WRDC and WNCN. Ahead of the NBC move, channel 17 began producing local news on September 4, and new station WRAZ (channel 50) signed on with The WB. After the NBC sale closed in 1996, the station began using the NBC peacock extensively in its own branding. "Bud" Polacek, who was the first general manager for the station as an NBC affiliation, left the station due to illness in April 1998; he died of cancer that August. In 2000, WNCN relocated its transmitter facilities from the Clayton tower to a nearly perch on an arm of Capitol Broadcasting Company's new digital candelabra tower closer to Raleigh, near Auburn. WNCN signed on its digital signal on UHF channel 55 at the same time. However, NBC's legacy of futility in the market continued to reverberate despite the improved product and facilities. For instance, in 2015, the general manager of WITN-TV in Washington, North Carolina, noted that that station "steals" viewers in four counties in the Raleigh–Durham designated market area from WNCN because viewership habits to the eastern North Carolina station were established before WNCN was an NBC affiliate. Media General and Nexstar ownership; switch to CBS On January 9, 2006, NBCUniversal announced it was putting WNCN up for sale, along with WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, and the other two former Outlet stations, WJAR and WCMH. On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would acquire the four stations. The sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. In April 2013, as part of a new branding campaign, the station switched its branding from "NBC 17" to just WNCN; the new brand was intended to emphasize the station's "strong desire to more aggressively serve its local communities". The station's marketing director declared both "NBC" and "17" as "irrelevant to our local content mission". On January 15, 2016, it was announced that WNCN would switch to CBS on February 29, 2016, after existing affiliate WRAL-TV decided not to renew its affiliation. NBC, in turn, returned to WRAL-TV, which had been the Triangle's NBC affiliate from 1956 to 1962. WNCN became the fourth station in the Triangle to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally aligned with WNAO-TV, Raleigh's first TV station, in 1953 and moved to WTVD in 1958 before switching to WRAL-TV in 1985. Soon thereafter, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for