WXII-TV

WXII-TV
	Winston-Salem–Greensboro–; High Point, North Carolina; ; United States;
City	Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Channels	Digital: 16 (UHF), shared with WCWG; Virtual: 12;
Branding	WXII 12
Programming
Affiliations	12.1: NBC; for others, see § Subchannels;
Ownership
Owner	Hearst Television; (Hearst Properties Inc.);
Sister stations	WCWG
History
First air date	September 30, 1953
Former call signs	WSJS-TV (1953–1972); WXII (1972–1982);
Former channel numbers	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1953–2009); Digital: 31 (UHF, 1999–2019);
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary, 1953–1963)
Call sign meaning	"XII" is the Roman numeral for 12
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	53921
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	571.9 m (1,876 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	36°22′31″N 80°22′25″W / 36.37528°N 80.37361°W
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Website	www.wxii12.com

WXII-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Lexington-licensed CW affiliate WCWG (channel 20). WXII-TV and WCWG share studios on Coliseum Drive in Winston-Salem and broadcast from the same transmitter on Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County.

The station began broadcasting as WSJS-TV on September 30, 1953, and has been an NBC affiliate since its first day on air. It was the second television station to start in Winston-Salem, days after WTOB-TV (channel 26), which lasted four years, and was owned by Triangle Broadcasting, a consortium of the Piedmont Publishing Company—publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel newspapers and owner of radio station WSJS—and actress Mary Pickford, who sold her shares in 1966. Originally housed in cramped quarters at the WSJS radio studios, in 1966 it moved to its present facility, the purpose-built Broadcast House.

After divesting the newspapers and starting a cable television system, Triangle Broadcasting sold the station to Multimedia, Inc. in 1972; in being separated from WSJS radio, the station became WXII. It struggled in the late 1970s and early 1980s due to poor news ratings, which were strong in Forsyth County but weak elsewhere, and the underperformance of the NBC network. After being part of a trade to Pulitzer Publishing in 1983, WXII slowly improved its standing in the market and its news ratings. In the late 1990s, it owned and operated WXII (830 AM), an all-news radio station. By the time Pulitzer exited broadcasting in 1998, WXII—which still emphasized "Western Piedmont"–area news from Winston-Salem and counties to the west—was competitive in the Triad, a market once dominated by WFMY-TV.

Pulitzer sold its broadcasting division to Hearst in 1998. Seeking to follow population growth, in 2000 WXII added Guilford County—containing Greensboro and High Point—to its news coverage area. It emerged as the news leader in total households. WCWG was acquired in 2017 and broadcasts additional WXII-TV newscasts.