WBNB-TV


WBNB-TV, VHF analog channel 10, was a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Charlotte Amalie, on the island of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. The station operated from 1961 until 1989.

History

WBNB-TV was the first television station to operate in the Virgin Islands. Its construction permit was secured in 1960 by a pair of New York City-area radio men, Robert Noble and Robert Moss, who shared equal ownership in Island Teleradio Service, Inc., the original licensee of WBNB-TV and sister station WBNB radio ; their names served as the basis for the station's callsign. Shortly after the award, newspaper advertisements proudly announced that the station would be affiliated with CBS and NBC, and would also carry programs from National Educational Television, the predecessor to PBS. The station began operations on July 22, 1961.
The WBNB stations were split up in 1970, as channel 10 was sold to the first of five different U.S. mainland-based operators. At that point, the Moss/Noble partnership ended when Bob Noble retained sole ownership in the radio outlet, purchasing its remaining shares from Bob Moss and other minority partners.
On September 17, 1989, Hurricane Hugo made landfall on the Virgin Islands, destroying WBNB-TV's transmitter in the process and knocking the station off the air. Benedek Broadcasting, who acquired the station three years earlier, did not have the financial resources to rebuild it right away. Despite remaining off-the-air, the station's broadcast license remained active until 1995, when the Federal Communications Commission forced Benedek to surrender the license for cancellation on grounds of abandonment.
CBS programming returned to the Virgin Islands in 2001 via WVXF, though the network switched to TV2 in 2009. Between the early 1990s and 2001, satellite service was the only way to access CBS programs in the Virgin Islands.

Ownership