WSET-TV (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Roanoke–Lynchburg market.
Channel 13 began operations on February 8, 1953, as WLVA-TV from a transmitter on Tobacco Row Mountain west of Sweet Briar.
However, they were all turned down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to protect WLOS-TV in Asheville, North Carolina, and WHTN-TV (now WOWK-TV) in Huntington, West Virginia.
The change was brought on by a now-repealed FCC regulation that stated that TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership that must have different call signs.
[3][10] Allbritton immediately set about finding a solution to channel 13's longstanding reception problems in the western portion of the market.
In 1980, WSET won FCC approval to relocate its transmitter to Thaxton Mountain near Bedford, halfway between Roanoke and Lynchburg.
[11][12] On March 11, 2002, WSET preempted an episode of Once and Again, "The Gay-Straight Alliance", which contained a scene in which two female characters kiss one another, and ran a prime time infomercial instead.
On September 12, 2011, WSET began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, the station is the third in the Roanoke–Lynchburg market to make the transition to HD.
Former Good Morning America co-host and ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson began his television career at the station; he was a reporter/anchor for WLVA-TV during the late 1960s.