Branding My TV Richmond Call letters' meaning see WRLH | Affiliations MyNetworkTV & TBD | |
Channels Digital: WRLH-DT 26.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 35.2 (PSIP) Owner Sinclair Broadcast Group
(WRLH Licensee, LLC) First air date September 5, 2006; 10 years ago (2006-09-05) | ||
WRLH-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Richmond, Virginia. The station is a second digital subchannel of Fox affiliate WRLH-TV owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 26.2 from a transmitter at the studios of PBS affiliates WCVE-TV/WCVW in Bon Air. Known on-air as My TV Richmond, it can also be seen on Verizon FiOS channel 10 and Comcast digital channel 209. WRLH-DT2's parent station has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side area of Richmond. Outside of weeknight prime time, WRLH-DT2 airs TBD.
History
This channel's origins began on January 24, 2006 when UPN and The WB announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.
MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent and compete against The CW. UPN was offered in Richmond on WUPV-TV while NBC affiliate WWBT carried The WB out of rotation in late-night since there was no full-time affiliate with the network. During that time, WRLH aired Kids' WB.
The main channel established this second digital subchannel in order to air MyNetworkTV when the network launched on September 5. MGM and Weigel Broadcasting launched This TV (a fledgling digital subchannel network broadcasting classic movies) in November 2008. WRLH-DT2 became one of its launch-day affiliates. At one point every morning at Midnight, the station re-aired the main channel's nightly prime time newscast (Fox News at 10) produced by WWBT. The newscast returned on June 2012 and was simulcast after MyNetworkTV's primetime programming, but as of April 2013, it was quietly removed from the schedule.