WBTV serves the Charlotte, North Carolina market, the country's 22nd largest DMA. WBTV News produces 30+ hours of local news programming each week. WBTV signed on in 1949 as the Carolinas' first television station and is the oldest station between Richmond and Atlanta. Founded by Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro (predecessor of Jefferson-Pilot), it is now owned and operated by Raycom Media of Montgomery, Alabama. The station is licensed in Charlotte and broadcasts through an analog signal on channel 3 and through a digital signal on channel 23. WBTV has pioneered TV programming in Charlotte during the past 60+ years. It was the first to show a live network program (a football game between Notre Dame and North Carolina), the first to use videotape, the first to air a local live color program, the first to mount a live camera in a NASCAR stock car, the first to broadcast in stereo sound and the first to debut closed captioning on its nightly newscasts.