WCIV is the 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...

-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 the Lowcountry

South Carolina Lowcountry

The Lowcountry is a geographic and cultural region located along South Carolina's coast. The region includes the South Carolina Sea Islands...

 area of South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 licensed to Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

. 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 34 from a transmitter in Awendaw

Awendaw, South Carolina

Awendaw is a small fishing town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,195 at the 2000 census. As defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and used by the U.S...

. The station can also be seen on Time Warner

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

 channel 4 as well as 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...

 and Knology

Knology

Knology Inc. is a cable company that formed in 1994 by ITC Holding Company, Inc, a telecommunications holding company in West Point, Georgia that also founded Internet service provider Mindspring. In late 1994, shortly after Knology's inception, two employees made a $600,000 investment to make...

 channel 8. There is a high definition feed offered on Comcast digital channel 431, 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...

 digital channel 815, and Knology digital channel 901. Owned by the Allbritton Communications Company

Allbritton Communications Company

The Allbritton Communications Company is an owner of television stations and other media, based in Arlington, Virginia. All of its stations are affiliated with ABC after signing an affiliation agreement in 1997.-Currently owned:...

, the station has studios on Allbritton Boulevard along US 17

U.S. Route 17 in South Carolina

In the U.S. state of South Carolina, U.S. Route 17 is a north–south highway located near the Atlantic Ocean. The route enters the state from Georgia at the Savannah River and serves Charleston and Myrtle Beach before entering North Carolina near Calabash.-Route description:US 17 enters into...

/US 701

U.S. Route 701

U.S. Route 701 is a spur of U.S. Route 1, although the two routes never intersect. However, using U.S. Route 301 or U.S. Route 501 would connect to U.S. Route 1. It runs 172 miles from Four Oaks, North Carolina at U.S. Route 301 to Georgetown, South Carolina at U.S. Route 17. It passes through...

 (Johnnie Dodds Boulevard) in Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Mount Pleasant is a large affluent suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is a member of the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area, for statistical purpose only, as designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget....

. 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 WCIV includes: Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

, The Dr. Oz Show

The Dr. Oz Show

The Dr. Oz Show is an American syndicated television talk show, hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and teaching professor at Columbia University who became famous for his appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show from 2004 until 2009....

, Ellen

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...

, and The Rachael Ray Show.

Digital programming

WCIV's digital signal on UHF 34 is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Format	Programming
4.1	720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...	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 WCIV programming / ABC
4.2	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	Me-TV

On October 1, 2011, WCIV added Me-TV, a digital broadcast network owned by Weigel Broadcasting

Weigel Broadcasting

Weigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV , at the apt address of 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.- History :The company was founded by Chicago...

 and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 which carries classic television sitcoms and dramas from the 1950s to the 1980s, on digital subchannel 4.2. This can also be seen on on Comcast digital channel 208, Knology digital channel 145 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 816.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCIV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States

DTV transition in the United States

The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...

. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 34 using PSIP to display WCIV's virtual channel as 4.

History

The station launched October 23, 1962 as the third outlet in Charleston. The original license was granted to WTMA-TV but the call letters were later changed to WCIV before it signed-on. It took the 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...

 affiliation from WCBD-TV

WCBD-TV

WCBD-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Lowcountry area of South Carolina licensed to Charleston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter in Awendaw. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 2 as well as Knology and Comcast...

, leaving that station to become a full-time ABC affiliate. The station was originally owned by the Washington Star Company. In 1976, businessman Joseph Allbritton bought the Star and sold off the non-television assets in 1978 to form Allbritton Communications.

In 1989, WCIV was almost destroyed when Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo was a classical, destructive and rare Cape Verde-type hurricane which struck the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico and the USA mainland in South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane during September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season...

 thundered ashore in September of that year. The station's building on the marsh just outside of Mount Pleasant near Sullivan's Island

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

Sullivan's Island is a town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States, on a similarly named island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The population was 1,911 at the 2000 census. It is also the site of a major battle of the American Revolution at Fort Sullivan on June 28, 1776. As...

 was flooded by the storm surge

Storm surge

A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea...

. WCIV aired from temporary studios near its transmitter site for a time and eventually moved to a new building in 1991.

The station became an ABC affiliate in 1996 as part of Allbritton's affiliation deal with the network.

Currently, the station is home to three anchors: Dean Stephens (who spent much of his early career as a sports anchor at WCIV), Victoria Hansen (who returned to the channel where she began her career after working as an anchor in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

) and meteorologist Tom Crawford. It has successfully launched the careers of a number of journalists who have gone on to work in network and cable news including Joie Chen, Van Earl Wright, and Fredericka Whitfield. Many more including Dave Lucas, Monica McNeil, and Dan Potash have moved on to enjoy careers in bigger markets

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...

. WCIV coordinates a number of popular annual community events and programs including Lowcountry's Promise and Gospel Fest.

Newscasts

WCIV produces a daily lifestyle and entertainment program called Lowcountry Live. The show features many popular regular segments and contributors including "Makeover Monday" and "Louis' Kids". LCL, as it is often referred to, also features a plethora of local artists, chefs, musicians, and authors. The show airs Monday through Friday mornings at 10 for an hour. This broadcast serves as a midday program during the week for WCIV because it does not offer news at 11 in the morning or at noon unlike most other ABC affiliates. There is also no newscast during the 5 o'clock hour on weeknights. Along with CBS

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...

 affiliate WCSC-TV

WCSC-TV

WCSC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for South Carolina's Lowcountry area licensed to Charleston. Its broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in Awendaw. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 5 as well as Comcast and Knology...

, this channel offers local news weeknights at 7. WCIV debuted its newscasts in high definition on Saturday, October 15, 2011, becoming the third in the Lowcountry and the last Allbritton-owned station to switch to HD.

Newscast titles

• The Sixth Hour/Eleventh Hour Report (1962-1971)
• TV-4 News (1971-1979)
• NewsCenter 4 (1979–1984)
• News 4 (1984–1990s)
• NewsChannel 4 (1990s–2000)
• ABC NewsChannel 4 (2000–2002)
• ABC News 4 (2002–present)

Station slogans

• "Charleston's Full Color Station" (1960s)
• "4's Company" (early 1970s)
• "This is 4 Country" (mid 1970s)
• "4 Leads The Way" (late 1970s)
• "On Your Side" (mid-late 1980s)
• "Dedicated, Determined, Dependable" (mid-1990s)
• "Live. Local. Late Breaking." (1990s–2002)
• "Your Trusted Source" (2002–2009)
• "Local News For You" (2011–present)

News team

Anchors

• Eric Egan - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Victoria Hansen - weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Laura Harris - weekday mornings; also host of Lowcountry Live
• Evan Kelly - weekday mornings; also host of Lowcountry Live
• Dean Stephens - weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.

ABC News 4 PinPoint Weather

• Tom Crawford (AMS
  American Meteorological Society
  The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
  
   Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Dave Williams - meteorologist; weekday mornings, also Lowcountry Live host
• Sonya Stevens (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist
  Certified Broadcast Meteorologist
  Certified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
  
  Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.

Sports team (both seen on Friday Football Frenzy)

• John Nugent - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Scott Eisberg - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., also sports reporter

Reporters

• Stefanie Bainum - general assignment reporter
• Jon Bruce - general assignment reporter
• Natalie Caula - general assignment reporter
• Nikki Gaskins - general assignment reporter
• Lia Sestric - general assignment reporter
• Valencia Wicker - general assignment reporter
• Dave MacQueen - photojournalist

External links

• WCIV "ABC News 4"
• ABC