WLOS


WLOS, virtual and VHF digital channel 13, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, serving Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Anderson, South Carolina-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA-TV under a local marketing agreement with owner Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WMYA as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The two stations share studios on Technology Drive in Asheville; WLOS' transmitter is located on Mount Pisgah in Haywood County, North Carolina. On cable, the station is available on Charter Spectrum channel 13.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 18, 1954; broadcasting at 316,000 watts, it was founded by the Skyway Broadcasting Company, owners of WLOS radio. Having been with the ABC network since its sign-on, WLOS is the second-longest tenured primary ABC affiliate located south of Washington, D.C.. During the late-1950s, WLOS was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. The station's original studios and transmitter facilities were based alongside its co-owned radio stations in West Asheville; the station's original self-supporting tower with an analog batwing antenna atop remains standing to this day. A few months after the station signed on, the television station relocated its studio operations to Battle House.
At that same time, the transmitter was moved to the much-higher Mount Pisgah, away. Due to the higher elevation, Federal Communications Commission rules required channel 13 to reduce its transmitter power by half. But even with its power reduced to 178,000 watts, the station still more than doubled its coverage area to include most of Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. Soon afterward, the FCC collapsed the western Carolinas into one large market. With its move to Mount Pisgah, WLOS could now boast the second highest transmitter location east of the Mississippi River at above average terrain and above sea level. At the time, the highest transmitter elevation belonged to WMTW atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire at above average terrain, and above sea level.
The new tower location gave WLOS one of the largest coverage areas in the nation. In addition to its primary coverage area of the Western Carolinas, the station also had significant viewership in several other nearby markets; WLOS also enjoyed at least secondary coverage in portions of eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky. It provided city-grade coverage to nearly all of the Tri-Cities market and Grade B coverage of most of the Knoxville market. Channel 13 could also be seen in portions of Georgia under certain atmospheric conditions. Before the mid to late-1960s, no other full-time ABC affiliate put a clear signal into much of these areas. Before WKPT-TV signed on as the Tri-Cities' ABC affiliate, WLOS claimed the Tennessee-Virginia border area as part of its primary coverage area. Even after WKPT signed on, WLOS was available on cable in that market well into the 1980s and is still available in certain parts of the area. Indeed, many viewers in the Tri-Cities and the eastern part of the Knoxville market received a better over-the-air signal from WLOS than Knoxville's WTVK and WKPT. Both of those stations were on UHF and did not get much signal penetration in their largely mountainous coverage areas. UHF stations, then as now, do not provide adequate reception in rugged terrain. Until the 1990s, WLOS relayed its programming on several separately-owned municipal translator stations in Eastern Kentucky. As mentioned above, WLOS now owns and operates ten analog translators that rebroadcast its digital signal.
The station has also had significant and long-standing viewership in the Charlotte area, particularly in Hickory and points west. Its grade B signal can be seen as far east as Charlotte itself. Until WSOC-TV switched to ABC in 1978, WLOS was the default ABC affiliate for much of the western portion of the Charlotte market; the market's first full-time ABC affiliate, WCCB, had marginal coverage at best in this part of the market. WLOS appeared in the Charlotte Observers television listings for many years, and advertised its programs in Charlotte-area newspapers well into the 1970s. It is still available on some cable systems in the western portion of the Charlotte market.
WLOS' only competition for ABC programming came from WAIM-TV in Anderson, South Carolina, which also carried select CBS programs. WAIM had been the default ABC affiliate for the Upstate until WLOS' massive power boost. WAIM-TV only provided a reliable signal to Anderson itself and nearby Pickens County. However, it still continued to air some ABC programming. Although WLOS was never seriously threatened by WAIM, it pressured ABC to drop its programming from WAIM from the 1960s onward finally succeeding in 1979.
In 1958, Skyway Broadcasting merged with Wometco Enterprises of Miami, Florida. Wometco promptly sold the AM station, but operated WLOS-FM-TV as Wometco-Skyway Broadcasting until 1984, when channel 13 was sold to investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. The FM station was also sold at this time and its antenna remained co-located on the Mount Pisgah tower. Channel 13 was later sold to Anchor Media in 1987, which in turn was later sold to River City Broadcasting in 1993. WLOS signed off on weeknights until the debut of World News Now in January 1992, when its sign-offs were scaled back to late Friday and Saturday overnights before being reduced further to Saturday mornings from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m., after the station's weekend overnight movie presentations, in the early 2000s. The channel began broadcasting a 24-hour daily schedule between late-2005 and early 2006. River City merged with the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996.
In 2000, the station moved its operations to new studio facilities on Technology Drive, about south of Downtown Asheville, which allowed station personnel to make a much shorter driving distance for sales calls and news team coverage to Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina. On January 5, 2007, cable provider Mediacom dropped all Sinclair-controlled stations, including WLOS and WMYA, from its systems due to a retransmission consent compensation dispute. As a result, much of WLOS' viewing area was left without ABC programming until the dispute was resolved a month later. Additionally, Charter also briefly dropped WLOS' high definition feed due to a compensation dispute.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
13.1720pABCMain WLOS programming / ABC
13.2480iMyTVSimulcast of WMYA-TV / MyNetworkTV
13.3480iAntennaAntenna TV
13.4480iStadiumStadium

Even though WMYA-TV has a digital signal of its own, that station's broadcasting radius only provides Grade B coverage to the North Carolina side of the market. Therefore, the station is simulcast over WLOS' second digital subchannel in order to reach the entire market. Until January 2, 2015, WLOS carried a standard-definition simulcast of its main channel on digital subchannel 13.3. On that date, it was replaced with the Grit network. On January 1, 2016, Grit was moved to WMYA-TV's DT4 subchannel and Antenna TV replaced Grit on 13.3 as the result of an affiliation agreement between Antenna TV and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On February 2, 2009, Sinclair told cable and satellite television providers via e-mail that regardless of the exact mandatory switchover date to digital-only broadcasting for full-power stations, the station would shut down its analog signal on the original transition date of February 17, making Greensboro's WXLV-TV and WMYV the first stations in the market to convert to digital-only broadcast transmissions. After the DTV Delay Act postponed the federal transition date to June 12, WLOS intended to convert to digital-only broadcast on February 17; but on February 12, the Federal Communications Commission said that stations must justify using the early cutoff date. On February 13, WLOS general manager Jack Connors announced that the FCC would also require WLOS to discontinue the analog signals of its translators, which would leave many residents in mountainous areas of the region without a signal.
WLOS discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 13.

Out-of-market cable carriage

In recent years, WLOS has been carried on cable systems in areas of North Carolina within the Charlotte and Chattanooga, Tennessee markets, as well as the Augusta and Columbia markets in South Carolina, the Atlanta market in Georgia, the Knoxville market in Tennessee, and the Tri-Cities market in Tennessee and Virginia.

Programming

programs broadcast on WLOS include Rachael Ray, Dr. Phil, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. The station also produced a local children's show called Mr. Bill and Bumbo, featuring now-retired weathermen Bill Norwood and Bob Caldwell. Another popular program on WLOS was Shock Theater, a Saturday afternoon showcase of 1950s black-and-white science fiction films from the Warner Bros., Columbia and Universal libraries. This show was also hosted by Bill Norwood dressed as a Dracula-type character similar to the "Doctor Shock" character of the same era at WTVC-TV in Chattanooga.

Past programming preemptions and deferrals

WLOS has preempted a fair amount of ABC network programming over the years: the station originally aired Dark Shadows on a one-day delay until it dropped the cult soap opera in 1967 ; it also pre-empted fellow soaps The Edge of Night, One Life to Live and Ryan's Hope. From the late 1960s until the newscast was cleared in 1970, the station aired I Love Lucy reruns in place of the ABC Evening News.
By the 1990s, network preemptions were largely limited to select episodes of certain programs, primarily to air local programs; however the station declined to air the daytime talk show Mike and Maty, the children's comedy Fudge, the sitcoms All American Girl and Thunder Alley as well as the first season of The Drew Carey Show. It also aired Jerry Springer in place of The View from its debut in September 1997 until its addition to the schedule in September 2000. It was one of several Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates that preempted a Nightline broadcast that paid tribute to soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq and a telecast of the film Saving Private Ryan in 2004; due to WLOS' commitment to airing the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, WHNS aired ABC Sports' coverage of the final day of the PGA Tour's 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship.
Today, the station carries the majority of the ABC network schedule; however from its debut in September 2011, WLOS was one of few ABC affiliates that preempted the network-syndicated Saturday morning block Litton's Weekend Adventure, marking the first regular ABC program preemption on the station since the early 2000s. Even since WLOS began carrying the final 2½ hours of the block in September 2013, WMYA-TV carried the Weekend Adventure program Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin in lieu of WLOS on a one-day delay.

News operation

WLOS presently broadcasts 33½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week, which is the highest amount of news programming in the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market. In addition, the station broadcasts the regionally syndicated public affairs program NC Spin on Sunday mornings at 5:00 a.m. In addition to its main studios, WLOS operates news bureaus in Spindale, Waynesville, and Greenville, South Carolina.
Traditionally, WLOS' newscasts have focused more on the North Carolina side of the sprawling Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market, as evidenced by its longtime slogan, "Western North Carolina's News Leader." While WYFF has long been the market's highest-rated station overall, WLOS has consistently trounced WYFF and WSPA on the North Carolina side of the market. In addition to its own newscasts, WLOS produces two weekday-only newscasts for WMYA: a half-hour broadcast at 6:30 p.m. and an hour-long newscast at 10:00 p.m..
On April 7, 2008, WLOS began to incorporate traffic reports for the entire market during the station's weekday morning and 5:00 p.m. newscasts, which were originally led by South Florida veteran radio traffic reporter George Sheldon until his retirement on January 30, 2013. On September 17, 2008, WLOS began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition becoming the second pair of stations in the area to upgrade after WSPA and WYCW. On March 28, 2011, WLOS expanded its weekday morning newscast to 2½ hours, with the addition of a half-hour broadcast at 4:30 a.m.

Notable former on-air staff

WLOS operates 18 translators across the mountains of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. These translators serve as low-power, limited-area repeaters that bring the network's signal to towns in deep mountain valleys where the parent signal is blocked by the surrounding terrain. All digital translators use PSIP virtual channel 13.
StationCity of licenseChannelERP
kW		HAAT
m 		Facility IDTransmitter CoordinatesNotes
'Tryon32 0.556538
'Sylva5 0.19556529Analog only.
'Cherokee5 0.00556533Analog only.
'Pickens5 0.11456531Analog only.
'Brasstown5 0.01456538Analog only.
'Oteen6 0.01656544Analog only.
'Sapphire Valley6 0.16356547Analog only.
'Maggie Valley6 0.01556534Analog only.
'Bat Cave6 0.01556535Analog only.
'Spruce Pine6 0.00656533Analog only.
'Bryson City8 0.01556540Analog only.
'Franklin11 0.0856539
'Robbinsville11 0.29856546Analog only.
'Black Mountain12 0.0156545
'Waynesville12 0.0256532
'Burnsville12 0.00556543Analog only.
'Hot Springs12 0.0156541
'Marion15 0.2556542Former callsign W10AP.

The following are future translators that will replace existing analog translators.
StationCity of licenseChannelERP
kW		HAAT
m 		Facility IDTransmitter CoordinatesNotes
'Robbinsville14 1.0190613To replace W11AQ.
'Maggie Valley15 0.1190686To replace W06AP.
'Sylva17 0.1190616To replace W05AE.
'Bat Cave28 0.1198134To replace W06AQ.
'Bryson City30 0.1198135To replace W08AN.
'Pickens31 0.25190612To replace W05AO.