WMC

About WMC

WMC-TV, known on the air as Action News 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station serving Memphis, Tennessee. Broadcasting on channel 5, the station is owned by Gray Media and operates from studios on Union Avenue in midtown Memphis. WMC holds a singular place in broadcast history as the first television station in the state of Tennessee, signing on in December 1948, and it has been an NBC affiliate for its entire existence. Its riverboat logo, its riverboat whistle that opens newscasts, and its deep roots in the city's media history make it one of the most distinctive local stations in America.

Sign-On as WMCT in 1948

The station first signed on the air on December 11, 1948, as WMCT, transmitting on VHF channel 4 from studios inside the Goodwyn Institute Building in downtown Memphis. It was the first television station in Tennessee, beating every other station in the state to the air by years. The inaugural transmission coincided with a milestone of its own: the first football game ever telecast in Tennessee, the tenth meeting between the University of Tennessee and Ole Miss at Crump Stadium. Daily programming began the same day. The station was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, alongside the city's morning newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, the afternoon Memphis Press-Scimitar, WMC radio on 790 AM, and the FM station now known as WLFP. As the only television station in Memphis for its first several years, WMCT aired programming from all four national networks of the era: NBC, CBS, ABC, and the now-defunct DuMont Television Network.

The NBC Affiliation and Early Network Years

Although it carried multiple networks, WMCT's primary affiliation was always NBC, a reflection of WMC radio's longtime affiliation with the NBC Red Network. The station lost CBS programming when WHBQ-TV signed on in September 1953, but continued to share ABC programming with WHBQ until January 1956, when WREC-TV launched as a full-time CBS affiliate and WHBQ took the ABC affiliation full time. DuMont programming disappeared when that network ceased operations in 1956. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. On November 23, 1952, the station moved from channel 4 to channel 5 because of co-channel interference with fellow NBC affiliate WSM-TV in Nashville, a move that defined its identity for the next seven decades. On New Year's Day 1967, the station dropped the "T" from its call sign to become WMC-TV, debuting the longtime "5" logo styled after a five-dollar bill, which remained in use for more than two decades.

Studios, Transmitter, and Technical Facilities

In 1959, the WMC stations moved to their current location at 1960 Union Avenue in midtown Memphis, celebrating the move with a broadcast hosted by comedian George Gobel. The Union Avenue facility became the station's permanent home and one of the most familiar addresses in Memphis broadcasting. From these studios, the station produced decades of local programming, newscasts, and special events. The midtown location placed the station at the crossroads of the city it served, and the building has been expanded and modernized over the years while remaining the operational heart of channel 5. Today the studios house the Action News 5 newsroom, production facilities, and the offices of the station's digital operation, anchoring Gray Media's Memphis presence. The station's transmitter is located in northeast Memphis near the suburb of Bartlett, and WMC-TV transmits digitally on UHF channel 30 while displaying as virtual channel 5, preserving the channel number it has used since 1952.

The Riverboat Tradition

Few station branding traditions in American television are as beloved as WMC's riverboat. From its earliest days, the station's logo has featured an illustration of a riverboat, a nod to the Mississippi River that defines Memphis. Even more distinctive is the riverboat whistle that sounds at the beginning of the station's newscasts, a tradition that dates to the 1930s on sister station WMC-AM. The whistle connects the television station to the golden age of radio and to the river culture of the Bluff City, and generations of viewers associate the sound with the start of the local news. The riverboat imagery has survived ownership changes, logo redesigns, and the digital era, remaining the visual signature of channel 5 and a symbol of the station's Memphis identity.

Covering History: From Campaigns to Civil Rights

WMC's cameras have chronicled some of the most consequential moments in American history. In 1960, the station produced live remote broadcasts of both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon when the presidential candidates came to Memphis to campaign. In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to support the sanitation workers' strike, an event that set the stage for his assassination, then-general manager Mori Greiner established an unprecedented program called "The 40% Speaks," designed to give voice to the city's Black community and promote racial healing in the aftermath of the tragedy. The station's coverage of Elvis Presley's death in 1977 drew national attention, as Memphis mourned its most famous son. Through the civil rights era, the assassinations, and the city's long road toward reconciliation, channel 5 was the station Memphis watched.

Wrestling and Local Programming

Like many Southern stations of its era, WMC embraced professional wrestling, hosting a Saturday wrestling show in its early years. Wrestling moved to rival WHBQ in 1959, but channel 5 regained the squared circle in 1977 when Championship Wrestling debuted on March 19 of that year. In 1989 the show was renamed USWA Championship Wrestling, and it continued until 1997 with the demise of its host promotion, the Memphis-based United States Wrestling Association. For two decades, the program served as a starring vehicle for Memphis native Jerry Lawler, who became a local folk hero before gaining wider fame as a color commentator and occasional wrestler with World Wrestling Entertainment. The wrestling shows, along with children's programs and local talk shows, made channel 5 appointment viewing for generations of Memphians beyond the newscasts.

Ownership Changes: Scripps to Gray

The E. W. Scripps Company owned WMC-TV for its first 45 years, operating it alongside the Commercial Appeal and the WMC radio stations as one of the classic newspaper-broadcast combinations of the 20th century. In 1993, Scripps sold the station to Ellis Communications, ending the Scripps era. Ellis merged into Raycom Media, which owned the station for more than two decades and invested in its news operation and digital platforms. In 2019, Gray Television acquired Raycom in a landmark deal, bringing WMC under the ownership of one of the largest station groups in the country. Under Gray, WMC operates alongside low-power Telemundo affiliate WTME-LD, extending the station's reach into Spanish-language broadcasting. Each ownership transition preserved the station's local newsroom and its Action News 5 brand.

Action News 5 Today

WMC brands its newscasts as Action News 5, a name that has been synonymous with Memphis television news for decades. The station produces local newscasts across the day, from early morning through late night, with a large newsroom covering the Memphis metropolitan area and the surrounding Mid-South. Its journalists report on city and county government, the criminal justice system, education, health, and the region's economy, while its investigative unit produces accountability reporting. Severe weather coverage is a hallmark: the station's meteorologists track tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and winter storms across a region that sits in one of the most meteorologically active parts of the country. In the ratings, Action News 5 has battled rival WREG for news leadership for years, with the two stations trading the lead in various dayparts across recent measurement periods.

Digital and Streaming Presence

WMC operates actionnews5.com as its digital news hub, publishing breaking news, weather, sports, and community stories alongside video from its newscasts. The station offers mobile apps for news and weather alerts with live streaming, and its newscasts are available through connected-TV apps and virtual pay-TV services including YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and Fubo. On social media, Action News 5 maintains large audiences on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, where severe weather coverage, breaking news, and Memphis community stories generate strong engagement. Under Gray Media ownership, the station benefits from the company's national digital infrastructure, including its streaming platforms and content-sharing network, while the Memphis newsroom produces the local journalism that drives the site's readership.

Legacy as Tennessee's First Station

More than 75 years after it signed on as WMCT, WMC-TV remains a living link to the dawn of television in Tennessee. It was there for the first telecast football game in state history, for the campaigns of Kennedy and Nixon, for the tragedy of 1968 and the city's long healing, for Elvis, for wrestling glory, and for every tornado outbreak and Grizzlies playoff run since. The riverboat logo and the whistle that opens the news are among the most enduring branding elements in local broadcasting anywhere. As an NBC affiliate under Gray Media ownership, channel 5 continues to serve Memphis with the same mission it had in 1948: to be the city's window on the world and the world's window on Memphis.