North-Central West Virginia is a very rugged dissected plateau and WTAP's analog signal on UHF channel 15 was not strong enough to carry across the terrain.

Previously, both the Clarksburg–Weston–Fairmont and Wheeling–Steubenville markets were served by WTAE as the de facto affiliate while WDTV aired select ABC Sports programming.

On November 17, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WBOY-TV, for $130 million.

[3] Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017.

[4] After being acquired by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station upgraded its news operation and built secondary studios in Morgantown on Scott Avenue.

Today, it is the only former West Virginia Media Holdings station to be the news ratings leader in its respective market.

[citation needed] The station's signal is multiplexed: WBOY-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009).