WNCN originally signed on the air in 1988 as WYED, an independent station owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, their first and only television station in their history. In 1994, the station was sold to the Outlet Company.
The station joined The WB network in January 1995 upon its launch. At the same time, it changed its call letters to the current WNCN, which stood for North Carolina's News. The WB affiliation did not last long. In September of that year, it became the new NBC affiliate for the Raleigh area, replacing WRDC, which joined UPN. The WB meanwhile, went to newly-launched WRAZ. WNCN also debuted the tagline, A Whole New NBC! on WNCN.
Screenshot from first newscast of WNCN on September 4, 1995, featuring news logo
In 1996, the station was sold (with the other Outlet stations) to NBC, and WNCN became an NBC owned-and-operated station. WNCN then later rebranded as NBC 17.
On March 15, 2018, WNCN changed its branding from "CBS North Carolina" to "CBS 17." The station also adopted a slightly modified version of the logo introduced by Spartanburg, South Carolina sister station WSPA-TV in 2016.
1Nexstar operates these stations owned by Mission Broadcasting. 2Nexstar operates this station owned by Cunningham Broadcasting. 3Nexstar operates this station owned by White Knight Broadcasting through an SSA. 4Nexstar operates this station owned by Vaughan Media. 5Predecessor company of LIN Media. 6Currently a repeater for WWLP. 7Owned by Super Towers, Inc., Nexstar operates this station through a SSA; sale of station to Mission Broadcasting pending FCC approval. 8Joint venture with Discovery, Inc., in which Nexstar owns 31% while Discovery owns the remaining 69%.
