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WCTV

Thomasville, Georgia Tallahassee, Florida United States
City	Thomasville, Georgia
Channels	Digital: 20 (UHF) Virtual: 6
Branding	WCTV;WCTVEyewitness News MeTV WCTV2 (6.2)
Programming
Affiliations	6.1:CBS for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Media (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
Sister stations	WFXU
History
First air date	September 15, 1955 (70 years ago) (1955-09-15)
Former channel numbers	Analog: 6 (VHF, 1955–2009) Digital: 46 (UHF, 2004–2020)
Former affiliations	NBC (1955–1959) ABC (secondary, 1955–1976) UPN (6.2, 2005−2006)
Call sign meaning	Capital Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	31590
ERP	570 kW
HAAT	617.2 m (2,025 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	30°40′14″N83°56′26″W / 30.67056°N 83.94056°W /30.67056; -83.94056
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wctv.tv

WCTV (channel 6) is atelevision station licensed toThomasville, Georgia, United States, serving theTallahassee, Florida,market as an affiliate ofCBS andMyNetworkTV. It is owned byGray Media alongsideLive Oak, Florida–licensedWFXU (channel 57). The two stations share studios on Halstead Boulevard in Tallahassee (alongI-10); WCTV'stransmitter is located in unincorporatedThomas County, Georgia, southeast ofMetcalf, along the Florida state line.

WCTV was Tallahassee and southwest Georgia's first television station. On October 13, 1954, theTallahassee Democrat first reported on plans for the new station. On August 29, 1955, the station began airing a test pattern. It signed on for the first time on September 15, 1955, from studios on North Monroe Street in Tallahassee. WCTV was originally owned by John H. Phipps.^[3]

Although it has always considered itself a Tallahassee station, it was licensed to Thomasville because theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) had allocated only oneVHF channel to Tallahassee, channel 11.Florida State University had managed to have the FCC reserve channel 11 fornoncommercial use so it could putWFSU-TV on the air. UHF was not considered viable at the time. Until the 1964 FCC requirement that all new sets have all-channel capability, UHF stations were unviewable without a converter, and even with one, the picture quality was marginal at best. Additionally, the FCC had just collapsed a large portion of southwest Georgia into the Tallahassee market, and UHF stations have never carried well across large areas.

Hoyt Wimpy, owner and founder ofWPAX radio in Thomasville, persuaded the FCC to grant the Phipps family a license for channel 6 in Thomasville, the nearest city to Tallahassee that had a VHF allocation available. This could provide city-grade coverage of Tallahassee and north central Florida as well as southwestern Georgia. By this time, the FCC had changed its regulations to allow a station to operate its main studio outside its city of license. As a result, WCTV has been a Tallahassee station from the very beginning. However, it has always identified as serving "Thomasville–Tallahassee," and has operated a live studio,news bureau and advertising sales office in Thomasville for many years.

The station originally carried programming from all three networks, but was a primarily anNBC affiliate. This resulted in duplication withWALB-TV in nearbyAlbany, Georgia, which was also a primary NBC affiliate; any time either station wanted to carry a CBS program, both stations had to agree to it. As a result, WCTV was forced to air some CBS programs on as much as a two-week delay, while some shows, including popular ones likeI Love Lucy, were not seen at all. To resolve this issue, WCTV switched its primary affiliation to CBS on September 20, 1959;^[4] however, it continued to carry a secondaryABC affiliation while airing some NBC shows on a per-program basis. It was still the only commercial VHF station in the market (the only other VHF stations werePBSmembers WFSU-TV on channel 11, andGeorgia Public Broadcasting's WXGA-TV on channel 8). It was the only commercial station in the area until WECA-TV (channel 27, nowWTXL-TV) began operations in 1976 and took the ABC affiliation.

The Phipps family sold channel 6 to Gray Communications, now Gray Television, in 1996. Gray's purchase of WCTV forced the company to sell WALB, its flagship station in Albany, because WALB's signal has city-grade quality in most of the Georgia side of the market (including Thomasville andValdosta). WALB had served as one of the default NBC affiliates for Tallahassee for many years untilWTWC-TV (channel 40) signed on in April 1983.

In 2004, Gray purchasedWSWG in Valdosta, aUPN affiliate for the Albany market. The station joined CBS in 2005 as asemi-satellite of WCTV (see below). The acquisition created a strong combined signal with just under 50% overlap. WCTV had been the default CBS affiliate for Albany for many years.

In March 2006, WCTV moved from its longtime studios on County Road 12 in northernLeon County (approximately midway between Tallahassee and Thomasville) to new facilities on Halstead Boulevard in Tallahassee. The location formerly housed the now-defunctFlorida's News Channel, a cable-only operation. On February 17, 2009, WCTV shut off its analog signal on channel 6,^[5][6] and became digital-exclusive on UHF channel 46.^[7]

On June 25, 2018,Gray Television announced that it would acquireRaycom Media, who had owned ABC affiliate WTXL-TV since 2017. Because the FCC prohibits a direct duopoly between two of the top four stations in the same market, Gray opted to retain ownership of WCTV and sell WTXL to a third party.^[8] On August 20, 2018, Gray announced that they would sell both WTXL-TV andKXXV (along with semi-satelliteKRHD-CD inBryan) to theE. W. Scripps Company for $55 million.^[9][10] The deal was completed on January 2, 2019.^[11]

From 2005 until 2019, WSWG operated as a semi-satellite of WCTV. As such, that station cleared all network programming as provided through its parent and simulcast most of WCTV's local newscasts (see below), but aired a separate offering of syndicated programming; there were also separatestation identifications and commercial inserts.^[12][13] Althoughmaster control and most internal operations of WSWG were based within WCTV's facilities, that outlet does currently maintains offices on Pine Avenue in Albany; it previously maintained anews bureau and advertising sales office on 2nd Avenue Southwest inMoultrie, Georgia.

Even though WSWG technically serves as the CBS affiliate for the Albanymarket, its over-the-air broadcasting radius falls just short of Albany proper. This forces the station to rely oncable andsatellite for most of its viewership. However, WCTV's more powerful digital signal reaches into Albany. Despite WSWG once being a semi-satellite of WCTV, it operates two digital subchannels (serving as the MyNetworkTV/MeTV andCW affiliates for the Albany market) that are programmed separately. With the sale of WSWG toMarquee Broadcasting (enabling Gray to re-acquire WALB as part of its buyout of Raycom Media), that arrangement was formally broken in April 2019 after a transitional period.

WCTV produces 31 hours per week of local news (five hours per day on weekdays; three hours per day Saturday and Sunday). Through a news-share agreement, WCTV also produces local newscasts for the area'sFox affiliate WTWC-DT2 (owned bySinclair Broadcast Group): the hour-longFox 49 Morning News; andFox 49 News at 10—in both cases, the only local newscasts in their time periods. All news programming can be seen in high definition (down-converted to air in WTWC-DT2's720p format) featuring a different graphics package and music theme than WCTV. The shows originate from this station's primary set at its studios but with unique graphics and branding.

WCTV has traditionally been the market's dominant station in theratings due in part to the fact that it was the only commercial station in the area until WTXL's launch. WTWC has never been a contender in the market because its two attempts to air local newscasts were both unsuccessful. The second news department operated by that station (lasting from 1997 until 2000) was shuttered due to poor viewership, and new ownership instituting budget cuts upon taking control of the station.

During its time as a semi-satellite, WSWG simulcasted all local newscasts from WCTV, except for weeknights at 5 and 5:30. Although that station did not produce any separate southwestern-Georgia-specific segments during the simulcasted shows, WCTV formerly operated a news bureau in Valdosta. It also formerly maintained bureaus in Thomasville on North Broad Street, and in Moultrie at WSWG's sales office.

WCTV's former reporters assigned to southwest Georgia did not use any localized WSWG identification. WCTV did not provide news coverage of Albany despite WSWG being its CBS affiliate. However, there wassevere weather coverage for all of the Albany market when conditions warranted, such as during atornado warning. WCTV upgraded its news production to high-definition level on August 3, 2009, and the simulcasts on WSWG were included in the switch.

The stations' signals aremultiplexed:

• WCTV
• WCTV-DT2 MyNetworkTV & MeTV

• 1955 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
• CBS affiliates
• Gray Media
• Ion Television affiliates
• MeTV affiliates
• MyNetworkTV affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1955
• Television stations in Tallahassee, Florida
• Thomas County, Georgia
• True Crime Network affiliates

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