System (by this time controlled by the Rines-Thompson family) sold WCSH and WLBZ to the Gannett Company who put it into the Pacific and Southern, LLC part of the company. Since 2000, WLBZ has for all intents and purposes been a semi-satellite of WCSH; as early as 1989, WLBZ had been reducing its personnel and consolidating some internal operations with WCSH. WCSH's digital signal on UHF channel 44 signed on in 2002, bringing high definition network television to the area. WCSH's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009 and began providing a "nightlight" service. Until that date, the station's analog audio signal transmitted on a frequency of 87.75 MHz (+10 kHz shift). As a result, it could be picked up on the lower end of the dial on most FM radios at 87.7 MHz. This was true of all other analog channel 6 stations in the United States. The station often promoted this additional way of coverage. After the transition, the station continued its digital broadcasts on channel 44. Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for WCSH. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations (such as WCSH) should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WCSH and WLBZ were retained by the latter company, named Tegna. News operation For most of its history, WCSH was a solid, if distant, runner-up in local Nielsen ratings behind long-dominant WGAN-TV/WGME-TV. However, in the late 1980s, WCSH-TV surged to the top of the ratings, a position it has retained for the most part ever since. This is in part due to continuity in the station's key on-air staff, much of which have been with the station for over ten years. Also, WCSH anchors have won many awards for excellent journalism. In addition, its resources include sister station WLBZ in Bangor, allowing statewide coverage not offered by any source in Maine. Starting in 1989, channel 6 began