WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV (channel 48). Both stations share studios on Myer Lee Drive (along US 421) in Winston-Salem, while WXLV-TV's transmitter is located in Randleman (along I-73/US 220). History Independent station The station first signed on the air on September 24, 1979 as WGNN-TV. It was the first independent station in the Piedmont Triad region, and broadcast its signal from a transmitter located west of Gap in Stokes County. The station was bought by the TVX Broadcast Group in 1980 and changed its call letters to WJTM-TV on October 20. Over the years, the station ran a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons, movies, sitcoms, and drama series. It changed its call letters to WNRW on June 8, 1984 in memory of an employee, General Sales Manager William N. Rismiller, who was murdered in a shooting at the station that year. WNRW: Fox affiliate WNRW became the market's Fox affiliate when the network launched on October 9, 1986. By the late 1980s, the station had dropped its longtime moniker of "TV 45" in favor of "Fox 45." In 1985, TVX Broadcast Group had bought out independent station WLFL in Raleigh. TVX could not keep both stations (common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals would not be allowed until 2000), and had to put one of them on the market. TVX kept the larger WLFL, and sold WNRW to Act III Broadcasting, becoming the first station to be acquired by the company. Meanwhile, the other major independent in the market, WGGT (channel 48), filed for bankruptcy in the late 1980s and still had not emerged from it by 1991. At that time, Act III cut a deal with WGGT's owner, Guilford Broadcasters, to purchase WGGT's stronger programming and merge it onto WNRW's lineup. WGGT then began to simulcast WNRW's schedule, creating a strong combined signal with over 60% overlap. The two stations referenced this through its on-air slogan as the "Piedmont Superstation". The two stations took on a secondary affiliation with UPN when that network debuted on January 16, 1995. WXLV-TV: ABC affiliate The simulcast continued after Act III Broadcasting merged with Abry Broadcast Partners in 1995, through Sullivan Broadcasting. That September, when Fox acquired longtime ABC