On April 3, 1949 at 3 p.m., WLW-C debuted on Channel 3, becoming the very first television station in Central Ohio and was an NBC television networ affiliate. The station's call letters changed in 1976 to WCMH-TV when Outlet Broadcasting purchased the station. The CMH stands for Columbus Municipal Hangar. In January 1996, GE (owner of NBC Television) purchased WCMH. WCMH was one of thirteen owned-and-operated stations of the National Broadcasting Company until June 26, 2006 when it was officially purchased by Media General Broadcast Group. WCMH-TV now markets itself as NBC 4, Working 4 You and is a VHF channel along WCMH-TV DT14, a Digital Channel in the 32nd largest television market in the country. WCMH-TV utilizes the Nielsen rating service, as well as Scarborough Research, a qualitative consumer based study of the Columbus market.

For more than 50 years, NBC 4 (WCMH-TV) has been a community-oriented company, striving to bring the newest and the best in broadcasting to its viewers. As the first television station in the market, WCMH can boast a number of firsts:

• First stereo broadcast
  
• First to use weather radar in Columbus
  
• First telecast of Ohio State University football, basketball and track
  
• First to telecast from the Ohio State fairgrounds
  
• First color broadcast in Columbus
  
• First to offer closed captioning of live local news and programming
  
• First to use real time closed captioning of live local news and programming
  
• First 4 p.m. newscast in Central Ohio

NBC 4 (WCMH-TV) is an NBC affiliate of the Media General Broadcast Group and market leader with NBC 4 News, breaking news, NBC 4 Weather Plus, and news on the Web at www.nbc4i.com. Media General’s broadcasting assets currently include 23 network-affiliated television stations that reach more than 32 percent of the television households in the Southeast and nearly 9.5 percent of those in the United States. WCMH employs approximately 150 full-time and part-time employees at its studios located at 3165 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, Ohio 43202.