is the
FOX television affiliate in
Charleston, South Carolina . It broadcasts its analog signal on
UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located near Woodville,
South Carolina . The station broadcasts it digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter located in
North Charleston . WTAT is owned by
Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by
Sinclair Broadcast Group under a
Local Marketing Agreement with the area's
MyNetworkTV affiliate
WMMP . However, due to Cunningham's financial structure, Sinclair effectively owns WTAT (see below). WTAT shares studios with WWMP on Arco Lane in North Charleston. The station is known on-air as '''''"FOX 24"'''''.
The station began operations in
1985 under the ownership of
Act III Broadcasting . A local group originally held WTAT's construction permit, but sold it to Act III before the station went on the air. In
1986 , as part of a corporate deal between Act III and
News Corporation , it became a charter affiliate of the fledgling
Fox Broadcasting Company . Abry Communications bought the Act III group in early
1994 . Abry merged with Sinclair later that year, but WTAT was sold along with
WRGT-TV in
Dayton, Ohio to Sullivan Broadcasting in compliance with
FCC ownership limits of the time. Sullivan, in turn, outsourced the operation of all of its stations, including WTAT, back to Sinclair.
By the time Sinclair tried to acquire Sullivan's stations outright in
2001 , it already owned WMMP (which it had purchased outright from Max Media in
July of
1998 ). Sinclair could not legally keep both WTAT and WMMP because Charleston has only six full-power stations--too few to legally permit a duopoly. Although WTAT was longer-established, Sinclair opted to keep WMMP and sold WTAT to Glencairn, Ltd. Glencairn was owned by Edwin Edwards, a former Sinclair executive, and appeared to be a minority-owned company. However, nearly all of Glencairn's stock was controlled by the Smith family, founders of Sinclair. In effect, Sinclair now had a
Duopoly in the Charleston market, a violation of FCC regulations. Glencairn and Sinclair further circumvented the rules by merging WMMP and WTAT's operations under a
Local Marketing Agreement , with WMMP as senior partner. The FCC fined Sinclair $40,000 later in 2001 for illegally controlling Glencairn. Later that year, Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting. However, the Smith family continues to control nearly all of Cunningham's stock. Glencairn/Cunningham has faced numerous allegations that it has served as a
Shell Corporation which Sinclair has been using for the purpose of circumventing FCC ownership rules.
Sinclair and Fox recently finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates, including WTAT. WTAT's affiliation contract now expires in
March 2012 .
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WTAT has a news share agreement with the area's
CBS affiliate
WCSC-TV . That station produces all of the newscasts on WTAT. The daily 10 PM newscast on WTAT is the oldest and longest running 10 PM news broadcast in
South Carolina , premiering in the early
1990s .
- Anchors:
- ---Bill Burr
- ---Amy Lutz
- Weather:
- ---Chad Watson
- Anchor:
- ---Erin Colgan
- Weather:
- ---Scott Williams
- Sports:
- ---Andy Pruitt
- Anchor:
- ---TBA
- Weather:
- ---Brad Miller
- Sports:
- ---Kevin Bilodeau
- David Tynan - General Manager
''WTAT uses additional news personnel from WCSC, see the WCSC article for a complete listing''
