WJKA: CBS for Wilmington
In 1981, two groups applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new television station on channel 29 in Wilmington. Cape Fear Television proposed a CBS affiliate, while Wilmington Telecasters—a consortium of North Carolina businessmen including Robinson and Katherine Everett—originally proposed an independent station similar to a sister property, WGGT in Greensboro, North Carolina.[3] Wilmington lacked a CBS affiliate; local cable providers rebroadcast either WBTW from Florence, South Carolina, or WTVD from Durham, North Carolina, to their subscribers. The two parties reached an agreement, approved in April 1982, that granted Wilmington's application and gave Cape Fear Television an option to purchase a 30-percent stake.[4] Wilmington Telecasters in turn successfully petitioned the FCC to change its channel allocation from 29 to 26.[5]
By March 1984, Wilmington Telecasters's station had made several steps forward. It took the call sign WJKA, drawing from the initials of its attorney in Washington, D.C., which was said to be temporary and likely to change for launch. In addition, Wilmington Telecasters had signed a network affiliation agreement with CBS and agreed to share the tower of ABC affiliate WWAY near Bolivia, North Carolina.[6] The new station selected a site on Oleander Drive to build its studios.[7] After delays attributable to construction and Hurricane Diana, WJKA signed on September 24, 1984. Its main immediate effect was to make available CBS and a variety of syndicated programs previously only available to households with cable. WJKA debuted without local newscasts,[8] largely because it expected viewers to stick with the long-established and familiar news offerings of WWAY and WECT, but eased its way into local programming. Its first effort was Midday, a noontime news and talk show that debuted in January 1986.[9]
In October 1988, Wilmington Telecasters agreed to sell the station to Park Communications, which proposed to operate WJKA as a semi-satellite of WNCT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Greenville, North Carolina. Park announced plans to expand local programming at WJKA and add coverage of Wilmington events to WNCT-TV's newscasts.[11] This was not enough to prevent protests from WWAY, as well as WNCT-TV's northeastern North Carolina competitors, WITN-TV and WCTI-TV.[12] The stations contended that the signals of WNCT-TV and WJKA had excessive overlap in five counties and that the combination would create unfair competition as it would be cheaper to run and serve two television markets; Park countered, noting that WJKA was challenged competing with WECT and WWAY and that no other buyer had emerged who could make necessary signal upgrades.[13] The FCC ruled in November 1989 that it was unlikely to approve Park's purchase of WJKA, finding that the transaction would effectively take away a full-service TV station from Wilmington and that WJKA had made progress in reducing its annual losses.[14]
WJKA management was then able to move ahead with a project that had been slated since 1987: starting a news department.[15] The station made a second attempt at local newscasts beginning March 5, 1990, this time competing at 6 and 11 p.m.[16] Action News 26 sought to differentiate itself from WECT and WWAY by emphasizing Wilmington metro-area news, largely matching its smaller coverage area and fewer resources.[17] The news department was led by Tedd O'Donnell, who had worked for 15 years at WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin.[18] Ratings surveys showed that the newscasts had few viewers. In May 1990, at 6 p.m., WJKA had a 3% share in the full area of dominant influence (ADI) and a 7% share in the metro area of New Hanover and Brunswick counties. By comparison, WECT—the traditional full-market leader—had a 42% ADI share and 27% metro share, and WWAY—the regular ratings leader in Wilmington proper—had a 29% ADI share and 51% metro share.[19] The November survey showed no improvement, and WJKA discontinued Action News 26 after the December 21st 1990 broadcast, laying off 20 employees, which was about half the staff.
