More WRAL News, More Sports, and More Great Entertainment!
WILM-TV will start the new year with a big change. As the ball drops at midnight on January 1, 2017, WILM will go independent!
So, what exactly is an Independent Station? Simply said, an Independent Station is unaffiliated with any network. In other words, WILM will now program 100% of its broadcast day at WILM. Therefore, WILM chooses all of its programming instead of getting half of it from a network. Before, as a CBS affiliate, about half of the programming came from CBS and the other half… programmed at WILM.
So, half of the programs WILM aired in 2016 will still be available on WILM in 2017. Check your local listings for where to find CBS programming in the new year. Find a full listing of the great programs you’ll be able to watch on WILM during the 1st quarter of 2017 here.
Viewers along the North Carolina coast will still be able to watch the award-winning WRAL News from Raleigh. WILM will continue to air WRAL News, which will increase by 12 hours a week and will now include the popular favorite “Tar Heel Traveler” on Saturday evenings at 6:30pm.
As an Independent Station WILM-TV will be bringing more Entertainment Programming (like game shows, comedies, dramas and entertainment news) more WRAL News and a lot more Sports than ever before.
Over the summer WILM conducted its own survey internally of paid programming to determine how many hours of paid programming they had compared to competing stations in the market.
“I’ve never been a fan of paid programming—it’s a ratings killer” said Constance Knox – General Manager, “but it seemed like our competitors had a lot of it, and we were right”.
Randomly WILM chose the week of June 6 – June 12, 2016, WECT (NBC) came in at 23.5 hours of paid programming, WWAY (ABC) came in at 30 hours, WSFX (Fox) came in at a whopping 35.5 hours and WILM came in at 5.5 hours.
“I’ve always strived to be the station that viewers can turn to, to always find great entertainment” said Knox, thus a new tag line was born “Always Great Entertainment”.
Knox continued, “Our programming strategy for 2017 is no different than 2016… we want to be the station where you can always find great entertainment.”
For 2017, WILM has picked up a ton of ACC Basketball and Football as well as about twenty different NCAA conferences from American Sports Network. In the first quarter alone, WILM is increasing its sports programming by over 250%. The station will also have many of the ACC Basketball Tournament games in March. WILM is so excited to bring so many new sporting events to Wilmington… more than this market has ever seen before.
Besides new programming, WILM is sporting a new look, including a new logo and animation graphics.
“All-in-all we’ve rebuilt half of our programming week and rebranded the station. We’re excited to move on to some new programming, new integrated sales opportunities and new offices with Sunrise Broadcasting later this year. It’s going to be a busy—and prosperous year!” said Knox.
You can find WILM on Time Warner, Charter and ATMC cable as well as DISH and DirecTV. Additionally, you can watch WILM for free over-the-air with an antenna on channels 10.1 and simulcast on 24.1. You can go to http://www.wilm-tv.com/wilm-tv-channel-locator/ for a complete listing of channel assignments for WILM.
Have Questions? Find out more about the change, including programming questions here: WILM-TV FAQ’s (http://www.wilm-tv.com/wilm-tv-faqs/)
Thanks to WILM’s Connie Knox for contributions to this capcom story.
