Welcome to NewsChannel12.

     WCTI started broadcasting in 1963 from a 1,000 foot tower in New Bern and has since increased its viewing audience by the addition of a 2,000-ft. tower just outside of Trenton. The tower equipment is capable of broadcasting 316,000 watts of video and 31,600 watts of audio from its Harris transmitting equipment.

WCTI - HDTV is here in Eastern North Carolina.   State-of-the-art digital transmitting equipment was installed in 2000 at the station's tower in Trenton.  The equipment enables viewers with home Digital/HDTV capability the opportunity to enjoy ABC high definition broadcasts and Digital Television.  
 

    This addition pushes WCTI further to the front of the class in our TV market.   We were the first television station in the market to enable digital transmission over the air. In addition to offering Digital/HDTV, this will enable WCTI to present other entertainment options to our viewers in the future.  WCTI also broadcasts a second all digital television station UPN48 from the same transmitter. We recognize that the future is now, and we want to continue to be the leader in the new age of digital television.

NewsChannel12 is proud of it’s History in Eastern North Carolina and continues to broadcast ABC Network and local programming from the original building that was built in 1963.

The station receives some of its program material like weather maps, syndicated shows, news stories, and ABC shows from satellite dishes right from our backyard. 

The first stop when visiting NewsChannel12 is our front desk where anyone at the station can be reached by phone, mail or E-Mail.

Master Control is where the heart of the signal is controlled. There is always somebody here controlling what you see on NewsChannel12, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Take a 360 Panoramic Tour of Master Control

The Control Room is where commercials and the newscast are assembled. A device called a switcher enables our directors to select video from various sources, manipulate it, and then display it for use in commercials and newscasts.

Video can be manipulated from within the switcher with a device called a DVE or Digital Video Effects Generator. This device is able to flip, turn, twist, stretch, and shrink any video.

Another piece of equipment allows us to put words on the screen, it is called an Electronic Character Generator or CG for short.

Take a 360 Panoramic Tour of the Control Room

The Studio now features 3 sets for use in our newscasts. The main set is used a majority of the time for our news and sports segments.

Our StormTrack12 center houses all the computers that help the meteorologists forecasts.  With our added weather capability with the StormTrack12 system we created the new StormTrack12 set.  We regularly import doppler, satellite and forecast maps directly from the StormTrack12 system for use on the NewsChannel12 web page.

The guest set is used primarily to interview individuals and area groups.

The studio also has 3 very large cameras, similar in basic function to today’s camcorder only much larger and they have a teleprompter attached to them.

A teleprompter is a device used to project words in front of the camera lens by use of mirrors and glass. This allows the anchor or reporter to look directly into the camera lens and still be able to read about the story.

Take a 360 Panoramic Tour of the Studio

     There is a bright green board in the studio that is used for the weather segment, most commonly referred to as a chroma board. This is used when you see a meteorologist standing in front of the weather maps. So how does it work? One of the cameras and the switcher in the control room are programmed to what's called "key" out the green. In simple terms, any time the camera sees that particular color green it places a picture or piece of video over it and leaves everything else. The meteorologist is still standing in front of a green board and uses some adjacent monitors to help him point to particular areas. 

      NewsChannel12 has a totally computerized newsroom; every reporter, producer, and director has a computer that is connected to every other computer in the station via networking. Computerization of the news has increased the accuracy and timeliness of stories put on the newscasts. We use the latest in digital cameras and editing systems to deliver the clearest picture and sound.

Take a 360 Panoramic Tour of the Newsroom

     NewsChannel12 has a fleet of news trucks and videographers all over Eastern North Carolina; and news bureaus in Carteret, Pitt, Onslow and Craven County.

The fleet also includes 3 "live" trucks AND a Satellite Live Truck.

     NewsChannel12 is the only station in Eastern North Carolina with a Satellite News Truck (Newstar12), An Advanced Satellite News Vehicle (SNV). It brings the ability to transmit live news, weather and sports from literally anywhere in the US to our local viewers. 

     The microwave trucks, know as Electronic News Gathering (ENG) trucks,  give us the ability to quickly feed news, weather and sports stories from our 15 county coverage area.

Take a 360 Panoramic Tour of Newstar12

These trucks are used for "on the scene" news, weather, sports, and special events like the CF Telethon and The Share You Christmas Food Drive. The live truck uses a collapsible mast with a microwave dish on top. When setting up a live shot a camera is plugged into the truck, air compressors push the mast up, and the dish is turned to point at our tower in Trenton. The signal is then sent by the truck to the receiver at the Trenton tower, (that platform with the round object at the very top of the tower) then the signal is bounced to the tower at the station, and down to the control room where it is manipulated and sent back up the station tower to be sent to the Trenton tower and from there broadcast throughout Eastern North Carolina…

We hope you enjoyed the tour of NewsChannel12 ’s facilities and we welcome any questions or comments you may have.