WRAZ

WRAZ may refer to:

WRAZ (TV)

WRAZ, virtual channel 50 (UHF digital channel 49), is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate and company flagship WRAL-TV (channel 5). The two stations share studios on Western Boulevard in Raleigh, and its transmitter is located near Auburn along US 70 Business in Clayton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 13 and in high definition on digital channel 1150.

History

A construction permit to build a television station in Raleigh on UHF channel 50 was originally owned by The Reverend James Layton's Tar Heel Broadcasting. Layton entered the under-construction station, originally known as WACN, into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the Capitol Broadcasting Company, under which the station would be run out of WRAL's studios with transmission facilities on the WRAL tower near Auburn.

On September 7, 1995, the station signed on as WRAZ (a variation of WRAL), taking over the WB affiliation after WNCN in Goldsboro switched to NBC. A subsequent rebranding occurred in 1996 to "WB 50" to reflect the network affiliation. On August 1, 1998, Fox announced it would not renew its contract with Raleigh's WLFL (channel 22), when that station got involved in a dispute with the station's owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, over primetime newscast slots. Even though the network later relented, it still managed to seek a new affiliation with WRAZ leaving WLFL to pick up programming from The WB. Following the affiliation switch, reality and talk shows as well as first-run court shows were added to the lineup and cartoons were cut to Saturday mornings.