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cbs network affiliates
   
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  Station Logo
  Station Slogan ''North Carolina's News Leader''<br>and<br>''Coverage You Can Count On''
  Station Branding ''WRAL-TV5'' (general)<br />''WRAL News'' (newscasts)
  Analog 5 ( VHF )
  Digital 53 HDTV ( UHF )
  Affiliations CBS (1985-present)
  Founded December 15 , 1956
  Location Raleigh / Durham / Fayetteville, North Carolina
  Callsign Meaning '''W RAL'''eigh
  Owner Capitol Broadcasting Company
  Former Affiliations NBC (1956&ndash62)<br /> ABC (1959&ndash85, secondary until 1962)
  Effective Radiated Power 100 kW (analog), 1000 kW (digital)
  HAAT 604 meters (analog), 629 meters (digital)
  Facility Id 8688
  Homepage wwwwralcom


WRAL-TV is the CBS Television affiliate for the Triangle market in North Carolina (the Raleigh / Durham / Fayetteville DMA). The station is licensed to Raleigh, and Broadcasts on VHF channel 5 ( DTV on UHF channel 53). It is available on channel 3 in most of the Triangle, except in outlying areas of the market, where it is available on channel 5. It is the flagship station of Capitol Broadcasting Company . Its Transmitter is located between Garner and Clayton, North Carolina , while its studios are located just west of downtown Raleigh.


HISTORY

The station's first broadcast was on December 15 , 1956 , an airing of the 1947 movie '' Miracle On 34th Street ''. Capitol Broadcasting had won the license in something of an upset over the much larger Durham Life Insurance Company, owners of the Triangle's oldest radio station, WPTF-AM . Channel 5 was originally an NBC affiliate. When WNAO-TV, channel 28, went dark in 1959 , WRAL shared ABC with WTVD until 1962 , when it took the ABC affiliation full-time. This was somewhat unusual for a two-station market, and the reason for this is still not clear to this day. ABC was not on an equal footing with NBC and CBS, in terms of both ratings and affiliated stations, until the early 1970s . WTVD shoehorned NBC onto its schedule until 1971, when WRDU-TV, which had signed on in 1968, finally got the exclusive NBC affiliation. Ironically, Durham Life bought WRDU in 1978 and changed the calls to WPTF-TV; that station is now MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDC-TV .

WRAL has broadcast some of the most memorable locally-produced children's programming throughout its storied history, but the most famous and longest-running is '' Time For Uncle Paul '' (1961-1981), starring Paul Montgomery, who had played various other characters on other local shows before getting his own program. He voluntarily ended his program after station management suggested a change to an educational format. Soon after, WRAL continued to produce acclaimed kids' shows with an educational slant, including Frog Hollow, Sparks, and The Androgena Show.

During the 1960s until his election in 1972 , future Senator Jesse Helms was a regular Editorial Commentator on WRAL's News broadcasts. In fact, his politically conservative commentaries became so popular, WRAL began pre-empting the last ten minutes of the ABC evening network newscasts (then anchored by Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds or Harry Reasoner ), giving Helms a ten-minute nightly program to himself.

In 1979 , the station became the state's first to begin using a helicopter for newsgathering (Sky 5).

In 1985 , Capital Cities Communications merged with the ABC network, making WTVD an ABC Owned And Operated Station . As a result, the CBS affiliation moved to WRAL-TV effective August 4. Within six months, WRAL was the 4th strongest CBS affiliate in the country.

A severe ice storm in December 1989 caused the station's 2,000-foot (610-meter) tower to collapse, forcing WRAL off the air. A rather quick-timed arrangement with Fayetteville station WKFT-TV (now WUVC-TV ) Channel 40 (which at the time was facing severe financial problems), allowed WRAL to return to the airwaves in only 3 hours. WKFT ran the entire WRAL schedule during this time. The station's new, stronger tower was launched on October 25 , 1990 , at which point WKFT reverted to airing its own programming.

In the early-1990s, WRAL broadcasted its programming via C-Band satellite as part of the Primetime 24 package, which offered network affiliates to viewers in the Caribbean, Latin America and rural areas where local signals are not available. It was replaced in the late-1990s with Erie, Pennsylvania 's WSEE-TV .

In 1996 , WRAL-TV was granted the first Experiment al High-definition Television License in the United States by the FCC . In 2000 , WRAL-DT aired the world's first all-HDTV newscast on October 13 . In January 2001 , WRAL converted all of its local news broadcasts to high-definition.

Today, WRAL-TV airs the entire CBS program schedule, as it has since the late '') were having no luck against '' The Oprah Winfrey Show '' on WTVD.

WRAL announced on February 1 , 2006 that it will simulcast all of its programming on the Web to computer users in the Triangle, signifying the latest advance in technology-driven delivery of product by a local television station. A few months later, WRAL was selected to serve as the flagship station for the North Carolina Education Lottery , which includes nightly drawings and the twice-a-week national Powerball lottery.


NEWS OPERATION

WRAL has one of the most-watched and most-respected television news organizations in North Carolina, winning numerous regional Emmys in addition to being one of the highest-rated CBS affiliates in the country. The station has been the highest-rated station in the Triangle for most of the time since the 1970s. At one point, Charlie Gaddy's 6 p.m. newscast drew a 56 share in the Raleigh-Durham market. Until his retirement on July 1 , 1994 , Gaddy co-anchored newscasts alongside Bobbie Battista, Adele Arakawa (now with KUSA in Denver), Donna Gregory (who now works for NBC), and Pam Saulsby. Today Saulsby, along with current co-anchor David Crabtree (who replaced Gaddy in 1994), chief meteorologist Greg Fishel (who took over for retiring Bob DeBardelaben in 1989), and popular sportcaster Tom Suiter, is a part of the longest-running on-air news team (news, weather, and sports) in the Triangle, and one of the longest-running news teams in North Carolina.

On November 17 , 2006 , WRAL had a special "reunion" newscast at 6pm with Gaddy, Battista, DeBardelaben, and Suiter reprising their roles once again. This commemorated the station's 50th anniversary. {Link without Title}

WRAL is sister station to in Wilmington .


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TRANSMITTER


The WRAL-TV Mast is a 1,999 Foot (609.5 M ) high guy-wired radio mast for TV and FM-broadcasting near Auburn, North Carolina , USA at 35°40'35.1"N and 78°32'07.2"W. The WRAL HDTV mast weighs 723 tons and the guys weigh 258 tons. The WRAL-TV mast has three platforms for aerials of directive radio and it is used by 3 TV and 2 FM-broadcasting companies. It was built in 1989 as replacement for two masts of the same height, which collapsed during a blizzard. Near the WRAL-TV Mast, there are two further extremely high radio masts, the WTVD Tower and the WNCN Tower .


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