History of WBT
In 1920, Fred Laxton, Earle Gluck, and Fred Bunker set up an amateur radio station in Laxton’s chicken coop. They later applied to the Federal Communications Commission for an experimental license and were approved. Two years later this small radio station running on 100 watts (a little more than a light bulb) became a commercial enterprise known as the Southern Broadcasting Corporation with the call letters WBT. Years later the station was sold to C.C. Coddington, a local Buick dealership owner, then in 1929 it was sold to CBS. CBS kept the station until it became too large and it was then sold to Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, which would later become Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company.
In the beginning of WBT’s popularity it was known for broadcasting comedies, dramas, sports, and most importantly music. In 1948, WBT was granted the permit to become a television station and it would become the first TV station of the Carolinas. WBTV aired its first telecast on July 15th at 6:30 pm. WBTV was definitely a historic television station with the first female broadcaster, they were the first to broadcast major league baseball in the South, and the 13th TV station in the U.S. and are still considered a major television station for the Carolinas.