WPEN-LP was a low-powered television station serving the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

television market broadcasting on channel 68. The station began broadcasting in 1985; it then changed call signs to WPEN-LP on March 20, 1995. During its time on the air, it was an independent station, then picking up an affiliation with The Box, & later

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...

, before signing off in 2002. WPEN-LP was not related to the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

radio station WPEN (now WKDN).

History

Two of the three low-power television stations that became "WPEN" started as separate entities. The oldest was W68BI channel 68, originally licensed to Driver, which was authorized in 1985 as a rebroadcaster of the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

but instead came on the air in August 1989 as an owned-and-operated station of

Channel America Channel America (CA), officially Channel America Network, Inc., was the first United States terrestrial broadcast television network to be intentionally assembled out of LPTV, or low-power television licensees. The network was founded by David Po ...

. The second was W51BH "WBH", which went on the air from Gloucester on September 1, 1989. "WBH", owned by Lee Bowen, offered local news coverage focusing on the

Peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

and older syndicated fare. Beyond its own affiliation with Channel America, local productions included high school sporting events. In 1994, Lockwood Broadcasting, an affiliate of rigging firm Lockwood Brothers, acquired "WBH" from Bowen and began operating it as "WPEN". It then bought W68BI; by this time, channel 51 programming included a country line-dance program and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

baseball games. Lockwood added a third low-power station, W62CN channel 62 at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, to reach homes in the southern portion of Hampton Roads, and the station was added to cable systems in the market. Lockwood also reached a deal with

WVEC WVEC (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Hampton, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of ABC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Woodis Avenue in Norfolk; its transmitte ...

to produce a 10 p.m. newscast for the station. WPEN appeared in the Hampton Roads

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

in 1996—a first for a low-power station in a top-40 market. In late 1996, Lockwood acquired a full-power television station, WJCB (channel 49). The company planned to spend $1.5 million on an improved transmitter for channel 49 and new studio facilities and to move the syndicated inventory of WPEN to the full-power station. However, Lockwood received an unsolicited offer from

Paxson Communications Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...

to purchase the station for $14.75 million—twice what Lockwood had paid—and accepted the offer in late 1997.

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...

cable opted to drop WPEN from its lineup in October 1998, a decision that "killed" the station and deprived it of much of its viewership. As a result, the station dropped its independent local programming lineup and affiliated with The Box, a music video network, beginning November 1 of that year. WPEN-LP and its translators filed to go

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

in February 2001. The licenses were deleted in September 2001 and April 2002.

References

VARTV -- Hampton Roads Radio & TV

External links

Archive FCC Data for WPEN-LP from archive.org

Archive FCC Data for W51BH from archive.org
{{Hampton Roads TV Defunct television stations in the United States Television channels and stations disestablished in 2001 2001 disestablishments in Virginia PEN-LP PEN-LP