WNCN


WNCN, virtual channel 17, branded on-air as CBS 17, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States and serving the Triangle region. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. WNCN's studios are located on Front Street in North Raleigh, and its transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina.
On cable, the station is carried on Charter Spectrum channel 6 in Raleigh; channel 2 in Durham and Chapel Hill; channel 10 in Wilson, Fayetteville and Southern Pines; channel 13 in Goldsboro; channel 9 in Carrboro; and channel 7 in most other places, including Cary. A high definition feed is available on Spectrum digital channel 1203. In recent years, WNCN has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the Greensboro–High Point–Winston-Salem and Greenville–New Bern–Washington markets.
On January 15, 2016, CBS and WNCN announced that WNCN would become the new CBS affiliate for the Triangle market, effective February 29, 2016, ending a 20-year affiliation with NBC, after longtime CBS affiliate WRAL-TV announced it would become the new NBC affiliate for the region.

History

Early history

The station first signed on the air on April 11, 1988 as WYED-TV on UHF analog channel 17, operating as 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 television station owned by the Beasley Broadcasting Group, run by George Beasley, who got his start in 1961 by signing on radio station WPYB in nearby Benson. Channel 17's original studios were located at 622 South Barbour Street in Clayton, with a 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 added WYED to its Durham and Raleigh lineups; the station gradually shifted towards a more general entertainment independent format and added children's programming 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. This was not only due to its limited range, but because its transmitter was located further east than the other major Triangle stations. Federal Communications Commission regulations at the time required a station to locate its transmitter within of its city of license–in this case, Goldsboro, which is over east of Raleigh.
On August 10, 1994, the station was bought by Outlet Communications, and on January 1, 1995, its call letters were changed to the current WNCN. The station's transmitter power was increased to five million watts, giving it a signal comparable to the other major Triangle stations. The station also added more sitcoms and first-run syndicated shows. When The WB Television Network debuted on January 11, 1995, WNCN nominally became the Triangle outlet for the new network. However, since the network initially had only one night of programming each week for its first eight months, WNCN was essentially still programmed as an independent station, with one exception.

1995–present

One month later, NBC signed a long-term affiliation deal with Outlet Communications. Outlet had a longstanding relationship with NBC; it owned two of the network's strongest affiliates, company flagship WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. As part of the deal, NBC agreed to move its Triangle affiliation to WNCN when the network's contract with incumbent affiliate WRDC ran out in the fall. As part of the deal, channel 17 immediately began to run NBC programs that were preempted by WRDC. Since WRDC delayed UPN fare to air on Friday and Saturday nights instead of NBC's weaker prime time lineup, WNCN became the NBC affiliate for the market two nights of the week.
NBC had been looking for a way to get on another station in the Triangle for some time, particularly after the market's explosive growth in the 1980s. WRDC had been one of NBC's lowest-rated affiliates for years, frequently preempted NBC programming, and had axed its local newscasts completely in 1991. WNCN completely replaced WRDC as the Triangle's NBC affiliate on September 10, 1995—a month earlier than planned, by mutual agreement between the two stations. The WB affiliation moved to upstart WRAZ, which debuted three days earlier. The station also moved its operations to its current facility in North Raleigh, which had previously been home to then-Fox affiliate WLFL.
WNCN was the fourth station in the Triangle to have a primary affiliation with NBC. The network had first been affiliated with WTVD from 1954 to 1956, then moved to WRAL-TV 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. When WNCN became an 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.

As an NBC O&O

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 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 and was also one of two network-owned stations in the Raleigh-Durham market. After WNCN became an NBC-owned station, it began branding itself as "NBC 17."
In 2000, WNCN relocated its transmitter facilities from the Clayton tower to a nearly perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower 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 FCC to move its transmitter outside the 15-mile limit.

Sale to Media General

On January 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale, 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. This made WNCN a sister station to WNCT-TV in Greenville. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. 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". For the past 17 years, the station had almost never used its call letters on-air, except during legal IDs.
On October 1, 2013, WNCN and other Media General stations were dropped from Dish Network when its retransmission contract expired. Coverage has since been restored following a retransmission agreement brokered by the two parties on November 16.

Switch to CBS, sale to Nexstar

On January 15, 2016, it was announced that WNCN would switch to CBS on February 29, 2016, after existing affiliate WRAL-TV decided not to renew its affiliation. Media General CEO Vincent Sandusky stated that, as its 23rd station affiliated with the network, that "CBS has been a longstanding and valued partner for many years, and we are pleased to build upon our relationship with a new affiliation in Raleigh." NBC, in turn, returned to WRAL-TV, which, as mentioned above, had been the Triangle's NBC affiliate from 1956 to 1962. WNCN became the fourth station in the Triangle to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally aligned with WNAO-TV in 1954 and moved to WTVD in 1958 before aligning with WRAL-TV in 1985.
Soon thereafter, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. WNCN became part of the Nexstar Media Group upon the sale's consummation on January 17, 2017.
Upon the switch to CBS, the station changed its on-air branding to CBS North Carolina, largely relegating mentions of its call letters to legal IDs It also re-branded its newscasts as North Carolina News. It plans to put greater emphasis on news from around the state. WNCN also emphasized that CBS programming has long been a strong ratings performer in the Triangle, and CBS prime-time content is highly watched in the region. The move will also make WNCN the Triangle's home for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The Triangle has long been a hotbed for college basketball, and WNCN stressed that the NCAA Tournament rights are one of many reasons that CBS was "a perfect fit for what viewers here want." However, Raycom Sports coverage of Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season basketball and football will remain on WRAL, as it is a syndicated service, that contract is separate from the broadcast network contract.
CBS' ratings in the Triangle initially dropped significantly with the switch to WNCN. Notably, on the day of the switch, CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert all lost more than half their audience share. All three fell from first place in the Triangle ratings during their time periods to third place in one stroke.
On March 15, 2018, WNCN rebranded as CBS 17.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
17.11080iWNCN-HDMain WNCN programming / CBS
17.2480iCourtTVCourt TV
17.3480iGritGrit
17.4480iCTV MysCourt TV Mystery

NBC Weather Plus was initially offered on WNCN's digital subchannel 17.2, under the "NBC 17 WeatherPlus" brand, before it was phased out and replaced by a feed of WNCN's VIPIR radar titled "Live Precision Viper Radar". On August 1, 2011, Universal Sports replaced the VIPIR radar image, until it moved to 17.3 to make way for Antenna TV in its original 17.2 spot. When Universal Sports transitioned to cable-only distribution in January 2012, 17.3 was deactivated. Justice Network would later move into that spot.
On November 1, 2017, WNCN reorganized its digital channel offerings by moving Justice Network from 17.3 to 17.2, effectively bumping Antenna TV in the process. Two new networks were added: Grit on 17.3, and Escape on 17.4. In February 2018, Justice Network was removed after being added by WUVC-DT as a subchannel. In September 2019, programming from Court TV began running on 17.2, and the Escape network on 17.4 was rebranded as Court TV Mystery.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNCN discontinued regular programming on 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, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 17.

Spectrum reallocation

On April 13, 2017, it was announced that WNCN's over-the-air broadcast spectrum was sold for $52 million during the FCC's spectrum reallocation incentive auction. Net proceeds from the sale went to former shareholders of Media General, which was acquired by Nexstar in January 2017. On September 11, 2019, WNCN moved to channel 8 in the VHF-High band, although through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17.

News operation

WNCN broadcasts 35½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week. Shortly after being acquired by The Outlet Company, WNCN began developing a full-scale news department. The station debuted its local newscasts on September 4, 1995, a week ahead of its switch to NBC, with a half-hour early evening newscast at 7:00 p.m. and a late evening newscast at 11:00 p.m. nightly, followed by the launch of its hour-long weekday morning newscast at 6:00 a.m. the following day. Many changes occurred in the station's news operation during the late 1990s, including the expansion of its weekday morning newscast to two hours beginning at 5:00 a.m. and the cancellation of its 7:00 p.m. newscast due to low ratings. It was the first television station in the market to produce a 4:00 p.m. newscast, even though it had a brief run.
Since its days as an NBC affiliate, WNCN's newscasts have traditionally ranked third in the ratings behind WRAL and WTVD, though they garnered far higher ratings than WPTF ever did as an NBC affiliate. However, since the turn of the millennium, 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.
In recent years, WNCN's newscasts have won critical acclaim. The 2013 Edward R. Murrow Award competition named WNCN as its regional winner for best "Video Newscast.". WNCN also won its first Emmy awards in January 2014, including one for "Best Evening Newscast." Two of those awards were in direct competition with WRAL and its sister station, Fox affiliate WRAZ.
In 2007, WNCN reinstated the 7:00 p.m. newscast, which quickly became an hour-long format. 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.
On January 27, 2014, WNCN launched a half-hour midday newscast at 11:00 a.m., featuring talent from WNCN Today. It is the market's first local newscast in that timeslot. The launch coincided with the discontinuation of the 4:30 a.m. half-hour of its morning newscast and the shifting of the advertorial My Carolina Today to 11:30 a.m. The show changed its name to My Carolina Talk with the switch to CBS.
In August 2014, WNCN began producing an hour-long newscast at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings because the weather cut-in through The Today Show showed the radar that boosted the debut. Then the weekend after, it debuted additional hour-long editions of its weekend morning newscast at 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays and 7:00 a.m. on Sundays.
WNCN currently broadcasts five hours of local news per day during weekdays. The station's most recent news expansion took place shortly after it was announced that WNCN would swap affiliations with WRAL-TV and join CBS, effective February 29, 2016. That same day, WNCN moved its 11:00 a.m. newscast to the traditional noon time slot, and began an hour of news at 5 p.m., followed by the 6 p.m. newscast, while dropping the 7 p.m. newscast. The Young and the Restless airs at 4 p.m. as a lead-in to WNCN's early-evening news block, making WNCN one of the few CBS affiliates in the country that televises the soap opera at that time. This continues a quarter-century tradition in the Triangle, as WRAL-TV also aired The Young and the Restless at 4 p.m. from 1993 until it switched to NBC.