Outlet profile

WBTV

U.S. local TV news, centrist/mainstream

Owned byOwned by Gray Media (formerly Gray Television), a publicly traded U.S. company that is the largest owner of top-rated local TV stations. Gray acquired WBTV from Raycom Media in a deal completed January 2, 2019. WBTV is a CBS affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina.

FundingMostly local and national advertising, plus retransmission-consent fees paid by cable and satellite providers. Gray also gets political ad revenue in election years. CBS affiliation fees flow between the station and the network.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

WBTV first aired on July 15, 1949, and was the first TV station in the Carolinas. It was originally owned by Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, which also owned WBT radio. Because it got one of the last construction permits before the FCC freeze on new licenses, it was Charlotte's only VHF station for eight years. In its early years it carried programming from all four networks of the time, CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont, and later settled as a CBS affiliate. Ownership passed to Jefferson-Pilot, which merged with Lincoln National Corporation in 2006. The station later went to Raycom Media, and Gray Television bought Raycom in a roughly $3.6 billion cash-and-stock deal completed January 2, 2019. Gray, now branded Gray Media, runs stations in 114 markets that reach about 37% of U.S. households. Its newsroom follows a conventional local-news approach with no strong partisan identity. Gray's corporate carriage disputes, such as the dispute with Dish in March 2026, are covered on its own site, which is a conflict-of-interest consideration for readers. This profile is based on a limited review of sources, not a systematic analysis of recent coverage.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-12; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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