WWCW broadcasts WFXR's Fox programming from its transmitter on Thaxton Mountain in Bedford County as one of its subchannels and vice versa.

After seven years of battles over the permit and construction, it began broadcasting on November 13, 1986, as WVFT, the market's second new general-entertainment independent station in twelve months.

The market proved unable to bear both WVFT and WJPR (channel 21), which had gone on the air earlier that year, due to insufficient advertising revenue and signal issues; in April 1989, the station's owner, Family Group Broadcasting, filed for bankruptcy protection.

Nexstar acquired WFXR and WWCW in 2013 and moved them into new, larger studios two years later, allowing them to begin producing their own news programming.

Ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 27 in Roanoke was originally occupied by WROV-TV, which operated for less than five months from March 2 to July 18, 1953.

[10] At the time, the area's primary ABC affiliate, WLVA-TV (channel 13, now WSET-TV) in Lynchburg, provided only marginal signal coverage in Roanoke.

[16] Evangel Foursquare had separated from RCB by 1981, when the FCC approved the addition of channel 38 to Roanoke,[17] which would eventually be used by its WEFC beginning in January 1986.

[18] In June 1982, an FCC administrative law judge released an initial decision in favor of Roanoke Christian Broadcasting, with the primary deciding factor being the larger overlap of ownership and management in the RCB bid.

[19] WVTC protested to the FCC Review Board, which upheld the initial decision; meanwhile, the plagiarism lawsuit was dismissed after a judge ruled insufficient evidence was presented, even though RCB admitted to copying nine pages of what it described as public domain engineering information.

[34] Officials alleged that Brumlik's ownership of TeleOnce in Puerto Rico was a front for two important Latin American media men: Remigio Ángel González, reported to be a business partner with Manuel Noriega in a Panamanian television station, and Julio Vera Gutiérrez, a Peruvian citizen.

At the time of his arrest, he had been approved by bankruptcy courts or the FCC to buy WJPR and WVFT; WKCH-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee; and the then-unbuilt WGNM in Macon, Georgia.

[38] On August 20, 1990, with the purchases pending at the FCC, WVFT began simulcasting WJPR, expanding Fox network coverage to the market's western portions for the first time.

[45] Programs aired in overnight hours until February 1, 2001, when WJPR/WFXR launched a cable-only WB affiliate known as "WBVA-TV" and seen on Cox Communications channel 5.

[50][51][52][53] In March 2015, Joseph McNamara—who was appointed as vice president for the stations three months earlier in December 2014—announced that Nexstar planned to move WFXR/WWCW's operations and staff into a new, larger 14,830-square-foot (1,000 m2) studio facility at the Valleypointe office park in northeastern Roanoke County, near Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport.

The agreement formally began when The Fox 10 O'Clock News premiered on October 28, 1996; the newscast originally aired for a half-hour five nights a week.

WDBJ attempted to beat the two stations to the punch by launching News 7 Primetime on WEFC that September; that program was a ratings failure and lasted one year.

The program originated from a secondary set at the WSLS studios on 3rd Street in downtown Roanoke; WSLS-TV contributed one anchor, while the other was employed by Grant along with a producer.