| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
It signed on in 1964 as an ABC affiliate, making it North Carolina's oldest surviving UHF station. Fourteen years later, ABC had become the nation's most watched network and wanted a stronger outlet than WCCB. WSOC-TV, the longtime NBC affiliate, took the ABC affiliation. Conventional wisdom suggested WCCB would simply take the NBC affiliation. But Ted Turner, owner of 14-year-old WRET (now WCNC-TV), swooped in from out of nowhere and took the NBC affiliation, leaving WCCB out in the cold as an independent.
The station carried on for nine years as a typical UHF independent before becoming a charter affiliate of the Fox network. Since then, WCCB has been one of the strongest Fox stations in the country. After being known as "TV18" since sign-on, it was rebranded as "Fox 18" in 1988 and as "Fox Charlotte" in 2001.