WROM-TV

WTVC

Company type	Broadcast television station
Industry	Broadcasting
Founded	June 15, 1953 (1953-06-15) in Rome, Georgia, United States
Headquarters	Chattanooga, Tennessee , United States
Area served	Chattanooga metropolitan area
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Website	wtvc.com

WTVC (channel 9) operates as a television broadcaster based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, carrying affiliations with both ABC and Fox. The station is under the ownership of Sinclair Broadcast Group and maintains its production facilities on Benton Drive in Chattanooga. Its transmission equipment is situated atop Signal Mountain in Walden, Tennessee.

In addition to WTVC, Sinclair oversees engineering services for the Chattanooga-licensed True Crime Network/Comet affiliate WDSI-TV (channel 61), which is owned by New Age Media. Sinclair also provides similar support for Cleveland-licensed dual CW/MyNetworkTV affiliate WFLI-TV (channel 53), owned by MPS Media but operated through a local marketing agreement by New Age Media. Both WDSI-TV and WFLI-TV maintain separate studio locations on East Main Street in Chattanooga’s Highland Park neighborhood; however, their master control and certain operational functions are centralized at WTVC’s Benton Drive studios.

The primary digital broadcast of WTVC is further extended via an off-air low-power Class A repeater, WPDP-CD (channel 25), which holds its license in Cleveland and is owned by New Age Media. WPDP-CD transmits from Oswald Dome located in Polk County within the bounds of the Cherokee National Forest.

Although some portions of the Chattanooga market fall within the Central Time Zone, WTVC schedules all programming according to Eastern Time.

Initial Years as WROM-TV

The station commenced operations on June 15, 1953, under the call sign WROM-TV, functioning as an NBC affiliate licensed to Rome, Georgia, with its broadcast signal primarily directed toward Chattanooga. Its analog transmission utilized VHF channel 9 at a power of 98,000 watts from a tower positioned on Horseleg Mountain west of Rome. In addition to NBC, WROM-TV held secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC, and the now-defunct DuMont Television Network. The station lost its CBS affiliation following the debut of WDEF-TV in 1954. Thereafter, WROM-TV continued to air NBC, ABC, and DuMont programming until 1956 when DuMont ceased operations and WRGP-TV (currently WRCB-TV) assumed the NBC affiliation. ABC terminated its association with WROM-TV around this time, opting instead for secondary partnerships with WDEF and WRGP due to WROM-TV’s diminished 31,000-watt signal that primarily covered Chattanooga’s southern suburbs.

Following this period, WROM-TV functioned as an independent station through late 1957, promoting itself as "Dixie's Largest Independent." The station's lineup featured classic films, country music shows typical of Southern television during the 1950s, and occasional ABC programs such as Omnibus.

In 1957, Martin Theaters—the precursor to Carmike Cinemas—purchased WROM-TV and ceased its broadcasts in December to facilitate relocating its transmitter approximately 70 miles northward to Chattanooga for full-power transmission capabilities. Martin Theaters had previously requested FCC authorization to shift its recently acquired WDAK-TV (Channel 28 in Columbus, Georgia) to channel 9; however, FCC regulations concerning co-channel interference and media ownership restrictions prevented overlapping broadcast areas. Relocating WROM-TV’s transmitter to Chattanooga resolved these regulatory conflicts.

This reassignment of channel allocations between Chattanooga and Columbus was part of a broader FCC analog frequency reorganization impacting stations across the Southeastern United States, including markets such as Dothan, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama, and Greenwood, Mississippi, among others.

It is noteworthy that Rome later lost another television frequency when WZGA (UHF channel 14, now owned-and-operated by Ion Television as WPXA-TV) moved its operations to Atlanta. Unlike the relocation of WROM-TV’s channel allocation, channel 14 remains licensed to Rome. Concurrently, AM broadcaster WROM continues transmitting on AM frequency 710. WPXA operates digitally on channel 31 but uses virtual channel 14 while retaining its Rome license. Additionally, Atlanta's WSB-TV utilizes a digital fill-in translator licensed to Rome on digital channel 14 but mapped virtually to channel 2.

As WTVC

Channel 9 commenced operations in Chattanooga as the full-power ABC affiliate WTVC on February 11, 1958, utilizing the original license of WROM-TV. Chattanooga stood out as one of the smallest markets to host three VHF stations. To this day, WTVC remains the sole station in Chattanooga without an additional network affiliation.

Early in its history, WTVC established a notable local programming presence, introducing innovative shows such as the children's educational program Funtime hosted by Marcia Kling. The Saturday night slot featured Shock Theater, which developed a dedicated fan base with programming director Tommy Reynolds performing as "Doctor Shock" alongside his assistant "Dingbat." Another popular show, The Bob Brandy Show, combined cartoons and children’s activities, led by advertising executive Bob Brandy, his wife Ingrid, and their horse Rebel.

In 1969, Martin Theaters divested WTVC to J. B. Fuqua, a businessman based in Augusta, Georgia, who also owned stations like WJBF-TV (Augusta), WTVW (Evansville), and KTHI-TV (now KVLY-TV) in Fargo. By 1980, ownership transferred to Dallas-based Belo Corporation. Subsequently, Freedom Communications acquired WTVC and KFDM in Beaumont in 1984, marking its second venture into television ownership. Belo later sold both WTVC and KFDM to adhere to FCC regulations while acquiring Corinthian Broadcasting.

WTVC initially broadcast from a studio on Signal Mountain starting in 1958 before relocating downtown in 1966 to the Golden Gateway Shopping Center. As the station’s operations expanded beyond that facility's capacity, it moved in January 2000 to a new 26,000-square-foot building equipped for digital broadcasting near the Highway 58/153 interchange.

After Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it announced on November 2, 2011, the sale of its stations—including WTVC—to Sinclair Broadcast Group. This acquisition was finalized on April 2, 2012.

WTVC-DT2

Following Sinclair’s purchase of non-license assets from Fox affiliate WDSI-TV, the Fox affiliation and related programming were transferred to WTVC’s secondary digital subchannel.

By October 31, 2015, WTVC-DT2 was simulcasting WDSI during the transition period. On that date, Sinclair introduced the Comet network and permanently moved WDSI’s Fox programming and intellectual property to WTVC-DT2 under the branding "Fox Chattanooga." Meanwhile, programming from This TV previously on WTVC-DT2 shifted to WDSI's primary channel; Comet launched on WDSI-DT2; MyNetworkTV moved to WFLI-DT2; and MeTV relocated to WFLI-DT3. Viewers using cable, satellite, or EPB services experienced no interruption since WTVC-DT2 assumed WDSI’s former channel positions.

Newscasts

As of August 2024, WTVC broadcasts a total of 47 hours of locally produced newscasts each week—comprising eight hours on weekdays and three and a half hours over weekends. When sports programming conflicts arise, live newscasts are streamed via the station’s website. Additionally, the public affairs show This-N-That airs independently from the news department but includes news updates; originally hosted by Don Welch until 2014, it is currently led by James Howard on weekdays at 12:30 p.m., featuring a weather segment.

WTVC’s newscasts carried the Eyewitness News brand from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s before switching to Action News in 1975 and later adopting the NewsChannel identity during the late 1980s.

In the early 1990s, WTVC produced a 10 p.m. newscast for independent station WFLI-TV; this was eventually discontinued. Beginning in 1994, WTVC provided a nightly 10 p.m. broadcast on Fox affiliate WDSI-TV using its meteorologists and reporters but with separate anchors. Although WDSI launched its own news operation in 2000, it ceased these efforts in 2004 and resumed a news-sharing agreement with WTVC. Since then, WTVC has produced Fox 61 First at 10 on WDSI; following Sinclair’s acquisition of WDSI’s non-license assets and Fox programming, this newscast now airs as First at 10 on Fox Chattanooga.

During the 1960s and ’70s, WTVC faced challenges in ratings but saw improvement under Belo Corporation’s stewardship. From the mid-1980s onward, it has maintained a close rivalry with WRCB for leading local news viewership on weekdays while WDEF generally ranks third. On March 1, 2014, WTVC debuted Good Morning Chattanooga Weekend, becoming the second weekend morning news program in the area with broadcasts from 6–7 a.m. and again from 8–9 a.m., sandwiching Good Morning America at 7 a.m.

Subchannels

The WTVC broadcast signal is divided into multiple streams:

Channel	Resolution	Aspect ratio	Identifier	Content
9.1	720p	16:9	ABC	ABC network programming
9.2			FOX	Fox network
9.3	480i		ROAR	Roar network

On December 16, 2014, WTVC introduced a dedicated local weather channel on digital subchannel 9.3, originally partnered with WeatherNation TV. This affiliation was replaced by TBD (currently known as Roar) on June 1, 2017.

Translator

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Analog-to-digital transition

In accordance with the federal mandate for digital transition, WTVC discontinued its analog transmission on VHF channel 9 on June 12, 2009. Following the transition, the station’s digital broadcast shifted from UHF channel 35 back to VHF channel 9.