WCBI-TV

WCBI-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Northern Mississippi and Northwestern Alabamalicensed to Columbus. It broadcasts ahigh definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Northwestern Clay County. The station can also be seen on Cable Onechannel 7 (HD on digital channel 460) and Comcast channel 13 (HD on digital channel 433). Owned by Morris Multimedia, WCBI has studios on 5th Street South in Downtown Columbus. Syndicated programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show, The Nate Berkus Show, The Doctors, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace.

Digital programming
It operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as My Mississippi, this can also be seen on Comcast channel 3 and Cable One channel 4. Syndicated programming on WCBI-DT2 includes: How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy,Everybody Hates Chris, and Scrubs. WCBI also operates the area's CW affiliate on a third digital subchannel. Known on-air as North Mississippi CW and part of The CW Plus, it can be seen on Cable One channel 10 and Comcast digital channel 225.

History
When WCBI signed on-the-air July 13, 1956, it was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station was owned by Birney Imes, Jr. a Columbus businessman and publisher of the Commercial Dispatch newspaper. It has studios at a cement block building surrounded by and a group of mobile homes in a pasture off MS 12 just east of Columbus. WCBI was originally affiliated with ABC, NBC, and CBS but has always been a primary CBS station except during the 1977-1978 season when it was a primary ABC affiliate. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. [1]

NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1979 after WTVA in Tupelo expanded its city-grade signal to include Columbus. WCBI continued to carry some ABC programs until 1983 when WVSB (now Fox affiliate WLOV-TV) signed-on. The station remained in its rural location for more than thirty years. In the early-1990s, Frank Imes (Birney's son) supervised the renovation of the former Egger's Department Store in Downtown Columbus. Live broadcasting began at the new facility on October 25, 1993 with News 4 at 6.

WCBI began broadcasting a full power digital signal in August 2002 on UHF channel 35. By early September, it was broadcasting three digital signals including CBS in high definition on DT1. On DT2 was a standard definition UPN channel known on-air "UPN Mississippi" that was the first digital affiliate of the network in the country. A 24-hour local weather station was located on DT3 known on-air as "WCBI WeatherCheck" and provided as part of The Local AccuWeather Channel.

In November 2003, Imes Communications sold WCBI to current owner Morris Multimedia with the sale closing on January 14 of the next year. It was the last remaining station of Imes' once-sizable smaller-market broadcasting group. The Commercial Dispatch newspaper remains under Imes family ownership to this day.

On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that the networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS (parent company of UPN) and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros. Warner Bros.]unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.

MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent and to compete against The CW. On September 5, WCBI-DT2 became part of MyNetworkTV known on-the-air as "My Mississippi" while on September 18 WCBI-DT3 became part of The CW known on-air as "North Mississippi CW". WCBI ceased transmission of its analog signal on January 24, 2009 due to a technical problem.

Newscasts
On September 8, 2008, WCBI-DT2 began airing a prime time newscast on weeknight called WCBI News at 9 on My Mississippi featuring new weekly segments. This competes with WLOV's broadcast that is produced by WTVA. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Central Time Zone, WCBI-DT3 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz weekdays from 5 until 8. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a Tupelo Bureau on Main Street (U.S. 278/MS 6/MS 178). All news anchors serve as reporters.

Newscast Titles

 * TV-4 News (1970s-early 1980s)
 * News 4 (early 1980s-1995)
 * WCBI 4 News (1995-2000)
 * WCBI News (2000-present)

Station Slogans
WCBI News Anchors
 * 4 is On the Spot (1970s)
 * ABC 4 is WCBI (1977-1978)
 * 4's On The Move (early 1980s)
 * We're 4 Mississippi (1980s)
 * 4 Stands for News (early 1990s)
 * Your Station. Your News (2000-2005)
 * Keeping You Informed (2005-present)

WCBI First Alert Meteorologists
 * Christian Kirk - weekday mornings
 * "Mortgage Minute" and "Good Question" segments producer
 * Bill Gamel - weekday mornings and noon
 * producer
 * Aundrea Self - weekdays at noon as well as weeknights at 5 & 6
 * "Making the Grade" segment producer
 * Andrew Harrison - weeknights at 6 & 10
 * "Changing Family" segment producer
 * Michelle Lowe - weeknights at 9 & 10
 * "A Day in the Life" segment producer
 * Joey Barnes - weekend evenings

WCBI Sports (both seen on The End Zone)
 * Keith Gibson- chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Rob Smith - Chief meteorologist emeritus; fill-in
 * Will Simmons - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
 * Maddie Kirker- weekend evenings
 * Jake Reed- meteorologist; fill-in

WCBI Reporters
 * Mark Dondero - Director seen weeknights at 6 & 10
 * Robby Donho - weekend evenings and sports reporter

Contributors
 * Tony Peoples - Chief Photographer
 * Ronny Smith - photojournalist
 * Ralph Harris - photojournalist
 * Allie Martin - Tupelo Bureau
 * Siobhan Riley
 * Paulo Salazar
 * R.H. Brown


 * Scott Ferguson - Dollars & Sense
 * Bill Maier - Focus on the Family
 * Jeff Farnham - Mortgage Minute
 * Beth Jeffers - Get Fit Fridays
 * Art Gisburg - Mr. Food

Former staff

 * Ross Adams, former reporter; now reporter for WJTV-News Channel 12 in Jackson, MS
 * Ashton Altieri, former meteorologist; now at KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado
 * Derek Beasley, former meteorologist; former Chief Meteorologist at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio now Chief Meteorologist at WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama
 * Dennis Hudson, former nightly newscast anchor; quit due to health concerns; died in November 2005
 * Karen Roberts, former nightly newscast anchor and executive producer; quit in August 2007
 * Kristen Cornett, former meteorologist (1996-1997) - worked at WAAY, then WLWT, NBC Weather Plus and now a meteorologist at KMOV in St. Louis, Missouri
 * Will Kollmeyer, former sports director; now sports information director at Itawamba Community College
 * Bryan Owings, former chief meteorologist
 * Jeffrey Rupp, former news director and anchor; now special assistant to the president of Mississippi State University
 * Robert "Uncle Bunky" Williams, longtime host of Fun Time with Uncle Bunky
 * Pete Webb, former reporter.
 * Jim Thompson, former reporter; deceased, 2006.
 * Cynthia Bowers, former news anchor; now reporter for CBS News.
 * Sabrina Register, former news anchor; now anchor for Northwest Cable News, Seattle.
 * Joe Furia, former sports director; now reporter for KOMO-TV, Seattle.
 * Bill Carter, former news director and anchor; now New Operations Manager for WTLV/WJXX in Jacksonville, Florida
 * Jeff Shepard, former sports director and reporter; now sports anchor at WLOX-TV in Biloxi, Mississippi
 * Marcus Hunter, former sports anchor and reporter; now sports reporter for WHBQ-TV FOX 13 in Memphis, Tennessee
 * Stoney Sharp, former reporter and Tupelo bureau chief; now reporter for WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee
 * Ron Brown, former nightly newscast anchor; quit in June 2007
 * Brian Fowler, former sunrise and midday meteorologist, now chief meteorologist at WMGT-TV in Macon, Georgia
 * Solomon Hinton, former reporter and morning update anchor, 2003
 * Drew Powell, former sports director; left in March 2008, now videojournalist at WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi
 * Jessica Nesbitt, 10 pm anchor, now reporter at WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama (as Jessica Taloney)
 * Randi Rico, meteorologist, now with WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio
 * Leighton Spann 1982-? news anchor, now with Mississippi Ag Network
 * Jack Church 1982-84, news & weather anchor, now with Digital Broadcast, Inc.and WSKY FM wsky973.com
 * Adam Clark former reporter/meteorologist; now chief meteorologist at KOHD-TV in Bend, OR.
 * Heather Sophia, former weekend meteorologist; now weekend meteorologist at WAPT-TV in Jackson, MS