WSKY-TV (channel 4) is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

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

Manteo, North Carolina Manteo () is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Roanoke Island. The population was 1,602 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Dare County. Geography Manteo is located at (35.904595, -75.669385), on the north ...

, United States, serving the

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

area. It is the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...

of the

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

–based

Lockwood Broadcast Group Lockwood Broadcast Group is a television broadcasting company that owns stations in several markets. Lockwood Broadcast main offices are located in Hampton, Virginia with Operation Headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. History Lockwood Broadcast ...

, and has studios on Salters Creek Road in Hampton; its transmitter is located near

South Mills, North Carolina South Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Camden County, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 454 as of the 2010 census. South Mills has a post office with ZIP code 27976, which opened on March ...

. Despite WSKY-TV being licensed to Manteo, the station maintains no physical presence there.

History

The history of WSKY-TV can be traced as early as 1995, when the FCC invited filings for a license to operate a television station in Manteo on channel 4. Six groups applied for the license. Before its fall 2001 launch, channel 4 on Cox Cable housed LNC or

Local News on Cable Local News on Cable, or LNC5, was a joint venture between WVEC-TV (the local ABC affiliate), Cox Communications, and The Virginian-Pilot. LNC5 was owned by the Belo Corporation. Launched on February 24, 1997 as LNC4 on Cox Cable channel 4. It la ...

WVEC-TV WVEC (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Hampton, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of ABC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Woodis Avenue in Norfolk; its transmitter ...

24-hour The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pas ...

cable news Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...

television station. When WSKY launched, LNC moved up to channel 5 on Cox Cable lineups. The station's analog signal signed off in late November 2006, as its digital signal was to sign-on from a new tower in

Camden County, North Carolina Camden County is a county located in the U.S. State of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,335, making it the fourth-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Camden. Camden County is part of the Eli ...

. WSKY had some challenges covering the northern part of the market ( Williamsburg,

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

, Hampton) on its analog signal; which was to be remedied with its new digital tower. Between 6 and 7 a.m. on March 2, 2007, in high winds during storms moving through the area, WSKY-DT's tower collapsed, also destroying the transmitter building. The tower was three weeks away from completion. The tower was rebuilt and finished in November 2007. WSKY-DT started broadcasting a

test pattern A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off). Used since the ear ...

on November 24, 2007, and began regular broadcasts on November 27, 2007. On January 1, 2009,

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

removed the channel from its lineup. The station erroneously did not re-elect for

must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...

status on the provider for the next three years, and had no regulatory recourse otherwise to remain on DirecTV. After waiting out the three-year period and successfully filing for must-carry status, the station returned to the DirecTV lineup on January 1, 2012. On July 15, 2013,

announced it would be acquiring 51% of WSKY-TV pending FCC approval. The sale was finalized on November 25.

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated programming currently broadcast by WSKY includes '' The Goldbergs'', ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard that premiered on Fox on January 9, 2011. The show centers on the Belcher family—parents Bob and Linda and their three children, Tina, Gene, and Louise—who r ...

'', ''

The Jerry Springer Show ''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...

'' and ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'', among others.

Newscasts

Since its inception, WSKY-TV has aired no local news programming of its own. However, it did air two 11 p.m. weeknight newscasts from

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 Entertainmen ...

affiliate

WTKR WTKR (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by E. W. Scripps Company alongside Portsmouth-licensed CW affiliate WGNT (channel 27). Bo ...

during that station's coverage of the

2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2009 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament in which 65 schools competed to determine the national champion of the men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2008–09 basketball ...

. WTKR did broadcast late newscasts at midnight when the coverage concluded.

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 ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSKY-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 4, in November 2006. The station's digital signal moved to VHF channel 9, in mid-May 2010, using

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 A ...

to display WSKY-TV's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as 4 on digital television receivers.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wsky-Tv SKY-TV Television channels and stations established in 2001 Independent television stations in the United States Start TV affiliates Movies! affiliates TheGrio affiliates Lockwood Broadcast Group 2001 establishments in North Carolina Dare County, North Carolina