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| City | Florence, South Carolina |
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| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WSPA-TV,WYCW | |
| History | |
First air date | October 18, 1954 (71 years ago) (1954-10-18) |
Former call signs | WPDV (CP, 1953–1954)[1] |
Former channel numbers |
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| ABC (secondary, 1954–1980) | |
Call sign meaning | sequential after former co-ownedWBTV |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 66407 |
| ERP | 31.6 kW |
| HAAT | 598 m (1,962 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°22′4″N79°19′21″W / 34.36778°N 79.32250°W /34.36778; -79.32250 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WBTW (channel 13) is atelevision station licensed toFlorence, South Carolina, United States, serving thePee Dee andGrand Strand regions of South Carolina as an affiliate ofCBS. The station is owned byNexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on McDonald Court in the unincorporated community ofSocastee (but with aMyrtle Beachpostal address); its transmitter is located nearDillon, South Carolina (across from thetower ofABC affiliateWPDE-TV, channel 15).
The station went on the air on October 18, 1954, on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter at its original studios on TV Road in the Back Swamp section north of the town ofQuinby (though with a Florence address). It was owned by Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company (later becoming Jefferson-Pilot, now part ofLincoln Financial Group). It was Jefferson Standard's second television station behindWBTV inCharlotte, North Carolina. WBTW's call sign was derived from "W" being the next letter in the alphabet after "V". The two stations were programmed separately, but shared a microwave system built in 1959. On September 17, 1962, it moved to VHF channel 13, while its previous channel was reallocated toHigh Point, North Carolina, asWGHP.
Jefferson Standard sold the station to the Shott family ofBluefield, West Virginia, publishers of theBluefield Daily Telegraph and owners ofWHIS-AM-FM-TV in Bluefield through the Daily Telegraph Publishing Company, in 1968. The move came because WBTV and WBTW had a fairly significant grade B signal overlap, and neither station would have been able to expand its signal if Jefferson Standard had kept them both. During WBTW ownership by the Shott family, the station often used local radio personalities to deliver news, sports and weather. Regular talent included Jim (James) Griffin and Gene Allen.
In 1979, WBTW activated its current tower on Pee Dee Church Road in ruralDillon County, southeast of thecounty seat of Dillon south ofSouth Carolina Highway 9. This more than doubled its coverage area, giving it at least secondary coverage as far north asFayetteville,Raeford andPinehurst; as far west asPolkton andPageland; as far south asGeorgetown andSummerton and as far east asLeland andElizabethtown. Only local cable systems in Fayetteville and Pinehurst do not currently carry WBTW, but did until the 1980s and early-1990s.
For many years, it was the only commercial television station located betweenWilmington andCharleston. This was because of a quirk in theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s allocation of VHF channels. Most markets got at least two VHF allocations. However, Florence–Myrtle Beach is sandwiched betweenRaleigh–Durham (channels4,5, and11) and Wilmington (channels3 and6) to the north, Charleston (channels2,4,5, and7) to the south, andColumbia (channel10) and Charlotte (channels 3 and9) to the west. This created a "doughnut" in northeastern South Carolina where there could be onlyone VHF license.
The station has always been a CBS affiliate, but carried someABC shows untilWPDE-TV (channel 15) signed-on in 1980. The Shotts sold most of their media holdings in 1984, with their two remaining television stations, WBTW andKIMT inMason City, Iowa, going toSpartanburg-based Spartan Radiocasting Corporation (laterSpartan Communications), the founding owners of fellow CBS affiliateWSPA-TV. In the late-1980s and early-1990s, it branded itself on-air as the "Best of Two Worlds" playing off the "BTW" in its call letters. In 2000, Spartan merged withMedia General.
From 1995 to 2000, WBTW served as thede facto CBS affiliate for parts of the Wilmington market because former affiliate WJKA-TV switched toFox and becameWSFX-TV. That market got another CBS affiliate in 2000 when WILM-LP (nowWILM-LD) picked up the affiliation. However, WBTW still served some parts of the Wilmington area that did not receive the low-powered WILM signal over-the-air or on cable. This ended in 2017 when WWAY acquired the CBS affiliation for its second digital subchannel. After being known as "TV 13" for most of its history, this station re-branded itself as "News 13" in 2002. WBTW's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.
On May 2, 2011, a letter was submitted to the FCC requesting that WBTW be authorized to abandon its channel 13 frequency (213 MHz) and move to channel 41 (635 MHz), and transmit a non-directional signal with a strength of 1 million watts—equivalent to 5 million watts in analog (it is 316,000 watts on channel 13). The letter also requested that the height of the transmitter elements on the tower be the same as now on channel 13. This was never acted upon by the FCC and WBTW remains on channel 13.
On January 27, 2016, Media General announced that it had entered into a definite agreement to be acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $4.6 billion. The combined company would be calledNexstar Media Group and own 171 stations (including WBTW).[3] The deal was completed on January 17, 2017.[4]
Historically, WBTW has been one of the most dominant stations in the country. This is in part because it was the only station in the market for a quarter-century; until WPDE signed on in 1980, viewers had to rely on cable to get programming from the other networks.
The ratings have tightened with more competition, but WBTW continues to lead. It is the only station that covers the entire market equally; WPDE andNBC affiliateWMBF-TV have largely focused on the Grand Strand in recent years.[5]
Another factor in the station's dominance is talent continuity. Channel 13 has a number of staffers with remarkably long tenures for what has always been a small market. Bob Juback has been the station's main anchorman since 1992, longer than anyone in the market's history. For the first 28 years of his tenure, he was teamed with Nicole Boone, who had been the station's top female anchor since 1989. Boone went into semi-retirement in 2020, but returns to cover special events in the market.
In 2004, WBTW established a news share agreement with Fox affiliateWFXB. It then began producing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast for that station known asFox 43 News at 10. In 2006, the title switched toFox News at 10.
During August 2007, WBTW became the second station in the market to move most of its operations to new studios in Myrtle Beach. A smaller facility at that same site had been serving as the station's Grand Strand bureau since 1989; it was demolished in 2007 to make way for the larger facility. The station maintained some operations its old facilities in Florence for a time. However, by 2008 the station had moved all of its operations to Myrtle Beach. A physicalLumberton bureau closed in 2007. Like the other two stations in the market, it has kept a small team of reporters in Florence to cover the inland portion of the market.
In March 2008, WBTW converted its news operation to all-digital. The revamp included new graphics, new news set, and robotic studio cameras. In 2013, WBTW became the second station in the market (afterNBC affiliateWMBF, which signed on in HD) to broadcast its newscasts inhigh definition. This left ABC affiliate WPDE as the last local news station to still broadcast in enhanced digital widescreen (until 2015).
On December 1, 2011, WBTW began producing an hour-long weekday morning show on WFXB. Known asFox Morning News, the broadcast is seen from 7 until 8 offering a local alternative to thebig three network morning shows.[6] On May 19, 2012, WBTW launched an hour-long newscast on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8 to 9 am.[6]
On April 20, 2015, WBTW began producing a half-hour extension to its morning newscast at 4:30 am, as well as an hour-long 9 a.m. newscast titledNews 13 NOW. The newscasts are the only ones on at that time in the Florence–Myrtle Beach market, and as a result, WBTW 13 produces five and a half hours of weekday morning news, with two of those hours produced for WFXB.[7]
On September 10, 2018, WBTW debuted a 5:30 p.m. newscast, withInside Edition moving to WMBF-TV in the same timeslot, which moved its 5:30 p.m. newscast to 7:30 pm.[8]
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The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | NEWS-13 | CBS |
| 13.2 | 480i | 4:3 | MYTV-13 | MyNetworkTV &Antenna TV[6] |
| 13.3 | 16:9 | ION-13 | Ion Television | |
| 13.4 | 4:3 | ESCAPE | Ion Mystery | |
| 21.1 | 720p | 16:9 | DABL | Roar (WWMB) |
On September 5, 2006, WBTW launched a new subchannel branded as "My TV", carrying programming fromMyNetworkTV andRetro TV. In 2011, Retro TV was replaced withAntenna TV and the subchannel was rebranded as "WBTW 13.2".
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofSouth Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of South Carolina | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNorth Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of North Carolina | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
| ABC | .svg){kind=logo} | |
|---|---|---|
| CBS | ||
| The CW |
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| Fox | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| NBC | ||
| Other stations | ||
| TV network |
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| Other assets |
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| Acquisitions | ||
** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
