TV Stations Retool Logos, Call Letters: Changes at WB, UPN; Jefferson-Pilot Adopts New Name

By Mark Washburn, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Apr. 4–Major media branding changes are being launched this month in Charlotte.

Television station WWWB (Channel 55) will change call letters on April 28 to WMYT as part of the switch to a new network in the fall, the Fox-owned My Network TV.

Previously, WWWB had been affiliated with the WB network, home of the “Gilmore Girls,”"Reba” and “Smallville.”

The WB and rival UPN are merging into a new network called The CW, which will be carried on Channel 46.

Channels 46 and 55 are both owned by Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting. Channel 46 is holding onto its WJZY call letters, but has dropped the UPN logo from promotional spots and expects to unveil a new logo as early as this week.

Promotionally, WMYT-TV will be called “My TV12,” reflecting the trend of stations — particularly on the UHF end of the dial — to brand themselves by their position on the cable TV dial rather than the over-the-air signal channel(WCNC, for example, is Channel 36 on its over-the-air frequency, but brands its news operation as 6News to reflect the fact its channel 6 on major Charlotte-area cable systems.)

Time Warner Cable and most other cable companies in the region carry Channel 55 on cable channel 12. One exception is Adelphia Cable, serving Huntersville, Mooresville and Lake Norman communities, which carries it on channel 17.WJZY, Channel 46, carried on most cable systems on channel 8, will brand itself as “CW8″ this fall, said Will Davis, vice president and general manager.

“The old channel numbers just don’t mean what they did 10, 20 or 50 years ago,” Davis said Monday. “Welcome to the digital world.”

Jefferson-Pilot fades away

Another well-known local media brand changes this week with the acquisition of Greensboro-based Jefferson-Pilot Corp. by Lincoln National Corp.

Jefferson-Pilot Communications, owner of Charlotte stations WBTV (Channel 3), WBT-AM and WLNK-FM, became Lincoln Financial Media as the acquisition closed Monday.

The company’s sports production arm, Jefferson-Pilot Sports, will be renamed Lincoln Financial Sports.

It will continue to syndicate regional broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference sports.

The Jefferson-Pilot signs at the broadcast complex off Morehead Street were removed recently and will be replaced with Lincoln Financial signage soon.

Terry Stone, president of Lincoln Financial Media and Lincoln Financial Sports, will visit the WBTV studios today to launch the new name and unveil the new Lincoln media and sports logos.

Stone has been president of Jefferson-Pilot Communications since 1997.

—–

Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:JP, NYSE:LNC,