WCSC-TV

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WCSC-TV
Charleston, South Carolina
Branding	Live 5 WCSC (normal) Live 5 News (newscasts)
Slogan	The Lowcountry's News Leader
Channels	5 (VHF) analog, 47 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Lincoln Financial Media (WCSC, Inc.)
Founded	1953
Call letters meaning	Wonderful Charleston, South Carolina
Former affiliations	NBC (secondary, 1953-1954), ABC (secondary, 1953-1962), DuMont (secondary, 1953-1956) [1]
Website	wcsc.com

WCSC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station in Charleston, South Carolina. The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 5 and its digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter located near Woodville, South Carolina. WCSC's studios are located on Charlie Hall Boulevard in the West Ashley section of Charleston. The station is owned by Lincoln Financial Media and is known on-air as "Live 5 WCSC".

Contents 1 History 1.1 Station Controversy 2 Newscasts 3 News Team 4 Administration 5 External Links

[edit] History

WCSC signed on in 1953 from its original studios on East Bay Street in Downtown Charleston. While it was the second television station to sign on in South Carolina, it is the oldest continuously broadcasting station in the state. The first station to sign on in the state was WCOS-TV in Columbia, a few months before WCSC. However, it went dark in 1956 and did not return to the air until 1961 as WCCA-TV. That station is now known as WOLO-TV. WCSC is the only station in Charleston to keep its original affiliation since its sign on.

It was owned by the Rivers family until 1986. After numerous sales, the station's ownership was transferred to Jefferson-Pilot Communications in 1994.

In 1997, WCSC moved to newly built studios located at 2126 Charlie Hall Boulevard in the West Ashley section of Charleston. The facilities were named for the station's first on-air personality, who signed the station on in 1953 and stayed at WCSC until his death in March of 1997. From the mid-1970s until 1991, the anchors of the 6:30 PM newscast stayed consistent. Of the long-running three-men staff, Bill Sharpe became an employee at the station in 1973 after a short time at WTMA radio, and has been with the station for more than 30 years.

The station has been a trend-setter in South Carolina for newscasts as it expanded its evening newscast from one 30-minute broadcast to two hours combined, and a 30-minute newscast at 4 PM. In 1991, WCSC switched to a one-hour format at 6 PM. In 1997, the station moved the CBS Evening News from 7 PM to 6:30 PM, resulting in an 90-minute local newscast beginning at 5 PM. In 2004, a 30-minute 4 PM newscast was added, totaling two hours of news from 4 PM until 6:30 PM. The station stopped using DVC Pro playback and switched to video storage in late 2003. Today, WCSC is notably one of the country's most successful and powerful CBS affiliates and is the top ranked network affiliate in South Carolina.

With a massive change at the CBS Evening News, and concerns over ratings, Lincoln Financial added a 7 PM newscast to "piggyback" with the network newscast in August of 2006 on both of its CBS affiliates in the Carolinas (WBTV and WCSC). WCSC recently expanded its weather product with the roll out of the "Live 5 Storm TRACKER Mobile Storm Center". It is the first vehicle of its kind in the region which allows WCSC meteorologists access to their weather data away from the station and the ability to send back live weather data for display on-air. The station previously had a mobile weather van in the mid-1990s that was the predecessor to the current mobile storm vehicle. The van was known as the "McElveen Mobile Storm Center" named for a local car dealership by the same name who sponsored the van.

Local sports coverage has also been well known at WCSC. In the early 1980s, the NAIA Charleston Cougars would have games broadcasted live on WCSC (they are now NCAA Division I). WCSC is the host broadcaster for the Cooper River Bridge Run, and has done such airings between 1986 and 1990, and again since 2004. The sports broadcasts features reporters on course, with anchor Bill Sharpe reporting on the course in 2005. WCSC is the local outlet for Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball and Southeastern Conference Football, which has been produced by its parent company since the 1980s.

In January of 2000, WCSC launched "Live Super Doppler 5000".

On October 10, 2005, Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, parent of Jefferson-Pilot Communications, announced a merger with Lincoln Financial Group. The sale became final on April 3, 2006, with the Jefferson-Pilot stations assuming the new corporate name of "Lincoln Financial Media". [2]

[edit] Station Controversy

In 2004, controversy erupted with station viewers when Jefferson-Pilot management forced out Warren Peper (who had joined the station in 1974 following his graduation from nearby Baptist College) by awarding him a one-year extension of his contract, with no renewal option, set to expire in 2004.

The popular anchor, who was initially signed for news but jumped to sports in the late-1970s before a double stint (news and sports together) at the 11 PM news in the late-1990s, was also the play-by-play announcer for WCSC's live coverage of college basketball and the Cooper River Bridge Run. After the station was sold to Jefferson Pilot, he was a sideline reporter for college football broadcasts syndicated by Jefferson Pilot.

Peper later jumped to rival Media General's WCBD after a one-year non-compete agreement in the market expired. Viewers wrote that they hoped WCSC would not force out Bill Sharpe or Debi Chard (another longtime WCSC anchor) the same way.

Ironically, WCSC seized meteorologist Bill Walsh away from rival WCIV in 1994, and had to hide his identity with thunderclouds when running station promotions during the non-compete agreement. [3]

[edit] Newscasts

WCSC is the only television station in the market that broadcasts a weekday 4 PM newscast. WCSC and WCIV, the area's ABC affiliate, broadcast 7 PM weekday newscasts. WCSC has a news share agreement with the area's FOX affiliate WTAT, which is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. WCSC produces daily 10 PM and weekday 7 AM newscasts on that station. The 10 PM news is currently the second highest rated newscast in the market behind WCSC. There are no weekend morning newscasts on WCSC as of yet. WCSC's weather radar is called "Live Super Doppler 5000", uses Titan technology, and is located near WCSC's studios. In addition to operating their own radar, WCSC uses live NOAA NWS radar data from several regional sites.

Weekdays

• Live 5 News This Morning (5 to 7 AM)
• FOX 24 Morning News (7 to 8 AM on WTAT)
• Live 5 News at Noon (12 to 12:30 PM)
• Live 5 News First At 4 (4 to 4:30 PM)
• Live 5 News at 5 (5 to 5:30 PM)
• Live 5 News at 5:30 (5:30 to 6 PM)
• Live 5 News at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM)
• Live 5 News Primetime at 7 (7 to 7:30 PM)
• FOX 24 News at 10 (10 to 10:35 PM on WTAT)
• Live 5 News at 11 (11 to 11:35 PM)

Weekends

• Live 5 News at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM)
• FOX 24 News at 10 (10 to 10:30 PM Sarurdays, 10 to 10:35 PM Sundays on WTAT)
• Live 5 News at 11 (11 to 11:35 PM)

[edit] News Team

Anchors

• Bill Burr - weekday mornings
• Amy Lutz - weekday mornings
• Tracey Amick - weekday mornings at 7 AM on WTAT (also reporter)
• Bill Sharpe - weekdays at Noon, 4, 5, and 6 PM
• Ann McGill - weekdays at Noon, 4, and 5 PM (also consumer reporter)
• Raphael James - weeknights at 5:30, 7, and 11 PM
• Debi Chard - weeknights at 5:30, 6, 7, and 11 PM
• Erin Colgan - weeknights at 10 PM on WTAT (also reporter)
• Rob Youngblood - weekends

Live 5 Weather Meteorologists

• Bill Walsh - Chief seen weeknights at 5, 6, 7, and 11 PM
• Scott Williams - weekdays at 4 and 5:30 PM (also weekdays at 10 PM on WTAT)
• Chad Watson - weekday mornings and Noon
• Brad Miller - weekends

Sports

• Andy Pruitt - weeknights at 11 PM
• Craig Birnbach - weeknights at 6 PM (also weeknights at 10 PM on WTAT)
• Kevin Bilodeau - weekends (also weekday sports reporter)

Reporters

• Amanda Fitzpatrick
• Kathryn Kinley
• Harve Jacobs
• Marika Kelderman
• Katie Crawford
• Hatzel Vela

[edit] Administration

• Amy Spencer - General Sales Manager
• Georgia Brown - National Sales Manager
• Jim White - Local Sales Manager
• Amanda Lawrence - Sales Marketing and Community Affairs Director

Account Executives

• Elizabeth McDowell
• Ruthie Tripp
• Joe Hauhn
• Mark Smith
• Margaret McConnell
• Kristina Youngerman
• David Schroeder
• Shelley Alley

[edit] External Links

• WCSC Website
• WTAT Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WCSC

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of South Carolina
WCSC 5 (Charleston) - WSPA 7 (Spartanburg) - WBTW 13 (Florence) - WLTX 19 (Columbia)
See also: ABC, Fox, NBC, PBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and Other stations in South Carolina