WHWN-TV

WHWN-TV, virtual channel 56 (UHF digital channel 22), is a religious television station licensed to, United States. The station is owned by the (formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting). WHWN-TV's studios and transmitter are located on Independence Boulevard in Wilmington.

History
WHWN first signed on the air on July 15, 1981, and was built and signed on by LeSEA Broadcasting. As time went on, WHWN carried a broad mix of various syndicated programs including classic and some recent sitcoms (such as The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Mister Ed, The Little Rascals, Dennis The Menace (both the live-action sitcom and the animated series), The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show and The Cosby Show), westerns (such as Bonanza and The Rifleman), and animated series (such as The Transformers, Inspector Gadget, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and ThunderCats); it also carried a mixture of movies and sporting events on weekends. Televangelist and church service programming by this time typically aired during the prime time and overnight hours and throughout most of its Sunday lineup.

In 1994, WHWN-TV joined CBS after previous CBS affiliate WJKA changed its calls to and dropped the network to join Fox, while former Fox affiliate WNFX-TV would switch to a full time independent. However, because of LeSEA Broadcasting's ministerial structure, the strict content guidelines that the group maintained for secular programs carried on its stations resulted in WHWN refusing to clear network shows that contained strong profanity, violent or sexual content (such as Diagnosis: Murder and Picket Fences) on the belief that they would offend the sensibilities of channel 56's mostly Christian and Evangelical viewership; these programs were substituted with either ministry and televangelist programs or secular syndicated programs already in LeSEA's inventory. Some of these pre-empted programs were picked up by WSFX-TV (for example: Picket Fences aired on weekends on WSFX-TV following Fox's primetime lineup) and WBCF-TV channel 19 (who aired much of the pre-empted CBS programming it picked up from WHWN following 's primetime lineup). Walker, Texas Ranger and soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light were initially among the shows pre-empted by WHWN (for violent content for the former and for violent & sexual content for the latter two), but protests from viewers led to WHWN beginning to air the three shows in February 1995.

Partly due to these preemptions, WHWN lost its CBS affiliation on March 23, 2000, when then-UPN affiliate WSSN-LP (channel 10) changed it's calls to WILM-LP and joined CBS (it is now independent station ; Wilmington's current CBS affiliate is WBCF-TV). Shortly after the loss of its affiliation with CBS, WHWN-TV would switch to switch to religious independent branding itself as an affiliate of LeSea Broadcasting and after LeSea's change its name to Family Broadcasting Corporation, WHWN would switch to a generic religious independent.

Programming
Currently, WHWN offers a mix of secular general entertainment programs (mostly sitcoms, classic westerns, dramas, children's series, first-run syndicated fare and local sports events), with religious programming filling most of its schedule. WHWN-TV is the home station and production partner of the locally-based Ultra Wrestling Federation's flagship TV show UWF Brawl, which is carried nationally in first-run syndication.

Syndicated secular programs seen on WHWN-TV include Charlie's Angels, I Dream of Jeannie, M*A*S*H, Little House on the Prairie, How I Met Your Mother, Who's The Boss?, Mad About You, Just Shoot Me, Heartland and The Lone Ranger. Syndicated religious programs seen on WHWN-TV include It Is Written, The Jim Bakker Show, The 700 Club, the Believer's Voice of Victory, Life Today, The Gospel Truth with Andrew Wommack, Manna-Fest With Perry Stone, Jack Van Impe Presents and In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley.

News programming
In November 1995, WHWN entered into a news share agreement with (channel 3) to produce news and weather programs each weekday at 2:30 p.m. (which at the time was Wilmington's only afternoon newscast), 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. under the title of Channel 3 Eyewitness News on TV-56. The WWAY-produced newscasts for Channel 56 utilized the same anchors seen on WWAY's weekend newscasts. The 2:30 p.m. newscast was unique in that it targeted Channel 56's large Christian and Evangelical viewership, and focused on "values-based" reporting. The agreement concluded in 2002.