within three years of its sign-on. It has remained in the lead more or less ever since. As channel 7 grew during the late 1950s, plans were drawn for a new studio at the corner of Brandon and Colonial Avenues in southwest Roanoke. The WDBJ stations moved to the then state-of-the-art building in the summer of 1961. Schurz Communications ownership In 1969, Times-World merged with Norfolk-based Landmark Communications. The merger came one year after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) barred the co-ownership of broadcast outlets and newspapers, while "grandfathering" existing newspaper-broadcasting combinations in several markets. With the Landmark merger, the WDBJ stations lost their grandfathered protection and could not be retained by the merged company. As a result, channel 7 was sold to South Bend, Indiana-based Schurz Communications. It is not likely that the FCC would have allowed Landmark to keep WDBJ-TV in any event due to a significant signal overlap with WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina; which Landmark already owned at the time. Channel 7's analog city-grade signal reached Patrick County, which is part of the Triad market. It provided at least grade B coverage as far south as Reidsville, North Carolina. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two television stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider granting a waiver for a city-grade overlap. Times-World also sold the WDBJ radio stations to separate owners. Channel 7 retained the WDBJ-TV call sign, though it officially dropped the -TV suffix in November 1983. In 1979, WDBJ-TV opened a news bureau in Lynchburg, known as the Central Virginia Bureau, which provided reports focusing on the eastern part of the Roanoke–Lynchburg market (from Charlottesville to Danville); weekend anchor Graham Wilson served as the bureau chief. In the 1980s, the station aired a series of promotional programming and station image spots featuring the popular "Ernest P. Worrell" character portrayed by Jim Varney. In 2000, WDBJ announced plans to construct a new studio facility on the site of the Best Products building in northwest Roanoke—which was demolished that June—which was designed for high definition broadcasting (photos of the complete demolition of the Best Products building & construction of the new "Digital Broadcast Center" are available at ); WDBJ began broadcasting from the new facility on April 20, 2002. On July 1, 2007, Jeffery A. Marks was named as the station's general manager, succeeding longtime GM Bob Lee