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Branding Lowcountry CW 14
News 2 (newscasts) Slogan TV Now &
Count on News 2 Channels Digital: WCBD-DT 50.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 2.2 (PSIP) Affiliations The CW (via The CW Plus) Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) First air date September 21, 1998; 18 years ago (1998-09-21)
(as cable-only "WBLN")
September 18, 2006; 10 years ago (2006-09-18)
(as a digital subchannel of WCBD-TV) | ||
WCBD-DT2 is a CW-affiliated television station, part of The CW Plus, serving the Charleston, South Carolina market. It is the second subchannel of Charleston's NBC affiliate, WCBD-TV, which is owned by the Nexstar Media Group and is carried on digital subchannel 2.2. WCBD-DT2 is branded as Lowcountry CW 14 based on its standard definition cable channel position on the main local provider, Comcast (which also carries the channel in high definition on channel 1014), along with DirecTV. By market size it is the largest subchannel-only affiliate of the service. The station is also carried on WOW! channel 12 and Dish Network on channel 50.
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History
WCBD launched their second digital subchannel on September 18, 2006 to be Charleston's affiliate of the CW, which was made up of the newly-merged UPN and WB networks. It took the channel 14 slot previously held by its cable-only WB predecessor, which effectively dissolved all operations entirely with the launch of WCBD-DT2.
The previous history of The WB in Charleston saw that network being carried exclusively on cable through "WBLN", an affiliate of The WB's smaller-market The WB 100+ Station Group and run by Coastal Media & Broadcasting and Cox Communications from September 21, 1998 until the network's end in September 2006, and was located on channel 14 on most cable systems. Before WBLN's launch, the network originated on WCTP (the current-day WCIV-DT1) in January 1995, which changed their calls to WBNU to fit their new affiliation. In January 1997, WBNU signed an affiliation agreement with UPN and changed their calls to WMMP after a change in ownership, staying with that network until September 2006 when they affiliated with MyNetworkTV; the short interregnum in 1997 saw viewers receive WB programming only from Superstation WGN before WBLN and the WB 100+ system launched.
Programming
Though most of the schedule is taken up by the default CW Plus schedule, Sunday mornings feature the locally originated outdoors programs Santee Cooper Sportsman with Kevin Davis and SC Outdoors, along with local church services.
In late 2013, WCBD-DT2 began broadcasting in 720p high definition, in line with the CW's request for their Plus network subchannel affiliates to carry the network in HD wherever technically possible.
Newscasts
WCBD-DT2 has one original newscast for them produced by WCBD: "WCBD News 2 at 10pm on the CW" on weeknights.