states branding fox wilmington general fox wilmington news newscasts channels digital 30 uhf virtual 26 psip subchannels 26.1 fox 26.2 this tv 26.3 grit affiliations fox 1994 present owner american spirit media llc wsfx license subsidiary llc operator raycom media first air date september 24 1984 ; 32 years ago 1984 09 24 call letters meaning we re super fox former branding sister station s wect wmbf tv former callsigns wjka 1984 1994 former channel number s 26 uhf analog 1984 2008 19 w19ca lumberton analog translator former affiliations cbs 1984 1994 transmitter power 170.6 kw height 596 m class dt facility id 72871 transmitter coordinates 34 7 53 n 78 11 17 w 34.13139 n 78.18806 w 34.13139 ; 78.18806 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website foxwilmington.com wsfx tv is the fox 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 30 or virtual channel 26.1 via psip from a transmitter in town creek township . owned by american spirit media wsfx is operated through a shared services agreement ssa by raycom media . this makes it a sister station to nbc affiliate wect and the two outlets share studios on shipyard boulevard us 117 in wilmington . contents 1 digital channels 2 history 3 translator 4 programming 5 news operation 6 references 7 external links digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 26.1 720p 16 9 wsfx dt main wsfx tv programming fox 26.2 480i 4 3 this tv this tv 26.3 grit grit history edit the station signed on september 24 1984 as wjka a cbs affiliate . it aired an analog signal on uhf channel 26 leasing space on the tower of abc affiliate wway in unincorporated brunswick county . the station was originally owned by wilmington telecasters a company owned by robinson and katherine everett of durham . the station originally operated from studios located on oleander drive us 76 in wilmington . prior to wjka s start up wilmington was one of the few markets in the united states without its own cbs affiliate and one of the few in the eastern time zone without full network service . future sister station wect had a secondary cbs affiliation until cable arrived in the area in the 1970s while florence south carolina s wbtw covered most of the market with a grade b signal . from the 1970s until wjka s sign on local cable systems piped in either wtvd from durham wnct tv from greenville or wbtw . channel 26 s tenure as a cbs affiliate was far from successful . the station operated on a shoestring budget . it mostly served as a pass through for automated cbs programming and produced almost no local content . the fact that wnct and wbtw provided at least grade b coverage to some parts of the market did not help matters either . further complicating matters raleigh s wral tv which had been available on cable in wilmington for decades switched from abc to cbs a year after wjka s sign on . this move forced the fledgling station to compete against three of the strongest cbs affiliates in the southeastern united states . under those circumstances wjka barely registered as a blip in the local nielsen ratings against rivals wect and wway . in 1994 wjka along with sister station kecy tv in el centro california yuma arizona switched their affiliations to fox ; while this occurred shortly after cbs lost broadcasting rights of the nfl to fox and during the inaugural season of the carolina panthers the change followed several disputes between robinson o. everett and cbs including one over a planned upgrade of kecy s translator in palm springs to a full power station . 2 that september channel 26 changed its call letters to the current wsfx tv . before the switch wilmington was the only portion of north carolina and one of the few in the eastern time zone without an over the air fox affiliate of its own . until this point in time the area s cable systems piped in wlfl in raleigh . as a result of wsfx s affiliation switch wilmington did not have an over the air cbs affiliate until march 2000 when low powered upn affiliate wilm lp switched its primary affiliation to cbs . during that time cable systems supplemented the area with either wral wnct or wbtw . on paper the loss of cbs should have put channel 26 in serious jeopardy . fox had just begun airing a full week s worth of programming just a season earlier but then as now does not produce any daytime programming . wsfx thus now faced having to buy an additional 10 hours of programming per day . however the move to fox rejuvenated the station . its main competition was now wlfl which as successful as it was nowhere near as successful as wral . within a few years it was one of the strongest small market fox affiliates in the country . until 1996 wsfx also doubled as the fox affiliate for the florence myrtle beach south carolina market which did not have its own affiliate . in fact the current call letters stand for superfox referring to its on air name at the time and relatively wide coverage area . since the station s over the air signal does not reach florence the pee dee area had to rely on cable for fox programming until wgse tv now wfxb in myrtle beach took the affiliation . in 2003 everett sold the station to southeastern media holdings . raycom media then took over wsfx operations through a shared service agreement with wect . as part of the agreement wsfx s operations were integrated into wect s facility . in the late 1990s time warner cable in lumberton began to drop wilmington stations . this station was dropped from cable in laurinburg in the early to mid 1990s when it was still a cbs affiliate . wfxb is currently the only fox affiliate offered on cable in that area . on june 27 2011 wsfx was re branded as fox wilmington and introduced a new logo . besides sharing the same call letters this television station and wsfx fm 89.1 in nanticoke pennsylvania have no other relation to each other . on may 8 2008 the federal communications commission fcc announced five stations in wilmington including wsfx had agreed to voluntarily cease analog broadcasting on september 8 . the wilmington market was billed as the first in the nation to convert to all digital transmissions due to its role as the fcc s digital transition test market . hawaii shut down analog broadcasting in january 2009 followed by more but not all full power television broadcasters on february 17 2009 . translator edit it formerly operated an analog translator w19ca channel 19 that was licensed to lumberton and had a transmitter in lumber bridge . the northern and western areas of robeson county st. pauls parkton and red springs also do not carry wsfx even though its translator was located in lumber bridge . the repeater had a directional signal covering robeson county fairly well and could also be seen as far north as raeford in hoke county and hope mills in cumberland county in the raleigh durham market . programming edit syndicated programming on wsfx includes the office modern family two and a half men and family feud among others . news operation edit as wjka the station had virtually no news department for most of its tenure as a cbs affiliate . in the mid 1980s it did air a weekday noon show called midday offering local news headlines and entertainment reports . in the early 1990s wjka actually operated a short lived news department branded as wjka action news 26 . it attempted to create another source for newscasts besides longtime dominant wect and runner up wway . despite the efforts of wjka and wway wect maintained a strong lead in the market ratings and viewership counts by consistently holding the top spot in nielsen marks . on september 22 2003 through a new share agreement wect began producing a nightly half hour prime time newscast on wsfx called fox wilmington news at 10 . this was eventually joined by an sixty minute extension of wect s weekday morning show on september 13 2006 called carolina in the morning on fox wilmington currently airing from 7 until 8 on wsfx offering an alternative to the national morning shows seen on the market s big three network affiliated stations . on august 31 2008 wect became wilmington s first television outlet to upgrade local news production to high definition level and the broadcasts on wsfx were included in the change . at some point in time wect added a third newscast to wsfx called fox wilmington news at 6 30 which only aired on weeknights and attempted to compete against the national evening newscasts seen on the big three networks . it would be cancelled by the end of 2013 in preparation to expand the weeknight edition of the 10 o clock show to an hour which occurred on january 15 2014 . on september 6 2016 fox wilmington will start airing a 7pm newscast . after wway stopped producing weekend evening newscasts on august 1 2009 wect and wsfx became the only outlets in wilmington to offer evening broadcasts seen seven nights a week . although wway eventually reintroduced a local newscast airing sunday nights at 11 wect and wsfx remain the only channels in the market to air newscasts throughout the weekend . all newscasts on wsfx air from wect s primary set but with modified duratrans indicating the fox branded shows . references edit http www.rabbitears.info market.php request station search & callsign wsfx station flint joe april 14 1994 . cbs loses trio of affils to fox . variety . retrieved january 16 2013 . external links edit wsfx tv fox wilmington can be entered into web enabled wireless device for mobile access wsfx dt2 this tv wect query the fcc s tv station database for wsfx tv 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 fox network affiliates in the state of north carolina wghp 8 greensboro high point winston salem wfxi 8 wydo 14 morehead city greenville wsfx tv 26 wilmington wjzy 46 belmont charlotte wraz 50 durham raleigh see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in north carolina v t e raycom media abc network affiliates kaitnbc kltv kswo kxxv krhd cd ktre wloxcbs wtvm cbs network affiliates kauz1 kfda kfvs kgmb kold ksla wafb wbtv wcsc woio wtoc wtol the cw affiliates kauz dt21 kvhp dt21 kwes dt2 kwab dt2 wqwq kfvs dt2 wqtv wupv1 fox network affiliates kmsb1 knin1 kvhp1 kyou1 wbrc wdbd1 wdfx wflx1 wfxg wpgx wsfx1 wtnz wupw1 wvue1 wxix wxtx1 mynetworktv affiliates kfve kgmd kgmv1 sp kttu1 wbxh wloo1 wuab nbc network affiliates kcbd khnl khbc kogg kplc kwes kwab waff walbabc wave wdamabc wect wfie wis wlbt wmbf wmc wsfa wwbt telemundo affiliates keyu kltv dt3