WABI-TV
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| WABI-TV | |
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| Bangor, Maine | |
| Branding | WABI TV 5 |
| Slogan | The Spirit of Maine |
| Channels | 5 (VHF) analog, 19 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CBS (secondary 1953-54, sole affiliate since 1962) The CW via The CW Plus (on DT2) |
| Owner | Diversified Communications |
| Founded | January 25, 1953 |
| Call letters meaning | none (randomly assigned) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1953-63), ABC (secondary, 1953-65), DuMont (secondary, 1953-1956) [1] |
| Website | wabi.tv |
WABI-TV, channel 5, is the CBS affiliated television station for Bangor, Maine that broadcasts on channel 5. The station's signal from Peaked Mountain in Dixmont, Maine can be seen across most of Eastern and Central Maine. WABI is owned by Portland, Maine-based Diversified Communications, which under the leadership of the Hildreth family has owned the station since its inception. They also own WCJB-TV, from Gainesville, Florida, plus several trade publications. In the past, Diversified Communications has owned two other stations including WPDE-TV from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and WCTI-TV from New Bern, North Carolina.
Since September of 2006, WABI has been offering programming from The CW via The CW Plus on its DT2 subchannel, which is known as "Eastern and Central Maine's CW".
WABI operates a transmitter, W61AO channel 61, from Calais, Maine. Until the mid-1990s, this translator was used to feed cable systems across the border in the Canadian Maritimes. With the advent of CANCOM, WABI's cross-border carriage has declined and today is not carried on any systems across the border including St. Stephen, which is in W61AO's signal range. Most of Atlantic Canada now carries WBZ-TV from Boston, Massachusetts on cable for CBS programming.
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[edit] History
WABI was the first television station in Maine to go on the air when it signed on on January 25, 1953. The station maintained affiliations with all major television networks, but was a primary NBC affiliate. [2] It swapped affiliations with WLBZ in 1963 and became a CBS affiliate, though it carried some ABC programs until WEMT-TV (now WVII) signed on in 1965.
[edit] Programming
The station prides itself on the strength of its local programming including its newscasts, which have long been the highest-rated in the market. Many of WABI's most popular broadcasters have been at the station for over 20 years. WABI is the only television station with a complete schedule of Bangor-based news. WLBZ simulcasts all of WCSH's newscasts, except weekdays at 5 and 6 PM. WVII only airs two newscasts a day at 6 and 11 PM and the 11 PM newscast is taped. For many years, up until the early 2000s, WABI aired the local high school basketball tournament.
WABI often pre-empts CBS programming to air University of Maine sports (usually re-scheduling regular CBS prime time programming to late night the same night) and pre-empts CBS' late afternoon college football games on the weekends (as it interferes with its 6 PM newscast and may run over 7 PM programming, as well). The station surrenders its rights back to CBS, which often opts to air preempted games on local "i" affiliate WBGR-LP.
[edit] The CW
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger took effect on-air on September 18, 2006.
The station has been showing programming from The CW on a digital channel since September 18, 2006 as part of The CW Plus, which is simular to The WB 100+. On Friday, July 28, 2006, an announcement on WABI's website said that Time Warner Cable, which took over for bankrupt Adelphia, would have cable station "WBAN" take the CW affiliation for its cable viewers and occupy the same channel as did the WB 100+ Station. At one point during the cable transition, there was talk that WABI might be dropped from Time Warner's lineup, but a three year deal was reached. In the Bangor television market, The CW is available over-the-air on WABI DT2 and on cable via WBAN. WBAN is now operated by WABI, and there has been a CW logo and separate website created. On The CW's local station website, it lists a phone number for finding more information about WABI DT2 and its CW affiliation. It also lists WABI DT2 as being known as Eastern and Central Maine's CW.
With the new CW affiliation on WABI DT2, the station offers The Daily Buzz newscast on weekday mornings, from 6 to 9 AM, with local news and weather updates. Also featured on WABI DT2, is a simulcast of WABI's weekday Noon newscast, and a new WABI 10 PM weekday newscast to go up against the low budget WVII-produced WFVX newscast, which is now taped. The new 10 PM newscast is called WABI TV 5 Prime Time News on The CW. The two WABI newscasts do air on the WBAN cable signal, along with The Daily Buzz. Also, as it does with CBS programming, the station could preempt CW programming for local shows like public affairs programming and local sports.
According to "TitanTV.com" television listings, the simulcast of WABI's weekday Noon newscast as well as the weekday 10 PM newscast have stopped airing on WABI DT2. [3] However, another television listings website "Zap2It.com", shows that the newscasts do continue to air. [4]
[edit] Internet Media
WABI operates a website that features free streaming audio-video of its newscasts. The station also offers pay-per-view streaming audio-video of its local sports programming through an affiliated website. [5]
[edit] Newscasts
Monday-Friday
- WABI-TV 5 Morning News (4:55-7 AM)
- WABI-TV 5 News at Noon (12-12:30 PM) simulcasted on WABI DT2 and cable-only WBAN
- WABI-TV 5 News at 5 (5-6 PM)
- WABI-TV 5 News at 6 (6-6:30 PM)
- WABI-TV 5 Prime Time News on The CW (10-10:30 PM) seen only on WABI DT2 and cable-only WBAN
- WABI-TV 5 News at 11 (11-11:35 PM)
Weekends
- WABI-TV 5 News at 6 (6-6:30 PM)
- WABI-TV 5 News at 11 (11-11:35 PM)
[edit] News Team
- Jon Chrisos, Reporter
- Craig Colson, Anchor / Reporter
- Amy Erickson, Anchor / Reporter
- Keith Erickson, Sports Anchor / Reporter
- Chris Ewing, Chief Meteorologist
- Susan Farley, Bureau Chief / Reporter
- Alan Grover, Anchor / Reporter
- Joy Hollowell, Anchor / Reporter
- Ryan Hughes, Reporter
- Chris Lambert, Meteorologist
- Melissa Monti, Reporter
- Jim Morris, News Director / Anchor
- Catherine Pegram, Anchor / Reporter
- Sharon Pelletier, Anchor / Reporter
- Todd Simcox, Meteorologist
- Jon Small, Asst. News Director / Anchor / Reporter
- Tim Throckmorton, Sports Director / Anchor
[edit] External links
- WABI Website
- WABI DT2 / WBAN "Eastern and Central Maine's CW" Website
- Diversified Communications
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WABI
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W61AO
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WLBZ 2 (NBC) - WABI 5 (CBS)(The CW via "WBAN" on DT2) - WVII 7 (ABC) - WMEB 12 / WMED 13 (PBS/MPBN) - WBAN-LP 20 (silent) - |
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See also Broadcast television in the Presque Isle, ME market
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