The Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) is an American media company based in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

. Capitol owns three television stations and nine radio stations in the

Raleigh–Durham The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to t ...

and Wilmington areas of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and the

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened in ...

minor league baseball team. It is one of the few family-owned broadcasting companies left in the country, having been owned by four generations of the Fletcher-Goodmon family.

History

A.J. Fletcher founded the Capitol Broadcasting Company in 1937, when he founded Raleigh radio station WRAL (1240 AM, now

WPJL WPJL (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, the station serves the Raleigh area. The station is owned by WPJL, Inc. History The station went on the air on March ...

). WRAL radio began transmission two years later in 1939, using a 250-watt transmitter, becoming

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

's second radio station (after

WPTF WPTF (680 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a news/talk radio format. Licensed to Raleigh, the station serves the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is owned by the Curtis Media Group, with studios located on Highwood ...

). In 1942, Capitol created the

Tobacco Radio Network Tobacco Radio Network was a radio network owned and operated by Capitol Broadcasting Company of Raleigh, North Carolina. Begun in 1942, the network was dedicated to educating and keeping farmers informed of the latest agricultural news, stories, an ...

, a farm news radio service that was discontinued in 2002. On September 6, 1946, Capitol Broadcasting received a license with the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

for WCOY-FM (whose callsign was later changed to WRAL-FM), operating from a 250,000-watt transmitter. In 1960, CBC founded the

North Carolina News Network The North Carolina News Network (sometimes called NCNN) is a news and information service established in 1942. It provides programming to approximately 75 radio stations, primarily in the state of North Carolina, and can also be heard by Internet st ...

, a statewide radio network that now provides news, weather and sports content to about 80 radio stations. This property was sold to

Curtis Media Group Curtis Media Group is a broadcast media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. The company owns and operates several North Carolina radio stations and television networks. Broadcast Stations Curtis Media Group owns and operates the fol ...

in 2009. On December 15, 1956, Capitol Broadcasting's flagship television station

WRAL-TV WRAL-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Research Triangle area. It is the flagship station of the locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company, which h ...

went on the air in Raleigh. In 1979, WRAL-TV became the first television station in the state of North Carolina to have a dedicated

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

for newsgathering. In 1987, Capitol acquired

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

WJZY-TV WJZY (channel 46) is a television station licensed to Belmont, North Carolina, United States, serving as the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox affiliate for the Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside R ...

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. The following year, Capitol also acquired another independent station, WTTV and its satellite station, WTTK, in the

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

area. WTTV and WTTK were sold in 1991 to

River City Broadcasting River City Broadcasting L.P. was a major television and radio station operator in mid-sized markets in the United States, based in St. Louis, Missouri. Overview The firm was formed in 1989 as a partnership between Barry Baker and Larry Marcus, b ...

. In 1996, WRAL-TV was granted the first experimental high definition

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

license in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission. On October 13, 2000, WRAL became the first television station in the world to broadcast a news program entirely in high-definition; the station would begin broadcasting all of its local newscasts in high-definition in January 2001. In 2001, Capitol purchased WFVT (now

WMYT-TV WMYT-TV (channel 55) is a television station licensed to Rock Hill, South Carolina, United States, serving the Charlotte, North Carolina area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is the only major commercial television station in the Charlotte mar ...

) in Charlotte, creating the market's second television

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...

. On October 14, 2005, Capitol Broadcasting signed on WCMC-FM on 99.9 MHz in Raleigh with a country music format, "Genuine Country". In July 2008, Capitol Broadcasting acquired five radio stations in Wilmington from

NextMedia Group NextMedia Group was an out-of-home media company headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado. NextMedia owns and operates 33 AM and FM stations, 5,700 outdoor advertising display across several regions and markets, as well as an interactive divi ...

for $12 million. On April 14, 2009, Capitol Broadcasting and the City of Raleigh partnered to introduce the first mobile digital television in a public transit bus. On January 28, 2013,

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...

announced that it had entered into an agreement to purchase WJZY and WMYT from Capitol for $18 million; the deal was completed on April 17.

Major assets

Notes:
:''1) Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed-on by Capitol Broadcasting Company;''

Television stations

Radio stations

Note: ''Stations operated within the Wilmington radio station cluster are operated under the name Sunrise Broadcasting;''

Sports

– Triple-A minor league baseball team in the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

Holly Springs Salamanders The Holly Springs Salamanders are an amateur baseball team in the Coastal Plain League, collegiate summer baseball league. The team plays its home games at Ting Stadium in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The Salamanders are coached by Brian Ro ...

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

team in the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

* Wolfpack Sports Properties - joint venture with Learfield IMG College covering

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

sports *

Investments

* TitanTV Media

Former assets

Television stations

Radio

(now owned by

) * WILT -

Wilmington, NC Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is th ...

(now owned by

Bible Broadcasting Network The Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) is a listener-supported global Conservative Christian radio network staffed and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1971 by Lowell Davey, who was the network's president until his dea ...

with the call sign WYHW) *

WWMX WWMX (106.5 FM), known on-air as Mix 106.5, is a commercial radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The studios and offices are on Clarkview Road off Jones Falls Expre ...

Baltimore, MD Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

(now owned by

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national um ...

) * WOCT-FM -

(now owned by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

with the call sign WZFT) *

WRNL WRNL (910 AM "910 AM The Fan") is a commercial radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia. WRNL features a sports radio format and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. The studios, offices and transmitter are all co-located just north of t ...

Richmond, VA (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

(now owned by

) *

WRXL WRXL (102.1 FM "Alt 102-1") is a commercial radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, and serving Central Virginia. WRXL is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. WRXL airs an alternative rock radio format. Studios, offices and the transmitter ...

Richmond, VA (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

(now owned by

) * WSTF -

Cocoa Beach, FL Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,539 at the 2018 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Histor ...

(now owned by iHeartMedia with the call sign WJRR)

References

External links

* {{Capital Broadcasting Mass media in North Carolina Broadcasting companies of the United States Television broadcasting companies of the United States Companies based in Raleigh, North Carolina Entertainment companies established in 1937 Mass media companies established in 1937 Radio broadcasting companies of the United States