WSOC-TV

WSOC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It shows shows from ABC and Telemundo. The station is owned by Cox Media Group with another station, WAXN-TV (channel 64), licensed in Kannapolis.

Both stations share their studios on West 23rd Street, north of downtown Charlotte. The tower for WSOC-TV is located near Reedy Creek Park in the Newell part of the city.

History

WSOC-TV began broadcasting on April 28, 1957, as Charlotte's third television station. It was first owned by the Jones family and shared studios with WSOC radio. It mainly showed NBC shows but also some ABC programs.

Over time, WSOC changed which network it worked with several times. It became only an NBC station in 1967, then switched back to ABC in 1978. In 1996, WSOC partnered with another station, WKAY-TV, which later became WAXN-TV, to show extra programs. Cox Media Group fully bought WAXN in 1999.

In 2019, Apollo Global Management bought Cox Media Group, which kept running the stations. Recently, WSOC has also shown some Charlotte Hornets basketball games.

News operation

WSOC-TV shows more than 37 hours of local news every week. It airs news on weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The station also makes extra news for its sister station, WAXN-TV. Since the 1970s, WSOC-TV has called its news “Eyewitness News”.

In 1981, a popular anchor from another station joined WSOC-TV. This helped the station become a leader in news for many years. In 2007, WSOC-TV was the first in its area to broadcast news in high definition. Since 2010, it has also created special morning news programs for WAXN-TV.

Technical information

Subchannels

WSOC-TV broadcasts on multiple channels. In 2017, it began showing Telemundo on channel 9.2. Another channel called Laff moved to a different station. In 2022, GetTV also moved to WSOC-TV on channel 9.3.

Analog to digital conversion

WSOC-TV stopped its old style broadcasts on June 12, 2009, and switched to digital. Its digital signal stayed on channel 34 before moving to channel 19 in 2019. Some viewers needed special antennas to get the station after this change.

NextGen TV

WSOC-TV started using NextGen TV technology on June 29, 2021.

Translators

Even though WSOC-TV has a strong signal, some areas lost coverage after the switch to digital. The station uses three smaller transmitters to help cover these areas. One started in Valdese in 2009, another in Shelby in 2010, and a third in Statesville in 2012.

W26FA-D Marion

  Broadcast on behalf of another station

WSOC-CR Shelby

WSOC-ST Statesville

Out-of-market cable and DirecTV carriage

WSOC-TV can be seen on cable outside the Charlotte area. It is available in places like the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point region in North Carolina, and in Greenville and Florence–Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. It is also found in the Tri-Cities area in Tennessee and Virginia. You can also watch it on DirecTV in some counties in the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point area.