Branding ABC Tri-Cities | Affiliations ABC (2016–present) | |
City Johnson City, Tennessee Channels Digital: WJHL-DT 11.2 (VHF/PSIP) Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) First air date 2006; 11 years ago (2006) | ||
WJHL-DT2 is the ABC affiliated television station licensed to Johnson City, Tennessee, USA. It is a second digital subchannel of CBS affiliated WJHL-TV, which is owned by Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group, and serves the Tri-Cities area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. WJHL-DT2’s parent station has studios on East Main Street in downtown Johnson City, and its transmitter is located on Holston Mountain.
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Although the station is located in Johnson City, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires it to also include all three major cities of the market (Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia) in its legal station identification.
History
In late 2006, WJHL-DT2 began broadcasting as an digital OTA relaunch of the station’s cable-exclusive local weather channel. The weather channel lasted for almost five years. In August 2011, WJHL-DT2 became a general entertainment outlet by joining the Weigel Broadcasting-operated MeTV network.
On January 4, 2016, Media General and ABC announced that WJHL-DT2 would become the Tri-Cities' ABC affiliate on February 1 of that year, branded as ABC Tri-Cities. The Tri-Cities market’s original primary ABC affiliate was WKPT-TV since that station’s 1969 launch. However, before WKPT had the ABC affiliation, WJHL carried that network as a secondary affiliation since that station’s launch in October 1953. WJHL also carried the NBC and DuMont networks on a secondary basis until 1956 when DuMont went off the air permanently and WCYB-TV signed on as an NBC affiliate, and began sharing the ABC affiliation with WJHL until WKPT’s 1969 sign-on.
MeTV is still available in the Tri-Cities area, but via WAPK-CD (which is simulcast on WKPT-DT2), one of WKPT’s low-powered sister stations in the market. The MyNetworkTV affiliation that was previously on WAPK-CD/WKPT-DT2 aired on WKPT-TV's main channel until early 2017, when it joined Cozi TV.
Programming
WJHL-DT2 clears the entire ABC schedule, except for Litton's Weekend Adventure, a children’s educational programming block, which is designed mainly for carriage by ABC affiliates. Instead, WJHL-DT2 airs content from the open syndication market for their E/I contribution.
Newscasts
WJHL-DT2 did not air any newscasts from its parent station as a local weather channel or a MeTV affiliate. However, upon WJHL-DT2's switch to ABC, it began simulcasting WJHL's morning, 11 p.m., and weekend newscasts. In addition, WJHL-DT2 airs newscasts at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with ABC World News Tonight broadcast in between the two newscasts on a 30-minute tape-delay at 7 p.m. The newscasts are branded ABC Tri-Cities News and are exclusive to WJHL-DT2.