WCBI-TV
Encyclopedia
WCBI-TV is the CBS
-affiliated television station
for Northern Mississippi
and Northwestern Alabama
licensed to Columbus
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Northwestern Clay County
. The station can also be seen on Cable One
channel 7 (HD on digital channel 460) and Comcast
channel 13 (HD on digital channel 433). Owned by Morris Multimedia
, WCBI has studios on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show
, The Nate Berkus Show
, The Doctors
, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace
.
affiliate on a second
digital subchannel
. Known on-air as My Mississippi, this can also be seen on Comcast channel 3 and Cable One channel 4. Syndicated programming on WCBI-DT2 includes: How I Met Your Mother
, Family Guy
, Everybody Hates Chris
, and Scrubs
. WCBI also operates the area's CW affiliate on a third digital subchannel. Known on-air as North Mississippi CW and part of The CW Plus
, it can be seen on Cable One channel 10 and Comcast digital channel 225.
newspaper. It has studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. WCBI was originally affiliated with ABC
, NBC
, and CBS but has always been a primary CBS station except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
.
NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA
in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB (now Fox affiliate WLOV-TV
) signed-on. The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes (Birney's son) supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.
WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel
.
In November 2003, Imes Communications sold WCBI to current owner Morris Multimedia with the sale closing on January 14 of the next year. It was the last remaining station of Imes' once-sizable smaller-market
broadcasting group. The Commercial Dispatch newspaper remains under Imes family ownership to this day.
On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS (parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
unit of Time Warner
. On February 22, News Corporation
announced that it would start up another network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.
MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent and to compete against The CW. On September 5, WCBI-DT2 became part of MyNetworkTV known on-the-air as "My Mississippi" while on September 18 WCBI-DT3 became part of The CW known on-air as "North Mississippi CW". WCBI ceased transmission of its analog signal on January 24, 2009 due to a technical problem.
(produced Sunday through Friday nights by NBC
affiliate WTVA
). At some point in time, WCBI added an hour-long extension of its weekday morning show to WCBI-DT2. Known as WCBI News Sunrise on My MS, this broadcast can be seen from 7 until 8 and offers a local alternative to the national network morning shows. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Central Time Zone
, WCBI-DT3 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz
on weekdays from 5 until 8. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a Tupelo Bureau on Main Street/U.S. 278
/MS 6/MS 178.
Anchors
First Alert Meteorologists
Sports (both seen on The End Zone)
Reporters
Contributors
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Northern Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
and Northwestern Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
licensed to Columbus
Columbus, Mississippi
Columbus is a city in Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States that lies above the Tombigbee River. It is approximately northeast of Jackson, north of Meridian, south of Tupelo, northwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and west of Birmingham, Alabama. The population was 25,944 at the 2000 census...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Northwestern Clay County
Clay County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 21,979 people, 8,152 households, and 5,885 families residing in the county. The population density was 54 people per square mile . There were 8,810 housing units at an average density of 22 per square mile...
. The station can also be seen on Cable One
Cable One
Cable ONE is a United States cable service provider and subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, functioning as its own self-contained corporation within its parent company. The company's name and current focus dates back to 1997; prior to that time the company was known as Post-Newsweek Cable...
channel 7 (HD on digital channel 460) and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 13 (HD on digital channel 433). Owned by Morris Multimedia
Morris Multimedia
Morris Multimedia, Inc. is a media company based in Savannah, Georgia, founded in 1970 by Charles H. Morris. Morris Multimedia, among the largest privately held media companies in the United States, is the parent company of Morris Newspaper Corporation and Morris Network.- Newspapers :The Morris...
, WCBI has studios on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show
The Nate Berkus Show, commonly referred to as The Nate Show, is a syndicated talk show hosted by interior designer Nate Berkus, which premiered on September 13, 2010....
, The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...
, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace
Swift Justice With Nancy Grace
Swift Justice with Jackie Glass is a syndicated court program hosted by Judge Jackie Glass....
.
Digital programming
It operates the area's MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate on a second
WCBI-DT2
WCBI-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabama. The station is a second digital subchannel of CBS affiliate WCBI-TV owned by Morris Multimedia. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 35.2 from a...
digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
. Known on-air as My Mississippi, this can also be seen on Comcast channel 3 and Cable One channel 4. Syndicated programming on WCBI-DT2 includes: How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
, Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, and Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
. WCBI also operates the area's CW affiliate on a third digital subchannel. Known on-air as North Mississippi CW and part of The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....
, it can be seen on Cable One channel 10 and Comcast digital channel 225.
| Virtual channel |
Physical RF channel |
Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 35.1 | 1080i 1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
main WCBI programming/CBS HD |
| 4.2 | 35.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | WCBI-DT2 "My Mississippi" |
| 4.3 | 35.3 | 480i | 4:3 | WCBI-DT3 "North Mississippi CW" |
History
When WCBI signed on-the-air July 13, 1956, it was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station was owned by Birney Imes, Jr. a Columbus businessman and publisher of the Commercial DispatchCommercial Dispatch
The Commercial Dispatch is the daily newspaper of Columbus, Mississippi, United States. It was created from the merger of two older papers, the Commercial and the Dispatch, in the early 20th century. The first issue of the consolidated newspaper was published on March 12, 1922...
newspaper. It has studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. WCBI was originally affiliated with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, and CBS but has always been a primary CBS station except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
.
NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA
WTVA
WTVA is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabama licensed to Tupelo, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter on County Road 70 in Woodland, Mississippi. The station can also be seen on Cable One...
in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB (now Fox affiliate WLOV-TV
WLOV-TV
WLOV-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and portions of West Alabama licensed to West Point, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter on County Road 70 in Woodland, Mississippi. The station can also be seen...
) signed-on. The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes (Birney's son) supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.
WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel
The Local AccuWeather Channel
The Local AccuWeather Channel is a 24-hour, weather-oriented, commercially sponsored broadcast and cable television network in the United States owned and operated by AccuWeather, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania....
.
In November 2003, Imes Communications sold WCBI to current owner Morris Multimedia with the sale closing on January 14 of the next year. It was the last remaining station of Imes' once-sizable smaller-market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
broadcasting group. The Commercial Dispatch newspaper remains under Imes family ownership to this day.
On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS (parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. On February 22, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
announced that it would start up another network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.
MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent and to compete against The CW. On September 5, WCBI-DT2 became part of MyNetworkTV known on-the-air as "My Mississippi" while on September 18 WCBI-DT3 became part of The CW known on-air as "North Mississippi CW". WCBI ceased transmission of its analog signal on January 24, 2009 due to a technical problem.
Newscasts
On September 8, 2008, WCBI began producing the area's second prime time newscast on this station. Known as WCBI News at 9 on My MS, the broadcast only airs on weeknights for thirty minutes and competes with another prime time show seen for a half-hour on Fox affiliate WLOV-TVWLOV-TV
WLOV-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and portions of West Alabama licensed to West Point, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter on County Road 70 in Woodland, Mississippi. The station can also be seen...
(produced Sunday through Friday nights by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WTVA
WTVA
WTVA is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabama licensed to Tupelo, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter on County Road 70 in Woodland, Mississippi. The station can also be seen on Cable One...
). At some point in time, WCBI added an hour-long extension of its weekday morning show to WCBI-DT2. Known as WCBI News Sunrise on My MS, this broadcast can be seen from 7 until 8 and offers a local alternative to the national network morning shows. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Central Time Zone
Central Time zone
In North America, the Central Time Zone refers to national time zones which observe standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC , and daylight saving, or summer time by subtracting five hours...
, WCBI-DT3 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
on weekdays from 5 until 8. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a Tupelo Bureau on Main Street/U.S. 278
U.S. Route 278
U.S. Route 278 is a parallel route of U.S. Route 78. It currently runs for 1,074 miles from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to Wickes, Arkansas at U.S. Highway 71/U.S. Highway 59. It might be notable that it is longer than its parent highway, US Hwy-78. US Hwy-278 passes through the states of...
/MS 6/MS 178.
Anchors
- Christian Kirk - weekday mornings
- "Mortgage Minute" and "Good Question" segments producer
- Bill Gamel - weekday mornings and noon
- producer
- Aundrea Self - weekdays at noon as well as weeknights at 5 and 6
- "Making the Grade" segment producer
- Andrew Harrison - weeknights at 6 and 10
- "Changing Family" segment producer
- Michelle Lowe - weeknights at 9 and 10
- "A Day in the Life" segment producer
- Joey Barnes - weekends
First Alert Meteorologists
- Rob Smith - Chief seen weeknights
- Will Simmons - weekday mornings and noon
- Maddie Kirker - weekends
Sports (both seen on The End Zone)
- Mark Dondero - sports director, weeknights at 6 and 10
- Robby Donoho - sports reporter, weekends at 6 and 10
Reporters
- Tony Peoples - Chief Photographer
- Ronny Smith - photojournalist
- Ralph Harris - photojournalist
- Allie Martin - TupeloTupelo, MississippiTupelo is the largest city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. It is the seventh largest city in the state of Mississippi, smaller than Meridian, and larger than Greenville. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 34,211...
Bureau - Siobhan Riley
- Paulo Salazar
- R.H. Brown
Contributors
- Scott Ferguson - Dollars & Sense
- Bill Maier - Focus on the Family
- Jeff Farnham - Mortgage Minute
- Beth Jeffers - Get Fit Fridays
- Art Gisburg - Mr. FoodMr. FoodArt Ginsburg, commonly known as Mr. Food, is a television chef and best selling author of cookbooks who emphasizes simple recipes. He is the originator of "quick & easy cooking" who, for the past 30+ years, has paved the way for TV food personalities who have followed. With his enthusiastic style,...
- Derek Cody - The Endzone