Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
WECT
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==History== [[File:WECT and WSFX Headquarters.jpg|thumb|WECT and WSFX headquarters in Wilmington, North Carolina]] Channel 6 began broadcasting on April 9, 1954, with the call sign WMFD-TV. It aired an [[analog television|analog]] signal on [[VHF]] channel 6 from a {{convert|941|ft|m|0|adj=on}} [[WECT tower|transmitter]] near [[Delco, North Carolina|Delco]].<ref>{{cite book |title=1962-63 Television Factbook |publisher=Television Digest, Inc. |pages=437 |edition=33 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1962-63-TV-Factbook/TV-Factbook-1963-IA-OH.pdf#page=255}}</ref> The station was owned by Atlantic Telecasting Corporation<ref>[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1977-TV-Factbook/601-700-1977-TV-Factbook.pdf TV Factbook 1977] worldradiohistory.com {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref> alongside Wilmington's oldest radio station, [[WMFD (AM)|WMFD]]. Atlantic Telecasting sold off the radio station in 1958 and changed the television station's calls changed to the current WECT. The callsign [[WMFD-TV]] is now used by an [[independent station|independent]] television station in [[Mansfield, Ohio]]. At its launch, channel 6 was affiliated with all four networks of the day—NBC, [[CBS]], [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] and [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]. 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 when [[WWAY]] signed 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 CBS soap operas and CBS' Sunday afternoon [[NFL on CBS|NFL]] coverage. At one point, this station was carried on cable systems in the [[Research Triangle|Triangle]] region of North Carolina ([[Raleigh]], [[Durham, North Carolina|Durham]], [[Fayetteville, North Carolina|Fayetteville]], and [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill]]) for a time when NBC did not have a full-time affiliate in that [[media market|market]]. At one time, WECT had a Fayetteville news bureau.<ref name=Futch/> In 1969, WECT moved to a {{convert|2000|ft|m|0|adj=on}} tall tower near [[White Lake, North Carolina|White Lake]]—among the tallest east of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]]. 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 as [[Wadesboro, North Carolina|Wadesboro]] and as far north as [[Greenville, North Carolina|Greenville]].<ref name="Cable Search">[http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/coals7/forms/search/cableSearchNf.cfm Cable Search] fcc.gov {{dead link|date=August 2023}}</ref> Due to its longstanding popularity, WECT is still carried on cable systems in the eastern portion of the Triangle market, including Fayetteville and [[Southern Pines]]. It is also available on cable in [[Jacksonville, North Carolina|Jacksonville]], which is part of the Greenville–[[Washington, North Carolina|Washington]]–[[New Bern]] market. [[File:WECT.jpg|thumb|WECT and NBC logo on side of studio building]] For its first half-century on the air, the station served as the default NBC affiliate for the northern and eastern portions of the [[Florence, South Carolina|Florence]]–[[Myrtle Beach, South Carolina]] market, including Myrtle Beach itself. That market was one of the last on the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] without its own NBC affiliate. It was carried on cable as far south as [[Georgetown, South Carolina]]. Well into the 1990s, it [[station identification|identified]] as "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 as [[Laurinburg]]. Atlantic Telecasting sold the station to the [[News-Press & Gazette Company]] in 1986. That company then sold its entire station group to the first incarnation of [[New Vision Television]] in 1993. New Vision turned around and sold its entire group to Ellis Communications in 1995. Ellis was folded into [[Raycom Media]] in 1997. In 2006, Raycom bought out the [[Liberty Corporation]], owner of WWAY. However, FCC [[Duopoly (broadcasting)|duopoly]] rules forced Raycom to spin off WWAY to [[Morris Multimedia]] as 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<ref name="FCC release">[https://web.archive.org/web/20111018012840/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-282032A1.pdf FCC Document]</ref> five months ahead of the February 17, 2009, tentative date for television stations to complete the [[DTV transition in the United States|analog-to-digital transition]].<ref name="Analog to Digital">[https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf FCC Document]</ref><ref name="wect.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=8292071&nav=menu157_2|title=WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather - Wilmington Goes Digital First|accessdate=August 13, 2023}}</ref> The market was used by the FCC as a pre-transition test market.<ref>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.</ref> After the digital transition, [[WGNI]] radio 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.<ref name=Futch/> WECT's coverage has been reduced as a result of the digital transition which left the station on [[UHF]]. The move of the station's transmitter by {{convert|35|mi|km|0}} from south of White Lake to [[Winnabow]] left Fayetteville viewers unable to watch the station over the air.<ref name=Futch>Michael Futch, "No more WECT on radio since transition," ''The Fayetteville Observer'', March 26, 2009, Business section.</ref><ref>Catherine Pritchard, "Stations don't have to provide antennas," ''The Fayetteville Observer'', November 14, 2008, Local & State section.</ref> The station's former transmitter was located in [[Bladen County]], approximately halfway between Wilmington and Fayetteville. While Myrtle Beach itself is just outside the fringe area for the digital signal, [[North Myrtle Beach]] is just inside it. The southern and western portions of the Florence–Myrtle Beach market were served by another Raycom station, [[WIS (TV)|WIS]] in [[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]]. On August 8, 2008, Raycom signed-on [[WMBF-TV]], a new digital-only NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach covering the [[2008 Summer Olympics]] in Beijing as part of its first network programming.<ref>Wayne Faulkner, "Myrtle Beach gets its own NBC affiliate," ''[[Star-News]]'', August 7, 2008, News section.</ref> 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 the [[Time Warner Cable]] lineup in Lumberton, but was placed in the [[digital cable|digital]] tier. In 2012, Raycom gave the station's defunct analog transmitter site to the [[Green Berets|Green Beret]] Foundation. On September 20, 2012,<ref name=Brooks/> the tower, which was built in 1969 and was among the tallest man-made structures east of the Mississippi River, was [[Implosion (mechanical process)|imploded]]. At the time it was the tallest-ever man-made structure leveled via explosive demolition.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/hPmXEuSHwKY Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120921181250/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPmXEuSHwKY&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPmXEuSHwKY| title = WECT (Raycom) Television Tower - NEW WORLD RECORD! - Controlled Demolition, Inc | date = September 21, 2012 | via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Plans called for the scrap metal and the {{convert|77|acre|ha|0|adj=on}} site to be sold to benefit the foundation.<ref name=Brooks>{{cite news |url=http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/09/20/1205507|title=Steel from demolition of TV tower in Bladen County to help Green Beret Foundation|last=Brooks|first=Drew|work=[[The Fayetteville Observer]]|date=September 21, 2012|access-date=October 16, 2012}}</ref> ===Sale to Gray Television=== [[File:Wect 2009.png|thumb|WECT logo from 2001 to 2020. An earlier variant was used from 1995 to 2001.]] On June 25, 2018, [[Atlanta]]-based [[Gray Television]] announced 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 affiliate [[WITN-TV]] in 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, the [[FCC]] normally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap.<ref>{{cite press release|title=GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION|url=https://www.raycommedia.com/gray-and-raycom-to-combine-in-a-3-6-billion-transaction/#amnewsers|website=[[Raycom Media]]|date=June 25, 2018}}</ref><ref name="graycom">{{cite web|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/114556/gray-to-buy-raycom-for-36-billion|title=Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion|last=Miller|first=Mark K.|work=TVNewsCheck|publisher=NewsCheckMedia|date=June 25, 2018|access-date=June 25, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B|url=https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/gray-buying-raycom-for-3-6b|first=John|last=Eggerton|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|publisher=NewBay Media|date=June 25, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group|url=https://deadline.com/2018/06/grey-acquiring-raycom-for-3-65-billion-forming-no-3-local-tv-group-1202416667/|first=Dade|last=Hayes|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|date=June 25, 2018}}</ref> The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019.<ref>[https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/fcc-ok-with-gray-raycom-merger "FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger"], [[Broadcasting & Cable]], December 20, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://gray.tv/uploads/documents/pressreleases/Press%20Release%20re%20Completion%20of%20Raycom%20Acquisition.pdf "Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions"], [[Gray Television]], January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2019.</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)