Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television station
WFMY-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Phillips Avenue in Greensboro and a transmitter in Randleman, North Carolina.
WFMY began broadcasting in 1949; it was the second television station in North Carolina after WBTV in Charlotte and the first to originate a live broadcast. It was owned by the Greensboro News Company, publishers of the Greensboro Daily News and Daily Record. It aired programming from all major networks in its early years, when it was the only station in the Triad, though it was always primarily a CBS affiliate. WFMY became the highest-rated station in the market and the traditional ratings leader, with such regionally popular local shows as The Old Rebel Show and The Good Morning Show. Beginning in the late 1990s, sharper competition from the other major stations in the market has reduced and at times eliminated the lead WFMY-TV once had.
Early yearsEdit
ConstructionEdit
The Greensboro News Company, publisher of the Greensboro Daily News and Daily Record newspapers, began its foray into broadcasting with FM radio. On January 8, 1947, ground was broken on a tower for a new FM radio station, WFMY, near the Daily News building on Davie Street.<ref name="News470109">Template:Cite news</ref> Construction proceeded slowly; the tower was not completed until December,<ref name="News471218">Template:Cite news</ref> and WFMY made its first broadcast on March 14, 1948,<ref name="News480315">Template:Cite news</ref> on 97.3 MHz.<ref name="News480310">Template:Cite news</ref>
A month before WFMY radio debuted, the Greensboro News Company applied on February 26, 1948, for authority to build a television station.<ref name="Gree480227">Template:Cite news</ref> The Federal Communications Commission approved the request on June 2,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but preparations for the new station began in earnest in April 1949, after final construction approval for changes.<ref name="News490819">Template:Cite news</ref> Among the last items was a modification to the existing WFMY radio tower, which was set back by the failure of a cable, causing the antenna to drop and be damaged.<ref name="News490802">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="News490811">Template:Cite news</ref>
WFMY-TV made its first test broadcasts on August 18, 1949. At 6:10 p.m., viewers saw staff announcer Don Hardison; the newscast did not start correctly with sound, and the first words viewers heard Hardison say were "Judas Priest".<ref name="News991213">Template:Cite news</ref> This was the first live television broadcast in North Carolina; while WBTV in Charlotte was already on the air, it lacked the capability to originate local broadcasts.<ref name="Stat490819">Template:Cite news</ref> Full programming began on September 22, 1949, and the station initially aired six days a week, going off the air every Saturday.<ref name="Gree490923">Template:Cite news</ref> WFMY-TV was a primary affiliate of CBS,<ref name="News490617">Template:Cite news</ref> but it had arrangements to use programming from all four networks of the day, including NBC, ABC, and DuMont Television Network.<ref name="Gree490628">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Chap490812">Template:Cite news</ref> Network programs were presented by kinescopes—filmed recordings of telecasts as seen in New York—until September 1950, when network coaxial cable service reached Greensboro.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> WFMY radio closed on April 19, 1953, with its studio space and personnel absorbed into the growing television operation.<ref name="News530331">Template:Cite news</ref>
WFMY and WBTV were the only authorized television stations in North Carolina prior to the FCC's freeze on new television station awards, which lasted from October 1948 to July 1952.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="BC520415">Template:Cite news</ref> As a result, channel 2 was the first television station to provide dependable service not only to the Triad but areas of east-central North Carolina; this included Durham and the state capital, Raleigh, which did not get a local station until July 1953. Even then, WNAO-TV was an ultra high frequency (UHF) station and required a converter to view, so many households in Raleigh continued to mostly watch WFMY<ref name="News790930">Template:Cite news</ref> until WTVD began in Durham in September 1954.<ref name="Hera810426">Template:Cite news</ref> The end of the freeze also brought new stations to the Triad. WFMY-TV became a sole CBS affiliate in September 1953 when two new stations went on the air in Winston-Salem. First on air was WTOB-TV (channel 26), an affiliate of ABC and DuMont,<ref name="Wins660410">Template:Cite news</ref> followed by NBC affiliate WSJS-TV (now WXII-TV) on channel 12.<ref name="Wins531001">Template:Cite news</ref> WTOB-TV closed in 1957, and channels 2 and 12 split ABC programming<ref name="Wins620412">Template:Cite news</ref> until WGHP began on channel 8 in 1963.<ref name="Wins631015">Template:Cite news</ref>
New studios and new programmingEdit
Beginning at the end of 1953, WFMY-TV built new facilities and a new tower, Template:Convert high plus a Template:Convert antenna, at its present studio site at Phillips and Summit avenues.<ref name="News531231">Template:Cite news</ref> The new building was six times larger than the Template:Convert facility on Davie Street and boasted two studios, each larger than the original studio of Template:Convert.<ref name="News540322">Template:Cite news</ref> The station moved to the new studios on January 2, 1955, and simultaneously increased its power to the maximum of 100,000 watts.<ref name="Gree550103">Template:Cite news</ref>
Over the course of the 1950s, WFMY-TV launched three long-running local programs. In 1951, the station debuted the children's show Six-Gun Playhouse. It was hosted by George Perry, who noted a fad of Confederate fashion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and adopted a "Rebel cap" for his character. The Old Rebel Show—filmed before a live studio audience of dozens of children—remained on the station for 26 years, first in afternoons and then in mornings before becoming a weekly Saturday program in its final year.<ref name="Sent770831">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Char801125">Template:Cite news</ref> What's Cooking Today, a cooking series hosted by Cordelia Kelly, ran for 18 years from 1953 to 1971.<ref name="News880114">Template:Cite news</ref>
The third major program in the 1950s came about as the result of a schedule change by CBS. When the network dropped an early incarnation of The Jimmy Dean Show, program director Gomer Lesch sought to fill the 7:30 a.m. slot it vacated with a local program along the lines of a radio morning show. On December 16, 1957, The Good Morning Show debuted, hosted by WFMY-TV announcer Lee Kinard. Over the years, the program evolved from a half-hour show that played music into a morning show with news, weather, sports, and community features. It expanded first to an hour, then 90 minutes and finally two hours in 1971.<ref name="News771211">Template:Cite news</ref> Kinard also hosted a variety show in the afternoon, TV Matinee, that lasted until 1965.Template:R in addition to presenting the weather on WFMY's early evening newscast.<ref name="Stan580919">Template:Cite news</ref>
Landmark and Harte-Hanks ownershipEdit
The Greensboro News Company, its newspapers and WFMY-TV included, were acquired by Norfolk–Portsmouth Newspapers Inc. in a $17.1 million transaction in 1964; half the transaction cost was estimated to represent the television station.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite objections from some FCC commissioners over excessive concentration of media, the deal received approval in December,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Norfolk–Portsmouth Newspapers, now with media interests beyond Virginia, renamed itself Landmark Communications in 1967.<ref name="Gree670202">Template:Cite news</ref>
The Greensboro sit-ins in 1960 spurred changes in the short- and long-term at WFMY-TV as well as the growth of the news department. These changes became visible in the late 1960s and 1970s as the station hired Black presenters and reporters. Fred Davis, hired in December 1968, was the first Black reporter at the station; his wife received death threats for Fred, threatening a reprise of "what happened to Martin Luther King".Template:R Davis left for Michigan, but he recommended television to another graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, Sandra Hughes. Hughes joined in 1972 and two years later was hosting a daily talk show, Sandra & Friends, making her the first African American to host such a program in North Carolina. At times, bomb threats were called into the station; she stayed in the studio as almost everyone else evacuated, keeping the program going.<ref name="News100314">Template:Cite news</ref>
Harte-Hanks Newspapers acquired WFMY-TV from Landmark in a $19 million deal announced in July 1976 and closed in January 1977.<ref name="Cors760702">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Durh770104">Template:Cite news</ref> Old Rebel was canceled by the station, having "run its course".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:R Landmark never gave a specific reason for selling WFMY-TV, but newspaper–broadcast cross-ownership limitations were suggested, as was a concurrent project to build a new printing press for the Greensboro newspapers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When Sandra & Friends ended in 1978, Hughes initially moved to hosting the station's version of PM Magazine.Template:R By this time, the station had cemented itself as the ratings leader; when one survey in 1978 showed WXII ahead of WFMY-TV at 6 p.m., Jerry Kenion of the Greensboro Daily News called it "the first time in recent memory (and perhaps the first time ever)" that WFMY had been surpassed.<ref name="News781221">Template:Cite news</ref> That turned out to be a fluke, even by the admission of WXII management.<ref name="Wins800104">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1981, the station expanded its evening newscast to an hour, the first in North Carolina outside of Charlotte.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1982, when CBS expanded its morning offerings, the weekday edition of the network morning show—then titled Morning—was removed from channel 2's schedule to keep the highly popular The Good Morning Show intact, and WFMY also lost Captain Kangaroo due to the scheduling difference.<ref name="News820119">Template:Cite news</ref>
WFMY-TV built its current tower near Sophia, North Carolina, south of Greensboro, in 1980. The Template:Convert mast cost $3 million to build and was part of a plan to increase the station's coverage area from Template:Convert to Template:Convert. While it provided at least secondary coverage as far east as Laurinburg, North Carolina, it also impaired reception for residents in its shadow.<ref name="Gree800530">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Gree800708">Template:Cite news</ref>
On the evening of September 25, 1984, the station's leased Bell JetRanger news helicopter, "Sky 2", crashed while attempting to assist in the rescue of a construction worker trapped atop a water tower in Kernersville (near Winston-Salem). The tower was being dismantled when a piece of steel snapped and trapped the worker for hours, causing him to bleed profusely; "Sky 2" was called in to assist in the rescue. Pilot Tom Haroski began lowering the chopper above the tower, as an EMS worker on board was preparing to rescue the man. The chopper's tail rotor hit one of the steel beams as it hovered over the tower, sending it spiraling nose-first into the ground, killing Haroski and the rescue worker instantly.<ref name="Sent840926">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Gannett/Tegna ownershipEdit
In 1984, Harte-Hanks underwent a leveraged buyout that saddled it with $700 million in debt. To reduce this load, Harte-Hanks put a number of its divisions up for sale in October 1987, including three newspapers, seven cable systems, and WFMY-TV and WTLV in Jacksonville, Florida.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> That December, Gannett agreed to buy WFMY-TV and WTLV for $155 million.<ref name="BC871207">Template:Cite news</ref> The transaction was completed in February 1988.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> WFMY's first general manager under Gannett, Hank Price, found the station in good condition and not needing any major changes.<ref name="News880229">Template:Cite news</ref> CBS This Morning began airing on tape delay in 1988, running after The Good Morning Show.<ref name="News880808">Template:Cite news</ref>
As late as 1995, WFMY held leads in all time periods where it had newscasts.<ref name="News951216">Template:Cite news</ref> However, its ratings soon came under pressure. Kinard left The Good Morning Show in November 1997 after just under 40 years,<ref name="News971126">Template:Cite news</ref> and the station was experiencing increased competition from WGHP and WXII, to which it responded by updating the look and feel of its newscasts and the format of Good Morning—now airing for three hours—to appeal to younger viewers.<ref name="News980301">Template:Cite news</ref> The 1998 local introduction of people meters for ratings purposes also hurt WFMY by increasing the representation of younger viewers, who were less likely to be loyal to the station.Template:R<ref name="MW000529">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kinard retired from the 6 p.m. newscast in December 1999.<ref name="News991211">Template:Cite news</ref> By then, WXII had come to surpass WFMY at 11 p.m., and WGHP was more competitive in the morning.<ref name="News991209">Template:Cite news</ref> For WXII, this was the result of a strategy over the course of the 1990s to increase its coverage of news events beyond the western Piedmont and into Greensboro, the market's largest city; WGHP, which had made a similar decision, benefited from its 1995 affiliation switch from ABC to Fox. WFMY, with a news viewership described in 2000 as "older and more ethnic",Template:R now found itself in a regularly close ratings race.<ref name="MW020527">Template:Cite news</ref> Hughes retired in 2010, capping a 20-year run as evening anchor at the station, which named its newsroom for her.<ref name="News131104">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2011, under general manager Larry Audas, WFMY revamped its news format, dubbed "News 2.0".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Shortly after, the station launched an expansion of The Good Morning Show to 4:30 a.m.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A new newscast displaced a fixture on channel 2's schedule: the 5:30 p.m. airing of The Andy Griffith Show, which WFMY-TV had aired in that time period for decades.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WFMY was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In December 2019, The Good Morning Show was changed to end at 7 a.m., allowing CBS This Morning to air live for the first time on WFMY; this was part of a larger schedule overhaul that included a 4 p.m. newscast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Notable former on-air staffEdit
- Woody Durham — sports director, 1963–1977<ref name="News890310">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Mike Hogewood — sports director, 1987–2001<ref name="News010531">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Monica Malpass — news researcher, early 1980s<ref name="Stat830419">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Topper Shutt — weekend meteorologist, 1987–1988<ref name="News870730">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="News880903">Template:Cite news</ref>
- Rolonda Watts — reporter, early 1980s<ref name="Char920505">Template:Cite news</ref>
Technical informationEdit
SubchannelsEdit
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WFMY HD | CBS | |
| 2.2 | 480i | Crime | True Crime Network | ||
| 2.3 | Mystery | Ion Mystery | |||
| 2.4 | Quest | Quest | |||
| 2.5 | OPEN | The365 | |||
| 2.6 | Crimes | Outlaw | |||
| 2.7 | QVC | QVC Over the Air | |||
| 2.8 | HSN | HSN |
Analog-to-digital conversionEdit
WFMY-TV began digital broadcasting on April 18, 2002, as the second local station to do so.<ref name="News020419">Template:Cite news</ref> It ended regular programming on its analog signal on June 12, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations.<ref name="Analog to Digital">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 51, using virtual channel 2.<ref name="Wins090614">Template:Cite news</ref> As part of the SAFER Act, WFMY-TV kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.<ref name="FCC Nightlight">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On May 15, 2020, under the provisions of the FCC's spectrum reallocation program, WFMY's transmissions moved to channel 35.<ref name="Repack Table">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
Template:Piedmont Triad TV Template:CBS North Carolina Template:CBS Virginia Template:Tegna