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Today, WLOS turns 60. Does anyone have memoriblia or just want to say something to them. Leave a reply. Thanks! HAPPY BIRTHDAY WLOS! 
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WLOS has long served Western NC and Upstate SC with news and ABC programming. Although their OTA digital signal on RF13 should be improved, as it has a null towards Upstate SC, to protect WBTW-13 in Florence. But I believe they still may be the tallest broadcast tower east of the Mississippi from atop Mt. Pisgah. So with that height, they could have a superb signal if they were allowed to be omnidirectional.
Back in the '60s WLOS had, with its system of translators, a monster signal into six states; it was the de facto ABC affiliate for the Tri Cities before WKPT signed on in 1969; viewers in Knoxville preferred it to their own ABC station, which at the time was WTVK/26, and you could get it in Athens, GA about as well as you could get Atlanta's then-ABC affiliate, now known as WXIA/11 Alive. Channel 13 put a signal into the two Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia.
Lynchburg's Channel 13, the oldest ABC affiliate south of Washington (WLOS is second), was hamstrung in trying to find a place for its transmitter because of WLOS's superior tower position and also issues about short-spacing WOWK Huntington, WV (which makes no sense to me because Huntington isn't that close to either Lynchburg or Asheville).
September 2 was the 60th anniversary of another ABC station in North Carolina, WTVD/11 Raleigh/Durham, which is an ABC o&o. Unlike WLOS, which has been with ABC from the beginning, WTVD started with NBC (and the first network show it ever carried was one of my favorites, Groucho's "You Bet Your Life"), went to ABC when WRAL signed on in 1956, to CBS (secondary ABC) when WNAO folded in 1958 or therabouts, to CBS (NBC secondary) when WRAL went to ABC in 1962, a move which generated controversy when Ch. 28, the former WNAO, returned to the air as WRDU in 1968 and found itself getting the crumbs tossed to it after TVD got through cherry-picking the strongest CBS and NBC shows. RDU complained to the FCC, which required TVD to pick one network; it chose CBS and stayed there until 1985, when its owner, CapCities, bought ABC, made TVD an o&o, and RAL became the CBS affiliate (NBC moved to WNCN in 1995, first as an o&o and now owned by Media General).
WWAY Wilmington and WCCB Charlotte have 50th anniversaries coming up; 2015 will be the 60th for WITN and for WUNC, one of the first public (then called educational) stations in the country.
Anyway, WLOS has long been one of my favorite ABC stations; I think in the '60s and '70s in particular it modeled itself on Channel 11 in Atlanta and, until WGHP went to Fox, on that station as well. I also knew one of its former employees, Debra Furr Sluder, when I was a kid. Happy birthday, News 13!
Lynchburg's Channel 13, the oldest ABC affiliate south of Washington (WLOS is second), was hamstrung in trying to find a place for its transmitter because of WLOS's superior tower position and also issues about short-spacing WOWK Huntington, WV (which makes no sense to me because Huntington isn't that close to either Lynchburg or Asheville).
September 2 was the 60th anniversary of another ABC station in North Carolina, WTVD/11 Raleigh/Durham, which is an ABC o&o. Unlike WLOS, which has been with ABC from the beginning, WTVD started with NBC (and the first network show it ever carried was one of my favorites, Groucho's "You Bet Your Life"), went to ABC when WRAL signed on in 1956, to CBS (secondary ABC) when WNAO folded in 1958 or therabouts, to CBS (NBC secondary) when WRAL went to ABC in 1962, a move which generated controversy when Ch. 28, the former WNAO, returned to the air as WRDU in 1968 and found itself getting the crumbs tossed to it after TVD got through cherry-picking the strongest CBS and NBC shows. RDU complained to the FCC, which required TVD to pick one network; it chose CBS and stayed there until 1985, when its owner, CapCities, bought ABC, made TVD an o&o, and RAL became the CBS affiliate (NBC moved to WNCN in 1995, first as an o&o and now owned by Media General).
WWAY Wilmington and WCCB Charlotte have 50th anniversaries coming up; 2015 will be the 60th for WITN and for WUNC, one of the first public (then called educational) stations in the country.
Anyway, WLOS has long been one of my favorite ABC stations; I think in the '60s and '70s in particular it modeled itself on Channel 11 in Atlanta and, until WGHP went to Fox, on that station as well. I also knew one of its former employees, Debra Furr Sluder, when I was a kid. Happy birthday, News 13!
WBTV Channel 3 Charlotte is the oldest TV station in the Carolinas and I believe will be turning 65 next year. They now have a strong digital signal on RF23 that is omnidirectional, and I receive it very well in Greenville, SC, along with local CBS affiliate WSPA-7. And I believe WBTV is one of the longest serving original CBS affiliates on the East coast.
WBTV is indeed the oldest station in the Carolinas, having signed on July 15, 1949 (WFMY is second, having signed on September 22, 1949; South Carolina did not get a station of its own until 1953). After WAGA (sign on March 8, 1949) switched from CBS to Fox in 1994, WBTV became the oldest CBS affiliate south of Washington (with WFMY second) and the only CBS affiliate I can think of anywhere that is older, since KPIX became an o&o, is what is now WUSA in DC (January 16, 1949 sign-on date).
I lived west of Charlotte in the 70s and I remember watching WLOS a lot. It's where I first remember watching reruns of "I Love Lucy" in the morning, though as a very young child I remember watching that show too. I just didn't remember anything about it because I was so young.
I remember watching Bill Norwood do weather and I sort of remember watching him as Mr. Bill. I probably watched some ABC programming too but I mostly watched whatever the Charlotte station was. It was WCCB for most of those years, but later it was WSOC.
Mostly I watched WLOS when I would visit the mountains. There was a TV in one big room at a hotel where we stayed (and this was very unusual because we didn't spend that kind of money) and I watched "Lucy" there with some other people. Later we stayed in a motel with TV in each room. I've done that now for as many years as I can remember. "Jeopardy" and aBC shows are the ony programs I've watched on WLOS in the mountains in recent years.
I remember watching Bill Norwood do weather and I sort of remember watching him as Mr. Bill. I probably watched some ABC programming too but I mostly watched whatever the Charlotte station was. It was WCCB for most of those years, but later it was WSOC.
Mostly I watched WLOS when I would visit the mountains. There was a TV in one big room at a hotel where we stayed (and this was very unusual because we didn't spend that kind of money) and I watched "Lucy" there with some other people. Later we stayed in a motel with TV in each room. I've done that now for as many years as I can remember. "Jeopardy" and aBC shows are the ony programs I've watched on WLOS in the mountains in recent years.
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