History
The station began operation in 1955 as WXEX-TV, an NBC affiliate. It was originally licensed to Petersburg and was owned by Thomas Tinsley along with WLEE radio. Channel 8's transmitter was located in the Bermuda Hundred area of eastern Chesterfield County. Originally, it didn't cover Richmond nearly as well as did WTVR-TV (channel 6) and WRVA-TV (channel 12, now WWBT). The main studios were located in Petersburg. At first, a Richmond sales office was located at WLEE's studios on West Broad Street in Richmond; later, satellite studios were established just off Midlothian Turnpike in Bon Air, a suburb of Richmond.
The station swapped affiliations with channel 12 in 1965 and became and ABC affiliate. It has been with that network ever since. In 1968, the station (along with sister station WLEE-AM) was sold to Nationwide Communications. In 1969, a fire destroyed its original Petersburg studios. For a few weeks, the station had to broadcast from its transmitter, then set up temporary offices and studios in a vacated store in Petersburg. The station later moved in a brand new facility on Crater Road that it named Blandford Manor. In 1981, Nationwide sold off sister station WLEE-AM.
WXEX's call letters were changed on April 23, 1990 to WRIC-TV and the station moved its studios to the current location in Chesterfield County. However, it is still licensed to Petersburg; unlike the other stations in the market, it identifies as "Petersburg/Richmond." Nationwide would sell all three of its ABC-affiliated television stations, including WRIC, to Young Broadcasting in 1993.
The station's owner, Young Broadcasting, went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. The station was part of a bankruptcy auction scheduled for July 14, 2009 but cancelled at the last minute. On July 22, a bankruptcy judge approved a plan in which Young's secured lenders would take over the company.
On September 28, 2011, WRIC-TV became the third commercial station (behind WWBT and WTVR) in Richmond to broadcast local news in high definition.
On November 1, 2011, WRIC-TV ceased to carry The Country Network on the station's 8.2 sub-channel after the stations owner terminated their deal with TCN and dropped the channel on all of its stations that carried it.
On June 1, 2012 WRIC-TV added the Live Well Network on WRIC-DT2 formerly held by The Country Network.
Read more about this topic: WRIC-TV
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