WTVR

U.S. center to center-left

Background

WTVR signed on April 22, 1948, as the first television station licensed south of the Mason-Dixon Line — the 16th station in the country — and is historically significant as a pioneer of Southern broadcasting. The station was launched by Wilbur M. Havens and quickly built a local audience; its original tower was briefly the tallest freestanding structure in the United States. Ownership passed through several hands over subsequent decades. In 1997, when its then-owner sought to merge with Richmond's Media General, the FCC blocked that deal because Media General also owned the Richmond Times-Dispatch, forcing a swap with Raycom Media. Raycom held the station for about a decade before trading it to Local TV LLC in 2009. Tribune Media acquired the station from Local TV in December 2013. When Nexstar Media Group purchased Tribune Media, regulators required divestiture of WTVR; E.W. Scripps Company acquired it for $580 million as part of that regulatory process. Scripps, which owns more than 60 local TV stations nationwide, runs WTVR as a CBS affiliate serving the Richmond metropolitan area. The station's journalism has not generated major national controversies, and it operates in the mainstream local-broadcast tradition of community news coverage.

Sources

1. WTVR-TV – Wikipedia
2. WTVR CBS 6 – About Us
3. WTVR CBS 6 celebrates 78 years of broadcasting (April 2026)
4. TV station WTVR in Richmond to get new owners – Prince George County VA
5. Scripps News – Media Bias/Fact Check
6. Scripps News – AllSides Media Bias
7. E.W. Scripps Company – Britannica Money
8. How Trump administration layoffs are impacting Richmond – WTVR
9. Political analyst breaks down Trump's 2026 State of the Union – WTVR

Profile compiled 2026-09-10; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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