WCYB-TV
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| Bristol, Virginia/Kingsport-Johnson City, Tennessee | |
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| City of license | Bristol, Virginia |
| Branding | WCYB-TV 5 (general) News 5 (newscasts) Tri-Cities CW 4 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Accurate. Reliable. |
| Channels | Digital: 5 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 5.1 NBC 5.2 The CW |
| Translators | 21 (UHF) Kingsport 29 (UHF) Bristol, VA (construction permits) |
| Owner | Bonten Media Group, LLC (BlueStone License Holdings, Inc.) |
| First air date | August 13, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning | CitY of Bristol |
| Sister station(s) | WEMT |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 5 (VHF, 1956-2009) Digital: 28 (UHF, 1996-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Secondary: ABC (1956-1969) The WB (1996-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 29.9 kW |
| Height | 743 m |
| Facility ID | 2455 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°26′58.2″N 82°6′28.8″W / 36.4495°N 82.108°W |
| Website | www.wcyb.com |
WCYB-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station serving the Tri-Cities area of Northeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter on Rye Patch Knob of Holston Mountain in the Cherokee National Forest. Owned by the Bonten Media Group, the station operates Fox affiliate WEMT (owned by Esteem Broadcasting, LLC) through a local marketing agreement (LMA), whose transmitter is co-located with WCYB. The two share studios on Lee Street in Bristol, Virginia; where the station is licensed.
Although WCYB-TV is the only commercial station in the Tri-Cities that is licensed to the Virginia side of the market, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires it to include Kingsport and Johnson City, Tennessee in its legal station identification.[1]
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[edit] Digital programming
WCYB operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. This can also be seen on Comcast channel 4, hence its branding of Tri-Cities CW 4 branding comes from. Although most other affiliates of The CW Plus are on other stations, WCYB-DT2 is not part of the national service.
On August 23, 2011, Disney-ABC Television Group announced an affilation agreement with WCYB to carry Live Well Network, a lifestyle-oriented digital broadcast network, likely on a new third digital subchannel.[2]
WCYB's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Aspect | Video | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 16:9 | 1080i | Main WCYB programming / NBC |
| 5.2 | 4:3 | 480i | "Tri-Cities CW 4" |
| 5.3 | Live Well Network |
[edit] Analog-to-digital conversion
The WCYB digital channel is being seen via PSIP on digital channel 5. The station was one of more than ten VHF digital stations requesting a power increase after it experienced signal problems as a result of changing its digital channel from UHF to VHF. [3] WCYB has construction permits to operate two UHF fill-in digital translators. This will help viewers alleviate some signal reception issues on VHF-low channel 5. One repeater will operate on channel 29 licensed to Bristol, Virginia with a transmitter with the main channel 5 signal on Holston Mountain. [4] Another one will be on channel 21 licensed to Kingsport with a transmitter on Bays Mountain. [5] Both translators will serve the immediate part of the Tri-Cities area and some of the surrounding areas.
[edit] History
The station began broadcasting on August 13, 1956. It has always been a primary NBC affiliate although it carried a secondary ABC affiliation (shared with WJHL-TV) until 1969 when WKPT-TV signed on and took the ABC affiliation.
In the 1960s, this station produced a live weekday cartoon show called the Looney Tunes Club hosted by Ed Spiegel. The 1960s also saw three locally-produced quiz shows: Kiddle Kollege (which pitted young students from different local schools against each other), Classroom Quiz (whose contestants were older high school students) as well as Klub Kwiz (which did the same using members of local civic and service clubs).
In mid-December 2006 as a result of Bluestone Television's acquisition by Bonten Media Group, Esteem Broadcasting acquired Aurora's stock in Fox affiliate WEMT-TV, Channel 39, Greeneville which counting as a sale. Esteem would then pay $1.4 million in outstanding debt. WEMT moved from its studios on Hanover Road in Johnson City to WCYB's facilities.
[edit] Retransmission consent controversies
Under federal must-carry rules, broadcasters can either allow cable systems in their market to carry their signals for free or charge a fee under retransmission consent provisions. On November 24, 2008, TVS Cable (a cable operator which serves several counties in Eastern Kentucky) notified its customers that it would "most likely" drop WCYB on January 1, 2009 due to a retransmission consent dispute. [6] The letter also stated that the system would replace WCYB with a MyNetworkTV affiliate if negotiations fail. However, NBC programming would not be affected because the system currently carries WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky and will intend to do so in the future. TVS Cable later notified customers through their bills stating that there was a thirty day extension granted through the month of January to carry WCYB.
Another Eastern Kentucky cable operator, Inter Mountain Cable (IMC), has also stated that it would remove WCYB from their lineup unless an agreement was reached. [7] According to The Mountain Eagle, this dispute caused concern among officials in the city of Fleming-Neon where IMC holds the cable television franchise there. [8] The city council in Fleming-Neon stated that the removal of WCYB would violate IMC's franchise agreement. [8] On January 13, it was announced that WCYB would be dropped from the DirecTV local channels lineup in the Tri-Cities market effective January 15 over a similar dispute. That same day, it was announced that an agreement had been reached and WCYB would continue to be provided on DirecTV.[citation needed]
[edit] Out-of-market cable carriage
In recent years, WCYB has been carried on cable in multiple areas outside of the Tri-Cities media market. That includes cable systems within the Bluefield market in Virginia, the Lexington market in Kentucky, and the Asheville and Charlotte markets in North Carolina.[9] According to Zap2it, WCYB has been carried on cable in College Grove, TN, which is within the Nashville market.[10]
During the 1970's and 1980s through CATV, WCYB was once carried in Pikeville, Kentucky, Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and McDowell County, West Virginia.[11]
[edit] News operation
For most of the last thirty years, WCYB has been the dominant station in the Tri-Cities.
WCYB's long dominance was largely due to the presence of the station's longtime anchorman Merrill Moore. He joined the station in 1962 as weeknight 11 o'clock anchor and added the weeknight 6 P.M. broadcast in 1964. He remained the station's top anchorman until his retirement in 2000. In the 1960s, News Director Walter Crockett also delivered editorials at 6:25 P.M. daily and Evelyn Booher was one of the first woman newscasters in the Tri-Cities at that time. For most of the time from the 1980s to the early 2000s, WCYB claimed to be the highest-rated television station in the United States. Their branding is currently "Accurate. Reliable." Formerly, it was "Accurate. Reliable. To the Point." The latter phrase was dropped from the branding as of the Noon telecast on Tuesday, October 2, 2007. After beginning local production of news in high definition, the branding was changed to "Accurate. Reliable. High Definition."
Starting with the 5 P.M. news on October 13, 2008, the NewsCenter 5 name was changed to News 5. WEMT's nightly 10 o'clock newscast started on September 12, 2005 and is produced by WCYB. Originally a half-hour long, it was expanded to an hour on September 11, 2006. In October 2008, they dropped WCYB's on-air look. Instead of using all blue graphics, WEMT now uses blue and red. That station also renamed the weather forecasting and modified many other elements of the broadcast. Paul Johnson, who was formerly Sports Director and weeknight sports anchor for both stations, now only appears on WEMT. Former weekend meteorologist David Boyd is now WEMT's main meteorologist with Dave Dierks only appearing on WCYB. At one point in time, WCYB-DT2 aired an hour long extension of the main channel's weekday morning show at 8. This has since been dropped and that station continues to air the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 to 9.
On June 17, 2010, WCYB's newscasts became the first in the Tri-Cities market to broadcast in high definition.[12][13]
[edit] News team[14]
Anchors
- Preston Ayres - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
- Rebecca Pepin - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Tarah Taylor - weekday mornings and weekdays at noon
- Johnny Wood - weekday mornings
- Angela Yingling - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
- Garick Zikan - weeknights at 5 and 5:30 p.m.
StormTrack 5 Weather
- Dave Dierks (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Donnie Cox (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
- Marcus Lynch (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings
- Johnny Wood - weather anchor; weekdays at noon
- David Boyd (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; fill-in
Sports team
- Jordan Conigliaro - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
- Casey Goetz - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., also sports reporter
Reporters
- Jim Conrad - videojournalist
- Megan Gorey - general assignment reporter
- Laura Halm - general assignment reporter
- Drew Hinesley - general assignment reporter
- Meredith Machen - general assignment reporter
[edit] References
- ^ Television Factbook #49, 1980 Edition, page 882-B
- ^ Live Well Adds 7 Affils, Tops 40% Clearance, TVNewsCheck, August 23, 2011.
- ^ Eggerton, John (2009-06-29). "Boise Station Gets Power Boost". Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/307121-Boise_Station_Gets_Power_Boost.php?rssid=20068&q=digital+tv. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
- ^ https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101340200&formid=346&fac_num=2455
- ^ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1355535&Service=LD&Form_id=346&Facility_id=2455
- ^ Letter from TVS Cable, November 24, 2008.
- ^ "WKPT, WCYB & WJHL Possible Programming Issue For 2009". Inter Mountain Cable. 2008-12-03. http://www.imctv.com/news_viewNews.php?news_id=41. Retrieved 2009-01-15.[dead link]
- ^ a b Farley, William (2009-01-14). "Neon council upset by threat of TV changes". The Mountain Eagle. pp. 2. http://www.themountaineagle.com/news/2009/0114/news/004.html. Retrieved 2009-01-15.
- ^ http://svtvstations.webs.com/svtvstations.htm
- ^ http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?method=decideFwdForLineup&zipcode=37046&setMyPreference=false&lineupId=TN68058:-
- ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/coals7/forms/search/cableSearchNf.cfm
- ^ "News 5 Now Broadcasting In HD". WCYB-TV. 17 June 2010. http://www.wcyb.com/pages/7493162.php. Retrieved 17 June 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "WCYB-TV and WEMT-TV Are First with HD Local News Broadcasts In Tri-Cities Market". WCYB-TV. 17 June 2010. http://www.wcyb.com/WCYB-TV-and-WEMT-TV-Are-First-With-HD-Local-News-B/7491930. Retrieved 18 June 2010.[dead link]
- ^ News 5 Team
[edit] External links
- WCYB-DT channel 5
- WCYB-DT2 "Tri-Cities CW 4"
- WEMT "Fox Tri-Cities"
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WCYB-TV
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