Charlotte, North Carolina United States |
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Branding | WCNC NBC Charlotte (general) WCNC NBC Charlotte News (newscasts) |
Slogan | Looking Out For You |
Channels |
Digital: 22 (UHF) Virtual: 36 () |
Subchannels | 36.1 NBC 36.2 Justice Network 36.3 Decades |
Translators | W30CR-D Biscoe W24AY-D Lilesville |
Affiliations |
NBC Justice Network (DT2) Decades (DT3) |
Owner |
Tegna Media (WCNC-TV, Inc.) |
First air date | July 9, 1967 |
Call letters' meaning |
Charlotte, North Carolina (and Carolinas' News Channel) |
Former callsigns | WCTU-TV (1967–1971) WRET-TV (1971–1980) WPCQ-TV (1980–1989) |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 36 (UHF, 1967–2009) |
Former affiliations | Independent (1967–1978) |
Transmitter power | 791 kW |
Height | 577 m |
Facility ID | 32326 |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°20′49″N 81°10′15″W / 35.34694°N 81.17083°WCoordinates: 35°20′49″N 81°10′15″W / 35.34694°N 81.17083°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.wcnc.com |
WCNC-TV, virtual channel 36 (UHF digital channel 22), is the NBC-affiliated television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by Tegna. WCNC maintains studio facilities located in the Wood Ridge Center office complex off Billy Graham Parkway (Route 4), just east of the Billy Graham Library in South Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in north-central Gaston County. The station's signal is relayed on two low-powered translators: W30CR-D in Biscoe and W24AY-D in Lilesville.
On cable, WCNC is carried on channel 6 on most area cable systems (and in high definition on Charter Spectrum channel 1203), and on AT&T U-Verse channels 36 and 1036.
The first station to operate on UHF channel 36 in Charlotte signed on the air on December 31, 1953 as WAYS-TV; that station changed its call letters to WQMC-TV in 1954. However, that station did not make any headway against WBTV (channel 3) because television set manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability at the time; this would not change until Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1961. It ceased operations in March 1955. A plan to return it to the air under different ownership in 1957 was unsuccessful. Cy Bahakel bought the station's license in 1964 and returned it to the air as WCCB, which broadcast on channel 36 before moving to UHF channel 18 in November 1966.