WALB

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WALB
Albany, Georgia
Branding	WALB-TV; WALB News 10
Slogan	Leading the way for South Georgia
Channels	10 (VHF) analog, 17 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Raycom Media
Founded	December 25, 1954
Call letters meaning	W ALBany
Former affiliations	ABC and DuMont in early 1950's
Transmitter Power	316 kW/320 m(analog) 80 kW/303 m (digital)
Website	www.walb.com

WALB channel 10 (Mediacom channels 3 & digital 810 ), is the NBC television affiliate in Albany, Georgia, serving the southwestern part of the state. It is currently owned by Raycom Media. Prior to 1998, the station was the flagship for Gray Communication Systems' broadcasting group (which still has administrative offices in Albany today). The station began on December 25, 1954, as the television arm of radio station (WALB-AM), which had operated since 1941. Its main studios are located at 1709 Stuart Avenue in Albany. When the station's studios were built in 1953, Stuart Avenue was a dirt road running through a pecan grove. WALB normally broadcasts from a transmitter located near Doerun, Georgia, but is temporarily broadcasting from an auxiliary site at their studios, due to the Doerun transmitter being destroyed (see below).

Until 1983, WALB doubled as the NBC affiliate for Tallahassee, Florida. Although WTWC-TV has been Tallahassee's NBC affiliate since then, WALB still provides city-grade coverage to much of the Georgia side of the Tallahassee market and grade B coverage to Tallahassee itself.

Contents 1 Station timeline 2 Local programming 2.1 Monday-Friday 2.2 Saturday 2.3 Sunday 3 Logo Gallery 4 Current Personalities 4.1 Anchors and Reporters 4.2 Meteorologists 4.3 Sports Anchors/ Reporters 5 Past personalities 6 New look 7 Weather Forecast Titles 8 June 7, 2006: WALB / WFXL towers crash 9 Trivia 10 External links

[edit] Station timeline

• 1941: Began as radio station WALB-AM
• 1954: Began as NBC affiliate WALB-TV
• 1976: Fire destroyed main broadcasting facilities, but did not damage station offices. Began broadcasting the next day from a shop building on the premises.
• 1994: The Flood of 1994, resulting from record breaking rainfall from Tropical Storm Alberto. Causing the deaths of 33 people (31 in Georgia/2 in Alabama). A total of 78 counties were declared disaster areas (55 in Georgia, 10 in Alabama, 13 in Florida). 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, 18,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Rainfall was in excess of 20 inches in many areas. WALB stayed on the air with non stop, 24 hour coverage to alert citizens and provide the vital link between the public and government agencies.
• 1998: Ownership sold from Gray Communications Systems (now Gray Television) to Cosmos Broadcasting, which later became Liberty Corporation.
• 2001: Began broadcasting digital television (DT) signal.
• 2005: A new set was built
• 2005: WALB 24-7 Weather (now WALB Weather Plus) was launched. This station gives continuous forecasts for up to 30 cities around Southwest Georgia.
• 2006: WALB officially sold from Liberty Corporation to Raycom Media after the 2005 acquisition of Liberty by Raycom.
• 2006: During demolition of WFXL's Television Tower, WALB's 1000 foot tall tower was destroyed on June 7th.

[edit] Local programming

The following is a schedule of WALB produced programs that are currently shown on the station.

[edit] Monday-Friday

• WALB News 10 at 5:30 a.m. (5:30-6 a.m.)
• Today In Georgia (6-7 a.m.)
• WALB News 10 at Noon (Noon-1 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 5 p.m. (5-5:30 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 5:30 p.m. (5:30-6 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 6 p.m. (6-6:30 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 11 p.m. (11-11:35 p.m.)

[edit] Saturday

• Today's Business (6-6:30 a.m.; 1-1:30 a.m.)*
• WALB News 10 at 6 p.m. (6-6:30 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 11 p.m. (11-11:30 p.m.)

[edit] Sunday

• Today's Business (6-6:30 a.m.; 1-1:30 a.m.)*
• Georgia Farm Monitor (6:30-7 a.m.)
• Dialogue (9:30-10 a.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 6 p.m. (6-6:30 p.m.)
• WALB News 10 at 11 p.m. (11-11:30 p.m.)

* Today's Business is shown at other times through the week on no particular schedule.

[edit] Logo Gallery

WALB's Logo in 1990's

WALB's Current Logo

[edit] Current Personalities

[edit] Anchors and Reporters

• Karla Heath-Sands, Morning and Noon Anchor
• Ruthie Garner, Morning and Noon Anchor
• Karen Cohilas, 5 p.m. Anchor/ Reporter
• Jim Wallace, 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Anchor/Reporter
• Dawn Hobby, 5:30, 6 p.m.Anchor & Assistant News Director
• Ben Roberts, 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Anchor/ Reporter
• Len Kiese, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Sarah Baldwin, Thomasville Beureau Reporter
• Alicia Eaken, Valdosta Bureau Reporter
• Joe Courson, "10 Country" Reporter
• Jennifer Emert, Nightside Reporter
• Nikki Gaskins, General Assignment Reporter
• Brent Solomon, General Assignment Reporter
• Melissa Kill, Phoebe Health Line Live
• Tonya Kilpatrick, Today's Bussiness

[edit] Meteorologists

• Yolanda Amadeo, Chief Meteorologist
• Morning/ Noon meteorologist is an open position
• Chris Nisinger, Weekend Meteorologist

[edit] Sports Anchors/ Reporters

• Robert Hydrick, Sports Director/ Reporter
• Mike Shiers, Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter

[edit] Past personalities

• Gil Patrick, Chief Meteorologist and long time host of Today in Georgia
• Kristina Abernathy, meteorologist (Now at the Weather Channel)
• Reginald Jones, reporter ( Now at WTVY-TV)
• Kent Williams, Morning and Noon Meteorologist
• Terri Smith, meteorologist
• Alan Seals, meteorologist (now at Meteorology University of South Alabama)
• Patrick Core, meteorologist (Now at WDEF-TV)
• LeAnn Pope, meteorologist
• Nicole Johnson, Reporter
• Kathryn Murchison, anchor/reporter
• Ducky Wall, sports anchor
• Kevin McDermond,weekend sports anchor/reporter
• Chris Smith, meteorologist (1996-1997, Now at WGCL-TV)
• Jeff Crum, meteorologist (Now At News 14 Carolina)
• Ashley Harper, Valdosta Bureau reporter
• Casey Jones, anchor/ reporter (Now At WTOC)
• Joe Coffey, anchor
• Dave Nethers, reporter (Now At WJW-TV, Cleveland, OH)
• Drew Aultman, telethon co-host
• Greg Majewski, reporter
• Chuck Bell, meteorologist (now at WRC-TV)
• Nancy Wright, anchor
• Lisa George, anchor/reporter
• Yolonda Hawkins, reporter (now at WPXI-TV)
• Jennifer Hulsey, reporter
• Mercer Merrill, weekend anchor, government reporter (now at News 14 Carolina)
• Jocelyn Maner, reporter
• Scott Hunter, reporter
• Brannon Stewart, reporter
• Amanda Fitzpatrick, reporter, producer (now at WCSC-TV)
• Elaine Armstrong, reporter
• Mitch Kimbrell, reporter
• Lisa Smith, reporter
• Nicole Bailey, reporter
• Kristen Hill, reporter
• Sloane Heffernan', anchor/reporter (Now At WRAL-TV)
• Kathryn Simmons, reporter (Now at WBBH-TV)
• Stephen Ryan, Thomasville Bureau reporter
• Michelle Boudin, reporter/anchor (Now at WCNC)
• Yvette Jones, anchor/reporter
• Joanna Hammer, reporter
• Angelique Proctor, reporter (Now at WAGA)

[edit] New look

• In 2004, WALB gave its newscast a makeover, renaming itself from NewsCenter 10 to WALB News 10. They have also changed their logo as part of the graphic makeover. However, they kept the "little one, big zero" 10, which has been part of WALB's logo since the late-1970s, at the latest.
• WALB had changed its theme to The Tower composed by 615 Music and used on WMAQ-TV in Chicago.

[edit] Weather Forecast Titles

• Super Doppler 10 Forecast (1994-2005)
• 24/7 Weather Forecast (current)

[edit] June 7, 2006: WALB / WFXL towers crash

On June 1, 2006, a CH-47 Chinook military chopper traveling from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia to Fort Rucker in Alabama for a training mission crashed into a guy wire connected to WFXL's 1000 foot tall Doerun tower. As a result, Raycom acquired auxiliary transmitters and antennas for both WFXL and WALB, which are installed at the tower at WALB's studios in Albany. The primary objective is to get WFXL back on the air terrestrially by Tuesday June 6, but a backup for WALB has been acquired in event WALB's regular tower collapses with WFXL's tower. [1]

WALB's Television Tower was destroyed at 6:32 PM on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 during an attempted demolition of WFXL's tower. Shown on live television, the demolition for WFXL's unreparable tower placed WALB's tower in a delicate position. The initial destruction of WFXL's damaged tower went well until the final seconds when overlapping guy wires from the WFXL tower entangled with the guy wires of WALB's tower. WALB is now transmitting their signal on a temporary tower, though at only 20,000 watts, 200 ft. HAAT (high above average terrain). The cleanup of the site and installation of new towers could take up to six months to complete. [2] [3] Those still unable to get a signal include terrestrial viewers outside the 25 mile radius from Albany, as well as a few smaller cable systems that receive WALB over-the-air instead of fiber. Dish Network offers WALB in the local line-ups; participating dealers will waive the $49.99 activation fee for new subscribers as a result of the tower collapse. WALB, however, is not currently offered on DirecTV, citing lack of transponder space. [4]

[edit] Trivia

• A camera used in WALB's early years is on display in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. in the science and technology exibit.
• WALB was started by the Albany Herald as a radio station, WALB-AM, in May of 1941.
• WALB's signal can be seen in Montecello, Florida to Pinehurst, Georgia.
• WALB was the news channel with a story about the Shiloh Eagles in the movie Facing the Giants

[edit] External links

• WALB Homepage
• Raycom Media Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WALB