WBAY-TV
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| WBAY-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Green Bay, Wisconsin | |
| Branding | WBAY-TV 2 (general) Action 2 News (news) |
| Slogan | Coverage You Can Count On |
| Channels | 2 (VHF) analog, 23 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Young Broadcasting |
| Founded | March 17, 1953 |
| Call letters meaning | W Green BAY |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1953-1992), DuMont (secondary, 1953-1956)[1] |
| Website | www.wbay.com/ |
WBAY-TV "TV-2" is the ABC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It broadcasts on VHF channel 2 (analog) and UHF channel 23 (digital). It signed on the air on March 17, 1953 as the second television station in Wisconsin, after WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee. It is currently owned by Young Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located in Ledgeview, Wisconsin.
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[edit] History
The station was originally owned by the Norbertine Order of Priests, whose abbey is in nearby De Pere. The priests run St. Norbert College in De Pere and already operated radio stations in Green Bay and Appleton. After carrying multiple networks in its early years, the station became a primary CBS affiliate, and benefited from that network's coverage of National Football League games, primarily of the Green Bay Packers. Packers games drew up to a 90 percent share of the audience during the 1960s success of teams coached by Vince Lombardi, and the station carried "The Vince Lombardi Show." The station also originated the team's exhibition game coverage from the 1960s to 2002 with some exceptions. Main anchor Bill Jartz has been Lambeau Field's PA system announcer since the start of the 2005-2006 season. The station will air Monday Night Football Packer games originating from ESPN during the 2006 season.
In the mid-1970s, WBAY-TV was sold to Nationwide Insurance, Inc., which operated the station until 1991, when it was sold to Young Broadcasting.
CBS purchased the assets of Midwest Television in that same year to acquire their long-time strong Twin Cities affiliate WCCO-TV/AM; Midwest also owned Channel 2's longtime competitor, then-ABC affiliate WFRV/WJMN (Channel 5/3). CBS considered WBAY a strong affiliate, trying to sell WFRV/WJMN after closing the deal with Midwest. FCC rules were relaxed at the time to allow one entity to own more stations, so the network decided to keep the two stations and affiliate WFRV/WJMN with their own network in 1992, giving Channel 2 affiliation with ABC.
WBAY insisted that the change take place on or near the anniversary of their sign-on date, March 17. Since that date fell on a Tuesday in 1992, WFRV and WBAY swapped networks on Sunday, March 15, with "TV-2" joining ABC.
In addition to airing ABC, WBAY also carries Stormcenter 2 24/7, a local equivalent of ABC's O&O AccuWeather subchannels, or NBC's Weather Plus service, over their 2-2 digital subchannel. This channel is also carried by area cable systems over digital cable. The subchannel is also used for local long-form news coverage, such as carrying full coverage of the Steven Avery murder trial in Chilton. Three hours of E/I compliant programming a week (required on digital subchannels by the FCC at the start of 2007) airs on this subchannel weekdays during the station's 5pm newscast and during the station's 8am Saturday morning newscast to provide continuous weather coverage on the station despite the regulations.
The station also sponsors the yearly "WBAY Boating Show" and the "WBAY RV and Camping Show", both held in the winter months at the Brown County Arena/Shopko Hall, along with a Boy Scout door-to-door food drive ("Scouting for Food") in the fall.
[edit] Telethon
WBAY-TV holds the record for the longest running telethon on the same channel, airing the Cerebral Palsy Telethon, which has broadcast on the station since 1954. The telethon originally aired for 22 hours from Saturday 8pm-Sunday 6pm, but currently breaks between 12 midnight and 6am, as the station signs off in the overnights during weekends. Past hosts of the telethon have included Raymond Burr, Dennis James (who would later host the United Cerebal Palsy national telethon), and Tom Wopat. Currently the telethon is a local-only effort, using local broadcasters and people to host the marathon program, and the funds raised benefit the local organization, Cerebral Palsy, Inc. Before the sale of the WBAY stations by the Norbertine Fathers, the telethon was simulcast over WBAY-AM (now WTAQ) and WBAY-FM (now WIXX).
WBAY's Cerebal Palsy telethon both pre-dated and succeeded the national telethon for United Cerebal Palsy, which ran on numerous stations nationwide from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s.
[edit] Sunday Mass
The station continues to air a Sunday Mass on Sunday mornings, as it has since signing on under the ownership of the Norbertine Fathers. After the sale of the station from them however, the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay pays WBAY-TV to have the program produced from funds that currently come out of that Diocese's "Bishop Appeals" account.
[edit] Station Logo History
 The 'Circle 2's first generation, used from 1986-March 1992. This logo remained in use with the ABC affilation in some uses (such as print advertising) during the second generation of the 'Circle 2' |
 Second generation of the 'Circle 2', used from March 1992-March 2003 |
 Third and current generation of the 'Circle 2' logo with a solid red background, used since March 2003 |
[edit] News Team
Anchors/Reporters
- Bill Jartz, evening anchor
- Cami Rapson, evening anchor
- Kevin Rompa, morning and noon anchor
- Kathryn Bracho, morning anchor/health reporter
- Jeff Alexander, 4pm anchor/reporter
- Sarah Thomsen, 4pm anchor/reporter
- Elizabeth Ries, weekend anchor/reporter
- Adam Aaro, reporter
- Jenn Karlman, weekend morning anchor/reporter
- Paula Van Drisse, morning reporter
- Jason Zimmerman, reporter
- Chris Duffy, reporter
- Emily Matesic, reporter
- Isabelle Kallie, reporter
- Natalie Arnold, reporter
- Andrew Fefer, reporter/producer
StormCenter 2
- George Graphos, evening
- Brad Spakowitz, weekend evening
- Justin Zollitsch, morning
- Steve Beylon, weekend morning
Action 2 Sports
- Chris Roth
- John Gillespie
- Michelle Tuckner
Assignment Editor
- Jim Dillon
News Producers
- Trish Ossmann (Executive Producer)
- Jenny Cheung
- Stephanie Homburg
- Kristen Jones
- Megan Klein
- Mike Menzel
- Christian Mueller
- Nick Petersen
- Sara Smith
Sports producer
- Pat Mayo
News Photographers
- John Devroy (Chief Photographer)
- Michael Bergman
- Steve Cady
- Nate Garot
- Shawn Hauser
- Steve Hopper
- Don Johnson
- Bill Kumbalek
- Brian O'Donnell
- Will Sentowski
- Patrick Sheppard
- Joe Smrekar
- Gerry St. Amand
Videotape Editor
- Garrett Stolz
[edit] Contact information
Address:
WBAY-TV
115 S. Jefferson St.
Green Bay, WI 54301
Phone:
Switchboard: (920) 432-3331
News Hotline: (920) 437-2222
Sales Department: (920) 438-3251
Fax:
Station: (920) 432-7808
News Releases: (920) 432-1190
E-mail:
wbay@wbay.com
[edit] Management
- Don Carmichael, General Manager
- Dick Millhiser, Program/Operations Manager
- Pam Jessen, Promotion/Public Service Director
- Tom McCarey, News Director
- Greg Tadyshak, Chief Engineer
- Peggy Wilcox, Business Manager
- Steve Lavin, General Sales Manager
- John Franken, Production Manager
- Willy Olson, Traffic Manager
Web site:
- Ted Miller, Web Manager
[edit] Local news
WBAY's local newscasts, branded as Action 2 News, air at the following time slots:
[edit] Weekday
- 5:00 - 7:00am
- 12noon - 12:30pm (formerly officially known as "The Noon Show", still used casually)
- 4:00 - 4:30pm
- 5:00 - 5:30pm
- 6:00 - 6:30pm
- 10:00 - 10:35pm
[edit] Weekend
- 6:00 - 7:00am
- 8:00 - 9:00am
- 6:00 - 6:30pm Saturday
- 5:30 - 6:00pm Sunday
- 10:00 - 10:30pm
[edit] External links
ABC Affiliates: WATE | WBAY | WKRN | WRIC | WTEN/WCDC
CBS Affiliates: KELO/KCLO/KDLO/KPLO | KLFY | WLNS
MyNetworkTV Affiliate: KRON
NBC Affiliate: KWQC
Key People: Adam Young and Vincent Young
Website: www.youngbroadcasting.com
