WECT
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Channels | |
Branding | WECT;WECT News |
Programming | |
Affiliations |
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Ownership | |
Owner |
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WSFX-TV | |
History | |
First air date | April 9, 1954 |
Former call signs | WMFD-TV (1954–1958) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call signmeaning | We're Eastern Carolina Television |
Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 48666 |
ERP | 550kW |
HAAT | 592.2 m (1,943 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 34°7′54″N78°11′16″W/ 34.13167°N 78.18778°W |
Translator(s) |
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Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WECT(channel 6) is atelevision stationinWilmington, North Carolina,United States, affiliated withNBC.It is owned byGray Television,which provides certain services toFoxaffiliateWSFX-TV(channel 26) under ashared servicesagreement (SSA) withAmerican Spirit Media.The two stations share studios onShipyard Boulevardin Wilmington; WECT's transmitter is located nearWinnabow, North Carolina.
History
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/WECT_and_WSFX_Headquarters.jpg/220px-WECT_and_WSFX_Headquarters.jpg)
Channel 6 began broadcasting on April 9, 1954, with the call sign WMFD-TV. It aired ananalogsignal onVHFchannel 6 from a 941-foot (287 m)transmitternearDelco.[2]The station was owned by Atlantic Telecasting Corporation[3]alongside Wilmington's oldest radio station,WMFD.Atlantic Telecasting sold off the radio station in 1958 and changed the television station's calls changed to the current WECT. The callsignWMFD-TVis now used by anindependenttelevision station inMansfield, Ohio.
At its launch, channel 6 was affiliated with all four networks of the day—NBC,CBS,DuMontandABC.However, it has always been a primary NBC affiliate. It lost DuMont when that network went silent in 1956. The station finally got local competition in 1964 whenWWAYsigned on. However, WWAY opted to affiliate with the much weaker ABC, forcing WECT to shoehorn NBC and CBS onto its schedule until the 1970s, when cable arrived in the Wilmington market. It primarily carried CBSsoap operasand CBS' Sunday afternoonNFLcoverage. At one point, this station was carried on cable systems in theTriangleregion of North Carolina (Raleigh,Durham,Fayetteville,andChapel Hill) for a time when NBC did not have a full-time affiliate in thatmarket.At one time, WECT had a Fayetteville news bureau.[4]
In 1969, WECT moved to a 2,000-foot (610 m) tall tower nearWhite Lake—among the tallest east of theMississippi.From the 1970s to the 1980s, WECT was picked up by numerous cable systems from Fayetteville eastward. At one point, it was carried on cable as far west asWadesboroand as far north asGreenville.[5]Due to its longstanding popularity, WECT is still carried on cable systems in the eastern portion of the Triangle market, including Fayetteville andSouthern Pines.It is also available on cable inJacksonville,which is part of the Greenville–Washington–New Bernmarket.
For its first half-century on the air, the station served as the default NBC affiliate for the northern and eastern portions of theFlorence–Myrtle Beach, South Carolinamarket, including Myrtle Beach itself. That market was one of the last on theEast Coastwithout its own NBC affiliate. It was carried on cable as far south asGeorgetown, South Carolina.Well into the 1990s, itidentifiedas "Wilmington–Fayetteville–Myrtle Beach" to acknowledge its viewership in Fayetteville and the Grand Strand. However, WECT's signal was somewhat weak on the North Carolina side of the market, such asLaurinburg.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/WECT.jpg/220px-WECT.jpg)
Atlantic Telecasting sold the station to theNews-Press & Gazette Companyin 1986. That company then sold its entire station group to the first incarnation ofNew Vision Televisionin 1993. New Vision turned around and sold its entire group to Ellis Communications in 1995. Ellis was folded intoRaycom Mediain 1997. In 2006, Raycom bought out theLiberty Corporation,owner of WWAY. However, FCCduopolyrules forced Raycom to spin off WWAY toMorris Multimediaas a condition of the Raycom–Liberty merger.
On May 8, 2008, the FCC announced that five stations in Wilmington (including WECT) had agreed to voluntarily cease analog broadcasting on September 8[6]five months ahead of the February 17, 2009, tentative date for television stations to complete theanalog-to-digital transition.[7][8]The market was used by the FCC as a pre-transition test market.[9]After the digital transition,WGNIradio agreed to air emergency weather information from WECT. Previously, because channel 6 is adjacent to the FM band, its broadcasts could be heard on FM 87.7.[4]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5e/Wect_2009.png/220px-Wect_2009.png)
WECT's coverage has been reduced as a result of the digital transition which left the station onUHF.The move of the station's transmitter by 35 miles (56 km) from south of White Lake toWinnabowleft Fayetteville viewers unable to watch the station over the air.[4][10]The station's former transmitter was located inBladen County,approximately halfway between Wilmington and Fayetteville. While Myrtle Beach itself is just outside the fringe area for the digital signal,North Myrtle Beachis just inside it. The southern and western portions of the Florence–Myrtle Beach market were served by another Raycom station,WISinColumbia.
On August 8, 2008, Raycom signed-onWMBF-TV,a new digital-only NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach covering the2008 Summer OlympicsinBeijingas part of its first network programming.[11]Due to FCC regulations, WECT disappeared from most cable systems in the Florence–Myrtle Beach market when WMBF signed on. For longtime viewers, this was controversial as this station had been on cable systems in Laurinburg and Lumberton for decades. On December 1, 2008, WECT returned to theTime Warner Cablelineup in Lumberton, but was placed in thedigitaltier.
This station is one of the few NBC affiliates that refused to airPoker After Dark.In 2012, Raycom gave the station's defunct analog transmitter site to theGreen BeretFoundation. On September 20, 2012,[12]the tower, which was built in 1969 and was among the tallest man-made structures east of the Mississippi River, wasimploded.At the time it was the tallest-ever man-made structure leveled via explosive demolition.[13]Plans called for the scrap metal and the 77-acre (31 ha) site to be sold to benefit the foundation.[12]
Sale to Gray Television
[edit]On June 25, 2018,Atlanta-basedGray Televisionannounced it had reached an agreement to merge with Raycom, with Gray as the surviving company. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion – in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom – made WECT a sister station to fellow NBC affiliateWITN-TVin Washington. WITN-TV and WECT had briefly been sister stations when Raycom was formed in 1997. However, Raycom was forced to sell WITN to Gray in 1997 because WITN's signal has city-grade quality in the northern portion of the Wilmington market. At the time, theFCCnormally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap.[14][15][16][17]The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019.[18][19]
News operation
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/WECT_and_WSFX.jpg/220px-WECT_and_WSFX.jpg)
On September 22, 2003, through a news share agreement, WECT began producing a nightly half-hour prime time newscast on WSFX (Fox 26 News at 10(nowFox Wilmington News at 10)). This was eventually joined by an sixty-minute extension of WECT's weekday morning show on September 13, 2006, calledCarolina in the Morning on Fox 26(nowCarolina in the Morning on Fox Wilmington), seen from 7 to 8 on WSFX offering an alternative to the national morning shows seen on the market's big three network-affiliated stations.
On August 31, 2008, WECT became Wilmington's first television outlet to upgrade local news production to high definition level and the broadcasts on WSFX were included in the change. At some point in time, WECT added a third newscast to WSFX, under the titleFox 26 News at 6:30(later becameFox Wilmington News at 6:30). It only aired on weeknights and attempted to compete against the national evening newscasts seen on the big three networks. It would be canceled by the end of 2013 in preparation to expand the weeknight edition of the 10 p.m. show to an hour (which occurred on January 15, 2014).
After WWAY stopped producing weekend evening newscasts on August 1, 2009, WECT and WSFX became the only outlets in Wilmington to offer evening broadcasts seen seven nights a week. Although WWAY eventually reintroduced a local newscast airing Sunday nights at 11, WECT and WSFX remain the only channels in the market to air newscasts throughout the weekend. All newscasts on WSFX air from WECT's primary set but with modifiedduratransindicating the Fox-branded shows.
Weekday News
5A-7AM. 7-8AM 12-1PM 4PM
5PM- 6:30PM 7PM 10P-11P 11P- 11:30PM
Saturday 6AM-7AM 8:30A-9:30AM 6PM, 10PM and 11PM
Sunday 9-10AM 6-6:30PM 10PM 11PM
Subchannels
[edit]The station's signal ismultiplexed:
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
6.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WECT DT | NBC |
6.2 | 480i | Bounce | Bounce TV | |
6.3 | The365 | The365/MyNetworkTV | ||
6.4 | LAFF | Laff | ||
6.5 | Escape | Ion Mystery | ||
6.6 | Justice | True Crime Network | ||
6.7 | Oxygen | Oxygen |
Prior to September 26, 2012, WECT-DT2 aired a 24-hour local weather channel with the branding "WECT Plus". The subchannel also aired repeats of the main channel's weeknight 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts as well as local traffic and travel information. Occasionally, other special programming aired on WECT-DT2. From April 15, 2005, until the end of December 2008, WECT-DT2 carried the defunctNBC Weather Plus.WECT replaced the local weather channel withBounce TVon August 18, 2014.
Escape (nowIon Mystery) was added to a new subchannel.
References
[edit]- ^"Facility Technical Data for WECT".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^1962-63 Television Factbook(PDF)(33 ed.). Television Digest, Inc. p. 437.
- ^TV Factbook 1977worldradiohistory.com[dead link]
- ^abcMichael Futch, "No more WECT on radio since transition,"The Fayetteville Observer,March 26, 2009, Business section.
- ^Cable Searchfcc.gov[dead link]
- ^FCC Document[dead link]
- ^FCC Document[dead link]
- ^"WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather - Wilmington Goes Digital First".RetrievedAugust 13,2023.
- ^Alison Lee Satake, "Only 52 days remain until analog television screens in the greater Wilmington region lose their pictures,"Star-News,July 18, 2008, News section.
- ^Catherine Pritchard, "Stations don't have to provide antennas,"The Fayetteville Observer,November 14, 2008, Local & State section.
- ^Wayne Faulkner, "Myrtle Beach gets its own NBC affiliate,"Star-News,August 7, 2008, News section.
- ^abBrooks, Drew (September 21, 2012)."Steel from demolition of TV tower in Bladen County to help Green Beret Foundation".The Fayetteville Observer.RetrievedOctober 16,2012.
- ^Archived atGhostarchiveand theWayback Machine:"WECT (Raycom) Television Tower - NEW WORLD RECORD! - Controlled Demolition, Inc".YouTube.
- ^"GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION".Raycom Media(Press release). June 25, 2018.
- ^Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018)."Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheckMedia.RetrievedJune 25,2018.
- ^Eggerton, John (June 25, 2018)."Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.
- ^Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018)."Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group".Deadline Hollywood.Penske Media Corporation.
- ^"FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger",Broadcasting & Cable,December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^"Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions",Gray Television,January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.
- ^"RabbitEars TV Query for WECT".RabbitEars.info.
External links
[edit]Media related toWECTat Wikimedia Commons