WHNS

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WHNS
Greenville / Spartanburg / Anderson, SC / Asheville, NC
Branding	Fox Carolina
Channels	21 (UHF) analog, 57 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	FOX
Owner	Meredith Corporation
Founded	April 1, 1984
Call letters meaning	W Harry 'N Stella (Pappas, original owners)
Former affiliations	Independent (1984-1988), UPN (1995-1997) (Secondary) PAX (1998-2003) (Secondary)
Website	www.foxcarolina.com

WHNS (known on-air as Fox Carolina) is the Fox affiliate licensed to Greenville, South Carolina. It also serves Spartanburg, Asheville, and large portions of western North and South Carolina. It is owned by the Meredith Corporation. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 21, and its digital signal on UHF channel 57. Its transmitter is located near Brevard, North Carolina.

The station airs first-run programming from Fox, including prime time, weekend sports, and weekend children's programming. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, court shows, and local news.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscast 2.1 Personalities 3 External links

[edit] History

A construction permit was issued for channel 21 in Greenville as early as 1953. It signed on in 1975 as a simulcast of WGGS channel 16 and operated on low power.

The station became WHNS on April 1, 1984 under the ownership of Pappas Telecasting, a company based in Fresno, California. The station ran a typical UHF independent schedule consisting of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, drama shows and some sports. It became the dominant independent station in the region, ahead of WAXA-TV (channel 40, now WMYA-TV). Its first slogan was It's Your Station, which was changed to We're Your Station (also used on WHNS-TV's then sister-station KMPH in Fresno, California and KPTM in Omaha, Nebraska). WHNS-TV's first logo consisted of the call letters in a Subway-esque logo with the channel number on the center bottom. That logo was used until the late 1980s.

WHNS became the area's Fox affiliate in 1988 after original Fox station WAXA went dark, and quickly dropped its original on-air name of "TV21" in favor of "Fox 21". That year, the station was sold to Cannell Communications. First Media acquired the station in 1993, and it acquired a secondary UPN affiliation in January 1995, airing UPN programming in the late-night hours. (The UPN affiliation moved in 1997 to WASV (channel 62), which was coincidentally owned by Pappas, WHNS' original owner.)

From around 1996 to 1999, WHNS carried a 10pm newscast produced by WSPA-TV. The partnership between the two stations ended in 1999, when WHNS launched its own news division.

WHNS was acquired by Meredith Corporation in 1997 as part of a group deal. In 2002, it began calling itself "Fox Carolina".

WHNS is the latest television station in the market to begin 24/7 broadcasting, having done so since late April/early May 2006. Before that, WHNS signed off from 3-5 AM late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

[edit] Newscast

• The Morning News (5am-9am, Monday-Friday)
• The Ten O'Clock News (10-11pm, 7 nights a week)

[edit] Personalities

• Dan Bubany, Sports Director
• Anthony Cox, Weekend sports anchor
• Stephanie Maxwell, Morning anchor
• Jade Hindmon, General assignment reporter
• Ben Hoover, Morning anchor
• Nisha Jindal, General assignment reporter
• Melissa Jones, Morning meteorologist
• open, Weekend 10pm anchor and reporter
• Jeff Moreau, 10pm anchor and reporter
• Jennifer Phillips, General assignment reporter
• Michael Smith, Chief meteorologist
• Lidia St. Mark, General assignment reporter
• Heather Vaughn, Producer
• Diana Watson, 10pm anchor and reporter
• Andy Wood, Weekend meteorologist

PAST PERSONALITIES

• Phil Aldridge, Sports director (2002-2005)
• Leah Johnson, General assignment reporter (?-2004)
• Rich Noonan, 10pm anchor and reporter (2003-2004)
• Connie LeGrand, 10pm anchor (1996-2004?)
• Craig Smith, 10pm anchor (1996-1999)
• Fred Cunningham, 10pm sports anchor (1996-1999)
• David Morian, 10pm meteorologist (1996-1999)
• Liz Walker, Weekend anchor (1999-2003)

In 2004, WHNS aired a Nightline broadcast showing the names and faces of the dead from the Iraq war, after ABC station WLOS-TV pre-empted it on orders from its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Used around the Late 1980s

Connie LeGrand was the main female anchor from 1998 to 2003 before leaving for SPEED Channel. She is now anchoring with CBS affiliate WSPA in Spartanburg.

[edit] External links

• WHNS homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHNS

Broadcast television in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market  (Nielsen DMA #36)
WYFF 4 (NBC) - WSPA 7 (CBS) - WGTV 8 (PBS/GPB) - WLOS 13 (ABC) - WGGS 16 (Rel./TBN) - WHNS 21 (Fox) - WNTV 29 / WNEH 38 / WRET 49 (PBS/SCETV) - W31AZ 31 / W50CL 50 / W50CZ 50 (TBN) - WNEG 32 (CBS) - WUNF 33 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WMYA 40 (MNTV) - WYCW 62 (The CW) - WAEN-LP 64 (A1)

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of South Carolina
WHNS 21 (Greenville) - WTAT 24 (Charleston) - WTGS 28 (Hardeeville) - WFXB 43 (Myrtle Beach) - WACH 57 (Columbia)
See also: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and Other stations in South Carolina