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WBSC-TV is the WB television affiliate station for the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville television market. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation, but is operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group through a local marketing agreement with the market's ABC affiliate, WLOS. However, it is effectively owned by Sinclair due to the financial structure of Cunningham (see below).

The station is licensed to Anderson, South Carolina; but is operated out of WLOS' studios in Asheville. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 40 and its digital signal on UHF channel 14. The station however, doesn't have a good signal in the North Carolina portion of the market and must rely on cable coverage to reach the entire market.

History

WBSC is one of the oldest surviving UHF stations in the country. It signed on September 5, 1953 as WAIM-TV, the fourth oldest television station in South Carolina and the first west of Columbia. It was owned by Wilton E. Hall, publisher of the Anderson Independent and Daily Mail, along with WAIM-AM 1230. The calls stood for Anderson Independent-Mail. Originally a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation, it became an exclusive ABC affiliate after WSPA-TV signed on from Spartanburg in 1956. It was sold to Harte-Hanks Communications in 1972.

Until 1979, WAIM was the ABC affiliate for the South Carolina portion of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville market, as Greenville and points south had difficulty receiving WLOS, which signed on in 1954. However, in 1979, WLOS increased its signal strength to cover the South Carolina portion of the market as well. Under pressure from WLOS' owner, ABC dropped its affiliation with WAIM, which became an independent station. However, WAIM-TV was undergoing hard times in the late 1970s, and it was unlikely that it would have survived as an ABC affiliate even if WLOS hadn't forced the issue. Very often, the station wouldn't sign on on weekdays until 11AM, when ABC's afternoon shows begin, and would sign off at 11PM, when ABC's prime time ends; much of its non-network programming during this time was also mainly religious shows and travelogues.

Later in 1979, Harte-Hanks sold the station to Frank Outlaw, who changed the station's calls to WAXA and filled its schedule with cartoons, barter sitcoms, low budget talk and syndicated shows, wildlife and sportsman shows, low budget and public domain movies, and other shows the competition passed on that cost no money. It also aired programs from NBC and CBS that WYFF and WSPA didn't air. One of the NBC programs shown on the station was the game show Super Password, which was pre-empted from WYFF for its entire run. The station became a charter Fox affiliate at the network's launch in 1987.

Frank Outlaw died suddenly in 1988. His widow did not have the enthusiasm her husband did for running WAXA. The station was off the air by the end of the year and WHNS-TV picked up the Fox affiliation. The station returned in 1992 as a full-time simulcast of WLOS.

WAXA boosted its signal in 1995, dropped the simulcast with WLOS, and changed its calls to WFBC-TV--calls that had last been held by what's now as WYFF from 1953 to 1983. It became a WB affiliate on September 6, 1999 and changed its call letters to WBSC in 2000 to reflect its affiliation.

WBSC began 24/7 broadcasting sometime in 2004, having previously signed off late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

When channel 40 returned to the air in 1992, it was owned by Glencairn Ltd., which was owned by Edwin Edwards, a former Sinclair executive. The Smith family, owners and founders of WLOS' owner, Sinclair, controlled nearly all of the stock, so in effect Sinclair owned both stations. The FCC fined Sinclair $40,000 for illegally controlling Glencairn in 2001. When Sinclair attempted to merge with Glencairn outright, it refused to allow Sinclair to buy WBSC and five other Glencairn stations. This is because the FCC does not allow one person to own two of the four largest stations in a single market. Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting, which is owned by trusts controlled by members of the Smith family. This arrangement led Sinclair Media Watch, an Asheville-based grassroots organization, to file an informal objection to WBSC and WLOS' license renewals in 2004.

On March 2, 2006, it was announced that WBSC would become the My Network TV affiliate for the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville market once the WB shuts down in September 2006.

Syndicated programming

Syndicated Programming formerly shown on WBSC/WFBC

Syndicated programming formerly shown on WAXA (as an Ind./Fox affiliate)

Syndicated programming on WAXA as a WLOS simulcast

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