Larus later merged its application with Neighborhood Theaters' Richmond Television Corporation, assuming controlling interest.

At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was concerned about co-ownership of newspaper and broadcast outlets and preferred separation.

WRVA-TV signed-on for the first time on April 29, 1956, from a converted cow barn near the station's current facility.

The studio and transmitter were located in what was then unincorporated Chesterfield County; the area was not annexed into the independent city of Richmond until the early 1960s.

In 1966, the family-owned Larus and Brothers (which had acquired full control of channel 12 in 1960) decided to split its various interests after longtime president William T. Reed died.

It soon became apparent that the FCC and Justice Department would frown on one company owning two Southern clear-channel stations that would have blanketed most of the eastern half of North America at night between them.

On November 12, 2007, that company announced the sale of WWBT along with its two other television stations and Lincoln Financial Sports to Raycom Media for $583 million.

On June 24, 2008, the Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its agreement to purchase WTVR and sell Fox affiliate WRLH-TV.

[2] However, the United States Department of Justice, under provisions of a consent decree with Raycom Media, denied that company permission to sell WTVR to Sinclair in August 2008.

[3] As a result, Raycom sought and was eventually granted a temporary waiver for the purchase of WWBT to buy the company more time to find a suitable buyer for WTVR.

Early on, however, the station gained prominence for covering local events live, years before WTVR and WXEX/WRIC began doing so.

[11] On September 19, 1994, WWBT entered into a news share agreement with the areas Fox affiliate WRLH-TV (then owned by Abry Communications).

The prime time newscasts did not face competition until March 5, 2007, when WUPV launched a 35-minute weeknight show at 10 produced by WTVR.

Three days later, WTVR management announced that the WUPV operation had been canceled due to high financial costs of production.

On March 23, 2007, "Sky 12" crash landed in a field in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after it appeared to hit power lines.

However, the WRLH shows were not initially included in the upgrade because that station lacked a modern master control to receive the newscast in HD; this lasted until September 2012 when that station upgraded its master control so that the WWBT newscasts and some syndicated programming on that channel are now shown in HD.

Included in the layoffs were Sports Director Ben Hamlin, news anchor Gene Lepley, along with Henrico and Hanover counties reporter Rob Richardson.

On January 5, 2009, WWBT began producing a weeknight newscast in high definition for WUPV called The CW News at 6:30 originating from a secondary set.

In addition to operating a weather radar of its own known as "First Warning Live Doppler" at its studios, the station also uses a live feed from the National Weather Service radar based at the Local Forecast Office on US 460 (General Mahone Highway/South County Drive) in Wakefield next to the municipal airport.

[17] Following the switch, it applied to increase power to 26 kW stating in the application that more than 10,000 viewers complained of a sudden inability to receive the station's digital signal.