WREG-TV

WREG-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WATN-TV (channel 24) and CW owned-and-operated station WLMT (channel 30). WREG-TV's studios are located on Channel 3 Drive near the Mississippi River on the west side of Memphis, and its transmitter is located near Bartlett, Tennessee.

History

The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1956, as WREC-TV, and began regular broadcasts the following day on January 2. It was originally owned by electrical engineer and radio dealer Hoyt Wooten (who had applied for one of the first television licenses in the country in 1928), along with WREC radio (600 AM and 102.7 FM, now WEGR). The call letters stood for Wooten's radio store, the Wooten Radio-Electric Company, where he had founded WREC radio in 1922. It took the CBS affiliation from WHBQ-TV (channel 13, which had been a CBS affiliate since it started in September 1953), as WREC-AM had been a CBS Radio affiliate since 1929.

Programming

From its September 1997 debut until December 2024, WREG preempted CBS Saturday Morning in order to air a three-hour Saturday morning newscast in its place. WREG preempts the Sunday edition of the CBS Weekend News in order to air an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast. It is one of the few stations that preempt a big three network evening newscast (the hour-long early evening newscast inventories of Norfolk NBC affiliate WAVY-TV and Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD-TV, sister stations of WREG, are also limited in a similar fashion). Over the years, WREG has produced many local programs, such as News Channel 3 Knowledge Bowl and Mid-South Outdoors (later known as News Channel 3 Outdoors). The station also currently produces Live at 9, a weekday morning program that maintains a talk show-style format and the public affairs program Informed Sources, which airs on Saturday evenings and sometimes Sunday nights and discusses current local issues.

Throughout the early 1960s into the late 1980s, WREC/WREG claimed to possess the largest feature film library of any television station in the United States, which was evidenced in its daily (late afternoons and late nights) and weekend programming lineup at the time. The station used some of those features for theme weeks (such as "Godzilla Week" and "John Wayne Week"), which proved to be very popular with viewers. However, like most major network affiliates in the early 1980s, WREG-TV began cutting back on the large number of movies that occupied much of its off-network schedule, a move prompted by the presence of cable, VCRs, and the emergence of then-independent competitors WPTY (channel 24, now ABC affiliate WATN-TV) in 1978 and WMKW (channel 30, now CW affiliate WLMT) in 1983.

News operation

The station presently broadcasts 43 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, 4 1/2 hours on Saturdays and 3 1/2 hours on Sundays).

On June 13, 2011, beginning with the 10 p.m. newscast, WREG-TV became the third station in the Memphis market (behind WMC-TV and WHBQ-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The switch came with a refresh of the newsroom set and new graphics, however major technical glitches occurred during the week following the conversion. In mid-2011, the WREG news studio received a major overhaul with the unveiling of a "newsplex" set (designed by FX Group) that occupies a large studio with loft areas and continues into a smaller newsroom area in the back and includes numerous live areas and a set for the Live at 9 program.

callsign	WREG-TV
branding	WREG News Channel 3
digital	28 (UHF)
virtual	3
affiliations	3.1: CBS 3.2: News Channel 3 Anytime 3.3: Antenna TV
owner	Nexstar Media Group
licensee	Tribune Broadcasting Company II LLC
location	Memphis, Tennessee
country	United States
airdate	January 1, 1956
callsign meaning	Variation of original calls, which stood for the Wooten Radio and Electric Company‡R1R‡
sister stations	WATN-TV, WLMT
former callsigns	WREC-TV (1956–1975)
former channel numbers	Analog: 3 (VHF, 1956–2009)
erp	906 kW
haat	313 m
facility id	66174
coordinates	35.18111°N, -89.83222°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://wreg.com/

History

Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar

Programming

News operation

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

Out-of-market coverage

External links

References