WCSC-TV
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WCSC-TV, channel 5, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Charleston, South Carolina. Its transmitter is located on Seewee Road in Awendaw. Owned by Raycom Media, the station has studios on Charlie Hall Boulevard in the West Ashley section of Charleston. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Two and a Half Men, Tyra, and The Doctors.
History
WCSC-TV began broadcasting on June 19, 1953 from East Bay Street in downtown Charleston. It was the second television station in South Carolina and it is the oldest continuously broadcasting in the state (the first was WCOS-TV in Columbia). WCSC is the only station in Charleston to keep its original network affiliation since its sign-on. The station was originally owned by the Rivers family along with WCSC radio (AM 1390, now WXTC; and 96.9 FM, now WIWF). The Rivers family sold the TV station to Crump Communications of Houston, Texas in 1987, while the radio stations were sold to Ralph Guild of New York. Crump kept channel 5 until selling it to the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation in 1994. Jefferson-Pilot merged with the Lincoln Financial Group in 2006 with their broadcast properties assuming the new corporate name of Lincoln Financial Media. Many of WCSC's early talents were former disc jockeys who became involved with the new medium of television in 1953.
Al Stone, formerly of WGAR in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted an American Bandstand-like dance show for local teens. Carroll Godwin hosted a local daytime talk show in the 1960s. Loraine (Rainee) Evans hosted the popular children's program, The Happy Raine Show. Ken Clyce was another popular news personality. In 1997, the station moved to newly built studios located on Charlie Hall Boulevard in the West Ashley section of Charleston. The facilities were named for WCSC's longtime weatherman and one of its most popular personalities. Hall signed on the station in 1953 and worked there covering events including Hurricane Hugo's impact on Charleston in 1989 until his death in March of 1997. Local sports coverage has also been prominent at WCSC. In the early-1980s, Charleston Cougars games were broadcasted on the station.
It broadcasted the Cooper River Bridge Run from 1986 to 1990 and resumed the telecasts in 2004. The broadcast features reporters on the course. WCSC is the local outlet for Atlantic Coast Conference basketball and Southeastern Conference football which have been produced by its parent company since the 1980s. In 2004, Jefferson-Pilot management effectively forced out Warren Peper (who had been with the station since 1974) by offering him only a one-year extension of his contract with no renewal option. The popular anchor, who had handled both news and sports during his time at WCSC, was also the play-by-play announcer for WCSC's live coverage of college basketball and the Cooper River Bridge Run. After the station was sold to Jefferson Pilot, he was a sideline reporter for their syndicated college football broadcasts.
Peper went to Media General's WCBD-TV after a one-year non-compete agreement in the market expired. Viewers wrote that they hoped WCSC would not force out Bill Sharpe or Debi Chard (another longtime WCSC anchor) the same way. Ironically, WCSC had seized meteorologist Bill Walsh away from rival WCIV in 1994 and had to hide his identity with thunderclouds when running station promotions during his non-compete agreement. On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial Media entered into an agreement to sell WCSC, along with the company's two other television stations (WBTV in Charlotte and WWBT in Richmond, Virginia) and Lincoln Financial Sports, to Raycom Media for $583 million dollars. Raycom took ownership of the station on April 1, 2008.
Outside of the Charleston DMA, WCSC is carried in the Horry County locale Surfside beach. To the north, it is carried in southern Florence and Orangeburg Counties where WCSC outrates both WLTX and its sister Raycom station WIS-TV in ratings. An attempt to drop WCSC from Orangeburg markets in 1997 led to protests that led to its restoration in 1999. Raycom has effectively assigned the Orangeburg area to WCSC and not WIS noting it popularity. To the south, it is carried in Beaufort, on Hilton Head Island, and in Bluffton. There is no DirecTV out-of-market carriage for WCSC.
Digital television
The station's digital channel:
WCSC-DT
WCSC-DT broadcasts on digital channel 47.
Digital channels| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | WCSC-DT | main WCSC-TV/CBS programming |
Analog-to-digital transition
After the analog television shutdown scheduled for February 17, 2009 [1], WCSC-TV will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 47 [2] using PSIP to display WCSC-TV's virtual channel as 5.
News operation
WCSC has long been the dominant station in Charleston, and according to some reports, is the strongest network affiliate in South Carolina. It is one of the strongest and top performing CBS affiliates in the country. The station had the same 6:30 P.M. news anchors from the mid-1970s until 1991 and the same three anchors were together until 1997. Bill Sharpe became an employee at the station in 1973 after a short time at WTMA radio and has now been with the station for 35 years. WCSC has been a trend-setter in South Carolina for newscasts as it expanded its local evening news programming from 30 minutes to two and a half hours and has the most newscasts in the state within a broadcast day. In 1991, it began a one-hour newscast at 6 o'clock which later became 90 minutes from 5 to 6:30 followed by the CBS Evening News in 1997. Prior to 1997, the CBS Evening News aired at 7 P.M.
In January of 2000, WCSC launched its regional weather radar called "Live Super Doppler 5000" (it is now known as "LIVE Super Doppler HD"). The weather system uses four live NOAA NWS radars from various sites. This includes its own doppler radar (which makes WCSC the only one in the market to operate its own radar). In 2004, it added a 30-minute 4 o'clock newscast now totaling two hours of local news between 4 and 6:30. WCSC is the only station in the market to air local news on the weeknights at 4. With an anchor and format change at the CBS Evening News and concerns over ratings, Lincoln Financial added a 7 P.M. newscast to "piggyback" with the network newscast in August of 2006. WCSC and ABC affiliate WCIV are the only stations in the market to broadcast news weeknights at 7. WCSC recently expanded its weather product with "Live 5 Storm TRACKER Mobile Storm Center".
It is the first vehicle of its kind in the region and allows WCSC meteorologists access to their weather data away from the station and the ability to send back live weather data for display on-air, and the station often shares weather radars with its fellow Raycom stations, a tactic the station began when it started at Jefferson-Pilot. The station has a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WTAT-TV (which is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group). WCSC produces nightly 10 o'clock and weekday 7 A.M. newscasts on that station. The 10 P.M. news is currently the second highest rated newscast in the market behind WCSC's own broadcasts. On September 29, 2008, WCSC set another broadcasting benchmark in the Charleston television market when they became the first news operation in the market to air local newscasts in full high definition. The upgrade included new custom Raycom corporate graphics, a re-designed HD logo, and updated music package. The WTAT broadcasts were also included in the new HD production, however that station is not yet broadcasting the full high definition feed.
News team
Anchors
- Ann McGill - weekday mornings and Noon
- Bill Burr - weekday mornings
- Bill Sharpe - weekdays at Noon, 4, 5, and 6
- Debi Chard - weeknights at 5:30, 6, 7, and 11
- Raphael James - weeknights at 5:30, 7, 10, and 11
- Anthony Miller - weekends and reporter
Live 5 News HD Meteorologists
- Bill Walsh (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 4, 5, 5:30, 6, 7, and 11
- Chad Watson (NWA Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings and Noon
- Brad Miller (AMS and NWA Member) - weekends
Sports
- Andy Pruitt - weeknights at 6, 7, 10, and 11
- Kevin Bilodeau - weekends and sports reporter
- Bob Behanian - sports reporter and host of Friday Night Lights
Reporters
- Hatzel Vela - fill-in anchor
- Nicole Johnson
- Harve Jacobs
- Ian Silver
- Sheldon Dutes
- Tracey Amick
Former talent
- Marta Costello - now producing "gnooze" a Web-based news parody program at [1]
- Jan Jeffcoat - now at WFLD
- Mandy Gaither - now at WYFF-TV
- Erin Kienzle - now weekend meteorologist at WTAE-TV
- Mark Morgan - now at ESPN
- Tim Lake - now main anchor at WCAU
- Craig Birnbach - now at KATU
- Carolyn Murray - now at WCBD
- Warren Peper - now at WCBD
- Karyn Greer - now at WXIA
- Lu Parker - now at KTLA
- Keith Nichols - meteorologist from 1985 to 2005 (deceased)
- Bob Knowles - deceased
- Charlie Hall - deceased
- Al Stone - deceased
- Ken Klice - deceased
- Carroll Godwin - deceased
- Betty Davis - now at The Weather Channel
- Sherry Ray - now at WTSP
- Jill Miller
- Michael Hughes
- Tia Brewer
- Gurnal Scott
- Mike Hiott
- Michael Trouche
- Rameka Leary
- Amanda Fitzpatrick
- Amy Lutz
- Erin Colgan
- Kristen McFann