WBTV
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WBTV, channel three, is the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group, which also owns co-located radio stations WBT-AM-FM (1110 kHz. and 99.3 MHz.) and WLNK-FM (107.9 MHz).
Lincoln Financial purchased the station in April 2006 through its acquisition of founding owner Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. [1] As part of the purchase, Lincoln Financial retained Jefferson-Pilot's entire broadcasting division, which is now called Lincoln Financial Media. Lincoln Financial's broadcasting operations are headquartered with the former Jefferson-Pilot's financial services division in Greensboro, North Carolina. However, WBTV is Lincoln Financial Media's flagship station. WBTV's transmitter is located on Spencer Mountain near Dallas, North Carolina.
History
WBTV went on the air on July 15, 1949. It is the Carolinas' first television station, the oldest station between Richmond and Atlanta, and the longest-tenured CBS affiliate south of Washington, D.C.. WFMY-TV in Greensboro signed on a few months later, and is second in each of those categories. WBTV was founded by Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro. It had purchased WBT, the city's oldest radio station and the first fully licensed radio station in the South, from CBS in 1947. Shortly before the TV station went on the air, its call letters were shortened from WBT-TV to WBTV. Jefferson Standard merged with Pilot Life in 1968 (though it had owned controlling interest since 1945) and became Jefferson-Pilot, its name until it became part of Lincoln Financial Group in 2006.
WBTV was one of the last construction permits issued before the FCC's "freeze" on new television licenses, which lasted until 1952. As such, it was Charlotte's only TV station for eight years, carrying affiliations with all three major networks. (An early UHF station apparently broadcast in Charlotte briefly in 1954, but it was unsuccessful and quickly left the air.) WBTV was a primary CBS affiliate owing to WBT-AM's long affiliation with CBS Radio. Charlotte's second VHF station, WSOC-TV, signed on in 1957; it took the NBC affiliation, and the two stations split ABC programming until 1964, when WCCB signed on as a full-time ABC affiliate. WBTV retained its CBS affiliation when Charlotte's other commercial stations changed networks in 1978. After WAGA-TV in Atlanta dropped CBS in 1994, WBTV became the longest-tenured CBS affiliate in the Southeast.
WBTV was granted the first construction permit for a digital television station in the United States in 1998.
From 1958 to 1974, WBTV's studios were the home for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling broadcasts.
For many years, WBTV was one of the country's most dominant television stations. In fact, its dominance was so absolute that it was once said the dials of most Charlotteans' TV sets were "rusted on channel 3." Since 1990, WSOC (now an ABC affiliate) has taken a large lead in ratings for most news programs, though WBTV still wins at noon and occasionally at 11 PM. WBTV still has a small lead sign-on to sign-off because it's the only Charlotte station that puts a decent signal into the Blue Ridge Mountains, where its ratings market includes several counties, without the need for translators.
WBTV generally clears the entire CBS lineup, but sometimes preempts CBS' college football and basketball coverage in favor of Atlantic Coast Conference sports programming. The station has been Charlotte's home for ACC sporting events since C.D. Chesley piped North Carolina's historic win in the 1957 NCAA tournament. The games have been produced by Jefferson-Pilot/Lincoln Financial since the early 1980s. For many years, it also preempted whatever game show CBS aired at 10:30am, instead airing a delayed broadcast of the previous day's Price is Right before airing a news and variety show, "Top O' the Day," from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. It now airs a conventional half-hour newscast at noon.
The popularity of a series of specials commemorating the station's 25th anniversary in 1974 led to a long-running program, "Those Were the Years," featuring episodes of classic television shows. It was seen for several years at 11:30 PM on Fridays, pre-empting the CBS late-night shows which competed poorly with Johnny Carson.
Following the 2005 retirement of longtime WSOC anchorman Bill Walker, WBTV has billed lead anchor Paul Cameron as "The Voice of Experience." Cameron joined WBTV in 1981 as sports director, and then succeeded longtime news anchor Bob Inman upon his retirement in 1996. WBTV's Maureen O'Boyle once anchored the Fox-produced newsmagazine A Current Affair.
Newscasts
Weekdays
- WBTV News 3 at 5 AM - 5AM-5:30AM
- WBTV News 3 at 5:30 AM - 5:30AM-6AM
- WBTV News 3 at 6 AM - 6AM-7AM
- WBTV News 3 at Noon - NOON-12:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 5 - 5 PM-5:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 5:30 - 5:30PM-6PM
- WBTV News 3 at 6 - 6PM-6:30PM
- WBTV News 3 Prime Time - 7PM-7:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 10 on WJZY - 10PM-10:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM
Weekends
- WBTV News 3 at 6 - 6PM-6:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 10 on WJZY - 10PM-10:30PM
- WBTV News 3 at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM
Anchors
- Paul Cameron (5, 6 & 11)
- Maureen O'Boyle (5, 6 & 7)
- Tonia Bendickson (5:30 & 11)
- Jamie Boll (5:30)
- John Carter (5-7 am, Noon)
- Lenise Ligon (5-7 am, Noon)
- Molly Grantham (weekends)
- Shawnette Wilson (10pm on WJZY)
Reporters
- Tom Roussey
- Steve Ohnesorge
- Steve Crump
- Sharon Smith
- Michael Handy
- Jeff Atkinson
- Dedrick Russell
- David Whisenant
- Carson Chambers
- Kristen Hampton
Weather Alert Team
- Eric Thomas (Chief Meteorologist; 5:30, 6, 7, 10 & 11)
- Al Conklin (noon, 5 & 5:30)
- Chris Suchan (mornings)
- Melissa Greer (weekends)
Sports Team
- Delano Little (Sports Director, "Football Friday Night" co-host)
- Kricket Morton (weekend sports anchor, "Football Friday Night" co-host)