WCBI-TV
WCBI-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS/MyNetworkTV/CW+-affiliated television station licensed to Columbus, Mississippi, United States, serving northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama. The station is owned by Morris Multimedia. WCBI-TV's studios are located on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus, and its transmitter is located in northwestern Clay County.
History
When WCBI signed on-the-air July 13, 1956, it was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station was owned by Birney Imes, Jr. a Columbus businessman and publisher of the Commercial Dispatch newspaper. The station's call letters come from his initials. It had studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. For the first 23 years of its history, WCBI carried programming from all three major networks—CBS, NBC and ABC. However, it has always been a primary CBS affiliate, except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB signed-on.
The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.
WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel.
In November 2003, Imes Communications sold WCBI to current owner Morris Multimedia with the sale closing on January 14 of the next year. It was the last remaining station of Imes' once-sizable smaller-market broadcasting group. The Commercial Dispatch remains under Imes family ownership to this day.
On September 5, 2006, the UPN Mississippi subchannel was relaunched as "My Mississippi", affiliating with MyNetworkTV as part of the merger of UPN and The WB. Thirteen days later on September 18, the weather subchannel on DT3 was converted to a CW affiliate as "North Mississippi CW".
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
4.1 | 1080i | CBS | Main WCBI-TV programming / CBS | |
4.2 | 480i | MY-MS | WCBI-DT2 / MyNetworkTV | |
4.3 | 720p | 16:9 | CW | North Mississippi CW |