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The three cities that make up the diverse Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem, N.C., market may be close geographically, but each community prides itself on its own identity, based largely on how its local economy developed. Winston-Salem's backbone is the tobacco industry; giant R J. Reynolds was the city's largest employer for decades, and the company is still based there. Textile manufacturing grew to become the biggest business in town, thanks to local producers including Hanes hosiery. Textiles are also prominent in Greensboro, along with insurance (local businesses include Jefferson-Pilot Corp., which is also a major player in TV and radio stations) and regional banking, including Wachovia Corp. High Point has cultivated its reputation as the furniture-making capital of the world.
Despite their differences, the three cities are entwined because thousands of residents live in one of the communities and commute to work in one of the others (Greensboro and High Point, both in Guilford County, are only about a mile apart; downtown Winston-Salem is about 25 miles from downtown Greensboro). The area is known as the Piedmont Triad region, a reference to the rolling foothills that shape the landscape. The Triad cities are working together to attract other businesses to the region; one such newcomer is Federal Express, which plans to open a major hub in the area.
The local television scene in Greensboro-High Point Winston-Salem (the country's 47th-largest TV market, with 592,770 TV households) is illustrative of the market's complexity. Gannett's CBS affiliate WFMY TV, and Pappas Telecasting's WB affiliate WBFX-TV are based in Greensboro. WXII-TV, Hearst-Argyle Television's NBC affiliate, and Sinclair Broadcasting's ABC affil WXLV-TV and UPN affiliate WUPN-TV (which share the same facility) are all located in Winston-Salem. Paxson Communications' PaxTV outlet WGPX-TV is located on the fringe of the market, in Burlington, N.C. And Fox Television Stations' owned-and-operated WGHP-TV for years has had a strong following in High Point because it is the only station located in that community.
Rennie Corley, the president/gm of WXII who is retiring at the end of the year after 22 years at the outlet, remembers the effort it took for community leaders to convince the local telephone company to treat calls made from one Triad city to another as local instead of long-distance. "There was a reason...