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| WRDC (UPN 28) is the ] affiliate in the ] (]-]-]) ] market. It is licensed to Durham, but its studios are in the Highwoods office park just outside downtown Raleigh. | '''WRDC-TV''' (UPN 28) is the ] affiliate in the ] (]-]-]) ] market. It is licensed to Durham, but its studios are in the Highwoods office park just outside downtown Raleigh. | ||
| It signed on in ] as WRDUTV, an ] affiliate. For the next quarter-century, it was a textbook example of how not to be a network affiliate. It suffered from having longer-established NBC affiliates in ] and ] being available over the air in much of the area. Also, its main competitors, ]' ] and ]'s ], were two of the strongest performers for their respective networks. It also frequently preempted NBC programming in favor of local shows. | It signed on in ] as WRDUTV, an ] affiliate. For the next quarter-century, it was a textbook example of how not to be a network affiliate. It suffered from having longer-established NBC affiliates in ] and ] being available over the air in much of the area. Also, its main competitors, ]' ] and ]'s ], were two of the strongest performers for their respective networks. It also frequently preempted NBC programming in favor of local shows. | ||
Revision as of 17:07, 27 May 2005
WRDC-TV (UPN 28) is the UPN affiliate in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville) television market. It is licensed to Durham, but its studios are in the Highwoods office park just outside downtown Raleigh.
It signed on in 1968 as WRDUTV, an NBC affiliate. For the next quarter-century, it was a textbook example of how not to be a network affiliate. It suffered from having longer-established NBC affiliates in Winston-Salem and Greenville being available over the air in much of the area. Also, its main competitors, CBS' WTVD and ABC's WRAL, were two of the strongest performers for their respective networks. It also frequently preempted NBC programming in favor of local shows.
The Durham Life Insurance Company, which owned the Triangle's oldest radio station, WPTF-AM, bought WRDU-TV in 1971 and changed the calls to WPTF-TV. Durham Life brought in a full-scale news operation, but had little success in the next 20 years. At one point, it was dead last in the Triangle television ratings, behind even WLFL-TV, a station that had only been on the air since 1982. Finally, Durham Life decided to get out of broadcasting entirely. WPTF-TV went to the Communications Corporation of America, who changed the calls to WRDC (for Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill). The new owners made the station profitable almost immediately. However, it suffered a major loss in credibility by firing the entire news department. One disgruntled ex-employee suggested that the station's new calls really stood for "We Don't Really Care."
Then, in 1995, NBC merged with Outlet Communications, which owned independent WNCN-TV in Goldsboro. By this time, NBC had finally had enough with channel 28 and was looking to move its programming elsewhere anyway. WRDC had been airing some UPN programs since 1994, and took on the UPN affiliation full-time. It later entered a local marketing agreement with WLFL. In 2001, WLFL's owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, purchased WRDC outright.
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