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WNCN
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WNCN | |
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| Goldsboro / Raleigh / Durham / Fayetteville, North Carolina | |
| Branding | NBC17 |
| Slogan | Accurate, Balanced, to the Point |
| Channels | Analog: 17 (UHF) Digital: 55 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC
NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Media General |
| Founded | October 17, 1988 |
| Call letters meaning | North Carolina's NBC (or North Carolina's News, from before NBC acquisition) |
| Former callsigns | WYED-TV (1988-1994) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1988-95) The WB (January-September 1995) |
| Transmitter Power | 5000 kW (analog), 525 kW (digital) |
| Height | 610 meters (analog), 628 meters (digital) |
| Facility ID | 50782 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.nbc17.com |
WNCN ("NBC17") is the NBC affiliate in the Triangle region of North Carolina (the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville DMA), broadcasting on analog channel 17 and digital channel 55. It is licensed to Goldsboro, but its studios are just outside of downtown Raleigh. The station is carried on cable channel 6 in Raleigh, cable channel 2 in Durham and Chapel Hill, channel 10 in Fayetteville, channel 9 in Carrboro, and cable channel 7 in most other places, including Cary. WNCN's transmitter is located in Garner, North Carolina.
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WNCN began life on October 17, 1988 as WYED-TV, a small station airing some children's programming during the morning and the Home Shopping Network the rest of the day. WYED was the first (and only) television station of George Beasley's Beasley Broadcasting Group (Beasley got his start in 1961 by signing on WPYB radio in nearby Benson, NC). Studios were located in Clayton, and a 1,550-foot tower nearby broadcast 2.6 million watts of power. In 1992, WYED added some barter cartoons and some low budget barter syndicated shows such as talk/reality and game shows. While the station could be seen clearly in Raleigh and Durham, it couldn't be seen as clearly in the far western and northern reaches of the Triangle.
In 1994, Outlet Communications of Providence, Rhode Island bought the station, and on January 1, 1995, changed its call letters to WNCN (North Carolina's News). The new WNCN increased its signal to 5 million watts, boosting its coverage area to the entire Triangle. The station also added more sitcoms and first-run syndicated shows. It began to carry programming from the WB network in January 1995.
A month later, NBC signed a long-term affiliation deal with Outlet. Outlet had very good relations with NBC; it owned two of NBC's strongest affiliates, WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island and WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio. Channel 17 immediately began to run NBC programming pre-empted by the network's existing affiliate, WRDC-TV, which had been one of NBC's lowest-rated affiliates for several years. NBC had been looking for a way to get on another station for some time, especially since WRDC frequently preempted its programming. WNCN completely replaced WRDC as the Triangle's NBC station in September after WRDC's affiliation contract ran out, sending the WB affiliation to WRAZ-TV. At that time, WNCN launched newscasts at 6am, 7pm and 11pm. It also moved into WLFL's former studios in North Raleigh.
NBC merged with Outlet in 1996. Of note, this resulted in NBC's first UHF O&O since the 1950's, when the network owned WBUF-TV in Buffalo, New York (which ironically also broadcasted on channel 17; now occupied by PBS station WNED-TV) and WNBC in Hartford on channel 30 (the "NBC" stood for New Britain, Connecticut; the station has since been re-acquired by NBC as WVIT).
In 2000, WNCN abandoned its 1,550-foot tower in Clayton for a 2,000-foot perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower eight miles closer to Raleigh. WNCN-DT signed on at UHF channel 55 at the same time. The station had to get a waiver from the FCC to do this, as FCC rules require a station's transmitter to be no further than 15 miles from its city of license.
WNCN is the fourth station in the Triangle to affiliate with NBC. NBC had first aired on WTVD-TV from 1954 to 1956, then WRAL-TV from 1956 to 1962. After WRAL became a full-time ABC affiliate in 1962, WTVD shoehorned CBS and NBC onto its schedule until 1968, when WRDU-TV signed on channel 28 that year. Channel 28 changed its calls to WPTF-TV in 1978 and WRDC in 1991. When WNCN became a full NBC affiliate, it marked the first time that network's full schedule had aired in the Triangle since WRAL added ABC part-time in 1959.
In the last decade, WNCN's newscasts have never gotten out of third place in the Nielsen ratings. However, they have been far more competitive than WPTF's efforts at local news programs ever had been (channel 28 dropped newscasts July 31, 1991, before becoming WRDC later that fall).
NBC17 recently launched a new hour-long local newscast at 7 p.m. Monday - Friday. The station aired a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast when it launched as an NBC affiliate in 1995, but the newscast was canceled due to low ratings.
On January 9, 2006, NBC Universal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale[1] along with WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and the other two former Outlet stations, WJAR and WCMH. On April 6, 2006, it was announced that Media General would acquire these stations.[2] This made WNCN a sister station to WNCT-TV in Greenville. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. [1] For the time being, no new changes for the station are expected.
For several months after Media General acquired the stations from NBC Universal, WNCN's website and those of the other three stations remained in the format used by the websites of NBC O&O stations. In early December 2006, WNCN's website, as well as that of sister station WJAR, were redesigned; they now credit Media General in their copyright notices, and are no longer operated by Internet Broadcasting. WVTM's website followed suit on December 11, 2006, with WCMH's redesigned website launching on December 14.
- When WNCN was owned by NBC Universal, it was one of three network-owned stations on the UHF dial alongside KNSD in San Diego and WVIT in Hartford.
- Under the network's ownership at the time, WNCN was the other owned and operated station of any network in the Raleigh-Durham market alongside ABC-owned WTVD.
- The call sign WNCN originally belonged to a classical music radio station (104.3 FM) in New York City (now WAXQ). An enthusiast's webpage on the radio station can be found at [2] .
- NBC Weather Plus is offered on WNCN's digital feed by the name "NBC 17 WeatherPlus".
 WYED's logo from 1988 to 1994 |
 WNCN's logo from 1996 to 1999 |
 WNCN logo from 1999 to 2004 |
Current WNCN logo, from 2004 to the present |
- Geneen Anderson - weekend evening weather anchor
- Verna Collins - weekend morning anchor
- Carolyn Costello - weekend evening anchor/evening reporter
- Chris Cowperthwaite - reporter
- Bill Fitzgerald- weekday evening anchor
- Kim Genardo - Your Life reporter
- Frank Graff - reporter
- Kerry Hall - reporter
- Wes Hohenstein (AMS Seal) - chief meteorologist
- Donald Jones - weekday morning anchor
- Peter Kunisch - weekend morning meteorologist
- Ken Luallen - reporter
- Shirley Min - Restaurant Recipes reporter
- Sergio Quintana - reporter
- Bill Reh (AMS Seal) - morning meteorologist
- Melanie Sanders - evening anchor
- Maya Starks - weekday sports anchor
- Steve Sbraccia - reporter
- Sharon Tazewell - weekday morning anchor
- ^ Cox, Jonathan B.. "NBC to sell station: Network puts 3 others on the block", Raleigh News & Observer, January 10, 2006.
- ^ "Triangle's NBC affiliate station to be sold", Raleigh News & Observer, April 6, 2006.
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WUNC 4 / WUNU 31 / WUNP 36 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WRAL 5 (CBS) - WTVD 11 (ABC, AccuWX TV on DT3) - WUBX-CA 13/WUBX-LD 31 (MTV2?) - WBXU-CA 13 (MTV2?) - WNCN 17 (NBC, WX Plus on DT3) - WLFL 22 (The CW) - W24CP 24 (3ABN) - WTNC-LP 26 (TFU) - WRDC 28 (MNTV) - WRAY 30 (Ind) - WACN-LP 34 (DS) - WUVC 40 (UNI, TFU on DT2) - WHFL-LP 43 (Worship) - WZGS-CA 44 (Telemundo) - W45CN 45 / W45CO 45 / W63CW 63 / W64CN 64 (TBN) - WRPX 47 / WFPX 62 (ION) - WRAZ 50 (Fox, RTN on DT2) - WWIW-LP 66 (DS) - W67CD 67 (A1) - W68BK 68 (Educational) Local cable television channels Out-of-market broadcast television available on cable in some parts of the market |
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WECT 6 (Wilmington) - WITN 7 (Washington) - WXII 12 (Winston-Salem) - WNCN 17 (Goldsboro / Raleigh) - WCNC 36 (Charlotte) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, UPN, WB and Other stations in North Carolina |