The roots of this network go back to 1942, when WRAL (1240 AM; now
WPJL) in
Raleigh, North Carolina began producing agricultural reports for farmers in the Eastern part of the state. Shortly after returning from service in World War II,
Ray Wilkinson began delivering agricultural reports in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina on radio station WCEC 810 AM (now dark), where he was Program Director. Shortly thereafter, WRAL expressed interest in broadcasting Wilkinson's reports, and the groundwork was laid for the foundation of the
Tobacco Radio Network, the predecessor to NCNN. The network was so-named because
tobacco was the leading agricultural crop in Eastern North Carolina, where the oldest stations of the network were based. With the establishment of
WRAL-FM in 1946, the network took advantage of its static-free reception and wide coverage area to begin relaying programming to other stations that desired
agricultural news. Eventually, the network was available to nearly all of North Carolina through a system of FM repeater stations. Feeder stations for the network included: • WRAL-FM/101.5, Raleigh — Main origination station • WCEC-FM/100.7, Rocky Mount (now
WRDU) — Eastern Zone feeder station • WGBR-FM/99.7, Goldsboro (now
WPLW-FM) — Southeastern Zone feeder station • WGWR-FM/92.3, Asheboro (now
WKRR) — Central Zone feeder station • WEGO-FM/97.9, Concord (now
WPEG) — Western Zone feeder station A companion network, the
Tobacco Sports Network, was formed in the mid-1950s to broadcast
College Football and
College Basketball for the four major universities centered in and around Raleigh. Broadcast commentators for events on this network included Bill Currie and
Ray Reeve. It was this network that broadcast the
North Carolina Tar Heels’ winning game in the 1957
NCAA basketball championship to a statewide audience. In 1963, Wilkinson became
Farm News Director for WRAL, and the programming he was producing for the network went to Raleigh with him. He became
Vice-President of
Capitol Broadcasting Company, in charge of both networks, a position he held for 31 years. With Wilkinson's move to WRAL, operations for the two networks were consolidated by Capitol Broadcasting and renamed the
T-N Radio Network. A news staff was hired, and hourly newscasts were begun. During the 1960s, the distinctive three-note
news sounder could regularly be heard at 55 minutes past the hour on radio stations across North Carolina. In 1973, concurrent with programming changes at parent station WRAL-FM, the network was re-imaged to the current "North Carolina News Network" for news, weather and sports reports, while agricultural reports continued as "T-N Farm News." By 1978, the network had discontinued the FM feeder station distribution, and was carried by telephone lines as a conventional network. That change would only be temporary, as Capitol Broadcasting began satellite distribution of NCNN in 1983. The satellite bandwidth provided to NCNN by
Capitol Satellite Services allowed the network to re-enter
sports broadcasting in a big way in the 1990s, offering distribution services for
North Carolina State University and
Duke University games, and those of the
NBA Charlotte Hornets. In recent years, NCNN has become available to listeners worldwide by streaming audio on the internet. On August 10, 2009 NCNN owners
Capitol Broadcasting Company announced the sale of the network to
Curtis Media Group, also of Raleigh. Curtis owns stations in the Raleigh Market, as well as station groups in
Wilmington,
Goldsboro,
Burlington,
Winston-Salem and
Boone. ==Programming==