WZDC-CD

WZDC-CD (channel 44) is a Class A television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group alongside NBC outlet WRC-TV (channel 4). WZDC-CD and WRC-TV share studios and transmitter facilities on Nebraska Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington.

WZDC-CD
Channels
BrandingTelemundo 44 (general)
Noticiero Telemundo 44 (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations44.1: Telemundo
44.2: TeleXitos
Ownership
Owner
WRC-TV
History
First air date
April 1994 (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[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID50347
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT244 m (801 ft)
Transmitter coordinates38°56′24″N 77°4′53″W
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.telemundowashingtondc.com

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. WZDC-CD also hosts the master control for sister station WRTD-CD in Raleigh, North Carolina, along with its public file link on WZDC's website.

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.[2] WZDC eventually received permission to flash-cut to digital on channel 25 in March 2011, and became WZDC-CD in doing so that September.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5][6] Subsequently, on December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group announced its purchase of ZGS' 13 television stations, including WZDC-CD.[7] 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.[8] NBCUniversal assumed the operations of WZDC on January 1, 2018 through a local marketing agreement.[9]

The channel-sharing agreement with WRC-TV took effect on March 7, 2018, at which time WZDC shut off its own signal.[10]

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.[11]

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, along with morning cut-ins during Hoy Día.[12]

Until the 2023 shift of MLS regional rights to Apple TV+, the station carried D.C. United games in Spanish on its TeleXitos subchannel, in tandem with English coverage on NBC Sports Washington.[13]

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WZDC-CD on the WRC-TV multiplex[14]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
44.1 1080i16:9WZDCTelemundo
44.2 480iXITOSTeleXitos

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for WZDC-CD". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. "[D]WZDC-LD Facility Data". fccdata.org.
  3. "WZDC-CD Facility Data". FCCData.
  4. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  5. Marszalek, Diana (September 11, 2017). "Telemundo Launching a Washington O&O in December". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  6. "Telemundo ends affiliate deal with ZGS to launch O&O in D.C." Media Moves. September 11, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  7. Miller, Mark K. (December 4, 2017). "NBCU Adding ZGS Stations To Telemundo". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  8. "Modification of a Licensed Facility for Digital Class A TV Station Application". FCC LMS.
  9. Telemundo Station Group announces leadership team for Telemundo station in Washington, D.C. - NBCUniversal
  10. "Suspension of Operations of a Digital Class A Station". FCC LMS.
  11. "WZDC-CD Assignment of Virtual Channel 44". FCC LMS.
  12. "WZDC Adds More Local News, Rebrands | TVNewsCheck.com". TVNewsCheck. March 8, 2018.
  13. "D.C. United Announces Partnerships with NBC Sports Washington and TeleXitos".
  14. RabbitEars TV Query for WZDC-CD
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