Before WMBF's launch, the Florence/Myrtle Beach market was one of only a few areas along the East Coast without its own NBC affiliate, and was one of the few remaining markets in the country without full service from the three legacy networks. WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina was the default NBC affiliate for Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand, and had been available on cable in the Grand Strand since cable arrived in the market in the 1970s, while WIS was the default affiliate for Florence and the Pee Dee, but had been picked up by nearly every cable system in the Grand Strand by the mid-1980s. In 1989, WIS began operating a "virtual station" for cable subscribers in the Florence region, which featured a separate slate of syndicated programs; this change was prompted by the syndication exclusivity rule.