WTVZ-TV (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV.

TVX sold WTVZ to its general manager, Charles A. McFadden, in 1989; at the time, the company was selling smaller stations to reduce debt.

[3] After reaching an agreement to share the tower of public television station WHRO-TV,[2] the group applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and received a construction permit for WTVZ-TV in June 1978.

[7][8] The station aimed to offer counterprogramming to the existing network affiliates, reach the children's market (which Trinder and McDonald felt underserved), and provide facilities for local commercial production.

[10][11] It took seven months for WTVZ to turn a profit, quickly leaving behind the early days when, Trinder recalled, "we made payroll by going to the bank and trading auto titles for cash".

The first expansion of what became TVX Broadcast Group came with the 1980 purchase of WGNN-TV, a small Christian station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which went on the air as WJTM-TV.

[15] Even though the Fox affiliation lifted WTVZ's ratings above WYAH and made it the company's only profitable TV station,[16] TVX began to face financial problems after its large purchase of five major-market independents from Taft Broadcasting in 1986.

Loving told the Daily Press, "Emotionally, it was difficult selling our flagship station, but as a public company, we were forced to listen to offers.

"[17] McFadden expanded his television holdings by acquiring WSYT-TV, the Fox affiliate in Syracuse, New York, in 1990; the stations were put under the corporate name of Encore Communications.

[19] While Fox grew into a seven-night-a-week network, bringing with it a doubling of total audience share and double-digit year-over-year increases in revenue in 1989, 1990, and 1991,[19] the primary question for WTVZ under McFadden's ownership was that of possibly starting to produce a local newscast.

[22] When ABC affiliate WVEC-TV opted not to carry the new show NYPD Blue for content reasons upon its October 1993 premiere, WTVZ initially stepped up to air the program in Hampton Roads.

[29][30] On November 29, 1995, Fox announced that it would move its programming from WTVZ to WVBT (channel 43), a recently built station in Virginia Beach, beginning in September 1998.

[33] Even though relations improved between Sinclair and Fox, the network had already signed affiliation agreements with its new Raleigh and Norfolk stations and carried out the switch, with WTVZ joining The WB on August 31, 1998.