WTKR (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of CBS.

The two stations share studios on Boush Street near downtown Norfolk; WTKR's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia.

The general manager launched a push to "Take Norfolk Back"; Local TV acquired WGNT in 2010, and WTKR increased its share of market advertising revenue and its news ratings.

[8] A mobile unit for televising programs outside the studio arrived in Norfolk in December,[9] while the station began broadcasting a test pattern daily on March 1, 1950.

[11] In addition to NBC, the station also aired programs from the other three television networks of the day: CBS, ABC, and DuMont, channel 4 joining the latter a month and a half after it started.

[12][13][14] WTAR-TV was the first station to use the Boush Street facility; WTAR radio moved in June 1950, and the building was not dedicated until September.

On that day, the station held a beauty pageant at the transmitter site, crowning a North Carolina woman "Miss WTAR-TV"; the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch called the new tower the tallest maypole in the world.

[27] In 1967, Norfolk-Portsmouth Newspapers—which owned the two Norfolk daily newspapers, the WTAR stations, and WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina, among other holdings—was reorganized as Landmark Communications.

Three members of a Norfolk law firm—Gordon E. Campbell, Wayne Lustig, and I. L. Hancock—formed the Hampton Roads Television Corporation and proceeded to file a competing application for a license to broadcast on channel 3.

[32] In August 1974, the FCC remanded the case to the administrative law judge after Hampton Roads Television claimed that Landmark intentionally waited to make a change in senior management until after the initial decision.

[33] Kraushaar ruled in January 1975, finding the management change had no effect on his comparative selection of WTAR-TV over Hampton Roads Television.

Additionally, the company committed to sell WTAR-TV within two years, retaining ownership of the Norfolk newspapers and radio stations.

[36] In announcing the agreement, Landmark chairman Frank Batten cited FCC policy encouraging the unwinding of situations where newspapers and TV stations in the same market were co-owned as well as the drain of continued litigation in the license challenge; Lustig and Campbell noted they had less interest in running a TV station than ten years prior and that their law practice had expanded.

[37] Landmark initially reached an agreement with Scripps-Howard Broadcasting in April 1980 to swap WTAR-TV for WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee.

Like Landmark in Norfolk, Scripps-Howard was looking to reduce its cross-ownership load in Memphis, where it owned AM and FM radio stations and the city's two daily newspapers.

[38] Two months later, the deal fell apart for economic reasons; Landmark, which was required to dispose of WTAR-TV by March 1, 1981, put the station on the market.

[57] Dreamcatcher continued to own the stations even though Tribune completed a split of its broadcasting and publishing businesses into separate companies in 2014.

[58] Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of MyNetworkTV affiliate WTVZ-TV (channel 33), entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media in 2017.

[59] However, the transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal in August 2018.

Though it also had the most conservative presentation style in the market, it had led every ratings period since records had been kept due to being ingrained in the viewing habits of longtime residents.

Several new talent hires, including longtime market meteorologist Dr. Duane Harding and sportscaster Bob Rathbun, were part of the formula that lifted WTKR to its first 6 p.m. win in six years in 1990.

[70][71] The Hampton Roads news ratings became a "horse race"; in the Nielsen survey for November 1993, WTKR led at noon, 5, and 6 p.m. and was a close second at 11.

[102][103] On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Accomack County owns two translators, W18EG-D and W25AA-D (licensed to Onancock and broadcast from Mappsville), that provide the main channel of WTKR alongside those of WAVY-TV, WVEC, and WHRO-TV.