WZDC-CD

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WZDC-CD
WZDC Telemundo Washington DC.png
Washington, D.C.
United States
ChannelsDigital: 34 (UHF)
(shared with WRC-TV)
Virtual: 44
BrandingTelemundo 44 (general)
Noticiero Telemundo 44 (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations44.1: Telemundo
44.2: TeleXitos
Ownership
OwnerTelemundo Station Group
(Comcast/NBCUniversal)
(NBC Telemundo License LLC)
WRC-TV
NBC Sports Washington
History
First air date
April 1994 (27 years ago) (1994-04)
Former call signs
  • W64BW (1993–1995)
  • WZGS-LP (1995–2000)
  • WZDC-LP (2000–2008)
  • WZDC-CA (2008–2011)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 64 (UHF, 1993–2007)
  • 25 (UHF, 2007–2011)
  • Digital:
  • 25 (UHF, 2011–2018)
  • 48 (UHF, 2018–2019)
Call sign meaning
ZGS District of Columbia
(former owner)
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID50347
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT244 m (801 ft)
Transmitter coordinates38°56′24″N 77°4′53″W / 38.94000°N 77.08139°W / 38.94000; -77.08139Coordinates: 38°56′24″N 77°4′53″W / 38.94000°N 77.08139°W / 38.94000; -77.08139
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.telemundowashingtondc.com

WZDC-CD, virtual channel 44 (UHF digital channel 34), is a Class A Telemundo owned-and-operated television station licensed to the American capital city of Washington, D.C. Owned by the Telemundo Station Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal, it is sister to NBC owned-and-operated station WRC-TV (channel 4) and regional sports network NBC Sports Washington. WZDC-CD and WRC-TV share studios and transmitter facilities on Nebraska Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington.

Despite WZDC-CD legally holding a low-power Class A license, it transmits using sister station WRC-TV's full-power spectrum. This ensures complete reception across the Washington, D.C. television market.

History[]

WZDC-CD signed on as W64BW on UHF channel 64 in April 1994, as the Telemundo affiliate in the Washington market. On December 1, 1995, the call letters were changed to WZGS-LP, reflecting the station's ownership, ZGS Broadcasting. On June 27, 2000, the call letters were changed to WZDC-LP. On June 3, 2002, the station began producing Spanish-language local newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. weeknights.

On April 10, 2007, WZDC-LP moved to channel 25, as channel 64 was to be removed from television broadcasting as a result of the 2009 digital television transition.

The station received class-A status in September 2008, changing callsigns to WZDC-CA to match. An application to build a new digital signal on channel 26 was dismissed in the same month.[1] WZDC eventually received permission to flash-cut to digital on channel 25 in March 2011, and became WZDC-CD in doing so that September.[2]

In the 2016–17 incentive auction, WZDC-CD received $66,182,037 to leave the air, though it indicated that it would maintain over-the-air coverage by entering into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[3]

On September 6, 2017, NBCUniversal internally announced that it would launch a Telemundo owned-and-operated station based out of WRC-TV (channel 4) in December; a Telemundo spokesperson stated that the sale of WZDC's spectrum "gave us the ability to take back the Telemundo affiliation for this market," without elaborating.[4][5] Subsequently, on December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group announced its purchase of ZGS' 13 television stations, including WZDC-CD.[6] As a result of the common ownership, WZDC-CD then entered into a channel-sharing agreement with WRC-TV, under which it ended broadcasts over its own signal on channel 25 and moved to WRC-TV's signal on channel 48.[7] NBCUniversal assumed the operations of WZDC on January 1, 2018 through a local marketing agreement.[8]

The channel-sharing agreement with WRC-TV took effect on March 7, 2018, at which time WZDC shut off its own signal.[9]

As the channel-share went into effect, WZDC's virtual channel number of 25 presented an issue. Virtual channel 25 is already in use by Hagerstown's WDVM-TV, which covers much of the western part of the Washington market and overlaps the signal of WRC-TV. The PSIP standard resolves virtual channel conflicts by assigning the new station a virtual channel number equal to the existing station's physical channel number. As WDVM-TV broadcast over physical channel 26 at the time, the rule would assign WZDC-CD virtual channel 26. However, WETA-TV already uses virtual channel 26 in the market, and there is no further remedy prescribed in the PSIP standard. NBC proposed as a second option virtual channel 64, corresponding to WZDC-CD's original analog channel. This introduces another conflict with WDPB, which overlaps the eastern portion of WRC-TV's coverage area. In this case, the same rule assigned virtual channel 44, which was available.[10]

Local programming[]

WZDC broadcasts 10 hours of locally produced newscasts each week, at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays.[11]

D.C. United games are broadcast in Spanish on WZDC-CD2, in tandem with English coverage on co-owned NBC Sports Washington.[12]

Subchannels[]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[13]
44.1 1080i 16:9 WZDC Telemundo
44.2 480i 4:3 XITOS TeleXitos

References[]

  1. ^ "[D]WZDC-LD Facility Data". fccdata.org.
  2. ^ "WZDC-CD Facility Data". FCCData.
  3. ^ "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  4. ^ Marszalek, Diana (September 11, 2017). "Telemundo Launching a Washington O&O in December". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  5. ^ "Telemundo ends affiliate deal with ZGS to launch O&O in D.C." Media Moves. September 11, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  6. ^ Miller, Mark K. (December 4, 2017). "NBCU Adding ZGS Stations To Telemundo". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  7. ^ "Modification of a Licensed Facility for Digital Class A TV Station Application". FCC LMS.
  8. ^ Telemundo Station Group announces leadership team for Telemundo station in Washington, D.C. - NBCUniversal
  9. ^ "Suspension of Operations of a Digital Class A Station". FCC LMS.
  10. ^ "WZDC-CD Assignment of Virtual Channel 44". FCC LMS.
  11. ^ "WZDC Adds More Local News, Rebrands | TVNewsCheck.com". TVNewsCheck.
  12. ^ "D.C. United Announces Partnerships with NBC Sports Washington and TeleXitos".
  13. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WZDC-CD

External links[]

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