WSET-TV

WSET-TV is the ABC television network affiliate for the Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia market. The station is licensed to Lynchburg, and transmits its digital signal on VHF channel 13. WSET is owned by the Allbritton Communications Company. Its transmitter is located near Thaxton, Virginia. WSET also began airing Retro Television Network on a digital subchannel starting April 2008.[2]

History
WSET-TV signed on the air for the very first time on February 8, 1953 as WLVA-TV(W-Lynchburg-VirginiA) from a transmitter on Tobacco Row Mountain. The station was owned by Lynchburg Broadcasting, which also owned WLVA radio. It was the first station in Virginia to operate at full power, and also served Charlottesville as well. It was originally a CBS affiliate, but also carried programs from ABC, NBC, and DuMont as well.[3] By the end of 1954, Roanoke and Lynchburg had been collapsed into a single market. Accordingly, channel 13 moved its transmitter and tower to Evington, Virginia in 1954 in an attempt to better serve Roanoke and the western part of the market. It also dropped NBC from its schedule, becoming a primary ABC affiliate--Virginia's first. The two stations then split CBS until WDBJ-TV signed on from Roanoke in 1955.

In the early 1960s, the station set up translator W05AA to help cover Roanoke, since its main signal did poorly in many parts of the city. WSET was not alone in installing low-VHF Roanoke translators; the early 1960s also saw W02AE put on the air to translate WSLS and W04AG put on the air to translate WDBJ.

In the late 1960s, former ABC World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson was a reporter/anchor for the station.

In 1965, Lynchburg Broadcasting sold the WLVA stations to the Washington Star Company, which also owned the Washington Star newspaper and WMAL-AM-FM-TV. Joseph L. Allbrittonbought the Star in 1976. Allbritton sold off the company's non-television assets, including WLVA radio, in 1977, and in 1978 WLVA-TV changed its call letters to the current WSET-TV to coincide with its new branding, "NeWSET-13."

For most of its first 30 years on the air, channel 13 provided spotty coverage to the western part of the market because it is sandwiched between WLOS-TV in Asheville, North Carolina and WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia. The station made numerous requests to move its transmitter closer to Roanoke. However, they were all turned down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) each time due to concerns about interference, principally with WOWK. This was despite the fact that the Roanoke/Lynchburg and Huntington/Charlestonmarkets do not border each other. However, the FCC believed that the two markets were close enough that the two channel 13 transmitters had to be as far apart as possible to avoid interference. Its signal was so weak in Roanoke that ABC actually granted an affiliation to a second station in the market, WRFT-TV (channel 27), for much of the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1970, channel 13 sought to move its transmitter to Poor Mountain near Roanoke, where the other major stations in the market operated their transmitters, but was turned down by the FCC even though Poor Mountain is over 220 miles from WOWK's transmitter. In 1980, WSET finally won FCC approval to relocate its transmitter from Evington to Thaxton Mountain near Bedford, halfway between Roanoke and Lynchburg. WSET activated its new transmitter in 1982, providing a city-grade signal to portions of the western part of the market for the first time. However, the FCC required WSET to significantly conform its signal to protect WOWK. As a result, some areas of the western part of the market, including parts of Roanoke itself, only got a grade B signal.

Since returning its digital signal to VHF channel 13 in October 2009, WSET's over-the-air coverage in much of the western part of the market, especially the New River Valley, is somewhat marginal due in part to the mountainous terrain. W05AA was converted to digital operation in late 2009, which helped to fill in coverage holes in Roanoke.

WSET's newscasts primarily focus on the eastern part of the Roanoke/Lynchburg market. In 2005, it was one of only two ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone to air ABC's World News Tonight at 7 p.m. rather than 6:30; WSB-TV in Atlanta is the other. However, WSET has returned the national program to the 6:30 p.m. time slot, shifting its local newscast to 7:00 p.m.

Out of market coverage
WSET is carried in Roxboro, North Carolina on Charter Cable. It is also picked up in Yanceyville, North Carolina on Comcast Cable.

Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

WSET-DT
WSET-DT broadcasts on digital channel 13.

Digital channels

Once and Again controversy
On March 11, 2002, WSET pre-empted an episode of Once and Again which contained a scene in which two female characters kiss one another, and ran a prime-time infomercial instead.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[4] WSET was the only ABC affiliate to pre-empt the episode. The decision, which station management refused to explain, provoked condemnation from GLAAD<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[5] and praise from Lynchburg resident Jerry Falwell.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[6]

Current on-air staff
Anchors


 * Pattie Martin -weekday mornings "Good Morning Virginia" (5-7 a.m.)
 * Shelley Basinger -  weekday mornings "Good Morning Virginia" (5-7 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
 * Len Stevens - weeknights at 5:30, 6, 7 and 11 p.m.
 * Noreen Turyn - weeknights at 6 p.m.
 * Danner Evans- weeknights at 5 and 5:30 p.m.
 * Dhomonique Ricks - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m. (and general assignment reporter)

Reporters


 * Sarah Bloom - Danville bureau reporter
 * Lauren Compton - general assignment reporter
 * Jeremy Mills - general assignment reporter
 * Mark Kelly - general assignment reporter
 * Ashley Singh - Danville bureau reporter
 * David Tate - Roanoke bureau reporter (left in 2015)

Weather team


 * Sean Sublette (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 7 and 11 p.m.
 * Matt Ferguson (Member; NWA/AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Good Morning Virginia" (5-7 a.m.) and noon
 * Lyndsay Tapases - Meteorologist; Weekends 6 & 11 p.m.

Sports team


 * Dennis Carter - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
 * Justin Feldkamp - Sports Anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.

Non-news on-air staff

 * Tab O'Neal - Living in the Heart of Virginia, Weekdays at 12:30pm

Newscast titles

 * WLVA-TV News (1953–1964)
 * The Jack Martin Report (1964–?)
 * Total Information News
 * Channel 13 News
 * News 13
 * NeWSET 13 (?–1980s)
 * NewsCenter 13 (1980s–1990)
 * News 13 (1990–2001)
 * ABC 13 News (2001–present)

Station slogans

 * Something's Happening On Channel 13 (1987-1990; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
 * The Heart of Virginia (1987-present; general slogan)
 * Friends You Can Count On (early-mid 1990s)
 * If It's Virginia's, It Must Be Channel 13 (1992-1993; localized version of "It Must Be ABC" campaign)
 * Coverage You Can Count On (2004-present; news slogan)