WCCB


WCCB, virtual and UHF digital channel 18, is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It serves as the flagship station of owner Bahakel Communications. WCCB's studios are located just outside Uptown Charlotte, off Independence Boulevard, and its transmitter is located in Newell, an unincorporated area of Mecklenburg County just northeast of the Charlotte city limits.
On cable, the station is available in standard definition on Charter Spectrum channel 11, Comporium Communications channel 111 and AT&T U-verse channel 18, and in high definition on Spectrum digital channel 1212, Comporium channel 1111 and U-verse channel 1018.

History

Beginnings

WCCB traces its roots to WAYS-TV, a primary ABC and secondary NBC affiliate, which signed on the air on January 5, 1954. Broadcasting on UHF channel 36, it was North Carolina's second UHF station, as well as the second television station in the Charlotte market. It was owned by George Dowdy and his company, Intercity Advertising, owners of WAYS radio. Hugh Deadwyler became co-owner of the station later that year, and acquired the station outright after buying Intercity's interest in 1955. In January 1955, its call letters were changed to WQMC.
Channel 36 had a very weak 132,000-watt signal which was spotty further than from the transmitter, making it virtually unviewable even in some parts of Mecklenburg County. Even then, like most UHF stations, it was only viewable on most sets with an expensive UHF converter. Television set manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuners at the time; this would not change until Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1964. As a result, it made almost no headway against CBS affiliate WBTV, which continued to cherry-pick certain NBC programs.
The station went dark on March 15, 1955, in what was intended to be a temporary hiatus while it underwent technical improvements, including the construction of a more powerful transmitter at a new location. However, the station went into receivership in 1956. After further delays, Deadwyler sold its construction permit in 1957 to Century Advertising Co., Inc., which planned to relaunch it as ABC affiliate WUTV, with a much more powerful signal than its predecessor. However, these plans were not successful, as Charlotte's second VHF station, WSOC-TV, signed on the air that April; even with the stronger signal, WUTV would have still been all but unviewable in most of the market. In addition, most of the market got a fairly decent signal from WLOS-TV out of Asheville; which was included in the Charlotte television listings for many years and even ran ads for its programs in Charlotte area newspapers.

WUTV

After four years of delays, Century Advertising relaunched WUTV on July 3, 1962. The station broadcast non-commercial educational programming from the University of North Carolina and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, though it retained a commercial license. The studios, transmitter and tower were located at 1 Television Place. WUTV's effective radiated power was 200kW visual and 110kW aural. The antenna height was. Despite the improvements made by Century Advertising, WUTV went dark on May 16, 1963; the license was transferred to Bahakel Broadcasting on June 23, 1964.

Relaunch

In June 1964, Charlotte businessman Cy Bahakel bought the dormant channel 36 license. He returned the station to air on November 1 of that year as WCCB-TV, operating from its current studios off Independence Boulevard. Logically, it should have resumed operations as a full-time ABC affiliate. However, WCCB's signal was scarcely stronger than that of its predecessor, at 200,000 watts, essentially limiting its coverage area to Charlotte proper and its inner suburbs. The FCC also began requiring television sets to have all-channel tuning only a few months before, and most Charlotte households did not yet have UHF-capable sets. Even though Charlotte had been large enough to support three full-time major network affiliates since the early 1950s, ABC decided to retain its secondary affiliation agreements with WBTV and WSOC. WCCB was forced to settle for a secondary affiliation with all three networks, airing most of the network shows that WBTV and WSOC chose to turn down. For the next three years, it split both NBC and ABC's programming roughly equally with WSOC; a few ABC shows also continued to air on WBTV, and WCCB aired some CBS programs in turn.
On November 1, 1966, WCCB moved from channel 36 to UHF channel 18, broadcasting from a new tower located on Newell Hickory Grove Road in northeast Charlotte. The new tower was capable of 1.35 million watts of power, giving WCCB a coverage area comparable to those of WBTV and WSOC-TV. The station's former tower was located adjacent to the studio in the parking lot of the old Charlotte Coliseum. This facility was originally used by WUTV when it signed on in 1961. In 1967, shortly after WCCB activated its stronger tower, WSOC-TV dropped all ABC programming and became a full-time NBC affiliate. More or less by default, WCCB exclusively aligned with ABC. Ironically, the state's largest market got a full-fledged ABC affiliate after the state's two smallest markets, Greenville/New Bern/Washington and Wilmington, received ABC affiliates of their own. However, despite the stronger signal, it remained a distant third in the ratings.
By 1978, ABC had become the nation's most-watched network and wanted a stronger affiliate in Charlotte. ABC moved its programming to WSOC. Ted Turner, then-owner of WRET —which had been on the verge of ceasing operations earlier in the decade—acquired the NBC affiliation for channel 36, leaving WCCB as an independent station. Turner won the affiliation on the basis of a commitment to invest significant resources in upgrading WRET's signal and forming a substantially larger local news department than that of WCCB.
With WCCB left to fend for itself as an independent station, it bought a large chunk of syndicated programming from WRET, including cartoons and older sitcoms. For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after-school cartoons were hosted by the costumed Sonic Man space alien character, played by Larry Sprinkle, who has been a staple in Charlotte radio and television, including serving as a weather anchor for channel 36 since the 1980s. WCCB carried on for almost a decade as a typical UHF general entertainment independent station.

Fox affiliation

In 1986, WCCB became the last station in a top-50 market to join Fox as one of the upstart network's charter affiliates, since it was doing so well in the ratings as an independent. WCCB affiliated with the network when it launched on October 6 of that year. For most of the next quarter-century, WCCB was one of the strongest Fox stations in the country – even claiming to be the highest-rated Fox affiliate in the nation during the 2008–09 television season. The station reaped a major windfall after the NFL moved its National Football Conference television package from CBS to Fox in 1994. By coincidence, this made WCCB the unofficial "home" station of the Carolina Panthers upon the team's 1995 inception. WCCB carried most Panthers regular season games during the team's first 18 seasons, and later acquired the local rights to the team's preseason games from WBTV. Panthers games had generally been the most-watched programs in the market during the NFL football season. After being known as "TV18" since sign-on, WCCB changed its branding to "Fox 18" in 1988 and then to "Fox Charlotte" in 2002.
Cy Bahakel was an original partner in the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, and WCCB served as the team's flagship station for the Hornets' first four seasons in Charlotte from 1988 to 1992. Bahakel owned WCCB until his death on April 20, 2006, with his family taking over the duties of running the station since that point. In 2007, WCCB's website switched to Fox Interactive Media's "MyFox" platform, with the domain transitioning from foxcharlotte.tv to myfoxcharlotte.com; however, the station de-emphasized the "MyFox" corporate reference within a year, with the URL becoming known simply as foxcharlotte.com. The revamped page continued to use the "MyFox" webpage template until 2010, when Broadcast Interactive Media became WCCB's site host.

End of Fox affiliation and switch to The CW

On January 28, 2013, Fox Television Stations announced the purchase of CW affiliate WJZY and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYT-TV from Capitol Broadcasting Company for $18 million. While WCCB had been one of the network's strongest affiliates, Fox had been looking to buy a station in what had become the 25th-largest market. It also wanted to own as many stations in NFC markets as possible; at the time Charlotte was the only NFC market in the Eastern Time Zone where the Fox station was only an affiliate. Another likely factor in the purchase was an option by Fox to purchase the Raleigh–Durham CW/MyNetworkTV duopoly of WLFL and WRDC from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which would have resulted in WRAZ losing its Fox affiliation.
Soon after the announcement of the WJZY/WMYT purchase, WCCB ceased promoting Fox shows outside network programming hours. It resumed promoting Fox shows again around March 11, but stopped carrying the promotions for good in April. In February, WCCB began phasing out Fox network references from on-air use during its newscasts. A play button briefly replaced the Fox logo in the on-air bug on the bottom right of the screen before the station's news branding was changed to WCCB News. However, most of the station's graphics continued to use Fox branding until late March 2013. At that time, the station changed its branding to "WCCB Charlotte", but was referred to verbally by its call letters.
On April 18, one day after Fox completed its purchase of WJZY and WMYT, WCCB announced that it would replace WJZY as Charlotte's CW affiliate on July 1. On May 6, WJZY began airing a promo announcing it would become a Fox owned-and-operated station on that date. On or about May 15, WCCB began airing a promo announcing that it would become a CW affiliate and officially rebrand as "WCCB, Charlotte's CW" upon the switch. Earlier, Bahakel had reserved the domain CharlottesCW.com for two years. Given the station's strong performance as a Fox affiliate and its half-century of service to the area, WCCB was expected to become one of the ten strongest CW affiliates in the nation when it formally joined that network. The old "Fox Charlotte" logo remained at the entrance to the station's studios until mid-May when it was replaced with signage bearing the "Charlotte CW" logo.
WCCB's relationship with Fox formally ended after 27 years on June 30, with American Dad! being the final Fox program to air on the station. With the loss of WCCB's Fox affiliation, Fox no longer has any charter affiliates remaining in North Carolina. WCCB formally rolled out its new on-air branding and logo the next afternoon, July 1, 2013, its first day as a CW affiliate. However, most verbal references to the station are to its call letters, with any CW references used obliquely. It marked the first time in a quarter-century that the station has used its call letters on a permanent basis in its branding.
CW programming airs mostly in pattern on WCCB, with the exception of the network's offered episode of The Jerry Springer Show, which airs at 2 p.m. on WCCB instead of the network's 3 p.m. timeslot due to the station's syndicated commitments in that later timeslot. It maintains its Fox-era newscasts. It remained home to Panthers preseason football games until losing them to WSOC-TV for the 2019 season. It also began airing Charlotte 49ers college football games in September 2013, with WCCB carrying any 49er home games not carried by Conference USA's national and regional television partners.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
18.1720pWCCB-DTMain WCCB programming / The CW
18.2480iWCCB-ATAntenna TV
18.3480iWCCB-MEMeTV
18.4480iQVC-TVQVC Over the Air
18.5480iWCCB-STStart TV
18.6480iWCCB-DBDabl
18.7480iHSN-TVHSN
18.8480iWCCB-CZCozi TV

Previously, a standard-definition simulcast of the station's main channel was carried on its second digital subchannel; this simulcast feed was later upgraded to high-definition with SAP and DVS audio being added. In June 2012, the SAP/DVS feed was added to the main channel as well. The second subchannel was removed in December 2013, as well as the SAP/DVS feed from the main channel which was unused at that time by the CW ; digital subchannel 18.2 would return in April 2014 carrying QVC's "Over the Air" simulcast service in lieu of Ion Television, which until 2017 did not have a station for their network in the Charlotte market. On July 21, 2014, it was announced that Antenna TV would be added to the second subchannel on August 15, 2014, bringing it back to the Charlotte market after being dropped by its previous affiliate WJZY. Antenna TV began airing that day, replacing QVC Over the Air, which went to a new fourth digital subchannel. On August 29, 2019, the Home Shopping Network was added on 18.7; this was followed by Dabl, which premiered on September 9 on 18.6. On January 8, 2020, Cozi TV was added to 18.8.
Until March 1, 2011, WCCB carried a feed of its weather radar on its third subchannel, which provided NOAA Weather Radio feeds from Spencer Mountain, North Carolina and Columbia and Rock Hill, South Carolina through SAP. On that date, MeTV replaced the weather radar feed after having the start date of its affiliation delayed for a month due to contractual issues. The weather radar feed remains available through WCCB's mobile DTV service, and the Spencer Mountain and Rock Hill NOAA feeds were initially retained on MeTV through SAP. The Spencer Mountain feed was removed in mid-2012, and the Rock Hill feed was removed in December 2013.

Mobile DTV channels

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCCB shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 27. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 18. On February 4, 2010, WCCB signed on a translator located near Connelly Springs on UHF channel 20, W20DD-D. The translator was licensed to Marion as W08BJ. It was purchased from WSPA-TV and moved to Smith Mountain.

Out-of-market cable carriage

In recent years, WCCB has been carried on cable in several areas outside the Charlotte television market, including on cable systems within the Asheville and Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point markets, the Columbia, South Carolina market, and the Tri-Cities market in Tennessee and Virginia.

Programming

programming on WCCB includes The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Big Bang Theory, and 2 Broke Girls. WCCB was Charlotte's home of first-run episodes of The Simpsons from its December 1989 debut as a Christmas special until the station was forced to succumb its Fox affiliation to WJZY in 2013. The affiliation switch from Fox to CW also gives WCCB the distinction of being a major-market Ellen affiliate that is not affiliated with a major broadcast network. Similarly, WCCB in the past was also one of the few stations broadcasting Siskel & Ebert that was affiliated with Fox, with others including WLFL, Fox's Raleigh–Durham affiliate from 1986 to 1998 and Fox's New York City flagship station WNYW.

News operation

WCCB presently broadcasts 30 hours of locally produced newscasts each week ; in addition, the station produces WCCB News Got Game, a half-hour sports highlight program that airs on Sunday evenings following the 10 p.m. newscast. WCCB's studio facilities served as a production facility for WOLO's newscasts from 2002 to 2005 in one of the first instances of centralcasting, studio segments for WOLO's newscasts returned to Columbia afterward.
WCCB aired newscasts at various times between 1964 until it lost its ABC affiliation in 1978. It reduced its news department to a skeleton staff after becoming an independent station and did not carry a regularly scheduled newscast again until 1994, when it began airing a nightly 10:00 p.m. news program produced by WSOC-TV. In 1999, WCCB announced plans to launch its own news department. That summer, WSOC-TV relocated its prime time newscast to its sister independent station WAXN-TV. WCNC then temporarily took over production of the late-evening newscast on WCCB until the launch of the station's in-house news department on January 1, 2000, with the debut of a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast. Ironically, the WCNC-produced newscast on WCCB drew a larger audience at the time than the newscasts that actually aired on WCNC.
On September 28, 2008, beginning with the 10 p.m. newscast, WCCB became the second television station in the Charlotte market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The upgrade included the debut of a brand new HD-ready news set. On February 4, 2013, Ken White, who had served as WCCB's news director since the 2000 inception of its current news department, was reassigned to Jackson, Tennessee sister station WBBJ-TV as its interim news director; assistant news director Angela Robbins was appointed as White's replacement at WCCB.
After WCCB became a CW affiliate on July 1, 2013, it retained its weekday morning and nightly prime time newscasts. WCCB is the only CW station in the Southeastern U.S., and one of only three in the Eastern Time Zone, that maintains a standalone news department. On November 9, 2013, WCCB debuted half-hour 6:00 p.m. newscasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings, making it one of the few television stations to have carried an early evening newscast on weekends without an existing newscast in that daypart on weekdays.

Notable current on-air staff