Channels Analog: 10 (VHF) First air date July 22, 1961 | Owner see article Last air date September 17–18, 1989 | |
City Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands Affiliations defunct
(off the air in September 1989) | ||
WBNB-TV, channel 10, was a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Charlotte Amalie, on the island of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. The station operated from 1961 until 1989.
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History
WBNB-TV was the first television station to operate in the Virgin Islands. Its construction permit was secured in 1960 by a pair of New York City-area radio men, Robert Noble and Robert Moss, who shared equal ownership in Island Teleradio Service, Inc., the original licensee of WBNB-TV and sister station WBNB radio (1000 AM, now WVWI). Shortly after the award, newspaper announcements proudly announced that the station would be affiliated with CBS and NBC, and would also carry programs from National Educational Television. The station began operations on July 22, 1961.
The WBNB stations were split up in 1970, as channel 10 was sold to the first of several U.S. mainland-based operators (see Ownership, below). At that point, the Moss/Noble partnership ended when Bob Noble retained sole ownership in the radio outlet, purchasing its remaining shares from Bob Moss and other minority partners.
In September 1989 Hurricane Hugo destroyed WBNB-TV's transmitter and Benedek Broadcasting, who acquired the station three years earlier, chose not to rebuild the facilities immediately for financial reasons. Despite remaining off-the-air ("dark" in television terminology) the station's broadcast license remained active until 1995, when the Federal Communications Commission forced Benedek to surrender the license for cancellation on grounds of abandonment.
CBS programming returned to the Virgin Islands in 2001 via WVXF (channel 17), though the network switched to TV2 in 2009.