WYCW(channel 62) is atelevision stationlicensed toAsheville, North Carolina,United States, serving as theCWoutlet forWestern North CarolinaandUpstate South Carolina.It isowned and operatedby network majority ownerNexstar Media GroupalongsideSpartanburg, South Carolina–licensedCBSaffiliateWSPA-TV(channel 7). WYCW and WSPA-TV share studios on International Drive (next to theI-26andI-85 Business/Veterans Parkwayinterchange) in Spartanburg; through achannel sharing agreement,the two stations transmit using WSPA-TV's spectrum from an antenna on Hogback Mountain in northeasternGreenville County(southwest ofTryon, North Carolina).
 | |
| City | Asheville, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WSPA-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | October 31, 1984 |
Former call signs | WASV-TV (1984–2006) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
| |
Call signmeaning | "We're Your CW" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 70149 |
| ERP | 33.5 kW |
| HAAT | 674.2 m (2,212 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°10′12.4″N82°17′26.4″W/ 35.170111°N 82.290667°W |
| Translator(s) | seeWSPA-TV#Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
History
editPrior use of channel 62 in Asheville
editAsheville's first television station,WISE-TV,began broadcasting on channel 62 on August 2, 1953. It was a primaryNBCaffiliate which also carried programs fromABC,CBS,andDuMont.[2]ABC and DuMont moved toWLOS(channel 13) when that station signed on in September 1954.[3]In 1967, the station changed its call letters to WANC; the next year, it dropped its remaining NBC programming as its ownership brought a cable system to Asheville.[4]WANC-TV moved from channel 62 to 21 in 1971, airing a limited amount ofChristiantelevision programming throughout the 1970s by simulcastingWGGS-TV(channel 16) inGreenville.Pappas Telecastingacquired WANC-TV in 1979, took it silent, and returned it to the air asWHNSon April 1, 1984.
Current allocation
editChannel 62 returned to the air onOctober 31,1984, as WASV-TV. Originally locally owned, even though it was licensed as a full-power outlet, the station initially operated atlow-power,simulcasting WGGS-TV. This was necessary in the days before cable gained much penetration in this vast market, much of which is very mountainous. WASV began to runinfomercialsandshop-at-homeprogramming in the early 1990s.
It was sold to Pappas Telecasting (which previously owned WHNS) in 1995 and began to transmit its analog signal at full-power in 1996. At that time, Pappas entered into alocal marketing agreementwith CBS affiliate WSPA-TV (channel 7), which took control of WASV's programming and airtime. In October 1997, WASV became the market'sWBaffiliate, taking the affiliation from WSPA, which carried the network on a secondary basis beginning at the network's launch in January 1995. At the same time, the station also became a secondary affiliate ofUPN,which had similarly been carried on a secondary basis by WHNS. The station branded on-air as "The New 62" from 1997 to 2002, which was then changed to "Super 62" in 2002, lasting until early 2004. From 1998 to 2000, WASV airedsporting eventsfromCBSandNBCthat those networks' local affiliates WSPA andWYFF(channel 4) preempted in favor of regional college sports, breaking news or severe weather coverage, annualtelethons,or other local programming.
The WB affiliation moved to rival WBSC (channel 40, nowWMYA-TV) on September 6, 1999, and WASV became a full-time UPN station, branding as "UPN 62." WASV continued its LMA with WSPA even after the latter station was sold toMedia Generalin 2000. Channel 62 was purchased by Media General outright in 2002, creating the market's first television duopoly. From 1997 to 1998, WASV signed off nightly from around midnight until 7 a.m. Later in 1998, it began broadcasting 24 hours a day with the addition of a block of programming from theShop at Home Networkduring the overnight hours. In late-2005/early 2006, the station dropped Shop at Home programming, and replaced it with a mix of off-networksitcomsandcourt showsin the overnight during the week, and off-networkdramasand sitcoms as well asmovieson weekends.
On January 24, 2006, theWarner Bros.unit ofTime WarnerandCBS Corporationannounced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[5][6]On March 2, 2006,Sinclair Broadcast Groupannounced that WBSC would become an affiliate of another new network,MyNetworkTV,which launched on September 5. Nearly four weeks later on March 28, it was confirmed WASV would join The CW.
Corresponding with the upcoming network change, the station officially changed its call letters to WYCW on May 22, 2006. However, it continued to use the WASV call sign on-air until UPN officially ceased operations on September 15, 2006. When The CW launched on September 18, the station rebranded itself as "Carolinas CW". In recent years, WYCW has been carried oncablein portions of theColumbia, South Carolina,market, as well in the South Carolina side of theAugusta, Georgia,market (includingAikenandNorth Augusta).[7]
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire theMeredith Corporation,owner of WHNS, for $2.4 billion to form Meredith Media General. Since WSPA and WHNS were among the four highest-rated stations in the market in total day viewership, the merged company would have been required to sell either WSPA or WHNS to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict sharing agreements. WYCW was the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could have been legally acquired by Meredith Media General either by maintaining the existing duopoly with WSPA or by forming a new duopoly with WHNS, as its total day viewership ranks below the top-four ratings threshold.[8][9]That sale was canceled on January 27, 2016, in favor of a sale of Media General to theNexstar Broadcasting Group,and WSPA and WYCW became part of "Nexstar Media Group."[10]The deal was approved by the FCC on January 11, 2017, and it was completed on January 17.[11]
Programming
editWYCW carries the second half-hour of CBS'political discussionprogramFace the Nationon Sunday mornings at 11 a.m., as WSPA only clears the first half-hour of the program (which airs in the half-hour prior to the airing of the second half of the program on channel 62).
WYCW began airingClemson Tigers footballandmen's basketballgames in the 2023–24 academic year as part of The CW's new contract. The games are produced byRaycom Sportsand sublicensed from ESPN.
Newscasts
editWSPA-TV presently produces 16 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for WYCW (with three hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Since the early 2000s, WSPA has produced a nightly prime time newscast for WYCW, currently known as7 News at 10 on CW 62.The newscast, which airs for an hour on weeknights and a half-hour on weekends, competes with an hour-long in-house newscast seen on Fox affiliate WHNS and a half-hour newscast on MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA (the latter of which is produced by WLOS). In the late 2000s, WSPA also began producing a two-hour extension of WSPA's weekday morning newscast for WYCW. Currently known as7 News Daybreak on CW 62,the program airs from 7 to 9 a.m. and competes against the in-house morning newscast on WHNS.
On September 16, 2007, WSPA became the first television station in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market to begin broadcasting its newscasts to high-definition; the WYCW newscasts were included in the upgrade, which introduced a graphics package similar to that used at the time by Media GeneralflagshipWFLA-TVinTampa, Florida.In 2008, news anchor Amy Wood launched the "CW Live Chat" feature during the weeknight edition of the 10 p.m. newscast. At the time, it was one of the first interactive live broadcasts in the United States, with an anchor hosting the chat live while simultaneously anchoring on-air.
In addition to the main studios in Spartanburg, WSPA/WYCW opened a street front studio in downtown Greenville in January 2017. Known as "7 On Main", the studio is located at the corner of Main Street and Falls Park Drive. The stations also operate a news bureau on Main Street/SC 28inAnderson.Nexstar maintains aCapitolbureau in Columbia, coveringstate governmentissues for the company's South Carolina stations.
Technical information
editSubchannels
edit| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WSPA-TV | 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WSPA-HD | CBS |
| 7.3 | 480i | ION | Ion Television | ||
| 40.2 | 480i | 16:9 | TBD | TBD(WMYA-TV) | |
| WYCW | 62.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WYCW-HD | The CW |
| 62.3 | 480i | REWIND | Rewind TV |
On March 1, 2009, WYCW began carrying sister station WSPA-TV on a second digital subchannel, due to the collapse of channel 7's broadcast tower on Hogback Mountain (southwest ofTryon, North Carolina).
On February 2, 2016, WYCW began carryingGetTVon 62.3.[13]In early February 2021,True Crime Networkreplaced Get TV on 62.3, only for that to be replaced byRewind TVon October 20, 2022.
Analog-to-digital conversion
editWYCW discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHFchannel 62, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45,[14]usingvirtual channel62.
As part of theSAFER Act,[15]WYCW kept its analog signal on the air until March 3 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcementsfrom theNational Association of Broadcasters.
Spectrum share with WSPA-TV
editOn April 13, 2017, the FCC identified WYCW will be compensated $45.6 million to have its digital channel 45 go off-the-air as part of thespectrum auction.[16]On April 1, 2018, WYCW moved their digital broadcasts to subchannels of WSPA-TV while retaining channel 62 as their virtual channel. WYCW did not have to change itscity of license,as WSPA'sover-the-airsignal completely covers Asheville.
References
edit- ^"Facility Technical Data for WYCW".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"WISE-TV Has Debut On Air".Asheville Citizen.August 2, 1953. p. 14.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^"Telecasts By WLOS To Start Today".Asheville Citizen.September 18, 1954. p. 14.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^"First Cable TV Service Expected Here By Feb. 1, Thoms Announces".Asheville Citizen.November 2, 1967. p. 45.RetrievedJune 8,2020.
- ^'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September,CNNMoney.com,January 24, 2006.
- ^UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network,The New York Times,January 24, 2006.
- ^"SVTV Stations - the things you care that others won't".Archived fromthe originalon May 2, 2012.RetrievedSeptember 9,2012.
- ^"Media General Acquiring Meredith For 2.4 Billion".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. September 8, 2015.
- ^Cynthia Littleton (September 8, 2015)."TV Station Mega Merger: Media General Sets $2.4 Billion Acquisition of Meredith Corp".Variety.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedSeptember 9,2015.
- ^"Nexstar Agrees to Buy Media General for $4.6B".January 27, 2016.
- ^"Nexstar Broadcasting Group Completes Acquisition of Media General Creating Nexstar Media Group, The Nation's Second Largest Television Broadcaster".Nexstar Media Group.January 17, 2017.RetrievedJanuary 17,2017.
- ^"RabbitEars TV Query for WSPA".RabbitEars.info.Archivedfrom the original on April 24, 2023.RetrievedApril 24,2023.
- ^"GetTV in Multi-Market Deal with Media General | TVNewsCheck.com".Archived fromthe originalon August 19, 2017.RetrievedFebruary 3,2016.
- ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"(PDF).RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
- ^"UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009.RetrievedJune 4,2012.
- ^"FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission. April 13, 2017. p. 1.RetrievedApril 13,2017.