for the duopoly restrictions, but ruled that Gray had to continue operating WAGT through the auction. Gray went on with its plans to end the SSA and JSA with Media General; the company was granted an injunction restricting removal of the JSA or sale of the station after accusing Gray of violating the agreement, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court on March 23, 2016.