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WBTV
Charlotte, North Carolina
Branding	WBTV 3 (general) WBTV News 3 (newscasts)
Slogan	On Your Side
Channels	Analog: 3 (VHF) Digital: 23 (UHF)
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Lincoln Financial Media (sale pending to Raycom Media) (WBTV, Inc.)
Founded	January 15, 1949
Call letters meaning	an extension of radio sister station WBT
Former affiliations	(all secondary) NBC (1949-1957) ABC (1949-1967) DuMont (1949-1955)
Website	www.wbtv.com/

WBTV, channel 3, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Charlotte, North Carolina. WBTV is owned by Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group, which also owns co-located radio stations WBT radio (1110 AM and 99.3 FM) and WLNK-FM. It is the flagship station of Lincoln Financial's broadcasting division, Lincoln Financial Media, but is in the process of being sold to Raycom Media of Montgomery, Alabama. WBTV's studios are located just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in Dallas, North Carolina.

WBTV was signed on the air on July 15, 1949 by veteran Charlotte broadcaster Jim Patterson. It is the Carolinas' first television station and the oldest station between Richmond and Atlanta. 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 Corporation, its name until it became part of Lincoln Financial Group in 2006. ([1])

WBTV received 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 VHF station for eight years, carrying affiliations with all three major networks. However, it has always been a primary CBS affiliate, owing to WBT radio's long affiliation with CBS Radio. It is the only commercial station in the market that has never changed its affiliation.

WBTV's only competition in the early years came from a UHF station on channel 36, known variously as WQMC-TV, WAYS-TV and WUTV, which went dark in 1959. Charlotte's second VHF station, WSOC-TV, signed on in 1957; it took the NBC affiliation. After channel 36 returned to the air as WCCB (now on channel 18) in 1964, it was nominally an ABC affiliate, but WBTV continued to air some ABC programs until 1967. After WAGA-TV in Atlanta dropped CBS in 1994, WBTV became the longest-tenured CBS affiliate south of Washington, D.C.

WBTV was granted the first full power construction permit for a digital television station in the United States in 1998 and went on the air that year with 1,000,000 watts.

From 1958 to 1974, WBTV's studios, located on Julian Price Place in Charlotte, were the home for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling broadcasts.

WBTV's news department--one of the largest between Washington and Atlanta--has long been known in the area for its coverage of local news. 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." WSOC (an ABC affiliate since 1978) gained a large lead in ratings for most news programs beginning in 1990, though WBTV has returned to a strong position within the last two years and currently leads at 11 PM. In the November 2007 ratings, WBTV lost to WSOC at noon for the first time since 1994. NBC affiliate WCNC-TV consistently places third. [2]

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 programming in favor of Atlantic Coast Conference sports programming. The station has been Charlotte's home for ACC sporting events since C.D. Chesley piped in North Carolina's historic win in the 1957 NCAA tournament to channel 3 and several other stations in the state. Jefferson-Pilot/Lincoln Financial has produced basketball games since 1982 and football games since 1984; Raycom Sports has been their partner in the basketball production throughout that time, and joined in the football production in 2004.

From the mid-1970s through the late 1980s, it also preempted whatever game show CBS aired at 10:30 am, 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. As a result, many of CBS' more popular game shows, such as Press Your Luck, were never seen in Charlotte. It now airs a conventional half-hour newscast at noon. Viewers will also remember Doug Mayes, who would later move to WSOC, doing a segment called "On The Square" in which he would solicit opinions from local viewers in various Charlotte-area towns about current news topics, as well as C.J. Underwood's "Down Home With The Carolina Camera," where otherwise unknown or low-profile Carolinians were temporarily given celebrity status for their whimsical talents, novel collections, or for the way they impacted their communities.

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," hosted by Mike McKay and featuring episodes of classic television shows such as Dragnet, You Bet Your Life, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. 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.

Throughout the 1970s, WBTV aired a Sunday morning program, "Whistle Stop," that featured singing cowboy Fred Kirby and his sidekick "Uncle Jim" (played by Jim Patterson). Giving the "hi-sign" to his young fans, Kirby was a fixture for many years at the western-themed park Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. In addition to Fred and Uncle Jim, viewers were treated to classic episodes of The Little Rascals (Hal Roach's Our Gang) as well as frequent appearances by the local bluegrass band The Br'arhoppers. Tragically, in the mid-1980s, Patterson would die in a single-car accident in Charlotte.

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 anchorman Bob Inman upon his retirement in 1996. WBTV's Maureen O'Boyle once anchored the FOX-produced newsmagazine A Current Affair. Morning and midday anchor John Carter is a former North Carolina state senator.

The station produces a 10 PM newscast for the area's CW affiliate, WJZY.

Diana Williams, now at WABC-TV in New York City, was an anchor at WBTV during the early 1980s. She was succeeded as the station's main female anchor by Sara James, now a reporter for Dateline NBC.

On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial announced its intention to sell WBTV, along with its two other television stations (WWBT in Richmond and WCSC-TV in Charleston, South Carolina) and Lincoln Financial Sports to Raycom Media for $583 million. Lincoln Financial also announced it is selling its Charlotte radio stations to Braintree, Massachusetts-based Greater Media, thus breaking up Charlotte's last co-owned radio/television combination. [3]

According to Charlotte Observer TV critic Mark Washburn, Lincoln Financial didn't have any success integrating its broadcast properties with the rest of the company, and had decided to sell them as soon as possible. Washburn also said that WBT-AM-FM and WLNK will continue to share a studio with WBTV.^[1]

Once the deal closes in 2008, WBTV will become Raycom's second-largest station, behind WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland. Since Raycom Sports is headquartered in Charlotte (as is Lincoln Financial Sports), WBTV will have a very important role in Raycom Media's operations, and will presumably share flagship status with WSFA in Montgomery.

WBTV's transmission tower is a 2000 feet (609.6 meter) high guy-wired aerial mast for the transmission of FM and TV-programs located in Dallas, North Carolina (geographical coordinates: 35°21′51″N, 81°11′12″W. The tower was completed in 1984.

The 2,000 feet tall WBTV tower from about 2/3 mile away. Taken near the intersection of Springs Rd & Bob Friday Rd on 4-28-2007

Anchors

• Paul Cameron: weekdays 5, 6, and 11 pm
• Maureen O'Boyle: weekdays 5, 6 and 7 pm
• Tonia Bendickson: weekdays 5:30 and 11 pm
• Jamie Boll: weekdays 5:30 pm
• Molly Grantham: weekdays 10 pm (on WJZY)
• John Carter: Morning Show (5-7 AM) and Noon
• Lenise Ligon: Morning Show (5-7 AM) and Noon
• Barbara Pinson: Saturday evening
• Sharon Smith: Sunday evening

Reporters

• Tom Roussey
• Steve Ohnesorge
• Steve Crump
• Michael Handy
• Jeff Atkinson
• Dedrick Russell
• David Whisenant
• Kristen Hampton
• Rob Tufano
• Sarah Batista
• Ron Lee
• Chuck Roads (traffic)

Weather Alert Team

• Eric Thomas (Chief Meteorologist; 5:30, 6, 7, 10 & 11)
• Al Conklin (noon, 5 & 5:30)
• Chris Suchan (mornings)
• Kelly Franson (weekends)

Sports Team

• Delano Little (Sports Director, "Football Friday Night" co-host)
• Danielle Trotta

Former anchors and reporters

• David Rhew- Now at Central Piedmont Community College
• Bob Inman (anchor, 1970-77 and 1979-96)
• Janet England (anchor, 1977-85)
• Gail Harris (anchor, 1970s, later at WBZ-TV in Boston)
• Clyde "Cloudy" McLean (weatherman, 1949-85; deceased)
• Mike Cozza (reporter, 1975-97), now spokesman for Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation
• Jim Thacker (sports director, 1968-81; deceased)
• Doug Mayes (anchor, 1949-81)
• Diana Williams (anchor, 1983-86; now at WABC-TV in New York City)
• Lori Stokes (anchor, 1988-1990; now at WABC-TV in New York City)
• Sara James (anchor, 1986-91; now at Dateline NBC)
• Sonja Gantt (health reporter, 1987-93; now at WCNC)
• Mike McKay (weatherman, 1967-95), now at Davidson College classical music radio station WDAV
• Jim Patterson (weatherman, 1949-86; deceased)
• Bea Thompson (anchor/reporter, ?-1995, now at WBAV-FM)
• Bob Knowles (anchor/reporter, 1995-2003; deceased)
• Melissa Greer (weather anchor, 2004-2007; deceased)
• Kricket Morton (weekend sports anchor/reporter, 1994-2007)
• Shawnette Wilson (weekend anchor ?-2007; now at WTXF in Philadelphia)
• Rita Cosby (reporter 1990s; now at MSNBC)
• John Blunt (anchor/reporter 1970-76; now at WCAU in Philadelphia)
• Lu Ann Cahn (reporter 1980-85; now at WCAU)
• Tom Burlington (anchor/reporter ?-1995; now at WTXF)
• Bob Hice (sports anchor, ?-?)
• C.J. Underwood (host of Carolina Camera and co-host of Top O' The Day, ?-?, deceased)
• Mark Garrison (host of Carolina Camera, ?-?)
• Ken Koontz (reporter, ?-?)
• Brian Thompson (reporter 1980s; now at WNBC-TV in New York)
• Chris Clackum (reporter, 1980s)
• Carson Chambers, general assignment reporter - WFTS, Tampa-St. Petersburg (since 2007)

• WBTV Website
• WBTV Morning Show Page
• WBTV History
• WBTV Television Tower in the Structurae database
• Listing 1005062 in the FCC Antenna Structure Registration database
• http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b7121
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBTV