WHNS (channel 21), branded on air as Fox Carolina, is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed to
Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...
, United States, broadcasting
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
network programming to
Upstate South Carolina
The Upstate is the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina, United States, also known as the Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerc ...
and
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United S ...
. Owned by
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
, the station maintains studios on Interstate Court (just northwest of
Interstate 85
Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, n ...
) in Greenville, and its transmitter is located atop Slick Rock Mountain in
Transylvania County, North Carolina
Transylvania County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census the population is 32,986. Its county seat is Brevard.
Transylvania County comprises the Brevard Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included i ...
( southeast of
Brevard).
History
Channel 21 license prior to 1979
WHNS operates on the oldest active television station license in the market, though the connection is indirect. WISE-TV launched in
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...
, on August 2, 1953. Broadcasting on channel 62, it was a primary
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate which also carried programs from
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, and
DuMont. ABC and DuMont moved to
WLOS
WLOS (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting American Broadcasting Company, ABC and MyNetworkTV programming to Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. It is owned by Sincl ...
(channel 13) when that station signed on in September 1954. In 1967, the station changed its call letters to WANC-TV; the next year, it dropped its remaining NBC programming as its ownership brought a cable system to Asheville. WANC-TV moved from channel 62 to 21 in 1971, airing a limited amount of Christian television programming throughout the 1970s by simulcasting
WGGS-TV
WGGS-TV (channel 16) is a religious independent television station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States, serving Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina. Owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting, it is sister to Hender ...
in Greenville. The owner of WANC-TV, Thoms Broadcasting, reached a deal to sell WANC-TV to the owners of WGGS-TV in 1977; 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 ...
(FCC) forced the deal's demise in January 1979, saying that, as WGGS-TV could move to a transmitter site from which it could also serve Asheville, the ownership of two stations would be a wasteful use of spectrum.
Rebuilding channel 21
After the sale to Carolina Christian Broadcasting collapsed, Thoms lost the lease on the channel 21 antenna site, and the station went off the air. Thoms reached a deal to sell WANC-TV to
Pappas Telecasting
Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations ...
of
Visalia, California
Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...
, for $206,000 in June 1979. The sale became effective September 14, and twelve days later, on September 26, the call letters were changed to WHNS.
[ (covering almost exclusively the WISE-TV/WANC-TV history)]
WANC-TV's signal had only reached Asheville and did not extend beyond the South Carolina state line. Pappas began the process of filing for new, much more powerful facilities on Slick Rock Mountain just a month after taking possession of the license. However, in 1981, the FCC designated its application for hearing. WGGS-TV had filed to move its transmitter to Caesar's Head in
Greenville County, South Carolina
Greenville County is located in the state of South Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 525,534, making it the most populous county in the state. Its county seat is Greenville. The county is also home to the ...
, and the two applications were mutually exclusive for technical reasons. While WGGS-TV dropped its conflicting application, another problem had emerged: the proposed facility would not provide a strong enough signal to three percent of the city of Asheville, the city of license, because of shadowing by mountains. As a result, the FCC denied the initial application in 1982.
Pappas appealed: the FCC review board found in Pappas's favor given the circumstances, finding that the company's push to restore channel 21's service to Asheville, limited choice of suitable sites, and good faith efforts outweighed the shadowing issues.
With approval from the FCC in hand, Pappas set out to rebuild the station. An existing building near
Interstate 85
Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, n ...
and Pelham Road, midway between Greenville and Spartanburg, was refitted to serve as the main WHNS studio base; delays in establishing more than a temporary presence in Asheville attracted protests from competitor
WAXA-TV (channel 40) in Anderson. The delays were due to site work and sale negotiations.
WHNS began broadcasting April 1, 1984, promoting itself as the market's first general-entertainment
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 ...
.
(WAXA-TV, in comparison, did not reach homes in the North Carolina portion of the market.) It used one of the first circularly polarized TV antennas in service, broadcasting 3.5 million watts of power from Slick Rock Mountain. The station represented a $12 million investment in facilities and another $5 million in programs.
WHNS initially ran a schedule typical of an independent on the UHF band, consisting of
cartoons
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
,
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
s, classic
movies
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
drama series
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
and select
sporting events
Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
. It became the dominant independent station in the region, placing well ahead of WAXA in the ratings. Its original slogan, "It's Your Station" (which was later changed to "We're Your Station" in 1988) would also be used on then-
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s
KMPH-TV
KMPH-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Visalia, California, United States, serving the Fresno area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Sanger-licensed CW affiliate KFRE-TV (c ...
in Fresno and
KPTM
KPTM (channel 42) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to TBD outlet KXVO (channel 15) under a local marketing agreeme ...
in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
.
Becoming a Fox affiliate
WAXA beat out WHNS for a charter affiliation with the upstart
Fox Broadcasting Company
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...
, which launched in October 1986, even though WAXA had a considerably weaker signal (it was marginal at best in the North Carolina portion of the market and only appeared on Asheville cable systems upon affiliation) and less well-heeled ownership. However, in 1988, WAXA filed for
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
. Pappas, meanwhile, struck a group deal to affiliate KMPH, KPTM and WHNS with Fox: the three stations became Fox affiliates that September. WAXA never recovered from the loss of Fox programming and went off the air on August 31, 1989. After joining the network, WHNS abandoned its "TV-21" brand and changed its on-air branding to "Fox 21".
In 1990, Pappas sold WHNS to Cannell Communications (a broadcast group owned by television producer and author
Stephen J. Cannell), earning a handsome return on its original investment; Pappas had successfully built up WHNS as a major player in the market. Cannell sold WHNS to First Media Television in 1994. On January 16, 1995, WHNS took on a secondary affiliation with the United Paramount Network (
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
), airing the network's programming during late-night time periods. First Media merged with
Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
in 1997. In October of that year, UPN's programming moved to WASV—which had been acquired by Pappas two years earlier in 1995. The station became exclusively affiliated with Fox as a result, only to add a secondary affiliation with
Pax TV
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented ente ...
when that network launched on August 31, 1998; WHNS carried select programs from the network until 2003. In the fall of 2002, WHNS began branding itself as "Fox Carolina".
![WHNS 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/WHNS_2008.png)
On July 24, 2003, Meredith received FCC approval to change WHNS' city of license from Asheville to Greenville to aid identification as a South Carolina station. Under the terms of the reallotment, the station was required to retain city-grade coverage of Asheville and to maintain its existing public interest obligations to that city.
In March 2009, the Meredith Corporation announced that WHNS and
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
sister station
WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTNX-LD (channel 15). The two stations share studios on Knob Road in ...
would have their
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
operations moved to a new master control hub based out of the studio facilities of
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
sister station
WGCL-TV
WANF (channel 46) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Television and is co-owned with independent station WPCH-TV (channel 17) and low-power, Cl ...
, which began operations in the fall of 2009. Three other Meredith-owned stations, in
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
,
Hartford–New Haven and
Bay City, Michigan
Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metropol ...
were later added to this hub in 2010. Meredith operates a similar hub at
KPHO-TV in
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
to handle its stations in the
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
and
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
–
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...
markets.
On September 8, 2015,
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...
announced that it would acquire Meredith for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General if the sale had been finalized. Because Media General already owns WSPA, and the two stations rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville market in total day viewership, the companies would have been required to sell either WHNS or WSPA to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as recent changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations that restrict
sharing agreements;
CW affiliate
WYCW
WYCW (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, serving as the CW outlet for Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Gro ...
(channel 62) was the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could have been legally be acquired by Meredith Media General either by forming a new duopoly with WHNS or maintaining its duopoly with WSPA, as that station's total day viewership ranks below the top-four ratings threshold. However, on January 27, 2016,
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General, resulting in the termination of Meredith's acquisition by Media General.
Sale to Gray Television
On May 3, 2021,
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including WHNS, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1.
As a result, WHNS gained additional sister stations in nearby markets, including NBC affiliates
WIS in
Columbia and
WMBF-TV
WMBF-TV (channel 32) is a television station licensed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee regions of South Carolina. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studio ...
in
Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its ...
, CBS/NBC affiliates
WRDW-TV
WRDW-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Augusta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A NBC affiliate WAGT-CD (channel 26). Both stations share studios at ...
and
WAGT-CD
WAGT-CD (channel 26) is a low-power, Class A television station in Augusta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside dual CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDW-TV (channel 12). Both stations ...
in
Augusta and CBS affiliates
WBTV
WBTV (channel 3) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located off Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter i ...
in
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 ...
and
WCSC-TV
WCSC-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located in the West Ashley section of Charleston, and its transmitter is loca ...
in
Charleston. Gray now owns stations in every market covering South Carolina, as well as every North Carolina market except for the
Greensboro−Winston-Salem and
Raleigh−Durham−Fayetteville markets.
Programming
Syndicated programs broadcast by WHNS include ''
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
'', ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' (which also airs first run episodes), ''
The Wendy Williams Show
''The Wendy Williams Show'' (often shortened to ''Wendy'') is an American syndicated talk show created and hosted by Wendy Williams, and produced by Wendy Williams Productions, along with Perler Productions. The show is distributed by Debmar-Me ...
'', ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...
'' and ''
The Doctors''. In addition, WHNS produces ''Better Carolinas'', which airs weekday mornings at 10:00 a.m. and features a mix of segments from the Meredith-distributed syndicated program ''
The Better Show'' and segments produced locally at WHNS' Greenville studios.
News operation
WHNS presently broadcasts 42 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with eight hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In terms of the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local output among the market's individual stations (WLOS, along with sister station WMYA-TV along with WSPA and sister station WYCW produce more hours of newscasts with their combined operations).
WHNS launched the first prime time newscast in the Greenville-Spartanburg market in September 1996, when CBS affiliate
WSPA-TV
WSPA-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, serving Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Asheville, North C ...
(channel 7) began to produce a nightly half-hour newscast at 10:00 p.m. through a news share agreement. The program was produced from WSPA's main news set at its International Drive studio facility in Spartanburg and utilized WSPA's anchors and reporters; however, the newscast had a different on-air identity and graphics package than that seen on WSPA's newscasts. Meredith Corporation terminated the news share agreement in 1999, when the station began developing its own in-house news department; its news operation launched that fall with the debut of an hour-long 10:00 p.m. newscast.
The station eventually expanded their news offerings, adding a morning newscast.
On May 14, 2007, assignment editor Joe Loy was filming the aftermath of a traffic accident on a local highway when another accident occurred right behind him. Loy managed to tape that accident as a white van, which possibly went out-of-control because of a red pickup truck, spun towards and hit him, killing him instantly.
In September 2009, WHNS expanded its news programming into early evenings with the debut of a half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m.
In 2011, WHNS began broadcasting its local newscasts in
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
enhanced definition. The station ultimately upgraded its news production to
high definition in 2014.
In September 2012, the station canceled their 6:30 p.m. newscast due to low ratings, but the following week launched an 11:00 p.m. newscast, airing Monday through Friday.
In October 2014, WHNS added a weekday hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast, called ''The Four O'Clock News''.
In 2017, the station added a 5:00 p.m. newscast and expanded their morning news from 4:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.
The station's 10:00 p.m. newscast is the highest-rated prime time newscast in the market in that timeslot (outranking the WLOS-produced newscast on WMYA-TV and the WSPA-produced newscast on WYCW) and its other newscasts are seen as competitive in the market.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
From 2007 to 2015, WHNS carried a 24-hour local weather channel on its second digital subchannel, which was branded as "Fox Carolina 3D Radar". Through separate affiliation agreements involving Meredith Corporation and those networks' respective owners (
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
and
Katz Broadcasting
Katz Broadcasting, LLC, doing business as Scripps Networks, is an American specialized digital multicasting network media company and a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. The company owns (as of 2022) nine television networks that each carry ...
) that were signed within days of each other, on March 23, 2015, WHNS announced it would affiliate its second digital subchannel with
Cozi TV
Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s.
The network origina ...
and launch a third subchannel affiliated with
Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
onto its digital signal that spring. On April 15, 2015, the 21.2 subchannel became a Cozi TV affiliate, while the new 21.3 subchannel launched as an Escape affiliate.
In June 2017, a fourth subchannel was added, launching 21.4 as a
Bounce
Bounce or The Bounce may refer to:
* Deflection (physics), the event where an object Collision, collides with and bounces against a plane surface
Books
* Mr. Bounce, a character from the Mr. Men series of children's books
Broadcasting, film and ...
affiliate.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WHNS discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 21.
[CDBS Print](_blank)
/ref>
Translators
WHNS operates five translators
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
across the mountains of western North Carolina. These translators serve as low-power, limited-area repeater
In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...
s that bring the network's signal to deep mountain valleys where the parent signal is blocked by the surrounding terrain. All digital translators use PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
virtual channel 21.
Former translator
WHNS has one decommissioned translator.
Out-of-market cable carriage
In recent years, WHNS has been carried on cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
systems within the Augusta and Columbia markets in South Carolina, and the Atlanta market in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
.
See also
* Channel 17 digital TV stations in the United States
* Channel 21 virtual TV stations in the United States
References
External links
*
WHNS Video Montage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whns
HNS
Fox network affiliates
Cozi TV affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
Bounce TV affiliates
Grit (TV network) affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1984
Gray Television
Former Meredith Corporation subsidiaries