states city charleston sc north charleston sc branding fox 24 general fox 24 news newscasts slogan so fox 24 general the news you want when you want it channels digital 24 uhf virtual 24 psip subchannels 24.1 fox 24.2 gettv affiliations fox 1986 present owner cunningham broadcasting wtat licensee llc operator sinclair broadcast group first air date september 7 1985 ; 31 years ago 1985 09 07 sister station s wciv former channel number s analog 24 uhf 1985 2009 digital 40 uhf until 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1985 1986 secondary upn 1995 1997 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 583.3 m class dt facility id 416 transmitter coordinates 32 56 24.7 n 79 41 43.5 w 32.940194 n 79.695417 w 32.940194 ; 79.695417 website foxcharleston.com wtat tv is the fox affiliated television station for south carolina s lowcountry that is licensed to charleston . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 24 from a transmitter in unincorporated charleston county near woodville . owned and operated by cunningham broadcasting . the studio is on arco lane in north charleston with a charleston postal address . contents 1 history 2 programming 3 counties that wtat tv covers 4 digital television 4.1 digital channels 4.2 analog to digital conversion 5 news operation 6 references 7 external links history edit the station began operations on september 7 1985 as charleston s first independent outlet under the ownership of act iii broadcasting . it aired an analog signal on uhf channel 24 from a transmitter near woodville . a local group originally held its construction permit but sold it to act iii before the station went on the air . on october 6 1986 as part of a corporate deal between act iii and news corporation it became a charter affiliate of the fledgling fox network . it should be noted however that wtat would have been the obvious choice as charleston s fox affiliate even without the act iii affiliation deal as it was the area s only general entertainment independent station at the time . abry communications bought the act iii group in early 1994 . abry merged with sinclair later that year but wtat and wrgt tv in dayton ohio were sold to sullivan broadcasting in compliance with federal communications commission fcc ownership limits of the time . sullivan in turn outsourced the operation of its entire station group including wtat back to sinclair . in 1995 wtat picked up upn as a secondary affiliate until 1997 when former wb affiliate wmmp joined the upn network . by the time sinclair tried to acquire sullivan s stations outright in 2001 it already owned wmmp which it had purchased outright from max media properties a company partially related to the present day max media in july 1998 . sinclair could not legally keep both wtat and wmmp because charleston has only six full power stations too few to legally permit a duopoly . although wtat was longer established sinclair opted to keep wmmp and sold wtat to glencairn ltd. that company was owned by edwin edwards a former sinclair executive and appeared to be a minority owned company . however nearly all of glencairn s stock was controlled by the smith family founders of sinclair . in effect sinclair now had a duopoly in the charleston market in violation of fcc regulations . glencairn and sinclair further circumvented the rules by crafting a local marketing agreement with wmmp as the senior partner allowing sinclair to continue operating wtat . in 2001 the fcc fined sinclair 40 000 for illegally controlling glencairn . later that year this was renamed cunningham broadcasting . however nearly all of cunningham s stock is still controlled by trusts in the names of the children of the smith brothers . then as now all of cunningham s stations are located in markets where sinclair can not legally form a duopoly and are operated by sinclair stations via lmas . glencairn and later cunningham have been accused of serving as a shell corporation that allows sinclair to circumvent fcc ownership rules . on may 15 2012 sinclair and fox agreed to a five year extension of the network s affiliation agreement with sinclair s 19 fox stations including wtat allowing them to continue carrying fox programming until at least 2017 . 1 on march 20 2014 as part of a restructuring of sinclair s august 2013 deal to purchase allbritton communications owner of abc affiliate wciv channel 4 in order to address ownership conflicts with the deal involving wmmp s local marketing agreement with wtat sinclair announced that it would terminate the shared services agreement with cunningham broadcasting which would make wtat the first cunningham station in which sinclair does not hold any operational interest . cunningham which would acquire the non license assets of wtat will seek a shared services agreement with the prospective owner of wmmp which sinclair will sell in order to receive approval of its purchase of wciv . 2 3 programming edit outside of the fox network schedule syndicated programming currently broadcast by wtat tv includes dr. phil judge judy the people s court tmz and two and a half men . beginning in september 2016 xploration station will move to wtat tv from wcsc tv s digital subchannel and will air saturday mornings beginning at 10am the time specified for fox s east coast affiliates . counties that wtat tv covers edit counties that wtat covers charleston county dorchester county berkeley county colleton county georgetown county williamsburg county orangeburg county clarendon county sometimes wtat will cover the following counties . ex severe storm coverage or breaking news from one of the following counties . bamberg county barnwell county hampton county allendale county beaufort county jasper county horry county digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 4 24.1 720p 16 9 wtatfox main wtat tv programming fox 24.2 480i 4 3 get tv gettv analog to digital conversion edit wtat tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 24 on february 17 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television which congress had moved the previous month to june 12 . 5 the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 40 to channel 24 . news operation edit this is the current look of the fox 24 news set after leaving wcsc s studios . in the early 1990s fox required most of its major market affiliates to add local newscasts or face disaffiliation . as a result wtat entered into a news share agreement with cbs affiliate wcsc tv then owned by crump communications . the partnership resulted in a nightly half hour prime time broadcast to debut on this station currently titled the fox 24 news at 10 . that program was one of the first prime time newscasts in south carolina along with fellow fox affiliate wach in columbia which established a similar outsourcing arrangement with nbc affiliate wis in that market several years later . eventually an hour long extension of wcsc s weekday morning show was added to wtat . known as the fox 24 news at 7 this can be seen until 8 offering the area s only local alternative to the national morning broadcasts aired on the big three networks . wtat shows have no wcsc branding and originate from the cbs affiliate s studio studio 2 on charlie hall boulevard in charleston s west ashley section along glenn mcconnell parkway . the music package and graphics scheme used on all newscasts can be seen on other sinclair owned television stations that operate their own in house news departments . although wtat features the majority of wcsc s on air personnel this station maintains a separate second news anchor on weeknights that also contributes to wcsc . fox 24 anchor leyla gulen during a primetime news at 10pm broadcast this outlet was one of many company owned stations including wgme wics wlos and kgan along with others that did not participate in the wider implementation of sinclair s now defunct controversial news central format . this centralized operation had national news segments all weather forecasts and some sports coverage based at company headquarters on beaver dam road in hunt valley maryland that supplemented local content at most of sinclair s in house news departments . wtat did air the point a one minute conservative political commentary that was also controversial and a requirement of all company owned stations with newscasts until the series was discontinued in december 2006 . on september 29 2008 wcsc set a broadcasting benchmark in the area when it became the first television outlet to offer newscasts in high definition . the upgrade included new custom raycom media corporate graphics a re designed hd logo and updated music package . the wtat broadcasts at that time however were still only aired in pillarboxed 4 3 standard definition as this station lacked a high definition capable master control at its separate facility in order to receive the newscast in hd . on august 31 2009 the weeknight prime time show at 10 was expanded to an hour while the weekend edition remained 35 minutes in length . it would not be until january 24 2011 when the station completed a master control upgrade allowing the reception and transmission of local programming including local news in high definition . during weather forecasts wtat features wcsc s own collins adc doppler weather radar known as live super doppler max in addition to noaa s national weather service radar images from several regional sites . beginning january 1 2016 wtat s newscasts are now produced by wciv . this change also came with a new anchor for the 10pm news hour and an expanded morning news 7am 9am . the weeknight 10pm newscasts is anchored solely by leyla gulen who joined wtat from kgo tv in san francisco california . the weekday morning newscasts is co anchored by tessa spencer adams and jon bruce while the weekend 10pm newscasts is anchored by ashley blackstone . references edit sinclair reups with fox gets wutb option tvnewscheck may 15 2012 . sinclair offers to sell stations ahead of fcc decision tvspy march 21 2014 . sinclair proposes restructuring of allbritton transaction in order to meet objections of the federal communications commission the wall street journal via prnewswire march 20 2014 . rabbitears tv query for wtat list of digital full power stations permanent dead link external links edit official website wciv website query the fcc s tv station database for wtat tv v t e broadcast television in the lowcountry of south carolina including charleston reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations wcbd tv 2.1 nbc 2.2 the cw 2.3 ion wgwg 4.1 h & i 4.2 decades 4.3 tcn wcsc tv 5.1 cbs 5.2 bounce 5.3 grit witv 7.1 pbs scetv 7.2 sc channel 7.3 world wlcn cd 18.1 ctn 18.2 ctni 18.3 ctn wbse lp 20.1 laff 20.2 escape wtat tv 24.1 fox 24.2 gettv wazs ld 29 aza wjni ld 31 a1 wciv 36.1 mntv 36.2 abc 36.3 metv adjacent locals myrtle beach sc wbtw 13.1 cbs 13.2 mntv antenna 13.3 ion wmbf 32.1 nbc 32.2 bounce 32.3 grit wfxb 43.1 fox 43.2 qvc 43.3 this tv 43.4 metv savannah hilton head wsav 3.1 nbc 3.2 mntv metv 3.3 wx wtoc 11.1 cbs 11.2 grit 11.3 bounce tv defunct w26cf 26 ind south carolina broadcast television areas by city augusta ga aiken charleston charlotte nc columbia greenville sc myrtle beach savannah ga hilton head v t e fox network affiliates in the state of south carolina whns 21 greenville wtat 24 charleston wtgs 28 hardeeville wfxb 43 myrtle beach wach 57 columbia see also abc cbs cw fox ion