WCTI-TV

WCTI-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to New Bern, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC and Fox affiliate for Eastern North Carolina. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greenville-licensed WYDO (channel 14). The two stations share studios on Glenburnie Drive in New Bern; WCTI-TV's transmitter is located north of Trenton along NC 41.

History

Nathan Frank, a businessman from Henderson, had filed an application for channel 13 in New Bern in 1954. However, final approval was delayed for almost seven years due to numerous challenges. The Army, Navy and Air Force were concerned that the proposed 771 ft tower on Glenburnie Drive would interfere with the operations of the numerous military installations located in Eastern North Carolina. Several commercial airlines and pilot associations also expressed concerns about the tower.

A new problem arose in 1958, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped in a channel 13 allocation in Hampton, Virginia, to give the Hampton Roads area a third VHF station; WVEC-TV moved there from channel 15 shortly afterward.

News operation

In terms of Nielsen ratings, eastern North Carolina is usually not very competitive during sweeps periods. Historically, NBC affiliate WITN-TV (channel 7) has generally traded the highest viewership crown with WCTI and CBS affiliate WNCT-TV (channel 9). In July 2008, WNCT became the most watched television station in the market after taking first place weeknights at 6 and 11. However, since then, that station has fallen to third place weeknights at 6. As of May 2010, WITN has won the sign-on-to-sign-off honors for two consecutive ratings periods. More specifically, it won all time periods except for the weekday noon news.[9]

In January 2008, after becoming a sister station to WFXI/WYDO, WCTI began repeating its nightly 6 o'clock show later in the evening at 10 on the Fox stations. It would not be until the month's end when a new live, nightly prime time newscast (produced by WCTI) debuted on WFXI/WYDO. Known as Fox Eastern Carolina News at 10, the show can be seen for an hour on weeknights and a half-hour on weekends. WNCT offers another newscast at 10 on its CW-affiliated subchannel. Unlike the WFXI/WYDO weeknight program, WNCT's prime time broadcast only airs for thirty minutes each night. As part of debuting the WCTI-produced newscast, WFXI/WYDO introduced an updated graphics package and news music theme licensed for use from News Corporation Digital Media and modified from Fox owned-and-operated stations.

On June 27, 2010, WCTI became the area's first television outlet to upgrade its local news production to high definition (the nightly news on WFXI/WYDO was included in the change at that point). On August 15, 2011, WCTI launched a new 5:30 p.m. newscast. With this newest addition, WCTI and sister stations WFXI/WYDO now offer over thirty hours of local news per week.[10] The station does not currently operate a sports department. In addition to its main studios, WCTI operates bureaus in Jacksonville (on South Marine Boulevard/US 17 BUS) and Winterville (on Old Tar Road covering Greenville).

callsign	WCTI-TV
city	New Bern, North Carolina
branding	News 12 Now Fox Eastern Carolina (12.2)
digital	10 (VHF)
virtual	12
affiliations	12.1: ABC 12.2: Fox for others, see
airdate	September 7, 1963
location	New Bern–Greenville–Washington– Jacksonville, North Carolina
country	United States
callsign meaning	former owner Continental Television, Inc.
former callsigns	WNBE-TV (1963–1970) WCTI-TV (1970–1982) WCTI (1982–1983)
former channel numbers	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1963–2009) Digital: 48 (UHF, 2000–2009), 12 (VHF, 2009–2020)
owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
licensee	WCTI Licensee, LLC
sister stations	WYDO
erp	34.2 kW
haat	599.1 m
facility id	18334
coordinates	35.10444°N, -77.33639°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://wcti12.com/

History

News operation

Subchannels

External links

References