WYCW

WYCW

Asheville, North Carolina-Spartanburg/Greenville/ Anderson, South Carolina
City of license	Asheville
Branding	Carolinas CW (general) NewsChannel 7 HD
Slogan	We're Your CW On Your Side (news)
Channels	Digital: 45 (UHF) Virtual: 62 (PSIP)
Subchannels	62.1 The CW 62.2 CBS
Owner	Media General (Media General Communications Holdings, LLC)
First air date	October 31, 1984
Call letters' meaning	see slogan
Sister station(s)	WSPA, WJBF/WAGT, WCBD-TV, WBTW
Former callsigns	WASV-TV (1984-2006)
Former channel number(s)	62 (UHF analog, 1984-2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1984-1997) The WB (1997-1999) UPN (1997-2006, secondary until 1999)
Transmitter power	1,000 kW
Height	555 m
Facility ID	70149
Transmitter coordinates	35°13′20.5″N 82°32′56.8″W
Website	carolinascw.com

WYCW is the CW-affiliated television station for Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina licensed to Asheville, North Carolina. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 (virtual channel 62.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Pinnacle Mountain Road, south of Green River Township's Jeter Mountain Terrace section, in Southern Henderson County, North Carolina. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 5 (in North Carolina) and channel 9 (in South Carolina).

There is a high definition feed offered on Charter digital channel 709 (in South Carolina) and digital channel 710 (in North Carolina). Owned by Media General, WYCW is sister to CBS affiliate WSPA-TV and the two share studios on International Drive in Spartanburg next to the I-26 and I-85 Bus/Veterans Parkway interchange. Syndicated programming on this station includes Seinfeld, Family Guy, The Office, and Everybody Loves Raymond among others.

History

An old WASV logo.

The station launched on Halloween in 1984 as WASV-TV. It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 62 and was locally-owned. Even though it was licensed as a full-powered outlet, the station initially operated at low-power simulcasting Christian programming from WGGS-TV in Greenville. WASV began to run infomercials and shop-at-home programming in the early-1990s. It was sold in 1995 to Pappas Telecasting (a previous owner of rival WHNS) and began to transmit in analog at full-power in 1996. At that time, Pappas entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with WSPA which took control of WASV's programming and airtime.

The WB moved from secondary status on WSPA to primary affiliation on WASV in October 1997. This station also became a secondary UPN affiliate. It identified on-air as "The New 62" from 1997 to 2002 and then "Super 62" from 2002 until early-2004. From 1998 to 2000, WASV aired sporting events pre-empted from CBS and NBC (that local affiliates WSPA and WYFF-TV pre-empted in favor of local programming, special reports, or yearly telethons).

The WB affiliation moved to rival WBSC (now WMYA-TV) on September 6, 1999 and WASV became a full-time UPN station branded as "UPN 62". WASV continued its local marketing agreement with WSPA even after the latter was sold to Media General in 2000. It was purchased outright by the company in 2001. From 1997 until 1998, WASV signed-off every night around midnight until 7 the next morning. Later in 1998, it began 24/7 broadcasting by running the Shop at Home Network in during overnight hours. In late-2005/early-2006, it discontinued Shop At Home and now run off-network sitcoms and court shows overnight during the week and off-network dramas/sitcoms as well as movies on weekend overnights.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the "W"arner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. On March 2, 2006, it was announced WBSC (operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) would become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV effective September 5. Nearly four weeks later on March 28, it was confirmed WASV would join The CW.

Corresponding with the upcoming network change, this station officially changed its call letters to WYCW on April 22. However, it continued to use the WASV call sign on-air until UPN officially ceased operations on September 15. When The CW launched on September 18, the station branded itself as "Carolinas CW". Despite the DTV Delay Act national transition extension to June 12, 2009, WYCW ceased regular analog programming on UHF channel 62 late in the evening on February 17. For two weeks after, it aired a "nightlight" service in the form of a continuously repeating short program about installing digital television converter boxes before finally shutting down its analog signal completely. Since March 1, 2009, WYCW has been carrying sister station WSPA on a second digital subchannel due to a collapse of the latter's broadcast tower on Hogback Mountain southwest of Tryon, North Carolina.

Digital Television

Although broadcasting a digital signal of its own, sister station WSPA can be seen in standard definition on WYCW's second digital subchannel.

Channels	Name	Video	Aspect	Programming
62.1	WYCW-HD	1080i	16:9	Main WYCW programming / The CW
62.2	WSPA-SD	480i	4:3	SD simulcast of co-owned CBS affilate WSPA-TV

Out-of-market cable coverage

In South Carolina, WYCW is available on Savannah Valley Cablevision in McCormick, which is part of the Aiken media market. WYCW is also available on Northland Communications in Saluda, which is part of the Columbia market. The CW affiliate for that market, WZRB, is not available on that system.

Newscasts

Nightly news open.

WSPA produces a nightly prime time newscast on WYCW known as NewsChannel 7 at 10 on Your CW. The show airs for thirty minutes competing with an hour-long broadcast seen on WHNS and half-hour news offered on WMYA (produced by WLOS seen weeknights). There is also a two-hour extension of WSPA's weekday morning show seen on WYCW. Known as NewsChannel 7 Daybreak on Your CW, this is seen from 7 until 9 and has competition with WHNS's newscast. On September 16, 2007, WSPA upgraded its newscasts to high definition as the first station in the market to do so.

WYCW's newscasts were included in the upgrade which introduced a graphics package similar to Media General flagship WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida. In 2008, news anchor Amy Wood launched "CW Live Chat" during the weeknight prime time show. At the time, it was one of the nation's first interactive live broadcasts with an anchor hosting the chat live while simultaneously anchoring on-air. In addition to the main studios in Spartanburg, there is an Anderson Bureau on South Main Street/SC 28. Media General maintains a Columbia Bureau on Assembly Street/SC 48 covering the Capitol for its stations in and around South Carolina.

Anchors

• Diane Lee - weekday mornings and consumer reporter
• Fred Cunningham - weekday mornings
• Amy Wood - weeknights
• Gordon Dill - weekends and reporter

Storm Team 7 Meteorologists

• Christy Henderson (CBM Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
• Dan Bickford (CBM Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings
• Justin Cooper (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekends

Sports

• Pete Yanity - Director seen weeknights
• Todd Summers - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• Jonathan Carlson - weeknights and fill-in news anchor
• Dianne Derby - "Problem Solver" segment producer
• Robert Kittle - Media General Columbia Bureau
• Christine Scarpelli - digital journalist
• Robin Kanady - Anderson Bureau
• Rich Klindworth - digital journalist
• Kristen Mosteller
• Melissa Keeney
• Graeme Moore
• Chris Cato

External links

• WYCW "Carolinas CW"
• WSPA-TV "NewsChannel 7 HD"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WYCW