WREX-TV

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WREX-TV
Rockford, Illinois
Branding	13 WREX / 13 News
Slogan	Rockford's News Leader
Channels	13 (VHF) analog, 54 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC The CW - D2
Owner	Quincy Newspapers
Founded	October 1, 1953
Call letters meaning	W REX (Rex was the first name of the son of one of the station's founders, L.E. Caster)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953-65), ABC (1953-95, secondary until 1965), DuMont (1953-56)
Transmitter Power	316 kW/461 m (analog) 1000 kW/438 m (digital)
Website	wrex.com

WREX-TV (Channel 13) is the NBC television affiliate serving the Rockford, Illinois area. It is the market's only full-powered VHF station and is Rockford's second oldest television station. Its studios and transmitter are located at 10322 Auburn Road, just west of downtown Rockford. Owned by Quincy Newspapers, Inc. of Quincy, Illinois, the station's call letters were selected in honor of Rex N. Caster, the son of the station's founding shareholder and president L.E. Caster. Rex Caster was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army who was killed in France during World War II.

WREX-TV provides three-and-a-half hours of newscasts per day. WREX also operates The Stateline's CW, a digital broadcast affiliate of The CW Television Network. The Stateline's CW is seen on Channel 14 on most Rockford area cable systems, as well as on WREX's digital subcarrier 13.2 and carries a nightly 9pm newscast produced by WREX. This secondary programming service began broadcasting on September 18, 2006.

[edit] History

WREX began its operations on October 1, 1953, as an affiliate of CBS (primary affiliation), ABC, and the DuMont networks. Besides serving its own immediate area, WREX attracted viewers early on in its history from parts of the neighboring Madison, Wisconsin area. In fact, to this day, the two areas still share overlapping coverage among their television stations, especially in Rock County, Wisconsin (technically in the Madison television market). Until WISC-TV (Channel 3) in Madison signed on in 1956, WREX was the only VHF station for the Rockford and Madison areas. WREX took the ABC affiliation full-time in 1965 when WCEE-TV Channel 23 (now WIFR) signed on the air. Channel 13 remained an ABC station until it switched network affiliations with WTVO Channel 17 in August 1995, and thereafter became Rockford's NBC station.

In 1963, the station was sold to the Gannett Group. In 1966, WREX became the first television station in the area to be equipped with color broadcasting technology. The station was sold to the Gilmore Broadcasting Corporation of Indiana (owner of Evansville TV station WEHT) in 1969. Gillmore served as WREX's longest-standing owner, lasting 18 years. However, in 1987, Gilmore sold the station to a partnership called MP Media Partners. It was under their ownership that WREX created its own Eyewitness News format, as well as finally adding the ABC soap opera All My Children to its daytime schedule. In August 1995, Quincy Newspapers purchased WREX and switched its network affiliation the same year.

Former WBR-14 logo

[edit] On-air staff

As of 2006, the on-air staff included:

News anchors

• Eric Wilson
• Dani Maxwell
• Katie Nilsson
• Troy Kehoe

Meteorologists

• Eric Sorensen
• Candice King

Sports

• Nate Dougherty
• Chris Frye

Reporters

• Sarah O'Brien
• Smita Kalokhe
• Ryan Cummings
• Lindsay Kus

CW News at 9

• Lindsay Kus
• Marissa Alter
• Eric Sorensen

[edit] External links

• WREX Weather Blog
• 13WREX website
• Stateline's CW website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WREX