The roots of this network go back to 1942, when WRAL (1240 AM; now WPJL) in Raleigh, North Carolina began producing agricultural reports for farmers in the Eastern part of the state.
Shortly after returning from service in World War II, Ray Wilkinson began delivering agricultural reports in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on radio station WCEC 810 AM (now dark), where he was Program Director.
Shortly thereafter, WRAL expressed interest in broadcasting Wilkinson's reports, and the groundwork was laid for the foundation of the Tobacco Radio Network, the predecessor to NCNN.
With the establishment of WRAL-FM in 1946, the network took advantage of its static-free reception and wide coverage area to begin relaying programming to other stations that desired agricultural news.
Daily editorials by WRAL-TV commentator Jesse Helms were broadcast on the T-N Network, and are generally credited as a major contributing factor to his winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1972.
Since becoming NCNN, the network has expanded coverage of high school sports in North Carolina, becoming the major source for scores from football games across the state on Saturday mornings each fall.
NCNN is known for giving extensive, regionalized forecasts for the entire state of North Carolina, prepared by a team of in-house meteorologists (which they share with WRAL-TV and WRAL (FM)).