WILM-LD
Channels
BrandingWILM-TV 10 (general)
WRAL News (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations10.1: Independent (1989–1995, 2017–present)
10.2: MeTV
10.3: Heroes & Icons
Ownership
Owner
WRAL-TV, WRAZ
History
First air date
April 3, 1989 (1989-04-03)
Former call signs
W10BZ (1989–1995)
WSSN-LP (1995–2000)
WILM-LP (2000–2008)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
10 (VHF, 1989–2008)
Digital:
40 (UHF, 2008–2018)
UPN (1995–2006; secondary from 2000)
CBS (2000–2016)
Call sign meaning
Wilmington
Technical information
Facility ID167819
ClassLD
ERP15 kW
HAAT250.3 m (821 ft)
Transmitter coordinates34°19′16.6″N 78°13′42″W / 34.321278°N 78.22833°W / 34.321278; -78.22833
Translator(s)WILT-LD 24 (33 UHF) Wilmington
W30ER-D (30 UHF) Wilmington
Links
Websitewww.wilm-tv.com

WILM-LD (channel 10) is a low-power independent television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company. The station's studios are located on Wrightsville Avenue (US 76) in Wilmington, and its transmitter is located in Delco, North Carolina. Master control and some internal operations are based at the facilities of sister station, NBC affiliate and company flagship WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

On December 31, 2016, WILM lost its CBS affiliation to a digital subchannel of ABC affiliate WWAY (channel 3) and became an independent station.[1]

History

The current station is actually the second TV outlet to have the WILM calls. WILM-TV (proposed for Wilmington, Delaware) was granted a construction permit in 1953, but never made it to the air, surrendering its license in 1955. WILM would have broadcast on channel 83, the only U.S. TV station in history to be allocated the very top of the UHF spectrum.[2]

The station began on April 3, 1989 as independent outlet W10BZ. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter near the studios. W10BZ changed its call sign to WSSN-LP in 1995 when it joined the United Paramount Network (UPN). In 1999, Capitol Broadcasting acquired the station.

On March 23, 2000, it became a CBS affiliate, filling a void created when previous CBS affiliate WJKA changed its calls to WSFX-TV and dropped the network to join Fox. WSSN changed its call sign to WILM-LP on that date as well. Before WILM gained the CBS affiliation, programming from that network was seen in Wilmington on cable from WNCT-TV in Greenville, WBTW in Florence, South Carolina, or WRAL.

WILM retained its UPN affiliation on a secondary basis until the network shut down and merged with The WB. After UPN and The WB merged to form The CW on September 18, 2006, cable-only WB 100+ affiliate "WBW" joined the new network through The CW Plus cable group. Fox's sister programming service MyNetworkTV was formed around the same time and aligned with new sign-on W47CK, leaving WILM as a full-time CBS station.

The station's low-powered digital signal began broadcasting on UHF channel 40 in August 2008. This increased the station's effective radiated power from its former 75 watts (analog VHF) to 15 kW (digital UHF) which is the highest power available for U.S. low-power digital television. WILM's new transmitter was no longer centrally located in Wilmington itself but located alongside other local broadcast sites in Delco.[3]

WILM is one of five Wilmington commercial television stations that agreed to end analog transmissions early and became digital-only on September 8, 2008. This move was intended to make the area the first all-digital market in the United States.[4] On that date, WILM shut down its analog signal along with four other Wilmington television stations as part of the voluntary early digital transition. If this agreement had not happened, the decision to shut off analog transmission at any time would have been voluntary for WILM because Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations exempted low-power television stations from the 2009 analog shutdown. Its analog channel 10 identification is still used as its virtual channel using PSIP.

In 2015, WILM signed on a translator on channel 24, WILT-LD, to better serve areas such as Monkey Junction, Carolina Beach, and Wrightsville Beach south to Southport and Oak Island.[5]

In January 2016, sister station and Capitol Broadcasting flagship WRAL announced it would drop its CBS affiliation due to a contract impasse, effective February 29, 2016. Immediately, WRAL struck a pending affiliation agreement to switch to NBC.[6] On March 30, 2016, CBS announced it would pull its affiliation from WILM and transfer it to the second subchannel of WWAY on January 1, 2017.[7] WILM subsequently became an independent station, adding additional syndicated programming, and promising increased coverage of local college sports.[8]

Newscasts

WILM-LD simulcasts WRAL's newscasts weekday mornings from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and at 6:00 p.m., with local weather inserts for the Wilmington area. This practice dates to its tenure with CBS; its studios were not large enough for a full-fledged news department.

From March 10, 2008 until February 27, 2009 through a news share agreement, WWAY produced a prime time newscast weeknights at 7 p.m.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WILM-LD and WILT-LD[9]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
WILM-LDWILT-LD
10.124.1 720p16:9WILM HDMain WILM-LD programming
10.224.2 480iWILM MEMeTV
10.324.3 WILM 3Heroes & Icons

Translator

City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
WilmingtonWILT-LD 3315 kW133 m (436 ft)18232034°05′52.3″N 77°58′17.2″W / 34.097861°N 77.971444°W / 34.097861; -77.971444 (WILT-LD)
WilmingtonW30ER-D 3015 kW284.7 m (934 ft)18234134°19′17.2″N 78°13′41.4″W / 34.321444°N 78.228167°W / 34.321444; -78.228167 (W30ER-D)

References

  1. ↑ Holloway, Daniel. "CBS to Make North Carolina Affiliate Change". Variety.
  2. ↑ "Channels 45 to 83". History of UHF Television.
  3. ↑ http://wilmingtondtvtest.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/a-big-step%E2%80%A6/ Wilmington DTV Test
  4. ↑ "DTV - WILM INFO — WILM-TV". WILM-TV. Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Where is WILM's new TV tower?". June 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ "WRAL to NBC, WNCN to CBS in network affiliation switches Feb. 29". The Fayetteville Observer. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "CBS to Make North Carolina Affiliate Change". Variety. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "WILM Now An Independent Station". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "RabbitEars listing for WILM-LD". www.rabbitears.info.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.