WNCI (channel 28) is a television station broadcasting ACME network programming in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It is owned and operated by the network's ACME Television Stations Group branch and has studios on Brookside Court in the Georgian Heights district of Columbus; its transmitter is located in the Franklinton neighborhood.
History[]
WNCI began broadcasting on June 1, 1984, as the first independent general entertainment station in central Ohio. The station was formed by the Dorado Media Group (then known as the Downtown Broadcasting Corporation) as the company's third television station, following WTTP-TV (now WPAC) in Pittsburgh and flagship station KPRT in Portland. The station's original studio and administrative offices were at 6130 South Sunbury Road in Columbus.
WNCI immediately established itself as the preeminent independent station in the region, primarily because its programming philosophy was significantly less conservative than that of the other independent station in the area, Christian-oriented WENA-TV (channel 41, now a UPN outlet). Channel 28 was one of the first charter affiliates of The WB, having joined the network on the day it first went live in 1995. WNCI changed its primary affiliation to UPN in the year 2000. However, simultaneously, the station agreed with The WB to continue carrying prime-time programs on a secondary basis. This contract was referred to as a "program license agreement" by a Dorado Media Group executive. In 2002, the station changed its branding to read "UPN Columbus," dropping the channel number.
Since 2006, UPN and The WB combined to establish The CW; the partnership lasted only a short time. On the other hand, when The CW announced the initial list of affiliates outside of the core group of CBS-owned UPN affiliates and Tribune-owned WB affiliates, WNCI was not one of the stations on the list. Although WNCI broadcast programming from UPN and WB, an affiliation deal was struck between The CW and then-Pax TV (as i: Independent Television), resulting in WMNO becoming The CW's Columbus outlet. At the time, WMNO was owned by Paxson Communications, which sold the station to Bonneville International in September of that year. It is not surprising that The CW would have preferred the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates since Columbus is one of the rare markets in which both The WB and The UPN have relatively strong viewership; therefore, the selection of WNCI as Columbus' CW affiliate would not have been a surprise.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that it would launch a new broadcast television network, MyNetworkTV. News Corporation's Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television divisions would run this new network. It was widely believed that WNCI would be selected to become the network's Columbus affiliate; however, in May, it was revealed by the Dorado Media Group that channel 28 would, instead, transition into an independent station.
On September 6, 2006, WNCI made the official switch back to the "TV 28" moniker, and at the same time, the station introduced its "Entertaining Central Ohio" motto. WNCI continued to air programming from UPN until the network was shut down on September 15. WNCI's prime time roster was filled after the station reverted to independent status with first-run syndicated shows (initially a second run of Dr. Phil at 8:00 p.m. and a second run of Jeopardy! at 9:00 p.m.), as well as a WWCD-produced 9:30 p.m. newscast.
The station reactivated its 28.2 digital subchannel on October 18, 2010, for the first time since December 2006, with theCoolTV, a music video network that, in contrast to The Tube, featured E/I programming pre-inserted as part of its national schedule. This change took place on a national level. Since August 31, 2012, the network has been taken off the air.
WNCI was also recognized as a backup NBC affiliate, which meant that it broadcast the network's programs in the event that WWCD was unable to do so for some reason, such as in the event of a breaking news emergency or a local special.
Affiliation with ACME (2016–present)[]
On June 6, 2016, Channel 28 became a charter affiliate of the ACME network, which effectively transformed WNCI into an owned-and-operated station. Within the same month, the long-running "TV 28" identity was removed and changed to "ACME Columbus," and the station relocated its operation from its longtime location on South Sunbury Road to the facility located in Brookside Court, where they are now fully operational. In the beginning, WNCI continued to effectively broadcast in accordance with the conventions of an independent station because ACME would not carry programming seven nights a week until the year 2020. The association did not result in any immediate changes to the rest of WNCI's roster outside of prime time; however, the network did begin adding more talk and reality shows, while gradually phasing out some of its older programs. Beginning at nine in the morning and running until the late afternoon, the station broadcast a variety of chat shows, court shows, and reality shows. In the evenings, the channel continued to air recent sitcoms that aired off-network.
The local and national network media operations of the Dorado Media Group were separated from the company on August 22, 2022, and the latter was then rebranded as ACME Media. Shortly after that, Dorado submitted an application to the FCC to transfer WNCI's license to the ACME Television Stations Group. The acquisition was finalized on February 4, 2022.
News operation[]
Although Dorado never launched an independent news department for WNCI prior to its acquisition of WWCD, it is likely that it would have launched a news department for WNCI had it not acquired WWCD due to the fact that KPRT and WTTP-TV in Pittsburgh launched news departments in the 1990s. This is because Dorado never launched an independent news department for WNCI.
On its primary signal, WNCI currently broadcasts a total of 38 hours worth of locally produced newscasts per week, which breaks down to six hours during the weekdays, plus four hours on both Saturdays and Sundays.
Technical information[]
Subchannels[]
The digital signal from the station is multiplexed, as follows:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WNCI-DT | Main WNCI programming / ACME |
| 28.2 | RKO28 | RKO | ||
| 28.3 | 480i | TBD | TBD | |
| 28.4 | Antenna | Antenna TV | ||
| 28.5 | Fusion | ACME Fusion |
Analog-to-digital conversion[]
WNCI was one of only two full-power television stations in the Columbus market (the other being WMNO) that honored the initial DTV transition date of February 17, 2009. As part of the transition from analog to digital television that was mandated by the federal government, the station turned off its analog signal at 11:59 p.m. on that date, which was broadcast over UHF channel 28. The digital signal broadcast by the station continued to be received on the UHF channel 36 it had been using prior to the switch. Digital television receivers were programmed to show WNCI's virtual channel as 28, thanks to the PSIP protocol.