| Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson, South Carolina- Asheville, North Carolina |
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|---|---|
| Branding | Fox Carolina (general) Fox Carolina News (newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 21 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Meredith Corporation |
| First air date | April 1, 1984 |
| Call letters' meaning | Harry 'N Stella (Pappas) (original owners) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 21 (1984-2009) Digital: 57 (1995-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Primary: independent (1984–1988) Secondary: UPN (1995–1997) Pax TV (1998–2003) |
| Transmitter power | 160 kW (digital) |
| Height | 761.4 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 72300 |
| Website | www.foxcarolina.com |
WHNS (known on-air as Fox Carolina) is the Fox affiliate television station for western North and South Carolina. Licensed to Greenville, South Carolina; it is owned by the Meredith Corporation. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 21. Its studios are located just off Interstate 85 in Greenville, while transmitter is located atop Slick Rock Mountain, 5 miles southeast of Brevard, North Carolina. The master control and commercial insertion has been located in the hub facility at Meredith's flagship station WGCL-TV in Atlanta, Georgia since Fall 2009.
Syndicated programming on WHNS includes The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Big Bang Theory, Divorce Court, How I Met Your Mother, and The Nate Berkus Show.
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A construction permit was issued for channel 21 in Greenville as early as 1953. The permit went through about a dozen owners and many legal and environmental hurdles needed to be cleared, which prevented the station from being built. In the meantime, Christian station WGGS used channel 21 as a low-powered relay to improve its coverage in Asheville.
After several false starts, Pappas Telecasting of Fresno, California bought the channel 21 license in 1979. In 1981, after numerous delays, Pappas found a transmitter site in the Spartanburg area that was near enough to Greenville to meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements that a station's transmitter be no more than 15 miles from its city of license. Construction began in 1982 and the station went on the air on April 1, 1984. The call letters stand for Harry 'N Stella—after company founder Harry Pappas and his wife Stella. WGGS' repeater moved to WASV in Asheville (channel 62, now WYCW).
The station ran a typical UHF independent schedule consisting of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, drama shows and some sports. It became the dominant independent station in the region, well ahead of WAXA-TV (channel 40, now WMYA-TV). This was because it was the first general-entertainment independent station that decently covered this vast market. This area is also very mountainous, and WHNS needed every watt of its 5 million-watt effective radiated power (ERP) to cover it. WAXA, in contrast, was practically unviewable in most of the North Carolina portion of the market.
Its first slogan was "It's Your Station", which was changed to "We're Your Station" (also used on then sister-stations KMPH-TV in Fresno and KPTM in Omaha). WHNS-TV's first logo consisted of the call letters in a Subway-esque logo with the channel number on the center bottom. That logo was used until the late 1980s.
Despite a stronger signal and wealthier ownership, WHNS was beaten out by WAXA to become the area's Fox affiliate in 1986. However, WAXA was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the fall of 1988, and WHNS quickly snapped up the Fox affiliation. The station quickly dropped its original on-air name "TV21" in favor of "Fox 21". In 1990, the station was sold to Cannell Communications. First Media Television acquired the station in 1994, and it acquired a secondary UPN affiliation in January 1995, airing UPN programming in the late-night hours. The UPN affiliation moved in 1997 to WASV—ironically, by that time owned by Pappas. From around 1996 to 1999, WHNS carried a 10 pm newscast produced by WSPA-TV. The partnership between the two stations ended in 1999, when WHNS launched its own news department.
WHNS was acquired by Meredith Corporation in 1997 as part of a group deal. In 2002, it began calling itself "Fox Carolina".
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 21.1 | Main WHNS programming / FOX |
| 21.2 | Weather Radar |
WHNS shut down analog transmissions on June 12, 2009 [1], and moved its digital broadcasts back to its previous analog channel number, 21.[2]
In South Carolina, WHNS is available on Savannah Valley Cablevision in McCormick, which is part of the Augusta, GA media market.
In Georgia, WHNS was previously available on cable in Mountain City, which is part of the Atlanta market.[3]
The station quickly became popular through the broadcasting work of then Chief Meteorologist Michael Smith. He joined the Fox Carolina team in 2002 and became an instant local celebrity and success. Smith, along with evening news anchor Diana Watson, helped to quickly multiply the local viewership audience. Watson, Smith, and several others in the Fox Carolina team brought much recognition and attention to the station by receiving numerous awards for their achievements in broadcasting excellence.
WHNS effectively used Smith's popular likeness in much of their advertising through early 2008 when he abruptly parted with the station. WHNS never gave any explanation for Smith's disappearance from the broadcast, although all reports indicate a falling out between himself and then News Director Kayan Lewis. The station quickly had all links, ties, images, and video of Smith's ties to the station removed from the internet.
Diana Watson's popularity continues as co-anchor of the 10 pm news with Trent Butler, and Kendra Kent has replaced Michael Smith as the station's chief meteorologist.
On May 14, 2007, Assignment Editor Joe Loy was killed while on assignment. On a local highway, he was filming the aftermath of one accident when another occurred right behind him. He managed to get it on video as a white van, possibly made out-of-control by a red pickup truck, spun towards him. Police are seeking information about the red pickup, a "vehicle of interest".
In 2009, WHNS added a 6:30 pm newscast to its schedule. WHNS is one of the two network affiliated stations in this market that has not yet switched to high definition newscasts; however, on February 2, 2011, WHNS began airing its newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen along with a new set and graphics package. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts are rescanned and upconverted from their native 480i standard definition to the signal's 720p resolution before transmission to match the aspect ratio of HD television screens.
Anchors
Weather Team
The station currently has no sports department, though one did exist in the past.
Reporters
In order to reach viewers in valleys of North Carolina, WHNS has 6 low power repeater stations:
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