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| City | Asheville, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WSPA-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | October 31, 1984 (41 years ago) (1984-10-31) |
Former call signs | WASV-TV (1984–2006) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | "We're Your CW" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 70149 |
| ERP | 33.5 kW |
| HAAT | 674.2 m (2,212 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°10′12.4″N82°17′26.4″W / 35.170111°N 82.290667°W /35.170111; -82.290667 |
| Translator(s) | seeWSPA-TV#Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WYCW (channel 62) is atelevision station licensed toAsheville, North Carolina, United States, serving as theCW outlet forWestern North Carolina andUpstate South Carolina. It isowned and operated by network majority ownerNexstar Media Group alongsideSpartanburg, South Carolina–licensedCBS affiliateWSPA-TV (channel 7). WYCW and WSPA-TV share studios on International Drive (next to theI-26 andI-85 Business/Veterans Parkwayinterchange) in Spartanburg; through achannel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WSPA-TV's spectrum from an antenna on Hogback Mountain in northeasternGreenville County (southwest ofTryon, North Carolina).
Asheville's first television station,WISE-TV, began broadcasting on channel 62 on August 2, 1953. It was a primaryNBC affiliate which also carried programs fromABC,CBS, andDuMont.[2] ABC and DuMont moved toWLOS (channel 13) when that station signed on in September 1954.[3] In 1967, the station changed its call letters to WANC; the next year, it dropped its remaining NBC programming as its ownership brought a cable system to Asheville.[4] WANC-TV moved from channel 62 to 21 in 1971, airing a limited amount ofChristian television programming throughout the 1970s by simulcastingWGGS-TV (channel 16) inGreenville.Pappas Telecasting acquired WANC-TV in 1979, took it silent, and returned it to the air asWHNS on April 1, 1984.
Channel 62 returned to the air onOctober 31, 1984, as WASV-TV. Originally locally owned, even though it was licensed as a full-power outlet, the station initially operated atlow-power, simulcasting WGGS-TV. This was necessary in the days before cable gained much penetration in this vast market, much of which is very mountainous. WASV began to runinfomercials andshop-at-home programming in the early 1990s.
It was sold to Pappas Telecasting (which previously owned WHNS) in 1995 and began to transmit its analog signal at full-power in 1996. At that time, Pappas entered into alocal marketing agreement with CBS affiliate WSPA-TV (channel 7), which took control of WASV's programming and airtime. In October 1997, WASV became the market'sWB affiliate, taking the affiliation from WSPA, which carried the network on a secondary basis beginning at the network's launch in January 1995. At the same time, the station also became a secondary affiliate ofUPN, which had similarly been carried on a secondary basis by WHNS. The station branded on-air as "The New 62" from 1997 to 2002, which was then changed to "Super 62" in 2002, lasting until early 2004. From 1998 to 2000, WASV airedsporting events fromCBS andNBC that those networks' local affiliates WSPA andWYFF (channel 4) preempted in favor of regional college sports, breaking news or severe weather coverage, annualtelethons, or other local programming.
The WB affiliation moved to rival WBSC (channel 40, nowWMYA-TV) on September 6, 1999, and WASV became a full-time UPN station, branding as "UPN 62." WASV continued its LMA with WSPA even after the latter station was sold toMedia General in 2000. Channel 62 was purchased by Media General outright in 2002, creating the market's first television duopoly. From 1997 to 1998, WASV signed off nightly from around midnight until 7 a.m. Later in 1998, it began broadcasting 24 hours a day with the addition of a block of programming from theShop at Home Network during the overnight hours. In late-2005/early 2006, the station dropped Shop at Home programming, and replaced it with a mix of off-networksitcoms andcourt shows in the overnight during the week, and off-networkdramas and sitcoms as well asmovies on weekends.
On January 24, 2006, theWarner Bros. unit ofTime Warner andCBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[5][6] On March 2, 2006,Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that WBSC would become an affiliate of another new network,MyNetworkTV, which launched on September 5. Nearly four weeks later on March 28, it was confirmed WASV would join The CW.
Corresponding with the upcoming network change, the station officially changed its call letters to WYCW on May 22, 2006. However, it continued to use the WASV call sign on-air until UPN officially ceased operations on September 15, 2006. When The CW launched on September 18, the station rebranded itself as "Carolinas CW". In recent years, WYCW has been carried oncable in portions of theColumbia, South Carolina, market, as well in the South Carolina side of theAugusta, Georgia, market (includingAiken andNorth Augusta).[7]
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire theMeredith Corporation, owner of WHNS, for $2.4 billion to form Meredith Media General. Since WSPA and WHNS were among the four highest-rated stations in the market in total day viewership, the merged company would have been required to sell either WSPA or WHNS to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict sharing agreements. WYCW was the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could have been legally acquired by Meredith Media General either by maintaining the existing duopoly with WSPA or by forming a new duopoly with WHNS, as its total day viewership ranks below the top-four ratings threshold.[8][9] That sale was canceled on January 27, 2016, in favor of a sale of Media General to theNexstar Broadcasting Group, and WSPA and WYCW became part of "Nexstar Media Group."[10] The deal was approved by the FCC on January 11, 2017, and it was completed on January 17.[11]
WYCW carries the second half-hour of CBS'political discussion programFace the Nation on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m., as WSPA only clears the first half-hour of the program (which airs in the half-hour prior to the airing of the second half of the program on channel 62).
WYCW began airingClemson Tigers football andmen's basketball games in the 2023–24 academic year as part of The CW's new contract. The games are produced byRaycom Sports and sublicensed from ESPN.
WSPA-TV presently produces 16 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for WYCW (with three hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Since the early 2000s, WSPA has produced a nightly prime time newscast for WYCW, currently known as7 News at 10 on CW 62. The newscast, which airs for an hour on weeknights and a half-hour on weekends, competes with an hour-long in-house newscast seen on Fox affiliate WHNS and a half-hour newscast on MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA (the latter of which is produced by WLOS). In the late 2000s, WSPA also began producing a two-hour extension of WSPA's weekday morning newscast for WYCW. Currently known as7 News Daybreak on CW 62, the program airs from 7 to 9 a.m. and competes against the in-house morning newscast on WHNS.
On September 16, 2007, WSPA became the first television station in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market to begin broadcasting its newscasts to high-definition; the WYCW newscasts were included in the upgrade, which introduced a graphics package similar to that used at the time by Media GeneralflagshipWFLA-TV inTampa, Florida. In 2008, news anchor Amy Wood launched the "CW Live Chat" feature during the weeknight edition of the 10 p.m. newscast. At the time, it was one of the first interactive live broadcasts in the United States, with an anchor hosting the chat live while simultaneously anchoring on-air.
In addition to the main studios in Spartanburg, WSPA/WYCW opened a street front studio in downtown Greenville in January 2017 called "7 On Main". The studio is located at the corner of Main Street and Falls Park Drive. The stations also operate a news bureau on Main Street/SC 28 inAnderson. Nexstar maintains aCapitol bureau in Columbia, coveringstate government issues for the company's South Carolina stations.
The WSPA-TV/WYCW transmitter is on Hogback Mountain in northeasternGreenville County, South Carolina.[1]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WSPA-TV | 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WSPA-HD | CBS |
| 7.3 | 480i | ION | Ion Television | ||
| 40.2 | 480i | 16:9 | TBD | Roar (WMYA-TV) | |
| WYCW | 62.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WYCW-HD | The CW |
| 62.3 | 480i | REWIND | Rewind TV |
On March 1, 2009, WYCW began carrying sister station WSPA-TV on a second digital subchannel, due to the collapse of channel 7's broadcast tower on Hogback Mountain (southwest ofTryon, North Carolina).
On February 2, 2016, WYCW began carryingGetTV on 62.3.[13] In early February 2021,True Crime Network replaced Get TV on 62.3, only for that to be replaced byRewind TV on October 20, 2022.
WYCW discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 62, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45,[14] usingvirtual channel 62.
As part of theSAFER Act,[15] WYCW kept its analog signal on the air until March 3 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcements from theNational Association of Broadcasters.
On April 13, 2017, the FCC identified WYCW will be compensated $45.6 million to have its digital channel 45 go off-the-air as part of thespectrum auction.[16] On April 1, 2018, WYCW moved their digital broadcasts to subchannels of WSPA-TV while retaining channel 62 as their virtual channel. WYCW did not have to change itscity of license, as WSPA'sover-the-air signal completely covers Asheville.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNorth Carolina | ||
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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 | ||
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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 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the U.S. state ofGeorgia | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Georgia | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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| ABC | .svg){kind=logo} | |
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| 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. | ||
