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Outlet profile

WLOS

U.S. local TV news, ABC affiliate under conservative-leaning corporate owner

Owned bySinclair, Inc. (formerly Sinclair Broadcast Group), a publicly traded company controlled by the Smith family. It also operates sister station WMYA-TV (channel 40) in Anderson, S.C. Sinclair is separate from the ABC network, which only supplies the programming.
FundingCommercial advertising (local and political ads), retransmission-consent fees paid by cable and satellite providers, and network affiliation arrangements. There is no public or state funding.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

WLOS-TV began broadcasting in Asheville in the 1950s as the area's ABC affiliate. Anchor Media bought it in 1987. River City Broadcasting acquired Anchor Media in 1993, and River City merged into Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. Sinclair also operates a sister station, WMYA-TV (channel 40) in Anderson, S.C., which serves the same Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina market. Its programming is mostly local: weather, crime, regional politics, and storm coverage for the mountain region. Sinclair has a record of requiring its stations to air centrally produced "must-run" segments, a practice that drew criticism in 2018 for echoing Trump's viewpoints. In September 2025 Sinclair and Nexstar preempted "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on their ABC stations after Kimmel's remarks about the Charlie Kirk assassination, and Sinclair called for further action against the show. Sinclair has also been seeking consolidation, including a stake in E.W. Scripps, and its owners have aligned themselves with the administration and FCC Chair Brendan Carr, whose agency decides on such deals. I did not review WLOS's own recent coverage in detail. This rating is based on Sinclair's corporate record and the station's mainly local news format, so local reporting may differ from the owner's national posture.

Sources

  1. WLOS - Wikipedia
  2. Asheville Station - WLOS
  3. Sinclair Broadcasting buys 8% stake in E.W. Scripps in a push toward a takeover - Poynter
  4. Sinclair Says Kimmel Suspension is Not Enough - Business Wire
  5. Broadcast station owners want to consolidate - CNBC

Profile compiled 2026-10-20; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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