Broadcasting in 1983. The 1,000-foot tower south of Trenton that the station had used prior to their move to the new site on NC 41 now holds the antenna for WSFL-FM 106.5. Heritage Broadcasting sold WCTI to Diversified Communications in 1986. In 1993, Lamco Communications bought the station. It was sold to Bluestone Television in 2001. In 2007, Bluestone merged with Bonten Media Group. On November 6 of that year, it was announced that the FCC approved the sale of certain WFXI/WYDO assets by Piedmont Television to the Bonten Media Group. As part of the deal, WFXI moved from its longtime home on Arendell Street (US 70) in Morehead City to WCTI's facilities in New Bern. In 2000, WCTI launched the first over-the-air digital station in the market on UHF channel 48. A high-definition feed was launched on DirecTV on January 30, 2009. It is also available on satellite through Dish Network. WCTI's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009. On April 21, 2017, Sinclair announced its intent to purchase the Bonten stations for $240 million. The sale was completed on September 1. On September 13, 2018, Hurricane Florence forced WCTI to evacuate its building as flood waters continued to rise. For the duration of the storm, WCTI simulcast coverage from Sinclair sister station and fellow ABC affiliate WPDE-TV in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. By September 16, floodwaters had receded to the point that initial cleanup efforts began. Programming Syndicated programming Syndicated programming on WCTI includes Judge Judy, Inside Edition, and Live with Kelly and Ryan, among others. News operation In terms of Nielsen ratings, Eastern North Carolina is usually not very competitive during sweeps periods. Historically, WITN-TV has generally traded the highest viewership crown with WCTI and WNCT. In July 2008, WNCT became the most watched television station in the market after taking first place weeknights at 6 and 11. However, since then, that station has fallen to 3rd place weeknights at 6. As of May 2010, WITN has won the sign-on-to-sign-off honors for two consecutive ratings periods. More specifically, it won all time periods except for the weekday noon news. In January 2008, after becoming a sister station to WFXI/WYDO, WCTI began repeating its nightly 6 o'clock show later in the evening at 10 on the Fox stations. It would not be until the month's end when a new live, nightly prime time newscast (produced by WCTI) debuted