Charlotte, North Carolina United States |
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Branding | WBTV (general) WBTV News (newscasts) |
Slogan | On Your Side |
Channels |
Digital: 23 (UHF) Virtual: 3 () |
Subchannels | 3.1 CBS 3.2 Bounce TV 3.3 Grit |
Affiliations | CBS |
Owner |
Raycom Media (WBTV License Subsidiary, LLC) |
First air date | July 15, 1949 |
Call letters' meaning | An extension of former radio sister station WBT: Watch Buicks Travel + TeleVision |
Former callsigns | WBT-TV (1949; before sign-on) |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 3 (VHF, 1949–2009) |
Former affiliations |
Secondary: NBC (1949–1957) ABC (1949–1967) DuMont (1949–1955) DT2/3: This TV (2010–2012) |
Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
Height | 565 m (1,854 ft) |
Facility ID | 30826 |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°21′51″N 81°11′13″W / 35.36417°N 81.18694°WCoordinates: 35°21′51″N 81°11′13″W / 35.36417°N 81.18694°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.wbtv.com |
WBTV, virtual channel 3 (UHF digital channel 23), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. WBTV is one of two flagship stations of owner Raycom Media (the other being WSFA in the company's homebase of Montgomery, Alabama). The station maintains studio facilities located off Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in north-central Gaston County.
On cable, WBTV is carried on Spectrum channel 2 (standard definition) in the immediate Charlotte area (on channel 3 in outlying areas) and channel 1209 (high definition), on Comporium Communications channel 5, and on AT&T U-Verse on channels 3 and 1003.
The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1949. When it debuted, WBTV was the 13th television station in the United States and the first in the Carolinas; it is currently the oldest television station located between Richmond and Atlanta. Veteran Charlotte broadcaster Jim Patterson was the first person seen on the station, and remained employed there until his death in 1986. WBTV was originally owned by the Greensboro, North Carolina-based Jefferson Standard Insurance Company, owners of WBT (1110 AM), the city's oldest radio station and the first fully licensed station in the South. Jefferson Standard had purchased WBT from CBS in 1947. Shortly before the television station went on the air, its call letters were modified from WBT-TV to WBTV. Jefferson Standard merged with Pilot Life in 1968 (although it had owned controlling interest since 1945) and became Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. In 1970, the media interests were folded into a new subsidiary, Jefferson-Pilot Communications.