WNCN

For the former New York City radio station called WNCN-FM, see WAXQ.

WNCN

Goldsboro/Raleigh/Durham/ Fayetteville, North Carolina
Branding	WNCN (general) WNCN News (newscasts)
Slogan	Accurate, Balanced, to the Point
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 17 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	NBC Antenna TV (DT2)
Owner	Media General, Inc. (Media General Communications Holdings, LLC)
First air date	April 11, 1988
Call letters' meaning	North Carolina's NBC (or North Carolina's News, from before NBC acquisition)
Former callsigns	WYED (1988-1994)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 17 (UHF, 1988-2009) Digital: 55 (UHF)
Former affiliations	independent (1988-1995) The WB (January–September 1995)
Transmitter power	291 kW
Height	611 m
Facility ID	50782
Transmitter coordinates	35°40′29″N 78°31′40″W
Website	www.wncn.com

WNCN is the NBC affiliate television station in the Triangle region of North Carolina (the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville DMA), broadcasting on digital channel 17. It is licensed to Goldsboro, but its studios are just outside of downtown Raleigh. The station is carried on cable channel 6 in Raleigh, cable channel 2 in Durham and Chapel Hill, channel 10 in Wilson, Fayetteville and Southern Pines, channel 13 in Goldsboro, channel 9 in Carrboro, and cable channel 7 in most other places, including Cary. In recent years, WNCN has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the Greensboro and Greenville markets. WNCN's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina.

History

WNCN began life on April 11, 1988 as WYED-TV, a small station airing the Home Shopping Network most of the time with some ministry and sportsman shows on weekends. WYED was the first (and only) television station of Beasley Broadcasting Group, which was owned by George Beasley who got his start in 1961 by signing on radio station WPYB radio in nearby Benson, North Carolina. Studios were located at 622 South Barbour Street in Clayton, with a 1,550-foot (470 m) tower nearby, broadcasting with 2.6 million watts of power. The station had limited cable carriage, mainly on smaller systemoutside the core metro counties. In 1992, Cablevision of Raleigh-Durham (now Time Warner Cable) added WYED to its Durham and Raleigh lineup, and the station added children's programming such as Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and syndicated talk shows. While the station could be seen clearly in Raleigh and Durham, it couldn't be seen as clearly in the far western and northern reaches of the Triangle.

In 1994 the Outlet Company of Providence, Rhode Island bought the station, and on January 1, 1995, changed its call letters to the current WNCN (North Carolina's News). The new WNCN increased its signal to 5 million watts, boosting its coverage area to the entire Triangle. The station also added more sitcoms and first-run syndicated shows. It began to carry programming from the WB Television Network, which launched in January 1995.

A month later, NBC signed a long-term affiliation deal with Outlet. Outlet had very good relations with NBC; it owned two of NBC's strongest affiliates, WJAR-TV in its home city and WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. Channel 17 immediately began to run NBC programming pre-empted by the network's existing affiliate, WRDC-TV (channel 28), which had been one of NBC's lowest-rated affiliates for several years. NBC had been looking for a way to get on another station for some time, especially since WRDC frequently preempted its programming. WNCN completely replaced WRDC as the Triangle's NBC station in September after WRDC's affiliation contract ran out, sending the WB affiliation to WRAZ (channel 50). It also moved into the former studios of WLFL-TV (channel 22) in North Raleigh.

Outlet sold its broadcasting holdings to NBC in 1996. Of note, this resulted in WNCN becoming NBC's first UHF owned-and-operated station since the 1950s. During that decade the network briefly owned WBUF-TV (later to become PBS station WNED-TV) in Buffalo, New York and the then-WNBC-TV in New Britain, Connecticut, the latter of which reacquired as WVIT in 1997.

WNCN is the fourth station in the Triangle to have a primary affiliation with NBC. NBC had first aired on WTVD (channel 11) from 1954 to 1956, then WRAL-TV (channel 5) from 1956 to 1962. After WRAL became a full-time ABC affiliate in 1962, WTVD shoehorned CBS and NBC onto its schedule until 1968, when WRDC-TV signed on that year as WRDU-TV. (Channel 28 was also known as WPTF-TV, from 1978 until 1991.) When WNCN became a full NBC affiliate, it marked the first time that network's full schedule had aired in the Triangle since WRAL added ABC part-time in 1959.

In 2000, WNCN abandoned its 1,550-foot (470 m) tower in Clayton for a 2,000-foot (610 m) perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower eight miles (13 km) closer to Raleigh. WNCN-DT signed on at UHF channel 55 at the same time. The station had to get a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do this, as FCC rules require a station's transmitter to be no further than 15 miles (24 km) from its city of license.

After WNCN became an NBC-owned station, it began identifying itself under its current name "NBC-17". Since then, it has almost never used its call letters on-air, except during legal IDs. When WNCN was owned by NBC Universal, it was one of three network-owned stations on the UHF dial (alongside KNSD in San Diego and WVIT in Hartford) and was also one of two network-owned and operated stations in the Raleigh-Durham market (alongside ABC-owned WTVD, which continues to be owned by The Walt Disney Company).

On January 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale along with WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and the other two former Outlet stations, WJAR and WCMH. On April 6, 2006, it was announced that Media General would acquire these stations. This made WNCN a sister station to WNCT-TV in Greenville. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. [1]

WNCN's previous logo as NBC 17, discontinued in 2013.

In April 2013, WNCN launched a new branding, switched its on-air name from "NBC 17" to just WNCN. The new brand is intended to emphasize the station's "strong desire to more aggressively serve its local communities".

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
17.1	1080i	16:9	NBC17HD	Main WNCN programming / NBC
17.2	480i	4:3	NBC17SD	Antenna TV

NBC Weather Plus was offered on WNCN's digital channel 17.3 by the name "NBC-17 WeatherPlus". It was later replaced by WNCN's viper radar titled "Live Precision Viper Radar". On August 1, 2011, it was replaced by Universal Sports when it moved to 17.3 to make way for Antenna TV in its original 17.2 spot. 17.3 was removed when Universal Sports transitioned to cable-only in January 2012.

Analog to Digital Conversion

As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WNCN shut down its analog transmitter, on June 12, 2009 at 12:30 p.m., and moved its digital broadcast from channel 55 to channel 17.

News operation

WNCN's former news open

WNCN was the first station in the market to air a newscast at 4:30 a.m., and at 7 p.m. WNCN's newscasts have traditionally ranked third in the ratings compared to long-time leaders WRAL and WTVD. However, recently, the station has been on a path of change and ratings growth. Revamped morning and evening newscasts, an emphasis on stronger investigative reporting, a new website, and more community involvement has helped lead this charge.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• NCN News (1995–1996)
• NBC-17 News (1996–2013)
• WNCN News (2013–present)

Station slogans

• A New Generation of News (1995)
• The One to Watch (late 1990s)
• Accurate, Balanced, to the Point (2007–2011)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff

Current anchors

• Pam Saulsby - weeknights at 7:00 p.m and 11 p.m
• Melanie Sanders - weeknights at 6:00 p.m.; also reporter
• Penn Holderness - weeknights at 6:00, 7:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Sharon Tazewell - weekday mornings on "NBC 17 Today" from 4:30-7:00 a.m.
• Phil Sanchez - weekday mornings on "NBC 17 Today" from 4:30-7:00 a.m.
• Page Crawford - "Precision Traffic" Anchor for "NBC 17 Today" from 4:30-7:00 a.m.

NBC 17 Precision Weather Team

• Wes Hohenstein (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6:00, 7:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Jeremy Baker (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. + Saturdays at 7:00 p.m.
• Bill Reh (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on "NBC 17 Today" from 4:30-7:00 a.m.

Reporters

• Jonathan Carlson - general assignment and investigative reporter/fill-in anchor
• Charlotte Huffman - general assignment and investigative reporter
• Sean Maroney - general assignment reporter and weekend anchor
• Steve Sbraccia - general assignment reporter
• Eileen Park - general assignment reporter
• Justin Quesinberry - digital journalist
• Derick Waller - digital journalist
• Brandon Herring - Fayetteville reporter
• Todd Gibson - sports anchor/reporter

My Carolina Today weekdays at 11:00 a.m. Hosts

• Sharon Delaney
• Valonda Calloway

External links

• WNCN official website - NBC17.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNCN
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNCN-TV