MyNetworkTV/Telemundo affiliate in Sumter, South Carolina
WKTC
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City
| Sumter, South Carolina
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Channels
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Branding
| WKTC 63
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Affiliations
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Owner
| WBHQ Columbia,
LLC
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Founded
| April 19, 1990
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First air date
| November 8, 1997
(26 years ago)
(
1997-11-08
)
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Former call signs
| - WQHB (1997?2003)
- WBHQ (2003?2006)
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Former channel number(s)
| - Analog:
63 (UHF, 1997?2009)
- Digital:
39 (UHF, until 2019)
- Translator:
W67DP (1998?2007)
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| - UPN
(primary 1997?2001, secondary 2001?2004)
- The WB
(secondary 1997?2001, primary 2001?2006)
- Pax TV
(per-program, 1998?2001)
- MyNetworkTV (primary 2006?2014, secondary 2014?2019)
- The CW
(2014?2019)
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| WK Television of Columbia
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Licensing authority
| FCC
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Facility ID
| 40902
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ERP
| 426
kW
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HAAT
| 391 m (1,283 ft)
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Transmitter coordinates
| 34°6′58.4″N
80°45′49.9″W
/
34.116222°N 80.763861°W
/
34.116222; -80.763861
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Public license information
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WKTC
(channel 63) is a
television station
licensed to
Sumter, South Carolina
, United States, serving the
Columbia
area as an affiliate of
MyNetworkTV
and
Telemundo
. The station is locally owned by WBHQ Columbia,
LLC
, and maintains studios in the Pontiac Business Center complex in
Elgin
and a transmitter on Rush Road (southeast of
I-20
) in rural southwestern
Kershaw County
.
History
[
edit
]
The station first signed on the air on November 8, 1997, as WQHB;
[2]
it originally operated as a primary
UPN
and secondary
WB
affiliate, with The WB's prime time programming airing on a one-day
delay
from 6 to 8 p.m. It also aired select programming from Pax TV (now
Ion Television
) following that network's 1998 launch. The station's original main transmitter in Sumter was not nearly strong enough to provide a decent over-the-air signal to Columbia; as a result, WQHB began operating a fill-in
translator
in Columbia, W67DP (channel 67).
In 2001, the station became a primary WB affiliate, shifting UPN prime time programming to the late evening hours from 10 p.m. to midnight, after The WB's prime time schedule. Pax TV programming was dropped altogether at this time. In 2003, the station changed its call letters to WBHQ (reversing the last three letters of its original calls) and moved its transmitter to space on the tower of
ABC
affiliate
WOLO-TV
(channel 25) near
Camden
. This gave the station an over-the-air
coverage area
comparable to Columbia's other full-power stations, enabling it to shut down the channel 67 translator. It also changed its on-air branding from "WB63" to "
Midlands
' WB4" (a reference to its cable channel placement in the market on
Time Warner Cable
). During this period, it moved to its current studio facilities in Elgin. WBHQ dropped UPN programming on August 27, 2004, leaving the market without a UPN affiliate until
Roberts Broadcasting
signed on
WZRB
(channel 47) on
January 1
, 2005.
On January 24, 2006, the
Warner Bros.
unit of
Time Warner
and
CBS 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 called
The CW
.
[3]
[4]
On February 22, 2006,
News Corporation
announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called
MyNetworkTV
, which would be operated by
Fox Television Stations
and its syndication division
Twentieth Television
, which was created to give UPN and WB stations that would not become CW affiliates another option besides converting to
independent stations
.
[5]
[6]
On March 25, it was announced that WBHQ would become MyNetworkTV's Columbia affiliate.
[7]
On June 26, 2006, the station changed its call letters to WKTC (standing for "Television of Columbia", according to the station's co-owner). On June 28, the station began running advertisements in the
Columbia Free Times
newspaper featuring the cast of one of MyNetworkTV's original
telenovelas
Desire
, with the text "September 5 / It's a whole new ballgame," alongside a stylized "My 63" logo and the new call letters. In August 2007, WBHQ Columbia, LLC converted W67DP into the market's
Telemundo
affiliate, using the calls "WNXG". Later that month, WKTC began operating its full-power digital signal on channel 39. WBHQ Columbia, LLC also signed on a low-power MyNetworkTV-affiliated station in
Wilmington, North Carolina
,
W47CK
(branded as "WMYW"), and a low-power Telemundo-affiliated station in
Savannah, Georgia
, WHDS-LD.
WKTC became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.
[8]
W67DP went dark in June 2010; on June 3, 2011, its license was canceled by the
Federal Communications Commission
due to inactivity.
[9]
Telemundo programming continues on the second subchannel of WKTC.
On December 11, 2013, Roberts Broadcasting received
United States bankruptcy court
approval to sell WZRB to
Ion Media Networks
, which converted the station into an Ion Television
owned-and-operated station
on February 10, 2014. WZRB continued to carry The CW as a secondary affiliation in the interim until March 17, 2014, when the network's programming moved to WKTC as a primary affiliation; the station then changed its on-air branding to "Columbia CW 63". As a result of the change, WKTC pushed MyNetworkTV two hours later, running from 10 p.m. to midnight after CW prime time programming.
[10]
WKTC regained the title of the only television station in the United States to carry both The CW and MyNetworkTV on its primary channel. Since then,
WPWR-TV
in
Chicago
(a Fox-owned MyNetworkTV station that affiliated with The CW from 2016 until 2019),
WUAB
in
Cleveland
(the MyNetworkTV affiliation in that market has since moved to a digital subchannel of its sister station
WOIO
) and
KFMB-DT2
in
San Diego
have joined WKTC in carrying both networks.
On May 29, 2019, The CW announced that it would move its Columbia affiliation from WKTC to the second subchannel of
WIS
(channel 10), effective September 30.
[11]
WKTC replaced CW prime time programming with
The Doctors
and
Judge Jerry
(with the latter also airing in place of The CW's
Jerry Springer
repeat) while otherwise keeping their schedule unchanged outside of acquired E/I programming on Saturday mornings. The station also acquired the
Grit
affiliation abandoned by WIS-DT3 in the move for their seventh subchannel (WIS-DT3 now carries
Bounce TV
, which moved from WIS-DT2 as a result).
Sports programming
[
edit
]
In January 2012, WKTC began broadcasting
Southeastern Conference
college basketball games from
ESPN Plus
?operated SEC Network (later
SEC TV
), sharing with WOLO-TV.
[12]
This ended after the 2013?2014 season because of the launch of the cable-exclusive
SEC Network
in August 2014.
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Prior to November 2009, WKTC carried the Retro Television Network on digital subchannel 63.2. In November 2009, WKTC began carrying a
simulcast
of
low-power station
W67DP/WNXG on 63.2, shifting RTV to digital channel 63.3. In November 2011, WKTC began carrying
Antenna TV
on its 63.3 subchannel, thus shifting RTV once again, this time to digital subchannel 63.4. W67DP would go
dark
by June 2010.
[14]
Retro TV would be removed on October 1, 2017, when a contract with
Katz Broadcasting
to carry Laff and Escape went into effect, which was notable as WKTC was the final Retro TV affiliate nationwide which held a
major broadcast network
affiliation on their main subchannel.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WKTC"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
Nye, Doug (November 8, 1997).
"Sumter TV station may air in Columbia"
.
The State
: 46.
- ^
'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September
,
CNNMoney.com
, January 24, 2006.
- ^
UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network
,
The New York Times
, January 24, 2006.
- ^
"News Corp. to launch new mini-network for UPN stations"
.
USA Today
. February 22, 2006
. Retrieved
January 21,
2013
.
- ^
News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV
,
Broadcasting & Cable
, February 22, 2006.
- ^
[1]
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on August 29, 2013
. Retrieved
June 9,
2014
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"FCC Broadcast Actions"
. Federal Communications Commission. June 8, 2011.
- ^
Malone, Michael (March 19, 2014).
"WKTC Columbia (S.C.) Picks Up CW Affiliation"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. Retrieved
March 20,
2014
.
- ^
Miller, Mark K.
"The CW Moving To WIS-TV Columbia In Fall"
.
TVNewsCheck
. Retrieved
May 29,
2019
.
- ^
SEC Network Announced Affiliate Change in Columbia.
- ^
"RabbitEars.Info"
.
www.rabbitears.info
.
- ^
FCC Broadcast Actions, June 8, 2011.
[
permanent dead link
]
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Reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with
cable television
|
Digital television
|
- WIS
(10.1
NBC
, 10.2
CW
, 10.3
Bounce
, 10.4
The365
, 10.5
Oxygen
, 10.6
Outlaw
)
- WLTX
(19.1
CBS
, 19.2
Crime
, 19.3
LC
, 19.4
Quest
, 19.5
Nest
, 19.6 Nosey
[soon]
, 19.7/.8
[both blank]
)
- WOLO-TV
(25.1
ABC
, 25.2
Start
, 25.3
QVC
, 25.4
MeTV
, 25.5
H&I
, 25.6
Dabl
, 25.7
Story
, 25.8
HSN
)
- WRJA-TV 27 / WRLK-TV 35
(xx.1
PBS
/
SCETV
, xx.2
Create
/SCC, xx.3 ETV World, xx.4
ETV Kids
)
- WZRB
(47.1
Ion
, 47.2
Court
, 47.3
Mystery
, 47.4
Grit
, 47.5
Defy
, 47.6
JTV
, 47.7
Scripps
, 47.8
QVC2
, 47.9
HSN2
)
- WKDC-LD
(50.1
Daystar
)
- WACH
(57.1
Fox
, 57.2
TBD
, 57.3
Charge!
, 57.4
Comet
)
- WKTC
(63.1
MNTV
, 63.2
TMD
, 63.3
Cozi
, 63.4
Laff
, 63.5
Cozi
, 63.6
Get
)
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Defunct channels
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|
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ABC
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CBS
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Fox
| |
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NBC
| |
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The CW
| |
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MyNetworkTV
| |
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Ion Television
| |
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PBS
(
SCETV
)
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Other
|
- WGWG 4
ATSC 3.0
(
MeTV
,
Charleston
)*
- WHDC-LD 12
(
Court
,
Charleston
)*
- WWJS 14
(
SBN
,
Hickory, NC
)**
- WGGS-TV 16
(
Rel.
Ind.
,
Greenville
)*
- WLCN-CD 18
(
CTN
,
Charleston
)*
- WWMB 21
(.1
Dabl
, .2
TBD
, .3
Nest
, .4
Charge!
,
Florence
)*
- WAZS-LD 29
(
Azteca
,
Charleston
)*
- W30CV-D 30/48
(
Ind.
,
Hilton Head Island
)**
- WDKT-LD 31
(
GEB
,
Hendersonville, NC
)*
- WSCG-LD 34
(
GetTV
,
Baxley, GA
)**
- WMYA-TV 40
ATSC 3.0
(
Dabl
,
Anderson
)*
- WSQY-LD 51
(
Daystar
,
Greenville
)*
- WAXN-TV 64
ATSC 3.0
(
Ind.
,
Kannapolis, NC
)**
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of South Carolina's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of South Carolina
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