WCYB-TV
CityBristol, Virginia
Channels
BrandingWCYB-TV 5 (general)
News 5 (newscasts)
Tri-Cities CW HD (on DT2)
Programming
Affiliations5.1: NBC
5.2: The CW
5.3: Comet
Ownership
Owner
WEMT
History
First air date
August 13, 1956 (1956-08-13)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
5 (VHF, 1956–2009)
Digital:
28 (UHF, 1996–2009)
5 (VHF, 2009–2022)
Both secondary:
ABC (1956–1969)
The WB (1996–2006)
Call sign meaning
City of Bristol
Technical information[3]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID2455
ERP1,000 kW[1]
HAAT755 m (2,477 ft)[1]
Transmitter coordinates36°26′58.2″N 82°6′28.7″W / 36.449500°N 82.107972°W / 36.449500; -82.107972
Links
Public license information
Websitewcyb.com

WCYB-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Bristol, Virginia, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area as an affiliate of NBC and The CW. It is one of two commercial television stations in the market that are licensed in Virginia (alongside religious station WLFG, channel 68, in Grundy). WCYB-TV is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also provides certain services to Greeneville, Tennessee–licensed Fox affiliate WEMT (channel 39) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WEMT as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. Both stations share studios on Lee Street on the Virginia side of Bristol (straddling the Virginia–Tennessee line), while WCYB-TV's transmitter is located at Rye Patch Knob on Holston Mountain in the Cherokee National Forest.

History

As early as 1952, companies and groups began competing for a chance to get the better-picture, lower VHF channel 5, allocated to Bristol. A consortium of four Bristol businessmen—Robert Smith, J. Fey Rogers (sales manager of WOPI radio in Bristol, Tennessee), Charles M. Gore and Harry M. Daniel—filed for the channel at Bristol, Tennessee, along with the Appalachian Television Company, owners of WCYB radio (AM 690, now WZAP), for a station on the Virginia side of the state line.[4][5] The matter came into contest between the two groups; WOPI's group broadened to take in Kingsport radio station WKPT, with plans for studios in both cities.[6]

The initial studio was planned for the first floor of the Hotel General Shelby (home to WCYB radio), at Cumberland and Front streets, with a full-power transmitter to be located on Brumley Mountain, 1,964 feet (599 m) above average terrain in the Jefferson National Forest, 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Bristol.[5] While still in the construction stage, the proposed transmitter was moved to Holston High Knob, 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Bristol and 700 feet (213 m) north of a geological triangulation station and fire tower on top of the Holston Mountain ridge.[5]

On diversity of ownership grounds, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearing examiner found in favor of WCYB's bid in January 1955.[7] A final construction permit grant was made on April 11, 1956, and construction began at once.[8] That May, station planners successfully sought to increase the proposed coverage area by changing the proposed transmitter location to Rye Patch Knob. The transmitter and tower survive to this day at that location, 2,230 feet (680 m) above average terrain. Meanwhile, studios were leased in a building at Cumberland and Lee streets.[9]

WCYB-TV began broadcasting on August 13, 1956; it primarily continued testing for several more weeks until a full launch on September 1,[10] though the early start allowed it to present coverage of that year's Democratic National Convention.[11] It has always been a primary NBC affiliate, although it carried a secondary ABC affiliation (shared with WJHL-TV, channel 11)[12] until 1969, when WKPT-TV (channel 19) signed on and took the ABC affiliation.[13]

In 1969, the group sold WCYB-TV to Starr Broadcasting; Starr's president and chief stockholder was publisher and columnist William F. Buckley, Jr. of National Review fame.[5] Starr sold Appalachian Broadcasting to the DGH Company/Lamco Communications (former publisher of the Grit newspaper) in 1977.[14] It was sold again to Bluestone Television in 2004, who then merged with Bonten Media Group for $230 million in 2007.

Robert Smith Sr. served as general manager of the station for almost 25 years. During his tenure, well-known newscasters Merrill Moore, Johnny Wood, and Steve Hawkins began their successful careers. Smith also oversaw the construction of a new building in downtown Bristol. The new facility was industry-leading in its design. After Smith's retirement, Joe Conway became General Manager in 1981. During the early '80s, Lamco invested extensively in people, news, programming, equipment, and marketing. WCYB was marketed as "The News Station". At the same time, NBC became the top-rated network with hits like The Cosby Show and Cheers, and WCYB secured top-rated syndicated programs such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! A hot air balloon with an NBC peacock design was purchased and flown across the region to promote the station. For most of the time from the 1980s to the early 2000s, WCYB claimed to be the highest-rated station in the top 100 U.S. TV markets. In 1984, Conway died suddenly. He was succeeded as general manager in 1985 by Bob Smith, Jr., who had been the station's News Director for several years. During the 1990s and beyond, Joe Macione, Jim McKernan and Jack Dempsey followed as General Managers. Steve Flint was named VP/General Manager in 2018.

In the 1960s, this station produced a live weekday cartoon show for children called the Looney Tunes Club, hosted by Ed Spiegel. The show welcomed some 50 youngsters each day to participate on the show and was traditionally visited by children celebrating their birthdays. Each broadcast was opened with a rousing "Hi, boys and girls!" from Spiegel, with "Hi, Ed!" shouted back by the youngsters. The 1960s also saw three locally produced quiz shows: Kiddle Kollege (which pitted young students from different local schools against each other), Klassroom Kwiz (whose contestants were older high school students, a variation on the It's Academic format) and Klub Kwiz (which did the same using members of local civic and service clubs).

WCYB took over WEMT's operations in February 2006 in a deal with WEMT's new owner, Aurora Broadcasting. As part of the Bonten deal later that year, Esteem Broadcasting bought WEMT from Aurora. Esteem would then pay $1.4 million in outstanding debt. WEMT moved from its studios in Johnson City to WCYB's facilities.

On April 21, 2017, Sinclair announced its intent to purchase the Bonten stations for $240 million.[15][16] The sale was completed on September 1.[17]

News operation

WCYB logo until 2012

WCYB's news dominance from the 1980s and beyond was largely due to the presence of the station's longtime anchormen Merrill Moore, Johnny Wood, and Steve Hawkins. Moore joined the station in 1962 as the weeknight 11 o'clock anchor and added the weeknight 6 p.m. broadcast in 1964. He remained the station's top anchorman until his retirement in 2000. In the 1960s, News Director Walter Crockett also delivered editorials at 6:25 p.m. daily, and Evelyn Booher was one of the first woman newscasters in the Tri-Cities at that time. For most of the time from the 1980s to the early 2000s, WCYB claimed to be the highest-rated television station in the United States. In January 2005, WCYB won the RTNDA's Ultimate Newscast Makeover contest, which included a new set, graphics and music package at no charge. The station's slogan is currently "Accurate. Reliable. Getting The Facts Right." Formerly, it was "Accurate. Reliable. To the Point." The latter phrase was dropped from the slogan as of the Noon telecast on October 2, 2007. After beginning local production of news in high definition, the slogan was changed to "Accurate. Reliable. High Definition."

WCYB currently broadcasts 25 hours of locally-produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays, two hours on Sundays, and updates every half-hour during Today, in addition to updates during prime time programming). WCYB also produces Fox Tri-Cities News @ 10 on sister station WEMT.

Starting with the 5:00 p.m. news on October 13, 2008, the NewsCenter 5 name was changed to News 5. WEMT's nightly 10 o'clock newscast started on September 12, 2005 and it is produced by WCYB. Originally a half-hour long, it has expanded to an hour on September 11, 2006. In October 2008, they dropped WCYB's on-air look. Instead of using all blue graphics, WEMT now employs blue and red. That station also renamed the weather forecasting and modified many other elements of the broadcast.

On June 17, 2010, WCYB's newscasts became the first in the Tri-Cities market to broadcast in high definition.[18][19] Starting with the 2012 election day newscast, WCYB debuted new graphics and a new logo, similar to San Antonio's WOAI.

On July 29, 2014, it was announced that the noon newscast on WCYB would be shortened to a 30-minute segment, followed by an episode of Judge Judy with anchors Preston Ayres and Samantha Kozsey rotating positions each week. Meteorologist Donnie Cox will be co-hosting with Ayres and Kozsey. WCYB continues to be the dominant station in the Tri-Cities, with WEMT and WJHL closely tied for second.

On February 20, 2015, it was announced that Meteorologist Donnie Cox would be moving to WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina.[20][21]

At one point, WCYB-DT2 aired an hour-long extension of the main channel's weekday morning show at 8. This has since been dropped.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WCYB-TV[22]
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming
5.1 1080i16:9WCYB-DTMain WCYB-TV programming / NBC
5.2 CW-HDThe Tri-Cities CW
5.3 480iCometComet

On August 23, 2011, Disney-ABC Television Group announced an affiliation agreement with WCYB to carry Live Well Network on a new third digital subchannel.[23] The network has since been replaced with Decades, which in turn was eventually replaced with Comet.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCYB-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 28 to VHF channel 5.[24][25]

On August 22, 2022, WCYB turned off its signal on low-VHF channel 5 and activated a new signal on UHF channel 35 under special temporary authority.[26][27]

Until 2022, WCYB operated a UHF fill-in digital translator on channel 29 that helped viewers alleviate some signal reception issues on channel 5.[28] The station applied for a second repeater on channel 21, licensed to Kingsport with a transmitter on Bays Mountain, but this has since expired.[29]

Out-of-market cable carriage

In recent years, WCYB has been carried on cable in multiple areas outside of the Tri-Cities media market. That includes cable systems within the Bluefield market in Virginia, the Knoxville market in Tennessee, the Lexington market in Kentucky and the Asheville and Charlotte markets in North Carolina.[30] According to Zap2it, WCYB has been carried on cable in College Grove, Tennessee, which is within the Nashville market.[31]

During the 1970s and 1980s through CATV, WCYB was once carried in Pikeville, Kentucky, Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and McDowell County, West Virginia.[32]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "???AMDRULCHA.PageHeading???". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. February 22, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Report and Order", Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, 15 June 2021, Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  3. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WCYB-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. ↑ "Edwards Buys $200,000 Stock In Bristol Radio". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. July 9, 1952. p. 9. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 FCC History Cards for WCYB-TV
  6. ↑ "Tri-Cities TV Service Begins Soon". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. September 28, 1952. p. 8A. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Official Urges WCYB Get Bristol TV". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. Associated Press. February 2, 1955. p. 2. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Bristol TV Station Gets Final FCC Authorization". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. April 14, 1956. p. 1. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "WCYB-TV Leases Studio Building". The Bristol Herald Courier. Bristol, Tennessee. June 20, 1956. p. 2. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "TV Station Goes On Air". Bristol Virginia-Tennessean. Bristol, Virginia. September 1, 1956. p. 8. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "WCYB-TV Begins Telecasts Monday". The Bristol Herald Courier. Bristol, Tennessee. August 11, 1956. p. 1, 2. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Plans For Bristol TV Station Told To Area Newspapermen On Saturday". Johnson City Press. Johnson City, Tennessee. July 29, 1956. p. 5. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Rice, Basil (August 10, 1969). "New TV Station Hopes To Be 'Airborne' Aug. 15". Kingsport Times-News. Kingsport, Tennessee. p. 7-A. Retrieved July 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Television Factbook #49, 1980 Edition, page 882-B
  15. ↑ "Sinclair Buying Bonten Stations For $240M". TVNewsCheck. April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Sinclair Announces Agreement To Purchase Bonten Media Group TV Stations -". sbgi.net.
  17. ↑ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  18. ↑ "News 5 Now Broadcasting In HD". WCYB-TV. June 17, 2010. Archived from the original on September 10, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
  19. ↑ "WCYB-TV and WEMT-TV Are First with HD Local News Broadcasts In Tri-Cities Market". WCYB-TV. June 17, 2010. Archived from the original on June 24, 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  20. ↑ "WCTI-TV announces new Chief Meteorologist". Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  21. ↑ "News 5 Today says goodbye to Donnie Cox". Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  22. ↑ "RabbitEars query for WCYB-TV". www.rabbitears.info.
  23. ↑ Live Well Adds 7 Affils, Tops 40% Clearance, TVNewsCheck, August 23, 2011.
  24. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  25. ↑ Eggerton, John (June 29, 2009). "Boise Station Gets Power Boost". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
  26. ↑ "DTV Engineering STA Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  27. ↑ "WCYB SIGNAL UPDATE: Important information for viewers". WCYB.com. August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  28. ↑ "CDBS Print". licensing.fcc.gov.
  29. ↑ "Application View ... Redirecting". licensing.fcc.gov.
  30. ↑ "SVTV Stations - the things you care that others won't". Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  31. ↑ "TV Listings- Find Local TV Listings and Watch Full Episodes - Zap2it.com". Zap2It. September 1, 2017.
  32. ↑
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