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WCNC-TV
WCNC-TV (channel 36, cable channel 6) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WCNC-TV's studios are located in the Wood Ridge Center office complex off Billy Graham Parkway (Route 4), just east of the Billy Graham Library in south Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in north-central Gaston County.
Channel 36 was established as WCTU-TV, an independent television station, in 1967. After falling into receivership brought on by severe economic hardship, WCTU was purchased by Atlanta broadcast pioneer Ted Turner. Renamed WRET-TV, the station's fortunes turned around and thrived throughout the 1970s. WRET became Charlotte's NBC affiliate in 1978 following WSOC-TV's switch from NBC to ABC, launching local newscasts. Turner sold WRET to Westinghouse Broadcasting in 1979 to raise capital for his new venture CNN; as WPCQ-TV, the station struggled with limited resources, frequently preempting NBC fare—including the NBC Nightly News—and was used to develop talent for other stations in the Group W chain. Spun off to local ownership in 1984, WPCQ's status with NBC remained uncertain despite substantial technical upgrades and a reinvestment in local news. Purchased by The Providence Journal Company in 1988, the Belo Corporation in 1996, and Tegna Inc. predecessor Gannett in 2013, the station was renamed WCNC-TV in 1989 and has generally been Charlotte's third-rated television station since.
The first station to operate on UHF channel 36 in Charlotte signed on the air January 5, 1954, as WAYS-TV; that station was sold and changed its call letters to WQMC-TV on January 24, 1955. Charlotte's second television station, WAYS-TV/WQMC-TV did not make any headway against WBTV (channel 3) because television set manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability at the time; this would not change until Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1961. It ceased operations in March 1955. A plan to return it to the air as WUTV under reconstituted ownership in 1957 was unsuccessful, but it aired educational programming from 1961 to 1963. Cy Bahakel bought the station in 1964 and returned it to the air as WCCB, which broadcast on channel 36 before moving to UHF channel 18 in November 1966.
The current incarnation of channel 36 signed on the air on July 9, 1967, as WCTU-TV. Dr. Harold W. Twisdale, a dentist from Charlotte, and Washington, D.C.–based engineer David L. Steel were the leaders of the original ownership group, operating as Charlotte Telecasters Inc. (The station had intended to take the call letters WCTI, but citing potential confusion, local educational station WTVI successfully objected; the U stood for UHF.) WCTU was North Carolina's first independent station, beating Hickory-based WHKY-TV (channel 14) to the air by eight months.
Twisdale and Steel were the lead investors in other planned UHF stations; though construction permits were never built for stations in Memphis and Richmond and the group lost out on channel 28 in Durham, WCTU-TV and WATU-TV (later WAGT) in Augusta, Georgia, made it to air. WATU-TV was a profitable operation; in comparison, debts incurred in starting WCTU-TV would prompt Twisdale to shelve his Memphis and Richmond plans.
WCTU was initially a low-budget independent station operating about eight hours a day from 3 to 11 p.m. It ran a lineup of some very old movies, westerns, some comedy shows from the early 1950s, and public affairs shows. The station, which operated from studios on Hood Road in the Hickory Grove neighborhood of Charlotte, had very modern equipment for the time and broadcast some shows and movies in color, as well as all of its local programming in color.
The station hit hard times financially in 1969. In July, equipment supplier Ampex filed two lawsuits seeking $1.3 million from WCTU-TV for failing to pay for products it had purchased from them. Film distributor National Telefilm Associates had also sued channel 36 for $80,000 for breaching a film rental contract. That September, a court placed WCTU into receivership, though it continued to broadcast. Stating that "we feel there have been combined forces which hinder our operation", Twisdale foreshadowed a years-long antitrust case against the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, owner of WBTV, which was not fully dismissed until 1977.
Channel 36 found a buyer in February 1970: Atlanta broadcasting mogul Ted Turner, who purchased WCTU through Turner Broadcasting of North Carolina for $1.25 million. Turner had scouted out buying equipment from the bankrupt station but decided instead to buy the whole operation. At the time, he owned just one other television property, WJRJ-TV in his hometown Atlanta, as well as three radio stations in other southeastern cities. Turner renamed the station WRET-TV—using the initials of his full name, Robert Edward Turner III—in July and instituted a new and expanded program lineup in August. Just two programs, wrestling and the music video program The Now Explosion, were retained.
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WCNC-TV
WCNC-TV (channel 36, cable channel 6) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WCNC-TV's studios are located in the Wood Ridge Center office complex off Billy Graham Parkway (Route 4), just east of the Billy Graham Library in south Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in north-central Gaston County.
Channel 36 was established as WCTU-TV, an independent television station, in 1967. After falling into receivership brought on by severe economic hardship, WCTU was purchased by Atlanta broadcast pioneer Ted Turner. Renamed WRET-TV, the station's fortunes turned around and thrived throughout the 1970s. WRET became Charlotte's NBC affiliate in 1978 following WSOC-TV's switch from NBC to ABC, launching local newscasts. Turner sold WRET to Westinghouse Broadcasting in 1979 to raise capital for his new venture CNN; as WPCQ-TV, the station struggled with limited resources, frequently preempting NBC fare—including the NBC Nightly News—and was used to develop talent for other stations in the Group W chain. Spun off to local ownership in 1984, WPCQ's status with NBC remained uncertain despite substantial technical upgrades and a reinvestment in local news. Purchased by The Providence Journal Company in 1988, the Belo Corporation in 1996, and Tegna Inc. predecessor Gannett in 2013, the station was renamed WCNC-TV in 1989 and has generally been Charlotte's third-rated television station since.
The first station to operate on UHF channel 36 in Charlotte signed on the air January 5, 1954, as WAYS-TV; that station was sold and changed its call letters to WQMC-TV on January 24, 1955. Charlotte's second television station, WAYS-TV/WQMC-TV did not make any headway against WBTV (channel 3) because television set manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability at the time; this would not change until Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1961. It ceased operations in March 1955. A plan to return it to the air as WUTV under reconstituted ownership in 1957 was unsuccessful, but it aired educational programming from 1961 to 1963. Cy Bahakel bought the station in 1964 and returned it to the air as WCCB, which broadcast on channel 36 before moving to UHF channel 18 in November 1966.
The current incarnation of channel 36 signed on the air on July 9, 1967, as WCTU-TV. Dr. Harold W. Twisdale, a dentist from Charlotte, and Washington, D.C.–based engineer David L. Steel were the leaders of the original ownership group, operating as Charlotte Telecasters Inc. (The station had intended to take the call letters WCTI, but citing potential confusion, local educational station WTVI successfully objected; the U stood for UHF.) WCTU was North Carolina's first independent station, beating Hickory-based WHKY-TV (channel 14) to the air by eight months.
Twisdale and Steel were the lead investors in other planned UHF stations; though construction permits were never built for stations in Memphis and Richmond and the group lost out on channel 28 in Durham, WCTU-TV and WATU-TV (later WAGT) in Augusta, Georgia, made it to air. WATU-TV was a profitable operation; in comparison, debts incurred in starting WCTU-TV would prompt Twisdale to shelve his Memphis and Richmond plans.
WCTU was initially a low-budget independent station operating about eight hours a day from 3 to 11 p.m. It ran a lineup of some very old movies, westerns, some comedy shows from the early 1950s, and public affairs shows. The station, which operated from studios on Hood Road in the Hickory Grove neighborhood of Charlotte, had very modern equipment for the time and broadcast some shows and movies in color, as well as all of its local programming in color.
The station hit hard times financially in 1969. In July, equipment supplier Ampex filed two lawsuits seeking $1.3 million from WCTU-TV for failing to pay for products it had purchased from them. Film distributor National Telefilm Associates had also sued channel 36 for $80,000 for breaching a film rental contract. That September, a court placed WCTU into receivership, though it continued to broadcast. Stating that "we feel there have been combined forces which hinder our operation", Twisdale foreshadowed a years-long antitrust case against the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, owner of WBTV, which was not fully dismissed until 1977.
Channel 36 found a buyer in February 1970: Atlanta broadcasting mogul Ted Turner, who purchased WCTU through Turner Broadcasting of North Carolina for $1.25 million. Turner had scouted out buying equipment from the bankrupt station but decided instead to buy the whole operation. At the time, he owned just one other television property, WJRJ-TV in his hometown Atlanta, as well as three radio stations in other southeastern cities. Turner renamed the station WRET-TV—using the initials of his full name, Robert Edward Turner III—in July and instituted a new and expanded program lineup in August. Just two programs, wrestling and the music video program The Now Explosion, were retained.