WWAY (channel 3) is a television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with ABC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station has studios on Magnolia Village Way in Leland, and its transmitter is located west of Winnabow in Town Creek Township. History WWAY signed on the air on October 30, 1964, as the second television station in Wilmington, 10½ years after NBC affiliate WECT (channel 6). It was originally owned by Cape Fear Telecasting, a firm controlled by local interests. The station's first studios were located on the 10th floor of the Murchison Building in downtown Wilmington. Logically, it should have signed on as a CBS affiliate. However, it has been an ABC affiliate from the very first day. This was somewhat unusual for a two-station market, especially one of Wilmington's size. For most of its first 20 years in television, ABC was relegated to secondary status on existing stations in most two-station markets. However, at the time channel 3 signed on, no ABC affiliate put even a grade B signal into Wilmington. In contrast, WBTW in Florence, South Carolina, put a fairly strong grade B signal into the area, and that station consequently remained CBS' affiliate of record for southeastern North Carolina until WJKA-TV (channel 26, now WSFX-TV, a Fox affiliate) signed on 20 years later; the former continued to serve some portions of the market until WILM-LD switched its affiliation to CBS in 2000. Cape Fear thus figured that if it signed with ABC, it would not get much local competition. Cape Fear sold WWAY to Clay Broadcasting (later to become Clay Communications) in 1968. In 1969, the station moved its studios to a new building a few blocks north on Front Street that was the first piece of a redevelopment of the north end of downtown. In 1981, a military jet destroyed the WWAY broadcast tower near Winnabow. The tower was replaced with one nearly tall. As part of the divestiture of the company's newspaper and television properties, on April 30, 1987, Clay sold its WWAY and its four sister television stations—NBC affiliates KJAC-TV (now Dabl affiliate KBTV-TV) in Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas and ABC affiliate WAPT in Jackson, Mississippi—to New York City-based Price Communications Corporation for $60 million; the sale was approved by the FCC on June 23. In 1988, Price sold WWAY to Adams Communications.