WCBD-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WCBD-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Count on News 2
station_branding = News 2
analog = 2 (VHF)
digital = 50 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = NBC
The CW (DT2)
network =
founded =
airdate = September 25, 1954
location = Charleston, South Carolina
callsign_meaning = Charleston/
Berkeley/
Dorchester
(three counties in Charleston metro)
former_callsigns = WUSN-TV (1954-1975)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Media General, Inc.
licensee = Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Primary:
NBC (1954-1962)
ABC (1962-1996)
Secondary:
ABC (1954-1962)
effective_radiated_power = 100 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 594 m (analog)
581 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 10587
coordinates = coord|32|56|24.7|N|79|41|43.5|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.counton2.com/ www.counton2.com]
[http://www.lowcountrycw.com/ Low Country CW]

WCBD channel 2 is the NBC affiliate for Charleston, South Carolina. Owned by Media General, the station's transmitter is located in Awendaw. The station is located at the base of the new Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge in Mount Pleasant. WCBD airs programming from The CW on its DT2 subchannel, which is known as The Lowcountry's CW. The subchannel airs the newscast "The Daily Buzz" weekday mornings from 6 to 9 AM. [http://www.wcbd.com/midatlantic/cbd/about/cw.html]

History

The station signed on as WUSN-TV on September 25, 1954. It is the third-oldest station in the Lowcountry, behind WCSC-TV in Charleston and WBTW in Florence. It was originally an NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. WUSN shared ABC programming with WCSC until 1962, when WTMA-TV (now WCIV) signed on and took the NBC affiliation. WUSN then became a full-time ABC affiliate.

In 1975, the station adopted its current call letters, WCBD. The call letters stand for Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties--the three counties in the Charleston metropolitan area. It remained Charleston's ABC affiliate until August 1996, when it swapped affiliations with WCIV and became an NBC affiliate once again. This was a result of an affiliation deal between ABC and WCIV's owner, Allbritton Communications Company.

WCBD spent most of the 1970s and 1980s in last place until Media General bought the station in 1983. Since then, WCBD has been a solid runner-up to longtime leader WCSC.

Beginning in September 2006, WCBD began to show programming from The CW on its DT2 digital subchannel.

Personalities

Many of the on-air personalities of WCBD have been fixtures in the Charleston-area market for many years.

Chief Meteorologist Rob Fowler has been with the station for more than 18 years becoming Chief Meteorologist in 1987, and the longest-serving meteorologist in the market with the same station.

Warren Peper, one of the most widely-known faces in Charleston television, joined WCBD in late 2005 after a one-year noncompete agreement expired between him and Jefferson Pilot Communications (which owned rival WCSC).

In October 2005, Peper was joined on the anchor desk by Carolyn Murray, who had been a reporter at WCSC for 11 years before going to WBBM-TV in Chicago in 2001; she returned to WCBD in 2003. They are now the weekday anchor team for WCBD anchoring the news at 5, 6, & 11.

Ironically, two of the three network affiliates in the Charleston market have news anchors who are former sports anchors. Peper, who worked at WCSC from 1974 until his controversial firing in 2004, was a sports anchor for much of his career, and WCIV's Dean Stephens also worked as a sports anchor for much of his early career at the station.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

*"The Coca-Cola News" (1954-1962; 6:15 P.M. newscast)
*"The Big News" (1962-1965; 6 P.M. newscast)
*"The Nightly News" (1962-1965; 10 P.M. newscast)
*"24 Hours" (1965-1976; 10 P.M. newscast)
*"Channel 2 News" (1976-1982)
*"TV-2 Eyewitness News" (1982-1987)
*"TV-2 Action News" (1989-1997)
*"News 2" (1997-present)

tation Slogans

*"Count on News 2" (2006-present)

Digital television

Analog-to-digital transition

After the analog television shutdown and digital transition, scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009, http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] WCBD-TV will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 50 http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101230927&formid=387&fac_num=65680] using PSIP to display WCBD-TV's virtual channel as 2.

News Operation

The news operation uses the latest technology to gather information from throughout the Lowcountry & the region. The main studio is located in a new digitial facility with office, technical & studio space in Mount Pleasant (just at the foot of the new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge). In addition to their main facility, News 2 also operates a news bureau located in Columbia. Their main tower facility is located in Awendaw which services viewers in Berkeley, Charleston, Clarendon, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, and Williamsburg counties. News 2 also offers a weeknight 10 PM news on their digital subchannel "Lowcountry CW".

Weekdays

*News 2 Today: 5-7 AM
*News 2 Midday: 11-11:30 AM
*News 2 at 5: 5-5:30 PM
*News 2 at 5:30: 5:30-6 PM
*News 2 at 6: 6-6:30 PM
*News 2 at 10 on CW: 10-10:30 PM
*News 2 at 11: 11-11:35 PM

Weekends

*News 2 at 6: 6-6:30 PM
*News 2 at 7: 7-7:30 PM
*News 2 at 11: 11-11:35 PM

Anchors

*Warren Peper
*Carolyn Murray
*Dee Dee Sharp
*Brad Franko
*Octavia Mitchell

Reporters
*Robert Kittle
*Tara Lynn
*Meryl Conant
*Jenny Fisher
*Larry Collins
*Tim Gehret
*Brooke Katz

Storm Team 2
*Rob Fowler (Chief Meteorologist)
*Josh Marthers (morning)
*Joey Sovine (weekends at 6, 7, and 11)

Count On 2 Sports
*Brendan Clark (Sports Director, also a fill-in news anchor)
*Mike Lacett (weekend sports)

Former Anchors/Reporters/Weathercasters

*Leigh Spann (now at WFLA-TV)
*Chip Maxham (morning meteorologist at KAUZ in Wichita Falls)
*Gray Hall (morning reporter at WTVJ)
*John Ahrens (weekend meteorologist at WSOC-TV)
*Nina Sossamon
*Blair Miller (anchor at WSOC-TV)
*Erica Bryant Fields (morning and noon anchor at WSOC-TV)
*Spencer Pryor (spokesman for North Charleston Police Department)
*Bill Fitzgerald
*Andrew Speno
*Trey Hardison
*Darla Rourk
*Dana Ratliff
*Meredith Land (now at KXAS-TV)
*Ben Pogue
*Miles Crosby
*Liz Scott
*Ron Scott
*Jennifer Brown
*Jennifer Timmons
*Karen Grace
*Lorrie Jordan (now at KNSD)
*Kurt Hogan
*Christa McLain
*Angie Mizzell
*Jon Robinson
*Harve Jacobs (now at WCSC-TV)
*Jenny McLendon
*Nancy O'Dell
*Merritt Dempsey
*Nichelle King
*Leslie Lyles
*Jill Franco-Miller
*Dave Stanley
*Rudy Gill
*Terry Casey
*Dan Ashley (main news anchor at KGO-TV)
*Ted Knight (deceased)
*Red Evans
*Joe Trahan (now sports reporter at WFAA)
*Bill Baer
*Bo Williams
*Bettina Boateng(now at WVTM)
*Ben Tackett
*Tom Allen
*Karen McGinnis (now at CNN)
*Dallas Raines
*Joan Mack
*Steve Overton
*Adrian "Specs" Munzell (deceased)
*Amy Robach (MSNBC Anchor; Today & Weekend Today)

External links

* [http://www.counton2.com/ Home Page - WCBD-TV]
* [http://www.lowcountrycw.com/ Low Country CW Homepage]
* [http://www.mcsittel.com/assets/images/wcbd2id94.mp3 mcsittel.com: 1994 ID when the station was ABC]
*TVQ|WCBD-TV
*BIA|WCBD|TV|TV