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

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WNCN, channel 17, is an NBC-affiliated television station that is licensed to Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States, and serves North Carolina's Triangle region. The station's studios are located just outside of downtown Raleigh, and its transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina. 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.

History

Early history

The station first signed on the air on April 11, 1988 as WYED-TV, a small station that primarily carried programming from the Home Shopping Network, along with some ministry and sportsman shows that aired on weekends. WYED was the first (and only) television station owned by the Beasley Broadcasting Group, run by George Beasley, who got his start in 1961 by signing on radio station WPYB (1130 AM) in nearby Benson, North Carolina. Channel 17's original studios were located at 622 South Barbour Street in Clayton, with a 1,550-foot (470 m) transmitter tower located nearby, broadcasting with 2.6 million watts of power. The station had limited cable carriage, mainly on smaller providers outside the core counties in the metropolitan area. In 1992, Cablevision (whose Triangle area system is now operated by Time Warner Cable) added WYED to its Durham and Raleigh lineup; the station gradually shifted towards a more general entertainment independent station and 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, its signal could not be seen as clearly in the far western and northern reaches of the Triangle.

In 1994, the station was bought by The Outlet Company, and on January 1, 1995, its call letters were changed to the current WNCN (standing for "North Carolina's News). The station's transmitter power was increased to five million watts, boosting its signal coverage to the entire Triangle area. The station also added more sitcoms and first-run syndicated shows. WNCN nominally became the market's affiliate of The WB Television Network when it debuted on January 11, 1995, but since the network initially had only one night of programming each week (on Wednesdays) for its first eight months, WNCN was essentially still programmed as an independent station.

Switch to NBC

One month later, NBC signed a long-term affiliation deal with The Outlet Company. Outlet had very good relations with NBC and owned two of the network's strongest affiliates, WJAR-TV in the company's home city of Providence, Rhode Island and WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. Channel 17 immediately began to run NBC programs that were preempted 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 affiliate on September 3, 1995 after WRDC's affiliation contract ran out, sending the WB affiliation to upstart WRAZ (channel 50), which debuted four days later. The station also moved its operations into a studio facility in North Raleigh that was formerly occupied by then-Fox afffiliate WLFL (channel 22, now a CW affiliate).

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

Outlet sold its broadcasting holdings to NBC in 1996, this resulted in WNCN becoming NBC's first owned-and-operated station on the UHF band 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 NBC reacquired as WVIT in 1997. When WNCN was owned by NBC, 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 stations in the Raleigh-Durham market (alongside ABC-owned WTVD, which continues to be owned by that network's corporate parent The Walt Disney Company). After WNCN became an NBC-owned station, it began branding itself as "NBC 17."

WNCN's previous logo as NBC 17, used from 2002 to 2013.

In 2000, WNCN relocated its transmitter facilities from the Clayton tower to a nearly 2,000-foot (610 m) perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower 8 miles (13 km) closer to Raleigh, near Auburn. WNCN signed on its digital signal on UHF channel 55 at the same time. The station had to get a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move to the Auburn tower, as FCC rules require a station's transmitter to be no further than 15 miles (24 km) from its city of license.

On January 9, 2006, NBCUniversal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale,[1] along with WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and the other two former Outlet stations, WJAR and WCMH. On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would acquire the four stations.[2] This made WNCN a sister station to WNCT-TV in Greenville. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. [1] In April 2013, as part of a new branding campaign, the station switched its branding 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".[3] For the past 17 years, WNCN had almost never used its call letters on air, except during legal identifications.

On October 1, 2013, WNCN and other Media General stations were dropped from DISH Network when its retransmission contract expired. [4]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[5]
17.1 1080i 16:9 WNCN-HD Main WNCN programming / NBC
17.2 480i 4:3 WNCN-SD Antenna TV

NBC Weather Plus was offered on WNCN's digital subchannel 17.3, under the "NBC 17 WeatherPlus" brand. It was later replaced by a feed of WNCN's VIPIR 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 distribution in January 2012.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNCN shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 55 to channel 17, as the station's original digital channel allocation was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.[6]

News operation

File:WNCN open.png
WNCN's former news open.

WNCN presently broadcasts 22½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with four hours on weekdays, 1½ hours on Saturdays and one hour on Sundays); unlike most NBC stations in the Eastern Time Zone, WNCN does not broadcast a midday or 5 p.m. newscast, although it does air an hour-long lifestyle program called My Carolina Today each weekday at 11 a.m. Since switching to NBC, 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.

Shortly after being acquired by The Outlet Company, WNCN began developing a full-scale news department shortly after taking the NBC affiliation; the station debuted its local newscasts concurrent with the switch on September 3, 1995, with a half-hour early evening newscast at 6 p.m. and a late evening newscast at 11 p.m. nightly. During the late 1990s, the station debuted a two-hour weekday morning newscast. In 2007, WNCN debuted a half-hour newscast at 7 p.m., becoming the market's first local newscast in that timeslot. The station became the first in the market to move the start time of its weekday morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. in 2010.

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)

Newscast Schedule

Weekdays
  • WNCN News Today at 4:30 a.m. - 4:30-5:00 a.m.
  • WNCN News Today at 5:00 a.m. - 5:00-5:30 a.m.
  • WNCN News Today at 5:30 a.m. - 5:30-6:00 a.m.
  • WNCN News Today at 6:00 a.m. - 6:00-7:00 a.m.
  • WNCN News at 6:00 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
  • WNCN News at 7:00 - 7:00-7:30 p.m.
  • WNCN News at 11:00 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.
Saturdays
  • WNCN News at 6:00 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
  • WNCN News at 7:00 - 7:00-7:30 p.m.
  • WNCN News at 11:00 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.
Sundays
  • WNCN News at 6:00 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
  • WNCN News at 11:00 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.

News team

Current on-air staff

WNCN's primary news anchors are Penn Holderness (weeknights at 6, 7 and 11 p.m.), Phil Sanchez (weekday mornings on WNCN Today from 4:30-7 a.m.), Pam Saulsby (weeknights at 7 and 11 p.m.), Melanie Sanders (weeknights at 6 p.m.; also reporter), Sharon Tazewell (weekday mornings on WNCN Today from 4:30-7 a.m.) and Sean Maroney (Saturdays at 7 and weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weekday reporter)[7]

The WNCN Precision Weather team includes chief meteorologist Wes Hohenstein (AMS Seal of Approval; weeknights at 6, 7 and 11 p.m.), and meteorologists Jeremy Baker (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval; Saturdays at 7 and weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.) and Bill Reh (AMS Seal of Approval; weekday mornings on WNCN Today from 4:30-7 a.m.).[7]

The station's sports team includes TBD (sports director, weeknights at 6, 7 and 11 p.m.) and Todd Gibson (sports anchor, Saturdays at 7 and weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also sports reporter).[7]

The station's reporting staff includes Page Crawford (weekday morning "Precision Traffic" reporter on WNCN Today from 4:30-7 a.m.), Jonathan Carlson (general assignment and investigative reporter; also fill-in anchor), Brandon Herring (Fayetteville digital journalist), Eileen Park (general assignment reporter), Justin Quesinberry (digital journalist), Steve Sbraccia (general assignment reporter) and Derick Waller (general assignment reporter).[7]

Hosts for the lifestyle program My Carolina Today (airing weekdays at 11 a.m.) are Valonda Calloway and Mike Morse.[7]

References

  1. ^ Cox, Jonathan B. (January 10, 2006). "NBC to sell station: Network puts 3 others on the block". Raleigh News & Observer.
  2. ^ "Triangle's NBC affiliate station to be sold". Raleigh News & Observer. April 6, 2006.
  3. ^ "WNCN Emphasizes Local In New Branding". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  4. ^ Bracken, David (October 1, 2013). "WNCN-TV goes dark on Dish Network after agreement expires". Raleigh News & Observer. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  5. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WNCN
  6. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  7. ^ a b c d e News Team, NBC17.com. Retrieved May 11, 2011.

Template:Media General

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