newschannel 3 cape fear cw on dt2 slogan live . local . interactive . tv now on dt2 channels digital 46 uhf virtual 3 psip subchannels 3.1 abc 3.2 the cw 3.3 cozi tv affiliations abc cw owner morris multimedia wway tv llc first air date october 30 1964 ; 51 years ago 1964 10 30 call letters meaning wonderful watching all year former channel number s 3 vhf analog 1964 2008 former affiliations local weather on dt2 retro tv on dt2 2009 2013 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 590 m class dt facility id 12033 transmitter coordinates 34 7 53.8 n 78 11 15.4 w 34.131611 n 78.187611 w 34.131611 ; 78.187611 website wwaytv3.com wway is the abc affiliated television station for north carolina s cape fear region that is licensed to wilmington . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 46 or virtual channel 3.1 via psip from a transmitter west of winnabow in town creek township . owned by morris multimedia the station has studios on north front street in downtown wilmington next to cape fear community college . contents 1 digital channels 2 history 3 news operation 3.1 notable current on air staff 4 references 5 external links digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 3.1 720p 16 9 wway hd main wway programming abc 3.2 cw hd cape fear cw 3.3 480i cozi tv cozi tv history edit wway signed on october 30 1964 as the second television station in wilmington 10.5 years after nbc affiliate wect channel 6 . it was originally owned by cape fear telecasting a firm controlled by local interests . logically it should have signed on as a cbs affiliate . however it has been an abc affiliate from the very first day . this was somewhat unusual for a two station market especially one of wilmington s size . for most of its first 20 years in television abc was relegated to secondary status on existing stations in most two station markets . however at the time channel 3 signed on no abc affiliate put even a grade b signal into wilmington . in contrast wbtw in florence south carolina put a fairly strong grade b signal into the area . cape fear thus figured that if it signed with abc it would not get much local competition . in 1968 cape fear sold wway to clay broadcasting later to become clay communications . in 1987 clay sold its broadcasting interests including wway to price communications 2 setting off a revolving door of owners over the course of the next two decades . in 1988 price sold wway to adams television 3 who flipped the station to hillside broadcasting in 1995 . hillside then sold wway to cosmos broadcasting a subsidiary of the liberty corporation in 1999 . 4 that company sold off its insurance interests two years later bringing wway directly under the liberty banner . in 2005 liberty merged with raycom media which already owned wect . that company could not keep both stations as federal communications commission fcc duopoly rules do not allow common ownership of two of the four largest stations in a single market . as a result raycom opted to keep the higher rated wect and spun off wway to current owner morris multimedia in 2006 . however the station still retains the liberty era logo it has used since 2003 . on may 8 2008 the fcc announced that wilmington had been selected as a test market for the 2009 national digital television transition . five stations in wilmington including wway also agreed to voluntarily cease analog broadcasting on september 8 . channel 3 made its transition from analog to digital at noon on that date . 5 on june 15 wway started broadcasting the retro television network on its second digital channel . this had previously served as a 24 hour local weather channel . in north carolina wway is still carried in rowland which is part of the florence myrtle beach lumberton market . rowland and all of robeson county used to be part of the wilmington market and even earlier the raleigh durham fayetteville dma . lumberton the county seat of robeson county used to carry wway as well until around 1999 . jacksonville still carries wway even though it is part of the greenville washington new bern market . in south carolina wway used to be carried in myrtle beach and surfside beach up until the late 1990s . it was carried along the south carolina borderbelt communities near the north carolina state line but no longer is . wway is not carried on satellite outside of the market in the carolinas . in brunswick county the station is carried on atmc channel 5 . in september 2013 wway announced that it would add the cw on a digital subchannel ; the channel launched on september 30 2013 carrying the branding cape fear cw . 6 the addition of the cw pushed rtv to channel 3.3 . cozi tv took over the tertiary frequency in january 2015 . on march 30 2016 cbs announced that it would move its local affiliation to wway dt2 from wilm ld on january 1 2017 . 7 news operation edit rival wect has been the longtime market leader in terms of attaining consistent viewership and higher nielsen ratings . wway is the only other wilmington station that produces local news since low powered cbs affiliate wilm ld does not operate a news department of its own unlike most big three network affiliated television stations . however that outlet does simulcast some newscasts from wral tv in raleigh with wilmington specific weather inserts that are taped in advance but there is no news coverage of the cape fear region . in order to provide wilm with more localized coverage a news share agreement was established with wway allowing this abc outlet to produce a live newscast weeknights at 7 . this half hour production aired from march 10 2008 until february 27 2009 . on august 1 2009 wway stopped airing weekend newscasts leaving wect as the only option for viewers . although it would eventually bring back a sunday night show at 11 on october 3 2010 wect retained its ratings and viewership dominance throughout all dayparts . on january 6 2014 wway launched a thirty minute weeknight newscast on wway dt2 under the title cape fear cw primetime news at 10 . this is the first competition to fox affiliate wsfx tv which has a well established nightly newscast at 10 produced by wect . unlike most abc outlets wway does not air a full two hour weekday morning show its good morning carolina program is only seen from 5 30 until 7 . it also does not carry a midday newscast or a 4pm newscast during the week . notable current on air staff edit brett blizzard full court press host sports trot nixon fifth quarter host sports references edit http www.rabbitears.info market.php request station search & callsign wway station company news ; clay price pact on 4 tv stations new york times company news ; briefs new york times company news ; liberty subsidiary buys tv station in north carolina new york times http hraunfoss.fcc.gov edocs public attachmatch doc 282032a1.pdf wway launching over the air cw affiliate . star news online . retrieved 8 september 2013 . holloway daniel . cbs to make north carolina affiliate change . variety . digital tv transition kicks off in wilmington nc la times september 8 2008 external links edit wway wway dt2 cape fear cw query the fcc s tv station database for wway v t e television stations in the wilmington north carolina area reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television digital television wway 3.1 abc 3.2 the cw cbs 3.3 cozi tv the cw wect 6.1 nbc 6.2 bounce 6.3 escape wilm ld 10.1 cbs tbd 10.2 metv wada ld 18.1 laff 18.2 drtv wilt ld 24.1 cbs 24.2 metv wsfx tv 26.1 fox 26.2 this tv 26.3 grit wtmv 29.1 antenna 29.2 heartland 29.3 tuff wunj 39.1 pbs 39.2 kids 39.3 explorer 39.4 north carolina w51cw d 51.1 silent analog television w47ck 47 mntv north carolina broadcast television areas by city asheville charlotte greensboro greenville nc myrtle beach sc norfolk va raleigh wilmington v t e abc network affiliates in the state of north carolina wway 3 wilmington wsoc tv 9 charlotte wtvd 11 durham raleigh fayetteville wcti 12 new bern wlos 13 asheville wxlv tv 45 winston salem see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in north carolina v t e morris multimedia morris newspaper corporation the covington news the times gainesville grant county herald independent great bend tribune manteca bulletin southern standard statesboro herald turlock journal morris network abc affiliates wtvq wway cbs affiliates wdef wcbi fox affiliates wxxv mynetworktv affiliates wmgt dt2 wtvq dt2 wcbi dt2 wxxv secondary nbc affiliates wmgt wxxv dt2 cw affiliates wway dt2 wcbi dt3 wxxv dt3 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wway & oldid 740570597 categories abc network affiliatescozi tv affiliatestelevision channels and stations established in 1964television stations in wilmington north carolina1964 establishments in north carolina navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 21 september 2016 at 22 17 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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