WACH

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WACH
Columbia, South Carolina
Branding	WACH FOX57 WACH FOX News
Channels	57 (UHF) analog, 48 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting
Founded	September 8, 1980
Call letters meaning	WACH: The word "watch", but without the "t"
Former callsigns	WCCT-TV (1980-88)
Former affiliations	Religious (1980-88)
Website	www.wach.com

WACH is the Fox network affiliate serving the Columbia, South Carolina area.

The station broadcasts on UHF channel 57 at 2.766 million watts ERP and in high definition on channel 48, also on the UHF dial at 520 kilowatts ERP, owned and operated by Barrington Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located in Elgin, South Carolina.

[edit] History

The station signed on September 8, 1980 as WCCT-TV, an independent Christian station. It was the first station in Columbia not to be affiliated with one of the major networks.

Initially as WCCT the station ran religious programs most of the broadcast day such as 700 Club, Richard Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, PTL Club, and others. They also ran an in house Christian program called Niteline which was produced by sister station WGGS initially. Eventually WCCT began producing its own version of Niteline. For about 6 hours a day WCCT ran general entertainment family shows including cartoons, old sitcoms, westerns, and hunting/sports shows.

The station was sold to secular interests in 1988, who renamed it WACH and made it Columbia's Fox affiliate, under the on-air nickname "WACH-TV57" (pronounced "watch TV57"). For Fox' first seasons, Columbia viewers watched the fledgling network on WCCB in Charlotte, which had been available on cable systems for many years in Columbia. Initially WACH kept Christian programming on weekdays from 9 AM to Noon and from 12 Midnight to 2 AM. The new owners also agreed to continue producing and airing Columbia Niteline programming for an hour a day for 5 years. Niteline was gone by 1993, along with most of the religious shows. The station eventually renamed itself "WACH FOX57" in the 1990s.

On March 27, 2006 it was announced that WACH was one of the twelve television stations that would be sold to Barrington Broadcasting. This came as a result of Raycom's merger with The Liberty Corporation. Raycom could not keep WACH and Liberty's former flagship station, NBC affiliate WIS, due to FCC regulations preventing one company owning two of the four largest stations in a market. Raycom opted to keep the longer-established WIS and put WACH for sale. The transaction was completed on August 11, 2006.

In November 2006, WACH announced on their website that the station was undergoing a news expansion operation, hiring in various positions and departments that were originally shared with WIS. It is expected for WACH to end the long-established relationship with WIS relatively soon. However, as of now, no one that is currently employed with WACH is expected to depart due to the expansion.

[edit] Newscasts

WACH launched a 10 PM newscast in 1996 in conjunction with WIS, which continues to co-produce the broadcast. It was one of the first primetime newscasts in South Carolina, and the only 10 pm newscast in Columbia. It has been one of the highest-rated primetime newscasts in the country for many years.

• WACH FOX News at 10 (10:00 PM-10:35 PM)
  • Anchors: Mike Woolfolk, Arielle Riposta
  • Weather: Weathercaster Tim Miller
  • Sports: Ernest Robinson

• WACH FOX News at 10 (Weekend) (10:00 PM-10:35 PM)
  • Anchors: Jennifer Timmons, Caroline Love
  • Weather: WIS Weathercaster Brooks Garner
  • Sports: Brian McConchie

[edit] External links

• WACH Home
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WACH

Broadcast television in the Columbia market  (Nielsen DMA #83)
WIS 10 (NBC) - WLTX 19 (CBS) - WOLO 25 (ABC) - WRLK 35 (PBS/SCETV) - W39CL 39 (TBN) - WZRB 47 (The CW) - W55CQ 55 (TBN) - WACH 57 (Fox) (The Tube on DT2) - WKTC 63 (MNTV)

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of South Carolina
WHNS 21 (Greenville) - WTAT 24 (Charleston) - WTGS 28 (Hardeeville) - WFXB 43 (Myrtle Beach) - WACH 57 (Columbia)
See also: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and Other stations in South Carolina