Vaughan Media, LLC is a company which owns the broadcast licenses of several stations operated by Nexstar Media Group .
41-406: The company was founded in 2011 when it made its first acquisition, WBDT , from ACME Communications . LIN Media , the owner of WDTN , could not legally own both WDTN and WBDT. It sold off certain assets, including WBDT's broadcast license, to Vaughan Media. The sale was consummated on May 20, 2011, at which point LIN took control of the station via a shared services agreement with WDTN. In 2012,
82-589: A 'hostile takeover' of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn ." According to Hahn, on the afternoon of December 6, 1980, when she was a 21-year-old church secretary, Bakker and another preacher, John Wesley Fletcher drugged and raped her for "about 15 minutes". Hahn stated she overheard Bakker say afterward to another PTL staffer, "Did you get her too?" A federal grand jury indicted Bakker for diverting millions of dollars of church funds to personal use. Much of
123-473: A children's show called Come On Over where the couple entertained viewers with songs, stories, and puppets. In 1966, Jim Bakker became the host of The 700 Club , a religious talk program that evolved from a telethon . The 700 Club would become the flagship program of CBN, which expanded from its original Hampton Roads station to include outlets in Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth by 1973. Beginning in 1972,
164-557: A few others. The show launched nationally in 1975, with two editions offered: one was the full two-hour edition, which tended to air on Christian stations and smaller independent stations, and the other was a one-hour edition which tended to air on stronger independent stations, as well as network affiliates. By 1976, the Bakkers moved their studio to the site of a former furniture store in Charlotte. With The PTL Club program as its centerpiece,
205-483: A local newscast. WTJC's Saturday schedule included westerns , sportsmen/hunting/wildlife shows, and The Lawrence Welk Show . When WRGT-TV signed on in 1984, MVCT sold most of its secular programming inventory to that station, and switched WTJC to a mostly-religious format (with the exception of a few children's shows, and Saturday morning sporting and hunting shows). Over the next few years, several ministries that bought time on WTJC became involved in scandals. Due to
246-407: A new entity known as Heritage Ministries to run the television program and associated ministry functions. As Heritage USA and PTL assets were now tied up in bankruptcy reorganization, the new ministry and the television program had to move from their longtime Heritage USA broadcast studios to newly bought property on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte that was named Heritage Place. The program remained on
287-471: A nightly half-hour prime time newscast for WBDT known as 2 News at 10 on Dayton's CW . On the 26th day of its broadcast, this show achieved higher ratings than WRGT-TV's nightly prime time news (produced by WKEF) in Dayton's metered market households. On July 21, 2012, WDTN began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The WBDT shows were included in the upgrade. On January 7, 2013, WBDT began airing
328-403: A proposal to manage WTJC for 18 hours a day. MVCT declined and chose instead to sell the station to Paxson Communications in 1995. Paxson kept a similar lineup for WTJC, airing religious programming in early mornings, infomercials for most of the day and worship music overnight. On January 20, 1998, WTJC's call sign was changed to WDPX (for "Dayton Pax TV"). Accordingly, on August 31 of that year,
369-482: A result of the sale. The sale of WBDT was consummated on May 20, 2011. On March 4, 2011, LIN TV's contract with Dish Network expired, and all TV stations owned or operated by LIN, including both WBDT and WDTN, were pulled from Dish. On March 13, LIN and Dish entered into a retransmission consent agreement, and all affected channels were restored. On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WDTN and
410-665: A subsidiary of Vaughan Media (owner of CW affiliate KNVA in Austin, Texas , which was also operated by LIN TV). LIN TV held a 4.5% equity stake in Vaughan Media, but controlled most of that company's voting stock, effectively making it a shell corporation for LIN TV. The FCC approved the sale and license transfer in April 2011; the commission also denied objections from area cable operators Time Warner Cable and Buckeye Cablevision , who claimed that retransmission fees for WBDT would increase as
451-416: A weekday news program from 7 to 9 a.m., called 2 News Today on Dayton's CW . Since the cancellation of The Daily Buzz, the station also simulcasts the 5 to 7 a.m. WDTN edition as well. On September 9, 2013, WBDT expanded the prime time 10 p.m. WDTN-produced newscast to an hour. The station's signal is multiplexed : WBDT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 26, on June 12, 2009,
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#1733094059098492-527: The PTL Club . In the fall of 1981, the show was cut to an hour, at which length it remained until its cancellation. Due to his involvement in highly publicized financial and sexual scandals, Jim Bakker resigned on March 19, 1987. He turned all ministry assets over to Lynchburg, Virginia –based pastor and broadcaster Jerry Falwell , who became CEO of the parent organization, Heritage Village Church and Missionary Fellowship, Inc. and assumed control of Heritage USA,
533-697: The Bakker-hosted 700 Club was launched in a dozen test markets, including then-independent station WRET-TV in Charlotte , North Carolina . However, the Bakkers departed CBN in 1973 and relocated to Southern California for a brief period, where they assisted Paul and Jan Crouch in launching Trinity Broadcasting Network and the show Praise the Lord before eventually starting their own television ministry in North Carolina. When WRET-TV dropped The 700 Club in 1973,
574-507: The Bakkers and their staff built what became known as the PTL Television Network , broadcasting worldwide. In a Tonight Show -type format, the program featured many well-known ministers and Christian recording artists. In the beginning, Henry "Uncle Henry" Harrison, who had worked with Bakker at CBN, was Bakker's co-host and sidekick (much like Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson ), and when Tammy Faye took over as co-host, Harrison became
615-677: The LIN sale. On January 17, 2017, Nexstar Media Group closed its acquisition of Media General and took over operation of the Vaughan stations. WBDT WBDT (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Ohio , United States, serving the Dayton area as a de facto owned-and-operated station of The CW . It is owned by Vaughan Media , which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Nexstar Media Group , owner of NBC affiliate WDTN (channel 2) and majority owner of The CW, for
656-601: The SSA and JSA with WBDT, in a $ 1.6 billion merger. The FCC approved the merger on December 12, 2014, but a condition of the deal required Media General to end the JSA between WBDT and WDTN due to tighter scrutiny of such deals by the FCC. Media General received a two-year waiver to end the JSA between WDTN and WBDT. The merger was completed on December 19. A carriage dispute with Dish Network, beginning at 7 p.m. on December 2, 2020, resulted in
697-463: The air as a Christian -oriented station under the call sign WTJC (for "Witnessing 'Til Jesus Comes"). WTJC aired religious programming during most of its daytime and weekend schedule (including The 700 Club , PTL and Jerry Falwell ), although it also aired lifestyle programming such as The Joy of Gardening , cartoons , and children's programming in late weekday afternoon slots. There were also family-friendly reruns in early evenings and
738-761: The air as late as September 1988, when Johnson faced problems with the IRS. In 1989, evangelist Morris Cerullo purchased the network out of bankruptcy. As of 2012 , it operates as INSP from broadcast facilities in Charlotte, with headquarters in nearby Indian Land , South Carolina. On August 23, 1991, after the second and final day of his re-sentencing hearing, the court reduced Bakker's original 45-year sentence to 18 years, five of which he actually served before being released. In February 2009, Atlanta , Georgia investment-banker Ben Dyer announced his intention to auction off over 15,000 hours of videotaped episodes of The PTL Club on March 27, 2009. A friend of Jim Bakker's purchased
779-531: The air on June 17, 1972, under the ownership of Lester W. White, but fell silent again at the beginning of December after White defaulted on a loan. White was additionally discovered to have stolen equipment from multiple television stations, most notably WHIZ-TV in Zanesville , and arrested two days before a court ordered the station closed. The current incarnation of channel 26 dates from September 7, 1980, when Miami Valley Christian Television (MVCT) returned it to
820-606: The announcer. The program was later broadcast from Bakker's Heritage Village ministry headquarters and complex on Park Road in Charlotte, and then moved to studios constructed at the ministry's new 2500-acre mixed-use family theme park and resort in Fort Mill, South Carolina , known as Heritage USA . Bakker's conspicuous consumption and prosperity gospel preaching led critics to claim that PTL stood for "Pass The Loot". As time went on and as more stations had additional programming commitments by 1980, many opted to only run an hour of
861-479: The auction as an "engineering exercise" and stated that the station would not go off the air or move to a new channel. In spite of the station manager's earlier denial, WBDT began sharing sister station WDTN's digital channel on June 29, 2018. The PTL Club The PTL Club , also known as The Jim and Tammy Show , was a Christian television program that was first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker , running from 1974 to 1989. The program
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#1733094059098902-678: The cable network, and of its flagship program. Falwell's involvement was deemed newsworthy, as the PTL ministries were a part of the Assemblies of God denomination and Falwell was a Southern Baptist . Ministry supporters questioned Falwell's intentions and attributed his interest solely to maintaining control of the lucrative cable-television empire owned by PTL to broadcast his own ministry programming. One commentator noted that "Bakker arranged for Falwell to take over PTL in March in an effort to avoid what he called
943-484: The company acquired television stations owned by PBC Broadcasting which were operated by New Vision Television . In August 2014, it was announced that Sinclair Broadcast Group would take over the shared services agreement to operate WTGS as well as rights to acquire the station. Sinclair exercised the option and acquired the station upon close of the sale of LIN Media to Media General . The remaining Vaughan stations continued under operation by Media General after
984-491: The current WBDT. ACME ran the station as a dual WB and Pax affiliate, signing a five-year affiliation deal with Pax upon the sale of the station from Paxson. As a dual WB and Pax affiliate, WBDT aired a mix of syndicated, WB and Pax TV programming. WBDT maintained a secondary affiliation with Pax until mid-2004 at the latest, airing its prime time lineup on weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon, early Sunday mornings from 1 to 4 a.m., and early Monday mornings from midnight to 4 a.m. In
1025-718: The first in the area (and one of the few in the entire country) to broadcast in a 1080i high definition 16:9 format 24 hours a day, broadcasting on digital UHF channel 18. On June 4, 2010, it was announced that the LIN TV Corporation (owner of WDTN) would begin to operate WBDT through shared service and joint sales agreements. WBDT was to leave its longtime studios on Corporate Place, off Byers Road in Miamisburg , in October and move to WDTN's facility in Moraine. As of January 27, 2013,
1066-633: The former WBDT studio facility is now occupied by Sinclair Broadcast Group 's virtual duopoly of ABC affiliate WKEF and Fox affiliate WRGT-TV (the move made them the last network-affiliated stations in Dayton to have upgraded their local programming, including newscasts, to high definition). Three months after ACME and LIN TV reached their operations and sales agreements, LIN TV exercised an option to purchase WBDT along with another LIN TV-operated ACME station, fellow CW affiliate WCWF in Green Bay, Wisconsin . LIN TV requested that WBDT's license be assigned to
1107-495: The nation watched the court case to see the outcome of the $ 165 million in donations. The PTL Club continued as a television program for a considerable time after this, first with Falwell as its host and PTL personality Doug Oldham as co-host. Falwell later brought in Christian singer Gary McSpadden as the show's co-host, along with PTL musical talent Ron Aldridge. The show was renamed PTL Today , then—in an effort to distance
1148-403: The network's programming with off-network sitcoms, talk shows, infomercials, and court shows. On September 18, 2006, WBDT became the market 's CW outlet after The WB and UPN merged. It became a strong affiliate with the new network in terms of prime time ratings—strong enough for The CW to designate WBDT the "#1 CW affiliate" in the nation in March 2007. In that same month, the station became
1189-475: The official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to channel 26 for post-transition operations. Initially, WBDT aired a standard definition simulcast of its HD programming on its DT2 subchannel. After several months, this subchannel
1230-630: The ownership of Southwestern Ohio Television. WSWO-TV ran a local live version of Bozo the Clown (portrayed by announcer Dave Eaton, who was previously with the former WKTR-TV in Kettering , now PBS member station WPTD [channel 16]), as well as other local shows. The station suddenly went dark on June 19, 1970, after it lost a bid to obtain the ABC affiliation for Dayton to WKEF (channel 22); it soon thereafter filed for bankruptcy . WSWO-TV briefly returned to
1271-686: The provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on South Dixie Drive in Moraine, Ohio . Through a channel sharing agreement , WBDT, along with Richmond, Indiana –licensed Ion Television O&O WKOI-TV (channel 43), share WDTN's digital channel from WDTN's transmitter facility on Frytown Road in southwest Dayton. WBDT serves as the default CW affiliate for the Lima market , which had been served by cable-only affiliate West Central Ohio CW until early 2010. Channel 26 first appeared in southwest Ohio on July 14, 1968, as independent WSWO-TV, under
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1312-531: The removal of WBDT and sister station WDTN from the platform, along with 164 Nexstar stations in 115 markets. On September 16, 2002, the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz premiered from WBDT's studios. The program, then produced by then-parent ACME Communications, remained based at the station until its August 2004 move to the facilities of former sister station WKCF in Lake Mary, Florida , near Orlando . On August 18, 2007, WDTN began to produce
1353-500: The scandals, donations to the ministries, and to MVCT, declined. The primary owner of MVCT, Marvin Sparks, bought out his partners' shares in 1991 and in turn sold them to Video Mall Communications. WTJC then aired home shopping and paid programming eighteen hours a day, with religious shows the rest of the broadcast day. In the mid-1990s, Abry Communications (which had purchased WRGT-TV's owner, Act III Broadcasting ) approached MVCT with
1394-428: The show from the PTL name— Heritage Today . Aldridge continued as co-host alongside another PTL singer, Brenda Davis, after Falwell suddenly resigned from the now-bankrupt PTL ministry. McSpadden and Oldham subsequently left the show out of support for Falwell's decision to resign his position with the ministry. With Falwell's resignation, Sam Johnson, a member of the PTL ministry team, assumed leadership and incorporated
1435-708: The show. In the fall of 1974, Bakker broke up with Trinity Broadcasting, secured usage of the PTL acronym from the Crouches, and called his new show The PTL Club . The PTL Club continued being produced at WRET and in November 1974, the show expanded to a few other stations such as WHMB-TV in Indianapolis ; WHCT in Hartford , Connecticut ; and KHOF-TV in the Los Angeles area, among
1476-547: The station became a charter affiliate of Pax (now Ion Television ). In June 1999, Paxson sold the station to ACME Communications , which dropped half of Pax's programming for a primary affiliation with The WB , along with syndicated programming. The previous WB affiliate was low-power station WUCT-LP (now WRCX-LD ); WB programming in the Dayton area could also be seen on the WGN cable channel and on Columbus WB affiliate WWHO . On June 9, 1999, ACME also changed WDPX's call sign to
1517-491: The station's early days as a WB affiliate, Pax's flagship Touched by an Angel continued to air at its regularly scheduled time of 7 p.m., leading into WB prime time programming. In 2004, Diagnosis Murder was moved to 1 p.m., while the remainder of Pax's programming was moved to overnights. The station finally dropped the remainder of Pax's programming in September 2004, filling the morning hours previously programmed with
1558-504: The station's then-owner Ted Turner approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on the outlet, which Bakker accepted. Initially, his show in Charlotte was under the umbrella of Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting and also called Praise The Lord. This edition of the show was launched in a small studio at WRET-TV. The 700 Club moved to then- ABC affiliate WCCB in Charlotte. Soon after, 16 WGGS-TV in Greenville , South Carolina also picked up
1599-400: Was dropped. On September 26, 2011, WBDT began airing Bounce TV on DT2, becoming a charter affiliate of the network. On November 30, 2015, WBDT added a third subchannel to carry Ion Television (the network was also added by other Media General stations); the station had carried Pax, the forerunner of Ion Television, as a secondary affiliate, ending in 2004. On February 1, 2018, Ion Television
1640-582: Was later known as PTL Today and as Heritage Today . During its final years, The PTL Club , which adopted a talk show format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers' PTL Satellite Network . Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker had been in the ministry with the Assemblies of God denomination since the early 1960s prior to joining Pat Robertson 's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), then based in Portsmouth , Virginia , in 1965. The Bakkers launched
1681-474: Was moved to sister station WDTN's DT3 subchannel, replacing the Justice Network ; WBDT's third subchannel was dropped. On April 14, 2017, it was reported that WBDT's over-the-air spectrum had been sold in the FCC's spectrum reallocation auction, fetching $ 27.3 million, with the FCC listing the station as set to go off the air. However, Joe Abouzeid, president and general manager of the station, characterized