In the summer of 1977, Plains Television announced it would sell WHNB-TV to the original iteration of Viacom for $15 million. The former CBS Inc. subsidiary was making its first foray into broadcast station ownership.[18] Shortly after assuming control in the spring of 1978, channel 30's call letters were changed to the present WVIT on June 12 (for "Viacom International Television") to reflect its new ownership.[19][20] Viacom immediately announced plans to boost WVIT's signal, and also made upgrades in the station's news department.[21] In 1980, channel 30 signed on with a new transmitter that more than doubled its coverage area, giving it a clear signal to much of New Haven for the first time, though the channel 59 repeater was kept in service. WVIT became the sole Connecticut-based NBC affiliate in March 1982, when WATR-TV's affiliation contract with NBC ended and the station became independent WTXX (it is now WCCT-TV).[22] The Torrington translator was turned off in 1987, and the New Haven repeater was shut down in the mid-1990s to allow full-powered WTVU (now WCTX) to begin operations. In 1993, WVIT and WTXX entered into a part-time local marketing agreement after talks with Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61) failed.[23]
Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, placing its five-station group (WVIT; KMOV in St. Louis; WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York; WNYT in Albany, New York; and KSLA-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana) under common ownership with the Paramount Stations Group;[24][25] the two groups were formally consolidated in December 1995.[26] The merged company decided to divest itself of all of its major network affiliates to focus on stations that carried its then-upstart United Paramount Network (UPN).[27] WVIT, the first television outlet Viacom purchased was the last station to be sold, as Viacom agreed to trade channel 30 to former owner NBC in return for future purchase rights to WWHO
On December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that it would buy Telemundo affiliate WRDM-CD and its Springfield satellite station WDMR-LP from ZGS Communications, as with several other NBC O&Os, WRDM would become a sister station to WVIT, creating the third duopoly in the Hartford–New Haven television market, following the duopolies of Nexstar Media Group's WTNH/WCTX and Tegna's WTIC-TV/WCCT-TV (WRDM is exempt from FCC ownership caps, including the duopoly rule).[30] ZGS had sold WRDM's spectrum in the FCC's incentive auction for $10,574,516 and indicated that the station would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement, which occurred with WVIT at the start of the year.[31] The sale was officially completed on February 1, 2018.[32]
