There is perhaps no better example of Capitol Broadcasting Company’s technological leadership than in the realm of High Definition Television (HDTV). With WRAL-TV leading the way in the 1990s, CBC pioneered HDTV and became the standard by which other stations were measured.

WRAL-TV obtained the first experimental HDTV (high-definition television) license in June of 1996 and became the first commercial television station in the nation to broadcast a HDTV signal a little over one month later. As part of that experimental work, CBC conducted extensive testing with the digital signal, using prototype equipment and helping write the manuals that would guide engineers in the future.

By 1998, WRAL’s experimentation moved from digital transmitters to HD production. On October 28, 1998, WRAL produced the first live news event in HD—John Glenn’s historic return to space. The station followed that up a year later with the nation’s first all-HD documentary—“The Cape Light.”

In 2000, WRAL-TV was ready to spread HD to its news operation. On Friday, October 13, 2000—WRAL-TV broadcast its entire 5pm newscast in HD from the NC State Fairgrounds. It was the first live, all-HD newscast ever produced. Only months later, on January 28, 2001, WRAL-TV converted all its studio newscasts to HD, making it the world’s first news operation to gather and present high-definition local news on a continuous basis.