Diemazz

WNCN
Goldsboro/Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina
Branding	NBC 17 (general) NBC 17 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Accurate, Balanced, to the Point
Channels	Analog: 17 (UHF) Digital: 55 (UHF)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	NBC (1995-Present) NBC Weather Plus on 17.3
Owner	Media General, Inc. (Media General Communications Holdings, LLC)
First air date	April 11, 1988
Call letters’ meaning	North Carolina's NBC (or North Carolina's News, from before NBC acquisition)
Former callsigns	WYED (1988-1994)
Former affiliations	independent (1988-1995) The WB (January-September 1995)
Transmitter Power	5000 kW (analog) 525 kW (digital)
Height	610 m (analog) 628 m (digital)
Facility ID	50782
Transmitter Coordinates	35°40′29.1″N 78°31′39.2″W / 35.67475, -78.527556
Website	www.nbc17.com

WNCN 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 and Southern Pines, channel 13 in Goldsboro, channel 9 in Carrboro, and cable channel 7 in most other places, including Cary. WNCN's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina.

History

WNCN began life on April 11, 1988 as WYED-TV, a small station airing some children's programming during the morning such as Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and the Home Shopping Network the rest of the day. WYED was the first (and only) television station of Beasley Broadcasting Group, which was owned by George Beasley who got his start in 1961 by signing on radio station WPYB radio in nearby Benson, North Carolina. Studios were located in Clayton, along with a 1,550-foot (470 m) 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 1950s, 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 (470 m) tower in Clayton for a 2,000-foot (610 m) perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower eight miles (13 km) 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 (24 km) 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).

Since becoming an NBC station, WNCN has almost never used its call letters on-air, except during legal IDs.

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.

WNCN alterate on-air logo and on microphone flags

NBC17 launched a brand-new graphics package at the beginning of 2008, getting rid of the old NBC O&O-style supers and opens, and the studios were renovated at the beginning of 2008, featuring a new weather center and a sports video wall. NBC17 has tentative plans to begin broadcasting its news broadcasts in high-definition by early next year.^[3] NBC's top rivals in the market, WTVD and WRAL-TV already broadcast their news programs in HD.

In March 2008, NBC 17 launched MyNC.com as a network of local news websites for more than twenty of the cities and counties that make up the Triangle area of North Carolina. These news and information websites not only carry content from NBC 17, but they also aggregate content from many of the Triangle's other media outlets and blogs. Additionally, the web site also has the capability for the general public to upload their own stories, photographs, and videos.

On December 9, 2008, it was announced that economic strains led to WNCN releasing six employees, including main-anchor Bill Fitzgerald.^[4]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

In 2009, WNCN will remain on channel 17 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.^[5]

Trivia

• 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".

Current News Personalities

Anchors

• Melanie Sanders, 6 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m. Anchor/Reporter
• Donald Jones, Today Anchor/Reporter
• Sharon Tazewell, Today Anchor/Reporter
• Page Crawford, Web Presenter

Reporters

• Jaclyn Asztalos, Cary/Apex Reporter
• Laura Barron, General Assignment Reporter
• Chris Cowperthwaite, Cary Reporter
• Kim Genardo, Political Reporter & Host of "At Issue"
• Kerry Hall, Wake Forest/Rolesville Reporter
• Julie Henry, Health & Fitness Reporter
• Lauren Hills, Orange County Reporter
• Liz Kravitz, Garner/Fuquay-Varina/Holly Springs Reporter
• Paul Matadeen, Durham Reporter
• Shirley Min, General Assignment Reporter
• Steve Sbraccia, General Assignment Reporter
• Jennifer Turk, Durham Reporter
• Yvette Yeon, Growth & Infrastructure Reporter

Meteorologists

• Wes Hohenstein, Chief Meteorologist
• Bill Reh, Today Meteorologist
• Peter Kunisch, Weekend Today Meteorologist

Sports

• Penn Holderness, Sports Director/Anchor

MyNC.com Communities

Durham County

• Durham

Johnston County

• Benson
• Clayton
• Selma
• Smithfield

Orange County

• Carrboro
• Chapel Hill
• Hillsborough

Wake County

• Apex
• Cary
• Fuquay-Varina
• Garner
• Holly Springs
• Morrisville
• Raleigh
• Rolesville
• Wake Forest

External links

• NBC17 Website
• MyNC.com Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNCN
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNCN-TV

References

Site Map: RSS 2.0

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