WVEC

WVEC
	Hampton–Norfolk–Virginia Beach, Virginia; United States;
City	Hampton, Virginia
Channels	Digital: 35 (UHF); Virtual: 13;
Branding	13News Now
Programming
Affiliations	13.1: ABC; for others, see § Technical information;
Ownership
Owner	Tegna Inc., a subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group; (WVEC Television, LLC);
Sister stations	Nexstar: WAVY-TV, WVBT
History
First air date	September 19, 1953
Former channel numbers	Analog: 15 (UHF, 1953–1958), 13 (VHF, 1959–2009); Digital: 41 (UHF, 2002–2009), 13 (VHF, 2009–2020), 11 (VHF, 2020–2024);
Former affiliations	NBC (1953–1959)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	74167
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	363.9 m (1,194 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	36°49′0″N 76°28′5″W / 36.81667°N 76.46806°W
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Website	www.13newsnow.com

WVEC (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Hampton, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the Tegna subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group; Nexstar owns NBC affiliate WAVY-TV (channel 10) and Fox affiliate WVBT (channel 43). WVEC's studios are located on Woodis Avenue in Norfolk; its transmitter is located near Driver in Suffolk.

WVEC began broadcasting on UHF channel 15 on September 19, 1953, from studios in Hampton. It was the second television station in Hampton Roads and broke the monopoly on television programming and affiliations held by WTAR-TV (now WTKR), which broadcast on a VHF channel. The station was originally an NBC affiliate; NBC provided pre-launch support to the new station, at a time when UHF stations could only be seen by viewers with specially fitted converters. The station was a modestly successful second-place outlet until 1957, when Hampton Roads gained a second VHF station: WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, originally the ABC affiliate. WVEC-TV lost viewers and some NBC programs to the new VHF station, which could be seen in all homes. It was successful in encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to allocate a third VHF channel, channel 13, to Hampton Roads. It merged with the other applicants for the channel, and WVEC-TV moved to channel 13 on November 13, 1959. It simultaneously opened its current Norfolk studio and switched to a full-time ABC affiliation. The channel 15 facilities were then used for educational television by WHRO-TV, which began in 1961.

The station's limited local news efforts gradually expanded in the 1970s and in the 1980s after Corinthian Broadcasting and the A. H. Belo Corporation in turn acquired channel 13. The bulk of station operations shifted to Norfolk, and after WTKR experienced a collapse in its news ratings in the mid-1980s, WAVY and WVEC began contending for first place in the market. In partnership with Cox Communications and The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, WVEC launched a local cable news channel, Local News on Cable, in 1997; it operated until 2010 and for most of that time featured an original 10 p.m. local newscast co-produced with The Virginian-Pilot. Belo sold the station to the Gannett Company, predecessor to Tegna, in 2013. Tegna's sale to Nexstar Media Group in 2026 brought WVEC under common ownership with WAVY-TV and Fox affiliate WVBT.