WRBL-TV
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WRBL (channel 3) 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's s ...
in
Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee ...
, United States, affiliated with
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
and owned by
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
. Its studios are located on 13th Avenue in Columbus, and its
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
is located in Cusseta.


History

WRBL first went on the air on November 15, 1953—just over a month after
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate WDAK-TV (channel 28, now
WTVM WTVM (channel 9) is a television station in Columbus, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Gray Media, which provides certain services to dual NBC/ CW+ affiliate WLTZ (channel 38, owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting) a ...
on channel 9). It is Georgia's third-oldest station outside of
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
(after Macon's
WMAZ-TV WMAZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Macon, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Gray Highway on the northeast side of Macon; its transmitter is ...
) as well as the second-oldest in Columbus. It would have been the fourth-oldest in Georgia, had WROM-TV, channel 9 in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
not moved to
Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
, in 1958, rebranded as
WTVC WTVC (channel 9) is a television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on Benton Drive in Chattanooga; its transmitter is located ...
. WRBL-TV was owned by Jim Woodruff along with WRBL radio (AM 1420, now WRCG, and FM 102.9, now WVRK). Originally on channel 4, it moved to channel 3 in 1960 as part of a regional frequency reallocation by the FCC, that saw WTVM move to channel 9 and WTVY in
Dothan, Alabama Dothan is a city in and the county seat of Houston County, Alabama, Houston County in the U.S. state of Alabama. A slight portion of the city extends into Dale County, Alabama, Dale and Henry County, Alabama, Henry counties. It had a population ...
, move to channel 4. Ironically, the same company, Martin Theaters of Georgia, that purchased and moved WROM-TV and its channel 9 to Chattanooga, had also purchased WDAK-TV and oversaw its switch to the channel 9 VHF hi-band frequency in Columbus. The station has always been a CBS affiliate owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with CBS Radio, but shared
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
with WTVM until the channel switch of 1960, when WTVM switched to ABC to get in line with then co-owned
WTVC WTVC (channel 9) is a television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on Benton Drive in Chattanooga; its transmitter is located ...
, also on channel 9. At that time, WRBL began sharing NBC with WTVM. WRBL is the only major station in Columbus that has never changed its original affiliation. Columbus was one of the very few two-station markets in the 1960s without its own primary NBC affiliate, although NBC affiliates in Albany,
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
and Montgomery could be picked up with relative ease. WYEA (channel 38, now
WLTZ WLTZ (channel 38) is a television station in Columbus, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Gray Media, owner of ABC ...
) took over the NBC affiliation when it opened in October 1970. Woodruff owned the station until his death in a car crash in 1978. After his death, banks controlled the station until it was bought by
Malcolm Glazer Malcolm Glazer (August 15, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American businessman and sports team owner. He was the president and chief executive officer of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his varied business interests, and own ...
's Avant Corporation of
Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
. He sold it to TCS Television Partners, who, in turn, sold it to
Spartan Communications Spartan Communications, Inc. was a company based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that owned WSPA-TV as the city's flagship station from 1956 to 2000 when Spartan merged with Media General of Richmond, VA. In 1984, Spartan bought WBTW and KIMT-TV ...
in 1995. Spartan later merged its company with
Media General Media General, Inc. 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-D ...
in 2000. WRBL replaced RTV with
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
on digital subchannel 3.2 on September 26, 2011, as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with Media General; the channel replaced RTV on some Media General-owned stations in other markets. In early 2016, WRBL relaunched 3.3 as the
Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...
affiliate for the Chattahoochee Valley. 3.3 had been
dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...
since the station closed the First Alert 24/7 Weather channel. On January 11, 2017, Media General became part of the Nexstar Media Group. On September 6, 2018, WRBL opened a news bureau on
Columbus State University Columbus State University is a public university in Columbus, Georgia, United States. Founded as Columbus College in 1958, the university was established and is administered by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. History ...
's downtown campus. The bureau is housed inside CSU's Carpenter Building. The bureau will allow interns from CSU to work alongside WRBL's news staff.


News operation

WRBL presently broadcasts 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with four hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Due to economic conditions from 2008 through 2009, WRBL's owner Media General enacted a series of staff reductions that noticeably affected the amount of news that WRBL offered. First, 6 p.m. weekend newscasts were canceled in fall 2008, and the remaining weekend newscasts were eliminated in early 2009. Soon after, the 5 p.m. and noon newscasts were dropped. However, as of August 2010, the noon newscast has been added back to the WRBL lineup. On October 17, 2010, WRBL reinstated the Sunday night edition of ''News 3 Nightwatch''. Unlike the previous newscasts that were canceled, the duties of these newscasts are spread throughout remaining staff members, including the anchor team. On September 12, 2011, the station brought back ''News 3 First Edition'' weekdays at 5 p.m. On September 14, 2013, WRBL revived the Saturday edition of ''News 3 Nightwatch'' at 11 p.m. and on September 29, 2013, WRBL added a Sunday edition of ''News 3 Evening Edition'' at 6:30 p.m. WRBL launched high definition newscasts on March 21, 2014, with ''News 3 Nightwatch'' at 12:30 a.m. (ran late after NCAA March Madness coverage).


Notable former on-air staff

*
Rece Davis William Laurece Davis (born ) is an American sports television journalist for ESPN/ESPN on ABC, ABC. Davis works as an anchor on ''SportsCenter'' and serves as host of various other programs on the network, including ''College GameDay (football ...
– sports director * Janice Huff – meteorologist/science reporter * Anne Montgomery – sports reporter (early–mid-1980s)


Subchannels

The station's 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— ...
:


References


External links

*
MeTV Columbus website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrbl 1953 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) CBS affiliates Ion Television affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Nexstar Media Group Television channels and stations established in 1953 RBL