WTAT-TV

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WTAT-TV
Charleston, South Carolina
Branding	FOX 24 (normal) FOX 24 News (newscast)
Channels	24 (UHF) analog, 40 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	FOX
Owner	Cunningham Broadcasting (LMA with Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Founded	1985
Website	wtat24.com

WTAT-TV is the FOX television affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located near Woodville, South Carolina. The station broadcasts it digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter located in North Charleston. WTAT is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group under a local marketing agreement with the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate WMMP. However, due to Cunningham's financial structure, Sinclair effectively owns WTAT (see below). WTAT shares studios with WWMP on Arco Lane in North Charleston. The station is known on-air as "FOX 24".

[edit] History

The station began operations in 1985 under the ownership of Act III Broadcasting. A local group originally held WTAT's construction permit, but sold it to Act III before the station went on the air. In 1986, as part of a corporate deal between Act III and News Corporation, it became a charter affiliate of the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company. Abry Communications bought the Act III group in early 1994. Abry merged with Sinclair later that year.

When Max Media (the owner of WMMP) merged with Sinclair in July of 1998, Sinclair could not keep both stations due to FCC rules of the time forbidding duopolies. Although WTAT was longer-established, Sinclair opted to keep WMMP and sold WTAT to Glencairn, Ltd. Glencairn was owned by Edwin Edwards, a former Sinclair executive, and appeared to be a minority-owned company. However, nearly all of Glencairn's stock was controlled by the Smith family, founders of Sinclair. In effect, Sinclair now had a duopoly in the Charleston market, a violation of FCC regulations. Glencairn then entered into a local marketing agreement with Sinclair, allowing Sinclair to keep control of WTAT's operations, thus circumventing FCC ownership rules even further. The FCC eventually fined Sinclair $40,000 in 2001 for illegally controlling Glencairn.

In 2001, Sinclair tried to buy Glencairn outright, but the FCC did not allow Sinclair to buy WTAT because Charleston has only 6 full-power stations, which is too few to legally allow duopolies. Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting. However, the Smith family continues to control nearly all of Cunningham's stock. Cunningham has faced numerous allegations that it is simply a shell corporation used by Sinclair for the purpose of circumventing FCC ownership rules.

Sinclair and Fox recently finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates, including WTAT. WTAT's affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. [1]

[edit] Newscasts

WTAT has a news share agreement with the area's CBS affiliate WCSC. That station produces all of the newscasts on WTAT. The daily 10 PM newscast on WTAT is the oldest and longest running 10 PM news broadcast in South Carolina, premiering in the early 1990s. During all newscasts, WCSC's weather radar is used. It is called "Live Super Doppler 5000", uses Titan technology, and is located near WCSC's studios.

Weekdays

• FOX 24 Morning News (7 to 8 AM)
  • Anchors: Bill Burr & Tracey Amick
  • Weather: Chad Watson

• FOX 24 News at 10 (10 to 10:35 PM)
  • Anchor: Erin Colgan
  • Weather: Scott Williams
  • Sports: Craig Birnbach

Weekends

• FOX 24 News at 10 (10 to 10:30 PM Saturdays, 10 to 10:35 PM Sundays)
  • Anchor: Rob Youngblood
  • Weather: Brad Miller
  • Sports: Kevin Bilodeau

the WTAT newscasts use additional news personnel from WCSC, see the main WCSC article for a full listing

[edit] External Links

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

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