| Columbus/Tupelo/ West Point, Mississippi |
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|---|---|
| Branding | WCBI (general) WCBI News My MS (on DT2) North Mississippi CW (on DT3) |
| Slogan | Keeping You Informed |
| Channels | Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 4 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 4.1 CBS 4.2 MyNetworkTV 4.3 The CW |
| Owner | Morris Multimedia (WCBI-TV, LLC) |
| First air date | July 13, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning | Columbus Birney Imes (station founder) |
| Former channel number(s) | 4 (VHF analog, 1956-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (secondary, 1956-1977 and 1978-1983; primary 1977-1978) NBC (secondary, 1956-1979) UPN (on DT2, 2002-2006) AccuWX (on DT3, 2002-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 708 kW |
| Height | 583.9 m |
| Facility ID | 12477 |
| Website | wcbi.com |
WCBI-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabama licensed to Columbus. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Northwestern Clay County. The station can also be seen on Cable One channel 7 (HD on digital channel 460) and Comcast channel 13 (HD on digital channel 433). Owned by Morris Multimedia, WCBI has studios on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus. Syndicated programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show, The Nate Berkus Show, The Doctors, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace.
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It operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as My MS, this can also be seen on Comcast channel 3 and Cable One channel 4. Syndicated programming on WCBI-DT2 includes: How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Everybody Hates Chris, Scrubs, the cleaner versions of South Park, and others. WCBI also operates the area's CW affiliate on a third digital subchannel. Known on-air as North Mississippi CW and part of The CW Plus, it can be seen on Cable One channel 10 and Comcast digital channel 225.
| Channel | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | CBS | 720p | 16:9 | Main WCBI-TV programming / CBS |
| 4.2 | My-MS | 480i | 4:3 | "My MS" |
| 4.3 | CW | "North Mississippi CW" |
When WCBI signed on-the-air July 13, 1956, it was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station was owned by Birney Imes, Jr. a Columbus businessman and publisher of the Commercial Dispatch newspaper. It has studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. WCBI was originally affiliated with ABC, NBC, and CBS but has always been a primary CBS station except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. [1]
NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB (now Fox affiliate WLOV-TV) signed-on. The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes (Birney's son) supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.
WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel.
In November 2003, Imes Communications sold WCBI to current owner Morris Multimedia with the sale closing on January 14 of the next year. It was the last remaining station of Imes' once-sizable smaller-market broadcasting group. The Commercial Dispatch newspaper remains under Imes family ownership to this day.
On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS (parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.
MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent and to compete against The CW. On September 5, WCBI-DT2 became part of MyNetworkTV known on-the-air as "My Mississippi" while on September 18 WCBI-DT3 became part of The CW known on-air as "North Mississippi CW". WCBI ceased transmission of its analog signal on January 24, 2009 due to a technical problem.
On September 8, 2008, WCBI began producing the area's second prime time newscast on this station. Known as WCBI News at 9 on My MS, the broadcast only airs on weeknights for thirty minutes and competes with another prime time show seen for a half-hour on Fox affiliate WLOV-TV (produced Sunday through Friday nights by NBC affiliate WTVA). At some point in time, WCBI added an hour-long extension of its weekday morning show to WCBI-DT2. Known as WCBI News Sunrise on My MS, this broadcast can be seen from 7 until 8 and offers a local alternative to the national network morning shows. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Central Time Zone, WCBI-DT3 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 5 until 8. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a Tupelo Bureau on Main Street/U.S. 278/MS 6/MS 178.
Anchors
First Alert Meteorologists
Sports (both seen on The End Zone)
Reporters
Contributors
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