WYFF

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WYFF

Greenville, South Carolina
Branding	WYFF 4
Slogan	Live Local Breaking News
Channels	4 (VHF) analog, 59 (HDTV, UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Hearst-Argyle Television
Founded	December 31, 1953
Call letters meaning	We're Your Friend Four
Former affiliations	None
Website	www.wyff4.com

WYFF is the NBC television affiliate based in Greenville, South Carolina. It serves a market which includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson in South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. The market takes in large portions of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. Its transmitter is located near Caesars Head, South Carolina.

1 History
2 Local News
3 Programming
4 Current and past station personalities
5 Station logos
6 External links

[edit] History

The station went on the air on December 31, 1953 as WFBC-TV ("We Foster Better Citizenship" [1]), South Carolina's fifth television station. It was owned by the Peace family, publishers of The Greenville News and Greenville Piedmont, along with WFBC-AM-FM. For its first two years of operation, its studios were located on Paris Mountain before moving to its current location on 505 Rutherford Street in 1955. Norvin Duncan was the station's first news anchor, moving from the radio side.

"Monty's Rascals" (started in 1960) was one of the station's popular children's shows, starring two channel 4 weathermen: Monty DuPuy (who left in 1978) and Stowe Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey (wearing a hat with an old Santa's beard). The show continued as "The Rascal's Clubhouse" after DuPuy's departure in 1978 and continued until 1982. Two years later, Hoyle retired.

During the 1960s, personalities from channel 4 included Dave Partridge and Jim Phillips (Phillips died in 2003), better known as the radio voice of the Clemson Tigers. Locally televised color programming also began in February 1967. In 1968, the Peace family media holdings were reorganized as Multimedia, Inc. with WFBC-AM-FM-TV as the flagship.

In the mid 1970s the famous Arrow 4 logo was introduced and was used in one form or another for many years. Partridge succeeded Duncan as anchor of the 6 and 11 o'clock news. In 1976 Kenn Sparks joined, and the 6 o'clock news went to a full hour called The Scene at Six. Later, in 1979, the long-running 'Your Friend Four' slogan was introduced and seen in a 1980 edition of TV Guide.

The 1980s brought new personalities to channel 4, like James Baker, sportscasters J.D. Hayworth, (later Congressman from Arizona), Roger Berry, Mark Marino and weatherman Charlie Gertz (who died in 2003 from a stroke). Action News 4 became NewsCenter 4 in the early 1980s.

In 1983, Multimedia swapped WFBC-TV to Pulitzer Publishing in exchange for that group's KSD-TV St. Louis. With the change of ownership came a change of call letters to WYFF-TV (We're Your Friend Four). The station's logo also changed in 1983. New personalities include Carl Clark, Kim Brittain, and Carol Anderson (later Carol Goldsmith) who co-anchors the 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 11 o'clock newscasts. In the late 1980s, Carol Anderson was replaced by Annette Estes who came from its rival station WSPA-TV. Stan Olenik also came from WSPA. Goldsmith later took her spot back from Estes after Estes made an off-color slip on live air.

NewsCenter 4 became simply known as News 4 in the 1990s. Charlie Gertz retired, and the "arrow 4" logo was dropped by 1991.

WYFF (or WFBC?) was the first Upstate television station to begin 24/7 broadcasting, and did so sometime in the mid-late 1980's. They ran NBC News Overnight (later Nightside) /Home Shopping Spree/CNN Headline News overnight. They have since 2005 discontinued CNN Headline News (and previously the Home Shopping Spree) overnight and now run NBC Late Night/drama reruns/home-garden shows/paid programming overnight.

In 1999 Hearst-Argyle bought Pulitzer's entire television division, including WYFF-TV.

Greenville's own and former WSPA-TV news anchor Jane Robelot is returning to the Upstate South Carolina, and will join the WYFF 4 News Team starting in January 2007.

[edit] Local News

WYFF News 4 Today

Nigel Robertson and Beth Brotherton weather-Dale Gilbert

WYFF News 4 at Noon

weather-Dale Gilbert

WYFF News 4 at 5

Carol Goldsmith & Michael Cogdill weather-John Cessarich

WYFF News 4 at 5:30

Tim Waller & Sharon Johnson weather-John Cessarich

WYFF News 4 at 6

Carol Goldsmith & Michael Cogdill weather-John Cessarich

WYFF News 4 at 11

Carol Goldsmith & Michael Cogdill weather-John Cessarich

weekends

WYFF News 4 at 6&11

Gordon Dill

[edit] Programming

Here's a list of NBC programs that was pre-empted by WFBC/WYFF over the years, those include:

Alvin and the Chipmunks- It aired on WYFF-TV until 1986 it was seen instead on WAXA-TV now (WMYA-TV) before WYFF-TV picked it back up in the late 1980s.
Heckle and Jeckle- pre-empted by WFBC-TV's popular Monty's Rascals
Underdog
Who, What or Where- Replaced by WFBC-TV's local talk show Today in The Piedmont
The Facts of Life- NBC daytime reruns during 1984-85, seen instead on WAXA-TV
Kidd Video- It was seen instead on WAXA-TV
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV
Super Password- It was pre-empted by WYFF-TV during its entire run, and shown instead on WAXA-TV
Foofur- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV
Time Machine- Another WYFF-TV pre-empted NBC show that WAXA-TV aired in 1985.

[edit] Current and past station personalities

Monty DuPuy - Worked as a weatherman at WFBC-TV from the 1950s til 1978 when he moved to radio. He hosted Monty's Rascals with Stowe Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey from 1960 til 1978.
Norvin Duncan - WFBC's first newscaster who died in April 2003.
Stowe Hoyle - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1950's till his retirement in 1984. Also known as Mr. Doohickey on Monty's Rascals/The Rascals Clubhouse.
Kenn Sparks - Anchored for WFBC/WYFF from 1976 til 1994.
Charlie Gertz - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1980 til his retirement in 1991. He died in Bethesa, Maryland from a stroke in June 2003.
J.D. Hayworth - Sportscaster for WFBC/WYFF from 1981 til 1986, now a congressman from Arizona.
Jim Phillips - Known as The Voice of Clemson who anchored sports for WFBC-TV from 1968 til 1981. He died in September 2003. Ironically, Pete Yanity, from WSPA-TV, succeeded him on the Tiger Sports Network.
Carl Clark - Anchored for WYFF-TV from 1983 til 1994, he retired from the station and went to rival WSPA-TV until he retired from TV in 2003.
Annette Estes - Came from rival WSPA-TV in 1987 to replace Carol Goldsmith as co-anchor in 1987. Has been a Certified Professional Behavioral and Values Analyst, Coach, and Consultant in her own practice since leaving WYFF-TV in December. 1991.
Carol Goldsmith - Joined WYFF-TV in May 1985 as a reporter, now anchors 5PM,6PM, and 11PM newscasts with Michael Cogdill.
Stan Olenik - Came from rival WSPA-TV in the late 1980s to be a sportscaster for WYFF-TV.
Tim Waller - Joined the station in 1994. He currently anchors with Sharon Johnson on the 5:30PM newscast.
Michael Cogdill - Joined WYFF-TV in 1989 as a reporter/weekend anchor, now co-anchors with Carol Goldsmith on the 5PM,6PM, and 11PM newscasts.
Lee Brown - Joined WFBC-TV in the 1970s, currently a news director for WYFF-TV.
John Cessarich - Joined WYFF-TV after Charlie Gertz's retirement in 1991 as a current weatherman.
Geoff Hart - Joined WYFF-TV in 1993 as a sportscaster, he's also a sports director for the station.
Kim Brittan - Joined WFBC-TV in 1982 to replace Barbara Sloan as co-anchor with James Baker for the newscasts. She left in the mid-1980s. She's now at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dale Gilbert - Joined WYFF-TV around the 1980s to become weekend weathercaster, now morning and noon weatherman for the statio.
Frank Blair - Worked at WFBC-TV around in the 1950s or 1960s, was a Today Show newsanchor until 1976. He died in 1995.
Liz Walker - Worked as a weekend anchor in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival WHNS-TV in the late 1990s as a weekend anchor. She's now working for Charter Communications.
Judy Booker - Worked as a weekend weatherwoman in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival station WSPA-TV in the early 2000s as a weekend morning weatherwoman until the present.
Mark Marino - Joined WYFF-TV in August 1980 until January 1984 as Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter. Noteworthy coverages included Clemson's 1981 National Championship vs. Nebraska in the Orange Bowl as well as The Masters from 1981-83. Currently an insurance agent in Tampa, FL.

[edit] Station logos

Used around 1963	Used from around 1966 to 1974	The famous 'Arrow 4' logo introduced in 1974 when it was WFBC-TV, and used when the call letters changed to WYFF-TV in 1983. The colors were red/blue and later changed it to gold for the current NBC peacock debut on May 12, 1986 (NBC's 60th Anniversary Special) before dropping it in 1991.	Used from May 12, 1986 to 1991. The 6 feather NBC peacock appered on the gold arrow 4 logo, because the gold arrow 4 logo was launched when the current NBC Peacock debuted at the very end of the 60th aniversery special.
Used from early 1994 to April 2000

[edit] External links

Broadcast television in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market (Nielsen DMA #36)
WYFF 4 (NBC) - WSPA 7 (CBS) - WGTV 8 (PBS/GPB) - WLOS 13 (ABC) - WGGS 16 (Rel./TBN) - WHNS 21 (Fox) - WNTV 29 / WNEH 38 / WRET 49 (PBS/SCETV) - W31AZ 31 / W50CL 50 / W50CZ 50 (TBN) - WNEG 32 (CBS) - WUNF 33 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WMYA 40 (MNTV) - WYCW 62 (The CW) - WAEN-LP 64 (A1)

NBC Network Affiliates in the state of South Carolina
WCBD 2 (Charleston) - WYFF 4 (Greenville) - WIS 10 (Columbia) - WMBF 32 (Florence)¹
¹-- Not yet on the air.
See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, CW, MyNetworkTV and Other stations in South Carolina