| Washington/Greenville/Jacksonville/ New Bern, North Carolina |
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|---|---|
| City of license | Washington |
| Branding | WITN (general) WITN News My TV WITN 7.2 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Your Breaking News & Weather Authority |
| Channels | Digital: 32 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | 7.1 NBC 7.2 MyNetworkTV & Me-TV 7.3 weather radar |
| Owner | Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | September 28, 1955 |
| Call letters' meaning | WashIngToN or EyeWITNess News |
| Former callsigns | WITN (1955-1978) |
| Former channel number(s) | 7 (VHF analog, 1955-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (secondary, 1955-1963) local weather (on DT2) |
| Transmitter power | 795 kW |
| Height | 594 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 594 |
| Website | witn.com |
WITN-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Eastern North Carolina's Inner Banks licensed to Washington. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 (or virtual channel 7.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Grifton along NC 118. The station can also be seen on Charter and Time Warner Cable channel 7 as well as Suddenlink channel 8. There is a high definition feed offered on Suddenlink digital channel 707 as well as Time Warner Cable and Charter digital channel 1120. Owned by Gray Television, it has studios on US 17 in Chocowinity (official address is Washington). Syndicated programming on WITN includes Anderson, Rachael Ray, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Judge Mathis, and The People's Court among others.
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It operates the area's MyNetworkTV and Me-TV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as My WITN 7.2, this can also be seen on Charter and Time Warner Cable digital channel 121 as well as Suddenlink digital channel 167. In addition, it can be seen on Time Warner Cable digital channel 931 in the Wilmington area since that market's MyNetworkTV affiliate, W47CK, is not eligible for carriage on cable providers due to its low-powered status.
The clearance allows WITN-DT2 to unofficially serve as Wilmington's Me-TV outlet since there is currently no affiliate in that area. [1] Syndicated programming on WITN-DT2 includes Family Feud, The Wendy Williams Show, The Nate Berkus Show, and TMZ on TV along with others. On WITN-DT3 is a 24-hour live feed of its Doppler weather radar but this is currently not offered on any digital cable providers in the area.
| Channels | Callsign | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | WITN-DT | 1080i | 16:9 | Main WTN Programming / NBC |
| 7.2 | WITN-MY | 480i | 4:3 | "My WITN 7.2" / MeTV |
| 7.3 | WITN-WX | "Live Doppler 7" |
The station signed-on September 28, 1955 as WITN and was the area's second television outlet to launch after Greenville's WNCT (a CBS station). It was an NBC affiliate from the start but shared secondary ABC relations with WNCT until the 1963 sign-on of WNBE-TV (now WCTI-TV) in New Bern. WITN aired an analog signal on VHF channel 7 from the region's highest transmitter at that time and its current tower was also one of the tallest structures in the United States. The station was originally owned by North Carolina Television which was a consortium of radio stations from Northeastern North Carolina. Majority ownership was held by the owners of WITN radio (930 AM now WDLX and FM 93.3 now WERO).
That company held onto the television station until 1985 when it was sold to Aflac. [2] It added the -TV suffix to its call sign on July 31, 1978. In 1997, Aflac sold its broadcasting group to Retirement Systems of Alabama which merged with Ellis Communications to form Raycom Media. However, a signal overlap with Wilmington's WECT (an Ellis property that was part of the deal) forced Raycom to sell WITN. What was then known as Gray Communications (now Gray Television) bought the station in 1997. It has been broadcasting a full-power digital signal since June 2006.
On January 7, 2009, a high definition feed of WITN was launched on DirecTV and can now also be obtained on Dish Network. It switched to digital-only broadcasting on June 12. However, the station had planned to end analog transmissions on February 19 as originally scheduled. [3] WITN's digital signal remained on UHF channel 32 when the conversion was completed. [4] Originally, WITN-DT2 served as a 24-hour local weather channel. It picked up MyNetworkTV on September 28, 2009 after the area's Ion Television owned-and-operated affiliate WEPX-TV and full-time satellite WPXU-TV dropped the programming service. [5] At that point, local weather programming was reduced to overnights and mornings while syndicated offerings made up the rest of WITN-DT2's schedule.
A further addition to that service occurred April 18, 2011 when it added Me-TV and dropped all remaining weather-related programming with the new network taking up most of the weekend and daytime schedule. Eventually, a new third digital subchannel signed-on and began offering a 24-hour live feed of WITN's Doppler weather radar. [6] In addition to offering network and syndicated programming, the station also produces live broadcasts of select East Carolina University football and basketball games not picked up nationally by ESPN as part of its deal with Conference USA. Even though most of the broadcasts were limited to its own market, WITN got other television outlets throughout North Carolina to carry a contest in 2003 which saw ECU competing against in-state rival University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
In terms of Nielsen ratings, Eastern North Carolina is usually not very competitive during sweeps periods. Generally, WNCT trades the ratings crown with WITN and WCTI. In July 2008, WNCT became the most watched outlet in the market after taking first place weeknights at 6 and 11. However, since then, that station has fallen to 3rd place weeknights at 6. As of May 2010, WITN has won the sign-on to sign-off honors for two consecutive ratings periods. The station won all news time periods except for the weekday noon news. [7] In addition to the main facility in Chocowinity, it operates secondary studios on East Arlington Boulevard in Greenville as part of the Square Shopping Center.
That facility started broadcasting weekday morning newscasts in 1997 and also features weeknight interview segments. WITN also operates bureaus in Jacksonville (on Western Boulevard) and in New Bern (on Middle Street). The station operates its own Doppler weather radar, known as "Live Doppler 7", at the main studios in Chocowinity along with live VIPIR data from several regional NOAA National Weather Service radars. On weekday mornings from 6 until 8, WITN-DT2 offers a local lifestyle/entertainment program called DownEast Today which airs in a magazine-type format.
Along the I-95 corridor, it is carried in Northampton, Halifax, Nash, Edgecombe, Wilson and Johnston (Kenly area only). Along I-40 and the US 117 corridor, it is carried in Wayne, Pender, and New Hanover (7.2 only). It is also carried in Elizabethtown in Bladen County but only for WITN's secondary channel, 7.2. Along the Virginia border throughout northeast North Carolina and the northern Outer Banks, all of the counties inside the Hampton Roads DMA carry WITN. There is no cable carriage in Virginia and no satellite carriage outside of the Greenville-Washington-New Bern DMA. WITN through CATV in the 1970s and 1980s, used to be carried in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, (eastern) Harnett, Hoke, Lee, (all of) Johnston, Robeson and Sampson Counties.[8]
Anchors
WITN First Alert Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
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