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It signed on in 1968 as WCTU-TV, Charlotte's first independent station. Ted Turner bought the station in 1973 and renamed it WRET (after his initials, Robert Edward Turner). Five years later, Turner scored a major coup when he won WRET the NBC affiliation. Turner sold the station to Westinghouse in 1980, and the new owners renamed the station WPCQ-TV. A local group bought the station in 1985 and renamed the station WCNC-TV (for Charlotte, North Carolina) in 1989. The Providence Journal Company bought WCNC-TV in 1990 and merged with Belo in 1997. Since 1996, the station has been known on-air as NBC6 because it can be found on channel 6 on most area cable systems.
Despite numerous owners, this station has only recently figured out how to be a real network affiliate. For much of the 80s, it was the third station it what was essentially a two-station market--even with NBC's powerful Thursday night lineup. It didn't have a lot going for it, going up against stations that had been on the air since the 50s. Longer-established NBC stations in Winston-Salem, Columbia and Greenville were available over the air in much of the Charlotte market, significantly cutting into ratings. But much of this station's problems were of their own making--it had no local news from 1980 to 1986. Since the 90s, WCNC is still third in the ratings, but is at least more competitive than ever.