WNCN

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WNCN
Goldsboro / Raleigh / Durham / Fayetteville, North Carolina
Branding	NBC17
Channels	17 (UHF) analog, 55 (UHF) digital
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)
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 and cable channel 2 in Durham and Chapel Hill. WNCN's transmitter is located in Garner, North Carolina.

Contents 1 History 2 Trivia 2.1 Logos 3 Newscasts 4 Current Personalities 5 Notes and References 6 External links

[edit] History

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 at 622 S. Barbour St., 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.

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.

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 shortly after becoming WRDC).

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.

[edit] 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.
• NBC Weather Plus is offered on WNCN's digital feed by the name "NBC 17 WeatherPlus".

[edit] Logos

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

[edit] Newscasts

• NBC17 Today - 5-7AM
• NBC17 News at 6PM - 6-6:30PM weeknights (every day)
• NBC17 News at 7pm - 7-8pm
• NBC17 News at 11PM - 11-11:35PM (every day)
• NBC17 Saturday Today - 6-7AM & 9-10AM (Saturday)
• NBC17 News at 11PM - 11-11:30PM (Saturday & Sunday)
• NBC17 Sunday Today - 6:30-8AM & 9-10AM (Sunday)
• NBC17 At Issue (Community Affairs) - 11-11:30AM (Sunday)
• NBC17 Sports Zone - 10:30-11:00AM (Sunday)

[edit] Current Personalities

• Geneen Anderson - weekend evening weather anchor
• Verna Collins - weekend morning anchor/At Issue host
• Carolyn Costello - weekend evening anchor/evening reporter
• Brian DeRoy - reporter
• Bill Fitzgerald- weekday evening anchor
• Kim Genardo - Your Life reporter
• Frank Graff - reporter
• Wes Hohenstein - chief meteorologist
• Donald Jones - weekday morning anchor
• Peter Kunisch - weekend morning meteorologist
• Ken Luallen - reporter
• Shirley Min - Restaurant Recipes reporter
• Nicki Morse - morning traffic reporter
• Sergio Quintana - reporter
• Bill Reh - morning meteorologist
• Melanie Sanders - evening anchor
• Maya Starks - weekday sports anchor
• Steve Sbraccia - reporter
• Chad Sokol - weekend sports anchor
• Sharon Tazewell - weekday morning anchor

[edit] Notes and References

1. ^ Cox, Jonathan B.. "NBC to sell station: Network puts 3 others on the block", Raleigh News & Observer, January 10, 2006.
2. ^ "Triangle's NBC affiliate station to be sold", Raleigh News & Observer, April 6, 2006.

[edit] External links

• NBC17 Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNCN

Broadcast television in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville market  (Nielsen DMA #29)
WUNC 4 / WUNU 31 / WUNP 36 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WRAL 5 (CBS) - WTVD 11 (ABC) - WNCN 17 (NBC) - WLFL 22 (The CW) - W24CP 24 (3ABN) - WTNC 26 (TFU) - WRDC 28 (MNTV) - WRAY 30 (Ind) - WACN-LP 34 (DS) - WUVC 40 (UNI) - WHFL-LP 43 (Worship) - WZGS 44 (Telemundo) - W45CN 45 / W45CO 45 / W63CW 63 / W64CN 64 (TBN) - WRPX 47 / WFPX 62 (ION) - WRAZ 50 (Fox) - WWIW-LP 66 (DS) - W67CD 67 (A1) - W68BK 68 (Educational)
Local cable television channels
News 14 Carolina
Out-of-market broadcast television available on cable in some parts of the market
WECT 6 (NBC, Wilmington)

NBC Network Affiliates in the state of North Carolina
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