WSFX-TV

WSFX-TV

Wilmington, North Carolina
Branding	Fox Wilmington (general) Fox Wilmington News
Slogan	Local News. Better Time. (6:30 p.m. news) One Hour Earlier (10 p.m. news)
Channels	Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 26 (PSIP)
Subchannels	26.1 Fox 26.2 This TV
Translators	19 W19CA Lumberton
Owner	Southeastern Media Holdings (operated through SSA by Raycom Media)
First air date	September 24, 1984
Call letters' meaning	Super FoX
Sister station(s)	WECT, WMBF-TV, WIS, WCSC-TV, WFXG, WTOC-TV
Former callsigns	WJKA (1984-1994)
Former channel number(s)	26 (UHF analog, 1984-2008)
Former affiliations	CBS (1984-1994)
Transmitter power	190 kW
Height	590 m
Facility ID	72871
Transmitter coordinates	34°7′53″N 78°11′17″W
Website	wsfx.com

WSFX-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for North Carolina's Cape Fear region licensed to Wilmington. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 (virtual channel 26.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Town Creek Township. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable, Charter, and ATMC channel 9. There is a high definition feed offered on Time Warner Cable and ATMC digital channel 920 as well as Charter digital channel 709.

Owned by Southeastern Media Holdings, WSFX is operated through a shared services agreement (SSA) by Raycom Media as sister to NBC affiliate WECT. The two stations share studios on Shipyard Boulevard/US 117 in Wilmington. Syndicated programming on WSFX includes Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, Divorce Court, and Judge Jeanine Pirro among others. It operates an analog repeater, W19CA channel 19, licensed to Lumberton with a transmitter in Lumber Bridge.

Digital programming

On WSFX-DT2, Time Warner Cable digital channel 126, and Charter digital channel 174 is This TV.

Channels	Name	Video	Aspect	Programming
30.1	WSFX-DT	720p	16:9	Main WSFX programming / FOX
30.2	WSFX-DT2	480i	4:3	This TV

History

The station signed-on September 24, 1984 with the call sign WJKA. It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 26 from the WWAY-TV tower in Brunswick County and was a CBS affiliate. Prior to its startup, Wilmington was one of the few markets in the country without its own CBS affiliate. Future sister station WECT aired some CBS programming until cable arrived in Wilmington in the 1970s and WBTW in Florence, South Carolina covered most of the market with a Grade B signal. From the 1970s until WJKA's sign-on, local cable systems piped in either WTVD from Durham, WNCT-TV from Greenville, or WBTW.

Channel 26's tenure as a CBS affiliate was far from successful. Operating on a shoestring budget, it didn't produce much local content. The station largely served as a "pass-through" for CBS programming. It didn't help matters that WNCT and WBTW provided at least grade B coverage to parts of the market. Further complicating matters, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, which had been available on cable in Wilmington for decades, switched to CBS a year after WJKA's sign-on, forcing the fledgling station to compete against three of the strongest CBS affiliates in the Southeast. Under the circumstances, WJKA barely registered as a blip in the local Nielsen ratings against WECT and WWAY.

In 1994, after CBS lost broadcasting rights of the NFL to Fox, WJKA dropped CBS in favor of Fox and changed its call letters to the current WSFX-TV. Before the switch, Wilmington was the only portion of North Carolina and one of the few in the Eastern Time Zone without an over-the-air Fox affiliate of its own. The area's cable systems piped in either WLFL in Raleigh or WFAY in Fayetteville. As a result of WSFX's affiliation switch, Wilmington had no over-the-air CBS affiliate until March 2000 when low-powered UPN station WILM-LP switched its primary affiliation to CBS. During that time, cable systems supplemented the area with either WRAL-TV, WNCT, or WBTW.

On paper, the loss of CBS should have put channel 26 in serious jeopardy. The network had just begun airing a full week's worth of programming just a season earlier. However, the move to Fox rejuvenated the station. Within a few years, it was one of the strongest small-market Fox affiliates in the country.

Until 1996, WSFX was the default Fox affiliate for the Florence/Myrtle Beach, South Carolina market which did not have its own affiliate. In fact, the call letters stand for Super FoX, referring to its on-air name at the time. Since the station's over-the-air signal does not reach Florence, the Pee Dee area had to rely on cable for Fox programming until WGSE-TV (now WFXB) in Myrtle Beach took the affiliation.

In 2003, WSFX's original local owners sold the station to Southeastern Media Holdings. Raycom Media took over WSFX' operations through a shared service agreement with WECT. As part of the agreement, WSFX's operations were integrated into WECT's facility.

On May 8, 2008, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced five stations in Wilmington (including WSFX) had agreed to voluntarily cease analog broadcasting on September 8. The Wilmington market was billed as the first in the United States to convert to all-digital transmission due to its role as the FCC's digital transition test market. Hawaii shut down analog broadcasting in January 2009 followed by more, but not all, full-power television broadcasters on February 17. Robeson County, North Carolina (now in the Myrtle Beach market) was previously part of the Wilmington market and, prior to that, Raleigh/Durham. In the late-1990s, Time Warner Cable in Lumberton began to drop Wilmington stations. This station was dropped from cable in Laurinburg in the early to mid-1990s when it was still a CBS affiliate.

WFXB in Myrtle Beach is currently the only Fox affiliate offered on cable in that area. The northern and western areas of Robeson County (St. Pauls, Parkton, and Red Springs) also do not carry WSFX even though its analog translator is located nearby in Lumber Bridge. This repeater has a directional signal covering Robeson County fairly well. The translator can be seen as far north as Raeford in Hoke County and Hope Mills in Cumberland County in the Raleigh/Durham area. On June 27, 2011, WSFX re-branded as "Fox Wilmington" and introduced a new logo. Besides sharing the same call letters, this television station and WSFX-FM 89.1 in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania have no other relation to each other.

News operation

News open at 10.

As a CBS affiliate, WJKA had virtually no local news department. In the mid-1980s, it did air a weekday noon show called Midday offering news headlines and entertainment reports. In the early-1990s, just before the switch to Fox, it began a short-lived news operation branded as WJKA Action News 26.

On September 22, 2003 after becoming operated by WECT, that station added a nightly thirty minute prime time broadcast to WSFX. Currently known as Fox Wilmington News at 10, the show airs from a secondary set at WECT's studios featuring a separate graphics scheme and music package.

On September 13, 2006, the parent station added an hour-long extension of its weekday morning show to WSFX. Known as Carolina in the Morning on Fox Wilmington, the news airs from 7 until 8 offering a local choice to the national morning shows seen on the area's big three stations. On August 31, 2008, WECT became Wilmington's first station to upgrade local newscasts to high definition and broadcasts on WSFX were included. With the change came new Raycom Media corporate graphics seen on other company-owned outlets.

After WWAY dropped weekend local news on August 1, 2009, this station and WECT became the only outlet for broadcasts. Although a late night newscast was eventually restored to Sundays on October 3, 2010, WSFX and WECT remain the only stations in the market to offer shows throughout the weekend. The station added a new half-hour newscast on weeknights. Known as Fox Wilmington News at 6:30, the broadcast goes up against the big three network national newscasts. Corresponding with the launch, WSFX introduced updated graphics.

News team

Anchors

• Kim Ratcliff - weekday mornings and "Carolina Kids" segment producer
• Bob Townsend - weekday mornings also "Cape Fear Hero" and "Your Family Matters" segments producer
• Michelle Li - Weeknights @ 6:30pm and 10pm
• Jon Evans - weeknights @ 6:30pm and 10pm
• Ashlea Kosikowski - Saturdays and reporter
• Craig Reck- Sunday
• Bill Rancic - America Now host

Fox Wilmington First Alert Meteorologists

• Robb Ellis - weeknights
• Colin Hackman - weekday mornings and news reporter
• Eric Davis (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends

Sports

• Bob Bonner - Director seen weeknights
• John Smist - weekends and reporter

Reporters

• Heather Setzler - Executive Producer and "First Act" segment producer
• Veronica Macias - Saturday multimedia journalist and producer
• Al Hight - "Coastal Gardner" segment producer
• Casey Roman - investigative and features
• Lindsay Curtin - multimedia journalist
• Amy Taylor - weekday morning traffic
• Ryan Koresko - Chief Photographer
• Mike Pelzer - photojournalist
• Claire Hosmann - producer
• Gavin Johnson
• Craig Reck
• Ashley Kosikoski-Reporter/Co-Host for News at Ten

External links

• WSFX-TV "Fox Wilmington"
• WSFX-DT2 This TV
• WECT
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSFX-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W19CA