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| Channels | |
| Branding | 10TV |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WBNS,WBNS-FM | |
| History | |
| Founded | March 17, 1948 (1948-03-17)[2][3] |
First air date | October 15, 1949 (1949-10-15) |
Former channel numbers | Analog: 10 (VHF, 1949–2009) |
Call sign meaning | "Wolfe BankNewspaper and Shoes" (from WBNS radio) |
| Technical information[4] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 71217 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 279 m (915 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°58′15.5″N83°1′39.2″W / 39.970972°N 83.027556°W /39.970972; -83.027556 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WBNS-TV (channel 10) is atelevision station inColumbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated withCBS. It is owned byTegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties,WBNS (1460 AM) andWBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twin Rivers Drive west ofDowntown Columbus, whereWBNS-TV's transmitter is also located.
WBNS-TV also serves as the CBS affiliate of record for the nearbyZanesville, Ohio,market.
Before its purchase in August 2019 by Tegna, WBNS-TV was theflagship station of founding ownerDispatch Broadcast Group, whose operations also includedWTHR, theNBC affiliate inIndianapolis, andWALV-CD, Indianapolis'MeTV outlet and an alternate NBC affiliate; all of Dispatch's stations are now with Tegna.[5]
WBNS-TV began operations on October 15, 1949.[6] WBNS radio had been aCBS Radio Network affiliate for almost 20 years, so Channel 10 immediately joined the CBS television network. It is currently the ninth longest-tenured CBS affiliate. Channel 10 has used the on-airbranding of10TV since 1977. It is also one of only a few stations in the country to have had the same call letters and primary network affiliation throughout its history.
The WBNS call letters stand for "Wolfe Bank Newspaper and Shoes", the businesses owned by the company's longtime owners, the Wolfe family. Channel 10 maintained common ownership withThe Columbus Dispatch, the city's lone remaining daily newspaper and the "N" in the station's call letters, until 2015 under anexemption of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s cross-ownership rules. The FCC has largely prohibitedcommon ownership of co-located print and broadcast media since the mid-1970s. The Wolfe family, who purchased theDispatch in 1905, sold the newspaper and related assets to New Media Investment Group in June 2015.
WBNS-TV was known for its locally produced showsFlippo the Clown,[7]Luci's Toyshop,Franz the Toymaker,The Judge, and programs hosted by popularColumbus Zoo and Aquarium personalityJack Hanna (Hanna's Ark). The station also featured "Fritz the Nite Owl", who hosted midnight movies during the 1970s, and theSunday state government talk show calledCapital Square in the 1990s. Throughout much of the 1990s and early years of the millennium, WBNS-TV was home to the10TV Kids News Network (KNN); a local show, "produced by kids, for kids". The half-hour show aired Saturday mornings. Several KNN kids have gone on to pursue careers in television news or public relations in central Ohio.
In 1995, WBNS-TV replacedCleveland'sWJW-TV as the default affiliate in theMansfield area (part of the Cleveland–Akron DMA) after WJW became aFox broadcast outlet. The new Cleveland CBS affiliate,WOIO, unlike WBNS-TV, did not reach Mansfield with a Grade B signal. WBNS also replacedToledo CBS affiliateWTOL on cable television in theLima DMA.
The first live high-definition broadcast on the station's digital signal took place in September 1998 in which the broadcast was afootball game betweenOhio State andWest Virginia, making the station a pioneer in American digital television. The station claims this to have been the first locally produced HD broadcast in the U.S.; however, as several other stations throughout the country also lay claim to this distinction, the veracity cannot be verified. It is widely considered the first ever live sporting event in HD in the U.S. produced using a production truck and transmission vehicle fromNHK,Japan's national public broadcasting organization.[8]
Working with sister company Radio Sound Network, WBNS-TV, WBNS (AM) and Ohio News Network (ONN) produced and distributed on aStreaming media platform the Ohio State spring football game in 2001. It was one of the first live sporting events in the U.S. to be streamed. The game was delivered onRealVideo, a compressed video format, on theRealPlayer media player platform on the station's website. It also was distributed toWindows Mobile mobile devices using theWindows Media Player format, includingCompaq'sIPAQpersonal digital assistant which required anExpressCard to connect to the Internet.
On June 11, 2019, Dispatch announced it would sell its broadcasting assets, including the WBNS stations, toTegna Inc. for $535 million in cash. Coinciding with WBNS-TV's 70th anniversary, the deal ended the Wolfe family's involvement in local media after over a century. At the time of the sale announcement, channel 10 was the only major television station in Columbus still owned by Ohio-based interests.
The sale was approved by the FCC on July 29, 2019,[9] and was completed on August 8.[10] WBNS-TV became Tegna's third television station located in Ohio, operating alongside fellow CBS affiliate WTOL in Toledo and NBC affiliateWKYC in Cleveland.[11]
On August 19, 2025,Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire Tegna.[1] In Columbus, Nexstar already owns WCMH-TV.[12]
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WBNS-TV has strong ties to theathletic department of the Ohio State University. For many years, it has produced the coaches' shows for both the football andmen's basketball teams, along with other shows about Ohio State athletics. Additionally, its radio sister has been the flagship station of Ohio State football and basketball for decades. Prior to the launch of theBig Ten Network in September 2007, the station aired Ohio State games offered byESPN Plus in both sports, including prime time preemptions of CBS network programming for games. Because of the Big Ten Network's exclusive contracts to cover live Ohio State sports, WBNS now only carries selected CBS Big Ten basketball broadcasts on weekends and latter portions of the conference tourney, although the programming outside of live sports remains produced by WBNS-TV;WSYX-DT3 andWCMH-TV currently air Ohio State football games through their affiliations with Fox andNBC and those respective networks' contracts with theBig Ten Conference. Since2023, WBNS-TV has carried select Ohio State football games through theBig Ten on CBS as part of the network's new deal with the Big Ten Conference. The station provides local coverage of thePGA Tour'sMemorial Tournament, which is held atMuirfield Village Golf Club inDublin, Ohio.
WBNS presently broadcasts 37 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays).
WBNS-TV was the first television station in the Columbus market to debut a news helicopter, "10TV SkyCam" (now "Chopper 10") in 1979, satellite news truck "10TV Skybeam" in 1986 and launch the Ohio News Network in 1997, which shared studio and office space with WBNS until ONN ended on August 31, 2012.
Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, WBNS-TV had been a consistent ratings leader in programming and news for most of the time since records have been kept. In fact, for many years a popular saying in Columbus was "4 and 6 don't equal 10",[citation needed] referring to WBNS-TV and its rivals, WLWC/WCMH-TV (channel 4) and WTVN-TV/WSYX (channel 6). Since the sale of the station to Tegna, however, WBNS-TV's ratings have plummeted, with WCMH-TV and WSYX battling for first, with WSYX edging out WCMH-TV for the top spot.[13]
The first major challenge to Channel 10's dominance occurred in 1985, two years after WCMH began featuring the popular anchor team (and then-married couple) ofDoug Adair and Mona Scott. From then until the mid-2000s, WBNS-TV and WCMH alternated holding the dominant ratings position for their 11 p.m. newscasts (and were virtually tied for ratings leads). However, since 2002, WBNS-TV has returned to a dominant position due to stronger CBS programming and CBS' reacquisition of Sunday-afternoonNFL telecasts. WBNS-TV usually rotates games among the two teams with the largest followings in the Columbus market—theCincinnati Bengals andCleveland Browns (both of whom are part of the CBS package for theAmerican Football Conference). When possible, WBNS also airs games of thePittsburgh Steelers, a division rival of the Bengals and Browns whosefan base extends into portions of the WBNS viewing area.
DuringSuper Bowl XLI, channel 10 debuted a large marketing campaign to promote the launch of10TV News in high definition. The song "Carousels (Dreaming of Tomorrow)" by Columbus rock band Alamoth Lane was used throughout the course of the campaign. Some of the band members were shot playing on the roof of WBNS with the Columbus skyline behind them. The song was also used to promote sister station WTHR's 50th anniversary in 2007.
The station began making preparations for the transition to HD in late March 2007, and debuted its 5 p.m. newscast in high definition on April 2, becoming the first television station in Central Ohio to produce newscasts in HD. The station's newscasts are now known as10TV News;10TV News HD was used from 2007 to 2012, after being known as10TV Eyewitness News for many years.
On November 7, 2008, WBNS-TV's morning-noon anchorHeather Pick died ofbreast cancer. Pick learned in 2004 that the disease she overcame in 1999 had returned. In her last public appearance, she hosted the "Spirit Celebration with Heather Pick", raising almost $500,000 for the Columbus Cancer Clinic.[14]
On January 3, 2011, WBNS expanded its weekday morning newscast to 21⁄2 hours, starting at 4:25 am. Weekend anchors Jeff Hogan and Angela An replaced Chuck Strickler and Anietra Hamper as anchors, and weeknight 5:30 p.m. anchor Tracy Townsend replaced Hamper and Strickler as noon anchors.[15]
On May 11, 2011, WBNS-TV gained high-profile advertising when WBNS logos and a news ticker replaced those belonging to WCMH-TV on the Casto Building at the corner of High and Broad streets in downtown Columbus. Beginning in 2008, the building was leased by rival station WCMH-TV to house itsNBC 4 on the Square newscast. When WCMH discontinued the newscast, WBNS assumed the lease but decided not to use the street-level studio space.[16]
On October 1, 2012, WBNS-TV launched a redesigned set.[17][18]
On September 17, 2013, Maria Tiberi, the 21-year-old daughter of WBNS-TV sports director Dom Tiberi, was killed in a car accident alongInterstate 270 inHilliard. Although authorities stated that Maria was distracted at the time of the accident, they did not claim that the distraction was a cell phone. In honor of Maria, WBNS has launched a campaign known as "Maria's Message", an awareness program which aims to prevent such accidents from occurring.[19][20] On April 8, 2014, the130th Ohio General Assembly passed Senate Bill 294, which officially designated September as "Safe Driving Awareness Month" in honor of Maria.[21] The bill was signed into law by GovernorJohn Kasich in June of that year.
In December 2019, the station named Ashlee Baracy as Chief Meteorologist,[22] replacing Mike Davis, who was fired following his arrest onchild pornography charges.[23]
OnMarch 13, 2020, WBNS-TV adopted Tegna's standardized news graphics and "C Clarity" theme, seven months after Tegna acquired the station.[24]
The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WBNS TV | CBS |
| 10.2 | 480i | MeTV | MeTV | |
| 10.3 | Dabl | Dabl | ||
| 10.4 | Crime | True Crime Network | ||
| 10.5 | Quest | Quest | ||
| 10.6 | SHOP LC | Shop LC | ||
| 10.7 | BUSTED | Busted | ||
| 10.8 | ION + | Ion Plus |
WBNS-TV broadcasts in Dolby 5.1 and uses itsSAP channel for varying purposes, including simulcasts of its radio sister and simulcasts ofNOAA weather radio, along withDescriptive Video Service (DVS) andSpanish-languageNFL coverage fromCBS.
On June 12, 2009, WBNS-TV launched Doppler 10 Now, a weather subchannel, carried on channel 10.2, based on theLocal AccuWeather platform.[27] On May 28, 2013, WBNS-TV announced that the 10.2 subchannel would begin carryingAntenna TV.[28] WBNS' promotions for the network, tagged as "Ridiculously Retro", showcase clips fromFlippo the Clown andLuci's Toyshop, hinting that old, local favorites could return to the airwaves, but that did not happen. On June 16, 2015, Antenna TV was replaced withDecades on channel 10.2. Then on October 1, 2017, WBNS-TV activated channel 10.3 and moved Decades there, replacing it withHeroes & Icons on channel 10.2. On September 26, 2019, Heroes & Icons was replaced withMeTV on channel 10.2 after WCMH-TV dropped MeTV carriage in favor ofCourt TV. At midnight on January 1, 2020, Decades was dropped from channel 10.3 and replaced withDabl. Decades carriage moved toWCBZ-CD channel 22.5. Early in 2023, Circle was replaced with Shop LC on 10.6.
WBNS-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 10, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[29][30] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 21,[31] usingvirtual channel 10.
As of September 15, 2012, the high-definition feed for WBNS-TV was dropped fromDish Network due to a contractual dispute between the two sides.
On September 6, 2017, WBNS and Indianapolis sister station WTHR, in bothSD andHD formats, were pulled from their respective localAT&T U-verse andDirecTV channel lineups in a dispute over retransmission licensing fees.[32][33]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofOhio | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Ohio | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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