History
The station went on the air on April 29, 1956. It was owned by broadcasting pioneer Walter J. Brown and his company, Spartan Radiocasting, along with WSPA radio (AM 950, now WOLI at AM 910; and 98.9 FM). It has always been a CBS affiliate. Spartan Radiocasting bought several other radio and television stations over the years, and was renamed Spartan Communications in 1995. WSPA began broadcasting 24/7 in July of that same year, after previously having signed off every Friday night/Saturday morning and Saturday night/Sunday morning. The radio stations were sold off in 1998, but WSPA-TV remained the flagship of the company until it merged with Media General in 2000. Channel 7 was the last locally owned-and-operated station in the market. The station shared some resources with WNEG-TV in Toccoa, Georgia while that station was co-owned with WSPA; this included a CBS affiliation. This arrangement was terminated after the sale of WNEG to the University of Georgia; that station became WUGA-TV in May 2011.
Due to its transmitter location—just over 2,200 feet (670 m) above average terrain—WSPA enjoys one of the largest coverage areas on the East Coast. WSPA's over-the-air signal can be received as far north as Blowing Rock, NC, which has line-of-sight to Hogback Mountain despite being approximately 75 miles (121 km) miles away. However, WSPA is not carried on cable in that area. WSPA used to be carried in the western Union County, NC town of Weddington, long before it became a suburb of Charlotte. Prior to the March 2009 tower collapse, WSPA provided grade B coverage as far east as Charlotte itself. WSPA appeared in the Charlotte Observer television listings well into the 1990s.
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