WCWG


WCWG, virtual channel 20, is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Lexington, North Carolina, United States and serving the Piedmont Triad region. The station is owned by the Hearst Television subsidiary of Hearst Communications, as part of a duopoly with Winston-Salem-licensed NBC affiliate WXII-TV. The two stations share studios on Coliseum Drive in Winston-Salem and transmitting facilities on Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County. On cable, WCWG is carried on channel 3 in most areas of the market.

History

The station first signed on the air on October 30, 1985 as WEJC WGHP to carry the Fox Kids programming block, which had aired on that station since it switched to Fox in September 1995. Upon gaining new affiliates through its group affiliation deal with New World Communications, Fox executives had decided to change the carriage policies for Fox Kids, allowing a station to choose to keep airing it or be granted the right to pass the block to another station in the market. More recent off-network sitcoms were added to WBFX's schedule, and more of its religious shows were dropped.
The station's call letters changed to WTWB-TV on August 28, 2000. WTWB dropped Fox's children's programming in early 2002, when Fox canceled the weekday block nationwide; WGHP chose not to pick up Fox's new Saturday morning cartoon block, Fox Box, which replaced Fox Kids in 2002. As a result, the block did not air at all in the Piedmont Triad.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. On March 2, 2006, UPN affiliate WUPN-TV was announced as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Two weeks later on March 17, 2006, WTWB was confirmed as the market's CW outlet. On August 11, 2006, the call sign was changed to WCWG to reflect the affiliation.
On January 16, 2009, Pappas announced that several of its stations, including WCWG, would be sold to New World TV Group, after the acquisition received United States bankruptcy court approval. At some point, New World TV Group would change its name to Titan Broadcasting. On April 1, 2013, Lockwood Broadcast Group announced it would be acquiring WCWG from Titan Broadcasting; the sale was consummated on September 23.
In the Federal Communications Commission 's incentive auction, WCWG sold its spectrum for $105,731,122 and indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement. WCWG subsequently reached a channel sharing agreement with WXII-TV ; the station also entered into a separate shared services agreement allowing WXII's owner, Hearst Television, to provide additional services to WCWG. With the spectrum move, WCWG dropped Escape and Laff from their channel lineup on July 31, 2017.
On October 4, 2017, it was announced that Hearst would buy WCWG outright for $3.3 million. The purchase was completed on February 16, 2018.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
20.11080iWCWG CWMain WCWG programming / The CW
20.4480iBounceBounce TV

Video Mix TV, a localized viewer request music video channel which originated for ten years in the South Florida market, was carried on digital subchannel 20.2 from June 1, 2009 to December 26, 2010. On December 27, 2010, the subchannel affiliated with Black Network Television, an African American-oriented service with emphasis on the local community. BNT's programming was supplemented with syndicated programs, and at launch also included offerings from the AMG TV network. On July 1, 2015, WCWG replaced BNT with the Escape TV channel.
In May 2010, WCWG began carrying Spanish-language network Estrella TV on digital subchannel 20.3. In the summer of 2012, Bounce TV was added to digital channel 20.4. On June 1, 2015, WCWG replaced Estrella TV with the Laff TV channel.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCWG shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, using PSIP to display WCWG's virtual channel as 20 on digital television receivers.

Out-of-market cable and satellite carriage

In recent years, WCWG has been carried on cable in Siler City, which is part of the Raleigh television market and in Wytheville, Virginia, which is part of the Roanoke market. On DirecTV, WCWG has been carried in Grayson County, Virginia, which is also part of the Roanoke market.

News operation

As part of the shared services agreement with WXII, the station moved its 10 p.m. newscast from its MeTV subchannel to WCWG beginning July 31, 2017. The newscast was also expanded to a full hour on weeknights while remaining a half-hour on weekends.
On August 28, 2017, WCWG additionally added a two-hour extension of WXII's morning show.