WBTV

===News operation===
WBTV presently broadcasts {{frac|38|1|2}} hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with {{frac|6|1|2}} hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays).

For most of its first 30 years on the air, WBTV's newscasts dominated the [[Nielsen ratings]] in the Charlotte market. In addition to its legacy as the state's first television station, it also benefited from its ties to WBT, one of the most respected radio news operations in the Southeastern United States. Channel 3 did not face a serious challenge by any other news-producing station in the market until 1981. That year, Doug Mayes, the station's main anchorman since it began producing daily newscasts in 1952, jumped to WSOC-TV.  Mayes said years later that channel 9 offered him a deal that was too lucrative for him to resist, considering that he had kids in college.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wbtv.com/story/23547364/doug-mayes-returnsto-wbtv-tonight-at-11 |title=Broadcasting legend, Doug Mayes, returns to WBTV for final broad – WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC |publisher=Wbtv.com |date=September 27, 2013 |access-date=July 31, 2015}}</ref> Jefferson-Pilot management, who only a few years earlier had touted Mayes as part of the station's campaign, "Turn to People You Know", wanted to make its newscasts appeal to a younger audience and made little effort to retain him. Within a few months, WBTV's late-evening newscast lost the lead at 11 p.m. to channel 9, and it would not regain first place in that timeslot until 2004. WSOC-TV gained a large lead in ratings for most other news timeslots beginning in 1990. WBTV returned to a strong position in the late 1990s, culminating in wrestling the #1 spot at noon in 1998 from WSOC-TV. The two stations have gone back and forth at first place in most timeslots since then. During the July 2013 ratings period, WBTV took the lead at noon and 11 p.m., while WSOC led at all other news timeslots.<ref name="charlotteobserver.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/09/4223425/about-140000-lose-wbtv-in-dish.html |title= About 140,000 lose WBTV in Dish dispute &#124; CharlotteObserver.com|website=www.charlotteobserver.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903165356/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/09/4223425/about-140000-lose-wbtv-in-dish.html |archive-date=September 3, 2013}}</ref> Soon after Raycom took control of the station, WBTV began airing local newscasts and CBS programs in [[high-definition television|high definition]]. During the 2016 February sweeps, WBTV surged to first place in all timeslots, including the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts, for the first time in 26 years. WBTV credited its strong social media presence and its talent continuity for the ratings win, while WSOC lost much of its main talent in the previous year. Historically, WBTV has dominated the market west of the [[Catawba River]], a legacy from its nine-year head start.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/tv/media-scene-blog/article63645822.html|title=Historic sweep: WBTV wrestles the news ratings lead from WSOC|last=Washburn|first=Mark|publisher=[[The Charlotte Observer]]|date=March 2, 2016}}</ref> WBTV's lead would not last, as in 2023, the station came in second in several key timeslots, behind WSOC-TV.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/local-news-close-up-news-battle-royale-in-queen-city-of-charlotte|title=Local News Close-Up: News Battle Royale in Queen City of Charlotte|last=Malone|first=Michael|publisher=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|date=October 20, 2023|access-date=October 20, 2023}}</ref>

[[Diana Williams]] (later at [[WABC-TV]] in [[New York City]]; now retired) served as an anchor at WBTV during the early 1980s; she was succeeded as the station's main female anchor by Sara James (now a reporter for ''[[Dateline NBC]]''). Following the 2005 retirement of longtime WSOC anchorman Bill Walker, WBTV began billing lead anchorman Paul Cameron as "The Voice of Experience". Cameron joined WBTV in 1981 as the station's [[sports director]], and then succeeded longtime anchor Bob Inman upon his retirement in 1996. He was only the third main anchor in the station's history, following Mayes and Inman. Cameron served as the station's top male anchor until his retirement on December 31, 2018.

Prior to joining in 2004, evening anchor [[Maureen O'Boyle]], a Charlotte native and graduate of [[West Charlotte High School]], served as anchor of the syndicated newsmagazines ''[[A Current Affair (American TV program)|A Current Affair]]'' and ''[[Extra (American TV program)|Extra]]''. Morning and midday anchor John Carter formerly served as a North Carolina state senator prior to joining the station. Other notable on-air personalities include Western bureau chief Steve Ohnesorge, who started as a photographer at WBTV in 1975.

In 1994, WBTV entered into a news share agreement to produce a 10&nbsp;p.m. newscast for then-[[independent station]] WJZY; the newscast later moved to PBS member station WTVI, before returning to WJZY in 2003 and then to that station's [[duopoly (broadcasting)|duopoly]] partner, [[MyNetworkTV]] affiliate WMYT-TV in April 2012. Following Fox's purchase of WJZY and WMYT, the WBTV-produced newscast returned to WJZY when it became the market's Fox owned-and-operated station on July 1, 2013, which continued to air until the station launched its own news department (and hour-long 10&nbsp;p.m. newscast) on January 1, 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/13/4104671/a-new-radio-generation-at-cbs.html |title= A new radio generation at CBS &#124; CharlotteObserver.com|website=www.charlotteobserver.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004231032/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/13/4104671/a-new-radio-generation-at-cbs.html |archive-date=October 4, 2013}}</ref> It placed third among local newscasts during the July 2013 ratings period, behind the WSOC-produced newscast on WAXN, and WCCB's in-house newscast.<ref name="charlotteobserver.com"/>

In September 2010, WBTV debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, which competes with what at the time was a half-hour newscast (which has since expanded to one hour) on WCNC-TV.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/06/12/1494501/more-news-shows-coming-in-the.html|title=More News Shows Coming-in to beat WSOC's broadcast of GMA|access-date=August 12, 2010}} {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> On January 22, 2014, WBTV began producing a two-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast, airing from 7 to 9&nbsp;a.m. as well as an hour-long prime time newscast at 8&nbsp;p.m. for WBTV-DT2.<ref>[http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/01/03/4583679/channel-3-to-add-newscasts-to.html#.UtQe5OIa7Ed  Channel 3 to add newscasts to Bounce channel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113203854/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/01/03/4583679/channel-3-to-add-newscasts-to.html#.UtQe5OIa7Ed |date=January 13, 2014 }}, ''Charlotte Observer'', January 3, 2014.</ref> The morning newscast ended in spring 2018, and the 8 p.m. newscast ended on August 17, 2018.

Since 2008, WBTV has partnered with its sister stations in South Carolina—WCSC, [[WIS (TV)|WIS]] in [[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]] and [[WMBF-TV]] in [[Myrtle Beach]] and [[WHNS]] in [[Greenville, South Carolina|Greenville]]—to cover stories in South Carolina. Between them, the five stations cover almost all of South Carolina. It is the second time that WBTV has had a sister station in the Florence/Myrtle Beach market; as mentioned above, Jefferson-Pilot was the founding owner of WBTW from 1954 to 1968.

====Notable former on-air staff====
* [[Shannon Bream]] – anchor; now at [[Fox News Channel]]
* [[Rita Cosby]] – now correspondent for ''[[Inside Edition]]''
* [[Steve Crump]] - reporter and documentary film producer; now deceased
* [[Jan Jeffcoat]] – anchor; now hosting ''[[The National Desk]]'' in [[Washington, D.C.]]
* [[Fred Kirby]] – performer and host of children's programming
* [[Michael Marsh (journalist)|Michael Marsh]] – later anchor at [[WBRZ-TV]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]]
* [[Maureen O'Boyle]] – anchor
* [[Lori Stokes]] – anchor (1988–1990); now at [[WNYW]] in [[New York City]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/bio?section=ontv/stationinfo/bios&id=3301250|title=Lori Stokes bio|access-date=March 10, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222054227/http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/bio?section=ontv%2Fstationinfo%2Fbios&id=3301250|archive-date=December 22, 2012}}</ref>
* [[Diana Williams]] – anchor (1983–1986); later at WABC-TV in New York City until 2019; now retired