WREG-TV
 |
|
|
Memphis, Tennessee United States |
|
|---|---|
| Branding | WREG News Channel 3 |
| Slogan | On Your Side |
| Channels |
Digital: 28 (UHF) Virtual: 3 () |
| Affiliations |
|
| Owner |
Tribune Broadcasting (WREG License, LLC) |
| First air date | January 1, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning | Variation of original calls |
| Former callsigns | WREC-TV (1956–1971) |
| Former channel number(s) |
|
| Transmitter power | 906 kW |
| Height | 313 m |
| Facility ID | 66174 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°10′52″N 89°49′56″W / 35.18111°N 89.83222°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | wreg.com |
WREG-TV, virtual channel 3 (UHF digital channel 28), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, subsidiary of the Tribune Media Company. WREG maintains studios located at Channel 3 Drive (off of I-55) near the Mississippi River on the west side of Memphis, and its transmitter is located between I-40 and Whitten Road, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Bartlett.
The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1956 as WREC-TV, and began regular broadcasts the following day on January 2. It was originally owned by electrical engineer and radio dealer Hoyt Wooten (who had applied for one of the first television licenses in the country in 1928), along with WREC radio (AM 600 and FM 102.7, now WEGR). The call letters stood for Wooten's radio store, the Wooten Radio-Electric Company, where he had founded WREC radio in 1922. It took the CBS affiliation from WHBQ-TV (channel 13, which had been a CBS affiliate since it signed on in September 1953), as WREC-AM had been a CBS Radio affiliate since 1929. WREC-TV's original studios were located inside the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis.
For its first six years, WREC-TV was the only locally owned station in Memphis (WHBQ-TV was owned by General Tire and WMC-TV was owned by Scripps). However, in 1963, Wooten sold WREC-AM-FM-TV to Cowles Communications, earning a handsome return on his original investment of 40 years earlier. In turn, Cowles sold WREC-TV to The New York Times Company in 1971. The new owners changed the station's calls to the current WREG-TV—a deliberate play on the old call letters. Cowles later sold the radio stations to other interests. Four years later, the Times Company built new studio facilities for WREG on one of the highest points on Chickasaw Bluff, overlooking the Mississippi River. The station had long since outgrown the Peabody Hotel, and management felt that building a new studio near the Mississippi would be appropriate since Memphis has long been identified with the river. On March 2, 1975, channel 3 signed off from the Peabody Hotel for the last time, and signed back on 45 minutes later with its first transmission from the new studios on Channel 3 Drive. The station also maintained studio space in the Peabody Place shopping center, adjacent to the Peabody Hotel, marking a partial return of sorts to its early years. The studio was shut down in 2011 when Peabody Place closed.
...
Wikipedia