WBTV

Not to be confused with KBTV-TV.

This article is about the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. For the defunct television network, see The WB. For the television subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures, see Warner Bros. Television Studios.

Contents
1949–1958	1958–1963	1963–1969	1969–1970	1970–1978	1978–1983
1983–1990	1990–1991	1991–1998	1999–2001	2001–present

1949–1958

LOGO MISSING

The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1949. When it debuted, WBTV was the 13th television station in the United States and the first in the Carolinas; it is the oldest television station located between Richmond and Atlanta. It was originally owned-and-operated by the Greensboro-based Jefferson Standard Insurance Company, owners of WBT (1110 AM), the city's oldest radio station and the first fully licensed station in the South. At the time, the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company also had a 16.5% interest in the Greensboro News Company, licensee of WFMY-TV, which signed on from Greensboro two months after WBTV. Jefferson Standard had purchased WBT from CBS in 1947. Shortly before the television station went on the air, its call letters were modified from WBT-TV to WBTV. Jefferson Standard merged with Pilot Life in 1968 (although it had owned controlling interest since 1945) and became the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. In 1970, the media interests were folded into a new subsidiary, Jefferson-Pilot Communications.

1958–1963

WBTV News truck

1963–1969

1969–1970

LOGO MISSING

1970–1978

1978–1983

Red variant

News Intro 1978-83

Sports Print Ad

1983–1990

1990–1991

1991–1998

1998–1999

1999–present

1999–2001

2001–present

Alternative on-air logo

Website logo

WBTV-DT2 (2011–present)

WBTV 60th anniversary (2009)

In 2006, Jefferson-Pilot merged with the Philadelphia-based Lincoln National Corporation. Lincoln Financial retained Jefferson-Pilot's broadcasting division, which was renamed Lincoln Financial Media, with WBTV retaining its status as the flagship station. On November 12, 2007, Lincoln Financial announced its intention to sell WBTV, sister stations WWBT in Richmond and WCSC-TV in Charleston, South Carolina and Lincoln Financial Sports, to Raycom Media for $583 million. Raycom was later acquired by Atlanta-based Gray Television on January 2, 2019.

External links

• WBTV.com