WCBD-DT2
 | |
| Charleston, South Carolina United States | |
|---|---|
| Branding |
Lowcountry CW 14 News 2 (newscasts) |
| Slogan |
TV Now & Count on News 2 |
| Channels |
Digital: WCBD-DT 50.2 (UHF) Virtual: 2.2 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | The CW (via The CW Plus) |
| Owner |
Media General (Media General Communications Holdings, LLC) |
| First air date |
September 21, 1998 (as cable-only "WBLN") September 18, 2006 (as a digital subchannel of WCBD-TV) |
| Call letters' meaning | See WCBD |
| Sister station(s) | WSPA-TV, WYCW, WJBF/WAGT, WSAV-TV |
| Former callsigns | "WBLN" (1998–2006) |
| Former affiliations | The WB (via The WB 100+ Station Group, as WBLN) (1998–2006) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 581 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 10587 (digital) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°56′24.7″N 79°41′43.5″W / 32.940194°N 79.695417°W (digital) |
WCBD-DT2 is a CW-affiliated television station, part of The CW Plus, serving the Charleston, South Carolina market. It is the second subchannel of Charleston's NBC affiliate, WCBD-TV, which is owned by Media General and is carried on digital subchannel 2.2. WCBD-DT2 is branded as Lowcountry CW 14 based on its standard definition cable channel position on the main local provider, Comcast (which also carries the channel in high definition on channel 1014), along with DirecTV. By market size it is the largest subchannel-only affiliate of the service. The station is also carried on WOW! channel 12 and Dish Network on channel 50.
History
The subchannel's history traces back to the September 21, 1998 launch of "WBLN," a cable-only affiliate of The WB Television Network that was originally managed and promoted by Cox Communications alongside the launch of The WB 100+ Station Group, a similar service to The CW Plus that was created to expand national coverage of The WB via primarily local origination channels managed by cable providers in markets ranked above #100 by Nielsen Media Research. Since it was a cable-exclusive outlet and therefore not licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the channel used the "WBLN" callsign in a fictional manner. Before the cable-only WBLN went on the air, The WB programming was seen on WCTP, which later became WBNU, then from Chicago-based superstation WGN after WBNU switched to UPN and changed the call letters to WMMP before the national launch of the WB 100+ system.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[1][2] The CW Plus was created by the network as a replacement for The WB 100+ Station Group to allow the existing cable outlets as well as low-power analog stations and digital subchannels of major network affiliates in smaller markets that joined The WB 100+ in the years following its launch to maintain a network affiliation; WCBD launched their second digital subchannel on September 18, 2006 to be Charleston's affiliate of the CW, which was made up of the merged UPN and WB networks; UPN had been carried by WMMP (which joined MyNetworkTV), with the WB carried exclusively on cable though a cable channel branded as WBLN, which broadcast on Channel 14 on area cable systems; WCBD-DT2 immediately assumed that same channel position upon launch. Though most of the schedule is taken up by the default CW Plus schedule, Sunday mornings feature the locally originated outdoors programs Santee Cooper Sportsman with Kevin Davis and SC Outdoors.
In late 2013, WCBD-DT2 began broadcasting in 720p high definition, in line with the CW's request for their Plus network subchannel affiliates to carry the network in HD wherever technically possible.
Newscasts
WCBD-DT2 has an original newscast for them produced by WCBD: WCBD News 2 at 10pm on the CW.