WSPA-TV
FCC | |
| Facility ID | 66391 |
|---|---|
| ERP | 33.5 kW |
| HAAT | 674.2 m (2,211.9 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°10′12.7″N 82°17′25.8″W / 35.170194°N 82.290500°W |
| Translator(s) | see § Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WSPA-TV (channel 7) is a
WSPA-TV is the only station in the market that is headquartered in Spartanburg, and in turn tends to focus its local news stories on that city, with a secondary emphasis on Greenville and Asheville.[citation needed]
History
The station first signed on the air on April 29, 1956. It was founded by broadcasting pioneer Walter J. Brown and his company, Spartan Radiocasting, alongside WSPA (950 AM) and WSPA-FM (98.9). The station has been a CBS affiliate since its sign-on. Spartan Radiocasting bought several other radio and television stations over the years, and was renamed Spartan Communications in 1995. WSPA began broadcasting a 24-hour schedule in July of that same year, after previously having signed off during the overnight hours on Fridays and Saturdays.
The WSPA radio stations were sold off in 1998, but WSPA-TV remained the flagship of the company until it merged with Media General in 2000. Prior to this, channel 7 was the last remaining locally owned television station in the market.
The station shared some resources with WNEG-TV (now WGTA) in Toccoa, Georgia, while that station was co-owned with WSPA beginning in 1995; this included that station receiving the CBS affiliation for northeast Georgia. This arrangement was terminated after WNEG was sold to the University of Georgia in 2008.
Due to its transmitter location—at 2,188 feet (667 m) above average terrain—WSPA has one of the largest signal coverage areas on the East Coast. WSPA's over-the-air signal can be received as far north as Blowing Rock, North Carolina (in the Charlotte market), which has line-of-sight to Hogback Mountain despite being approximately 75 miles (121 km) away. However, WSPA is not carried on cable providers in that area.
On March 1, 2009, WSPA's original tower on Hogback Mountain collapsed due to a combination of heavy icing and high winds, hitting the main auxiliary tower as it fell. WSPA's digital signal was restored using a digital subchannel of sister station WYCW (channel 62); while the station received a replacement antenna on March 4, it was without its analog signal for one week after the accident. A new tower was activated in September 2009.
Prior to the March 2009 tower collapse, WSPA provided grade B coverage as far east as Charlotte. It appeared in the television listings inserts in the
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the
Programming
WSPA-TV carries the entire CBS network schedule; however, it carries only the first half-hour of
Past programming preemptions and deferrals
From the 1960s through the 1990s, WSPA had preempted several CBS programs; among them were
It also preempted several of the network's game shows including
News operation
WSPA-TV presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its newscasts on channel 7, WSPA-TV also produces an additional 16 hours of newscasts each week on sister station WYCW, two hours from 7 to 9 a.m. each weekday morning and one hour at 10 p.m. each weeknight, and a half-hour each weekend night.
In addition to the main studios in Spartanburg, in January 2017, WSPA/WYCW opened a street front studio in downtown Greenville. Known as "7 On Main", the facility is located at the corner of Main Street and Falls Park Drive. The stations also operate a news bureau on Main Street/
The station's newscasts have been known over the years as Eyewitness 7 News, 7 Eyewitness News, NewsChannel 7, 7 On Your Side and since January 2016 as 7 News. Among the notable former members of the station's news staff were Leeza Gibbons, Jane Robelot and former CBS anchor Susan McGinnis. In 1977, WSPA hired Annette Estes as anchor of its evening newscasts, becoming the station's first female news anchor; Estes left the station in 1987 to become the 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor (alongside Carl Clark) at WYFF.
In September 1996, WSPA-TV began to produce a nightly half-hour newscast at 10 p.m. for WHNS through a news share agreement with the stations' then-owner
Notable former on-air staff
- Leeza Gibbons – reporter (later host of Leeza and Extra)
- Jane Robelot – anchor/reporter (later host of CBS This Morning; now contributing reporter at WYFF and founder of Carolina Zoom Productions)
- Sibila Vargas – morning and noon anchor
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WSPA-HD | CBS |
| 7.3 | 480i | ION | Ion Television | |
| 40.2 | 480i | 16:9 | TBD | TBD (WMYA-TV) |
WSPA previously carried a 24-hour local weather channel on its second digital subchannel, which was branded as "Storm Team 24/7". In 2009, that subchannel became an affiliate of the
Analog-to-digital conversion
WSPA-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
Translators
In addition to its main signal, WSPA operates a network of 13 translators throughout the mountainous areas of North Carolina.
- W08AT-D Cherokee, NC
- W08BF-D Spruce Pine, NC
- W09AF-D Sylva, NC
- W09AG-D Franklin, NC
- W10AD-D Montreat, NC
- W10AJ-D Greenville, SC
- W11AN-D Bryson City, NC
- W15EL-D Mars Hill, NC
- W18EP-D Weaverville, NC
- W23ES-D Marshall, NC
- W23EY-D Canton, NC
- W32FI-D Brevard, NC
- W35DT-D Beaver Dam, NC
References
- ^ "FCC History Cards for WSPA-TV".
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WSPA-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "Media General Acquiring Meredith For 2.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. September 8, 2015.
- ^ Cynthia Littleton (September 8, 2015). "TV Station Mega Merger: Media General Sets $2.4 Billion Acquisition of Meredith Corp". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "Nexstar Agrees to Buy Media General for $4.6B". January 27, 2016.
- ^ "Nexstar Broadcasting Group Completes Acquisition of Media General Creating Nexstar Media Group, The Nation's Second Largest Television Broadcaster". Nexstar Media Group. January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ^ a b "RabbitEars.Info". rabbitears.info.
- ^ "Where do I watch MeTV in Chicago - MeTV?". Me-TV Network.
- ^ "Channel 7 & 62 signal troubleshooting". Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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