WCBI-TV
  
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Columbus/Tupelo/ West Point, Mississippi United States |
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| Branding | general: WCBI WCBI News My MS (on DT2) North Mississippi CW (on DT3) |
| Slogan | Your News Leader |
| Channels |
Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 4 () |
| Subchannels | 4.1 CBS 4.2 MyNetworkTV 4.3 CW+ |
| Affiliations | CBS (1956–1977, 1978–present) |
| Owner |
Morris Multimedia (WCBI-TV, LLC) |
| First air date | July 13, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning |
Columbus Birney Imes (station founder) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 4 (VHF, 1956–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
ABC (primary 1977–1978; secondary 1956–1977, 1978–1983) NTA (secondary, late 1950s) NBC (secondary, 1956–1979) UPN (DT2, 2002–2006) AccuWX (DT3, 2002–2006) |
| Transmitter power | 708 kW |
| Height | 583.9 m |
| Facility ID | 12477 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°45′7″N 88°52′40″W / 33.75194°N 88.87778°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www |
WCBI-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabama licensed to Columbus. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Northwestern Clay County. Owned by Morris Multimedia, WCBI has studios on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus. On cable, the station is carried on Comcast channel 13.
When WCBI signed on-the-air July 13, 1956, it was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station was owned by Birney Imes, Jr. a Columbus businessman and publisher of the Commercial Dispatch newspaper. It has studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. WCBI was originally affiliated with ABC, NBC, and CBS but has always been a primary CBS station except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB (now Fox affiliate WLOV-TV) signed-on. The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes (Birney's son) supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.
WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel.
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Wikipedia