WCIA

WCIA made its first broadcast on November 14, 1953. It was owned and operated by Champaign-based Midwest Television, headed by August C. Meyer Sr., a lawyer and chairman of the board of the Champaign-based Bank of Illinois. Meyer founded Midwest Television in 1952, and expanded the company's footprint by buying WMBD-AM–FM–TV in Peoria, Illinois, in 1960 and KFMB-AM–FM–TV in San Diego, California, in 1964. Midwest sold off controlling interest in its Illinois television holdings to Nexstar in 1999. That company acquired Midwest's remaining interest in the Illinois stations in 2001.

WCIA was a primary CBS affiliate, carrying secondary affiliations with NBC and DuMont.[2] DuMont shut down in 1956 and WCIA dropped NBC in 1959 when WCHU-TV (now WICD) started. It also carried a few ABC shows during the 1953–1954 television season.

As the only commercial VHF station in Central Illinois, WCIA has been one of the country's most dominant television stations for most of its history. On two occasions, it fought off attempts by WICS/WICD and WAND to force it onto the UHF band by claiming that moving to UHF would cause it to lose 150,000 viewers.

Despite its dominance of the market, WCIA provides only a Grade B signal to the Springfield area. Meyer realized early on that Champaign–Urbana and Springfield/Decatur were going to be one giant television market. He originally wanted to build WCIA's tower in White Heath, roughly halfway between Champaign and Decatur. The tower would have been placed on some of the highest ground in Central Illinois. However, just after construction began, Prairie Television (owner of WTVP, now WAND) filed an objection. Prairie claimed WCIA was encroaching on its territory. To avoid delays, WCIA moved its transmitter to the current location in Seymour. Despite this, Decatur (the second-largest city in the western half of the market) receives WCIA's signal very well.

While it frequently trounced WICS/WICD and WAND in the ratings, Meyer decided to open a low-powered relay of WCIA on UHF channel 49 to get better coverage in the state capital. In 1985, this became full-powered station WCFN. In 2002, WCFN separated from WCIA and became the area's UPN affiliate. However, few viewers on the western half of the market lost access to WCIA due to the extremely high penetration of cable and satellite, which is all but essential for acceptable television in much of this vast market. The few viewers who lost access regained it soon afterward when WCIA and WCFN activated their digital television services and added each other to their second digital subchannels. WCFN's main channel instead carried WCIA's main schedule in full high definition, with WCFN's channel remaining in standard definition until multiplexing technology improved to allow WCIA and WCFN's main channels to both be in HD. This, and area cable and satellite access, assured both stations full market coverage. WCFN changed its call letters to WCIX in 2011.

For decades, WCIA was available on cable systems in Bloomington–Normal, in the Peoria market, along with sister station WMBD-TV. In March 2000, shortly after Nexstar bought controlling interest in both stations, it announced it would drop WCIA from AT&T Cable Services (now Comcast Xfinity) and cable systems in surrounding areas, a move that would eventually be forced nationwide, due to CBS affiliation agreements requiring only one affiliate being authorized per market on pay television services. It would centralize WMBD's advertising revenue and preserve its ratings standing within the Peoria market without numbers being further stunted by WCIA. A group known as "Citizens to Keep WCIA on-the-air" petitioned Nexstar to revert the change, but was unsuccessful. WCIA's Grade B signal still covers the Bloomington–Normal area decently (extending as far west as Morton), meaning that Bloomington–Normal residents can still receive WCIA over-the-air.

In November 2006, work began to re-secure WCIA's existing tower in Seymour so it would be able to hold a new digital transmission line and antenna.[3]

WCIA was the longtime home to Illinois Fighting Illini football and men's basketball games that were not aired on national television. Originally produced by WCIA, the station later carried the Illini via the Big Ten Conference's syndicated package with ESPN Plus. Beginning in 2007, these games have since moved to the Big Ten Network. The station still airs Illini men's basketball games that are carried as part of CBS's overall NCAA and Big Ten contracts including the team's championship appearance in 2005 and will air any Illini football games carried by CBS beginning in 2023 as part of its new Big Ten football package.

In 2009, WCIA's longtime weathercaster Judy Fraser retired from the station after 34 years.[4] She was only the second head weathercaster in the station's history at the time. Meteorologist Robert Reese took over as Chief Meteorologist. His death in connection with complications from cancer in October 2012 came as a shock to the community.[5] In his early battle, WCIA sold red ribbons in support of Reese and the American Cancer Society.

On September 11, 2014, WCIA anchor Dave Benton announced on-air that he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and that he had only months to live. He explained that the doctors told him that his cancer had returned and that it was too large for surgery or radiation.[6] Benton was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in November 2013 after doctors found a tumor on the left side of his head. He underwent surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy and completed radiation treatment in February 2014.[7][8] On April 13, 2015, Benton announced on the 6 p.m. newscast that he was stepping down from the anchor chair due to continued health issues and failed treatments, though he hoped to continue his signature crime reports for the 5 p.m. news as long as his health allowed.[9] Benton died at home on May 26.[10][11]

On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make Nexstar the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would result in WCIA and WCIX gaining additional sister stations in nearby markets including Chicago (independent station WGN-TV) and St. Louis (Fox affiliate KTVI and CW affiliate KPLR-TV). (Ownership conflicts existed in two existing Nexstar markets involving Nexstar's duopoly of CW affiliate WISH-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WNDY-TV (which were both sold to Circle City Broadcasting) and Tribune's duopoly of Fox affiliate WXIN and CBS affiliate WTTV/WTTK in Indianapolis and Nexstar's virtual triopoly of CBS affiliate WHBF-TV, CW affiliate KGCW and Fox-affiliated SSA partner KLJB and Tribune-owned ABC affiliate WQAD-TV (which was sold to Tegna) in the Quad Cities.)[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16 and was completed on September 19, 2019.

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  WCIA logo, circa 1970 to 2000

• 1953 in television

• Official website
• dougquick.com/wciachampaign2.html — provides a three-part history of WCIA, with many pictures