WCCB-TV
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WCCB-TV, channel 18 (known on-air as "Fox Charlotte") is the Fox affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, the nation's 28th largest market.
It signed on in 1964 as an ABC affiliate, making it North Carolina's oldest surviving UHF station. Fourteen years later, ABC had become the nation's most watched network and wanted a stronger outlet than WCCB. WSOC-TV, the longtime NBC affiliate, took the ABC affiliation. Conventional wisdom suggested WCCB would simply take the NBC affiliation. But Ted Turner, owner of WRET (now WCNC-TV), a station that had been on the verge of closing down a few years earlier, swooped in from out of nowhere and took the NBC affiliation, leaving WCCB out in the cold as an independent.
The station carried on for nine years as a typical UHF independent before becoming a charter affiliate of the Fox network. Since then, WCCB has been one of the strongest Fox stations in the country. After being known as "TV18" since sign-on, it was rebranded as "Fox 18" in 1988 and as "Fox Charlotte" in 2001.
Since sign-on, the station has been owned by Charlotte businessman Cy Bahakel, who owns several television and radio stations across the country. Bahakel was an original partner in the Charlotte Hornets, and WCCB was the flagship station of the Hornets television network for the team's first four seasons. He was a Democratic candidate for Congress in 1970, losing to longtime incumbent Charles Jonas, but has since been identified with right-wing causes. He is reportedly a member of the Council for National Policy, a secret right-wing group. Despite Bahakel's apparent far-right ties, there are no known significant instances where Fox's racier programming was ever preempted for content in Charlotte.
External links
- Station Web site (http://www.foxcharlotte.com)