WNCN

WNCN (channel 17) is a television station in Goldsboro, North Carolina, serving the Research Triangle area as a CBS affiliate. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group and has its studios on Front Street in north Raleigh, with its transmitter in Auburn, North Carolina.

The station began in 1988 as an independent station called WYED, operating from Clayton, North Carolina. In 1994, it was bought by Outlet Communications and became the area's NBC affiliate in 1995, replacing WRDC and adopting the WNCN call sign. NBC owned the station for over ten years before selling it to Media General in 2006.

In 2016, WNCN switched from NBC to become the new CBS affiliate for the Triangle market on February 29, swapping places with WRAL-TV, which became the new NBC affiliate.

History

In 1983, three groups wanted to build a TV station on channel 17 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The Federal Communications Commission chose Group H Broadcasting in 1984.

The station started broadcasting on April 11, 1988, as WYED. It mainly showed programming from the Home Shopping Network, along with some religious and other shows. Three months later, it was sold to Beasley, which was a large radio company. The station's original studios were in Clayton, North Carolina.

In 1994, Beasley sold WYED to Outlet Communications. Outlet changed the station's call sign to WNCN and made it an NBC affiliate in 1995. The station moved its studios to Raleigh and began producing local news.

In 2006, NBC sold WNCN to Media General. In 2016, WNCN switched from NBC to CBS. In 2017, Nexstar Broadcasting Group bought Media General, becoming the new owner of WNCN. After switching to CBS, the station changed its branding to "CBS North Carolina" and its newscasts to "North Carolina News".

News operation

After Outlet bought the station and became an NBC affiliate, they began hiring for a news team even before changing the station's call letters. In November 1994, they advertised in Electronic Media for news anchors, weather anchors, and other staff. On September 4, 1995, NCN News started with evening newscasts at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. The news style was relaxed and informal, with anchors wearing clothes from Banana Republic and no special sports anchor. Only one of the four main presenters had worked in the area before, though meteorologist Lisa Spencer came from The Weather Channel.

At first, not many people watched. By June, they added morning and 6 p.m. newscasts, but ratings stayed low. In 2003, a controversial weather segment led to changes in leadership. Ratings improved under new leadership, though they remained third. In 2006, they brought back the 7 p.m. newscast and moved syndicated shows to 5 p.m. In 2010, they became the first to start morning news at 4:30 a.m. When WNCN switched to CBS, the newscasts were renamed North Carolina News. Over the years, there have been many changes in schedule and talent, but the news competition in the area has often been tight.

Notable current on-air staff

• Wes Hohenstein – meteorologist

Notable former on-air staff

• Penn Holderness – anchor
• Hari Sreenivasan – technology reporter (1995–1996)

Technical information

WNCN's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina. The station's signal is multiplexed:

WNCN airs one subchannel of WRDC from its transmitter facility as part of WRDC's 2020 conversion to ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV).

WNCN ended regular programming on its analog signal on June 12, 2009, the official date for U.S. television stations to switch from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal moved to its analog-era UHF channel 17.

On April 13, 2017, WNCN's broadcast spectrum was sold for $52 million during the FCC's spectrum reallocation. On September 11, 2019, WNCN moved to channel 8.