WTNH

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WTNH
New Haven / Hartford, Connecticut
Branding	NewsChannel8
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 10 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC (since 1950, secondary until 1955)
Owner	LIN Television
Founded	June 15, 1948 (on channel 6; moved to channel 8 in 1953)
Call letters meaning	W Television New Haven or Welcome To New Haven
Former callsigns	WNHC-TV (1948-1971)
Former affiliations	DuMont (1948-1956) NBC (secondary, 1949-1953) CBS (secondary, 1949-1955)
Website	www.wtnh.com

WTNH, channel 8, is the ABC affiliate for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Haven and owned by LIN Television Corporation. The station's transmitter is located in Hamden, Connecticut, and it serves the Hartford/New Haven television market. WTNH is the sister station to WCTX (channel 59), Connecticut's MyNetworkTV affiliate.

Contents 1 History 2 Trivia 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Weekends 4 News Personalities 4.1 Anchors 4.2 Weather 4.3 Sports 4.4 Reporters 5 External links

[edit] History

WTNH debuted on June 15, 1948 as WNHC-TV on channel 6. The station was founded by the New Haven Register along with WNHC-AM (1340 kHz., now WYBC) and WNHC-FM (99.1 MHz., now WPLR). It is Connecticut's oldest television station, and the second-oldest in New England (WBZ-TV in Boston signed on less than a week earlier). It was originally an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, and claims to have been the first full-time affiliate of that short-lived network.[1] It added NBC and CBS in 1949, with ABC following in 1950.

In late 1953, WNHC-TV changed frequencies and moved to channel 8. The next year, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed Hartford and New Haven into a single market. WNHC-TV shared some NBC programming with New Britain's WKNB-TV (now WVIT) until 1955, as WKNB's signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven at the time. In 1955, the New Haven Register and the WNHC stations were bought by Triangle Publications of Philadelphia. In 1955, WNHC-TV lost its CBS affiliation when the network purchased Hartford's WGTH-TV (later WHCT and now WUVN). The station became a sole ABC affiliate, though it shared ABC programming with Waterbury-based WATR-TV (now WTXX) until 1966.

As part of a sale of Triangle's broadcasting interests in 1971, the WNHC stations were sold to Capital Cities Communications, along with sister stations WFIL-AM-FM-TV in Philadelphia and KFRE-AM-FM-TV in Fresno, California. However, Capital Cities could not keep the radio stations because it already owned the maximum number of radio stations allowed at the time. As a result, WNHC-TV changed its call letters to WTNH-TV soon after Capital Cities took over. (The station dropped the -TV suffix from its calls in 1985, but continued to call itself "WTNH-TV" on-air well into the 1990s.) WTNH later adopted the Action News format made famous at its Philadelphia sister station, WPVI-TV (the former WFIL-TV).

Capital Cities bought ABC in 1986 in a deal stunned the broadcast industry since ABC was some ten times bigger than Capital Cities at the time. However, the FCC would not allow the merged company to keep WTNH due to a significant signal overlap with ABC's flagship station, WABC-TV in New York City. WTNH's signal decently covers Fairfield County, as well as Long Island. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas. As a result, channel 8 was spun off to a minority-controlled firm called Cook Inlet Communications.

Cook Inlet sold WTNH to LIN in 1994. In the mid-1990s, the station dropped the Action News title in favor of the current "NewsChannel 8". When a new UHF independent station in New Haven, WTVU (later WBNE and now WCTX) signed-on in 1995, WTNH began operating the station under a local marketing agreement. In 2001, LIN bought WCTX outright. Since the start of the LMA, WTNH has produced a 10 p.m. nightly and 7 a.m. weekday newscast for WCTX.

For many years, WTNH has been the second-highest rated station in Connecticut, behind WFSB. However, in recent years it has had to fend off a spirited challenge from a resurgent WVIT. There is a heavy regional tilt to WTNH's ratings for news and local programming, as it traditionally does far better in Nielsen's "Metro B" area (New Haven County) than "Metro A" (Hartford County). This trend does not hold for network programming. It is the one Hartford/New Haven TV station with a large Fairfield County audience as well.

[edit] Trivia

• The station has been a primary ABC affiliate longer than any station in New England except Portland, Maine's WMTW-TV.
• WTNH was the first TV station to use videotape on the air outside of a national network.
• WTNH was one of the very first TV stations to broadcast in color.
• The station's radar is called Sky Max Doppler and is located in Hamden.
• WTNH operates a newsroom in New London at the headquarters of local newspaper The New London Day.
• The station broadcasts a 24-hour local weather channel on its DT2 digital subchannel. The channel features a live feed of the Sky Max Doppler, current conditions, and updated forcasts by WTNH meteorologists.
• The station also broadcasts a 24-hour Sports Wire on its DT3 digital subchannel. The channel features live sports score updates.
• Fake promos for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidoppler" as an April Fools joke were leaked onto the internet in 2005 and have become a big hit. [2]

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• Good Morning Connecticut - 5:00-7:00 a.m.
• NewsChannel 8 at Noon - Noon-1:00 p.m.
• NewsChannel 8 at 5 - 5:00-5:30 p.m.
• NewsChannel 8 at 5:30 - 5:30-6:00 p.m.
• NewsChannel 8 at 6 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
• NewsChannel 8 Non-Stop News at 11 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.

[edit] Weekends

• Good Morning Connecticut Weekend - 6:00-8:00 a.m.
• NewsChannel 8 at 6 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
• NewsChannel 8 Non-Stop News at 11 Weekend - 11:00-11:35 p.m.

WTNH also produces these newscasts for sister station WCTX:

• Good Morning Connecticut - Monday-Friday 7:00-8:00 a.m.
• NewsChannel 8 Non-Stop News - Monday-Friday 10:00-10:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays 10:00-10:35 p.m.

[edit] News Personalities

[edit] Anchors

• Sonia Baghdady - weekday mornings and noon
• Ted Koppy - 6 p.m. and 11 p.m
• Keith Kountz - 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
• Darren Kramer - mornings and noon
• Jocelyn Maminta - 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., also health reporter
• Ann Nyberg - 6, 10 and 11 p.m. (recently celebrated 20 years with the station)
• Chris Velardi - weekend mornings
• Sara Welch - weekend evenings

[edit] Weather

• Geoff Fox - 5, 6 and 11 weekday evenings
• Dr. Mel Goldstein - chief meteorologist, weekday mornings and Noon
• Matt Scott - weekend mornings
• Gil Simmons - 10pm and weekend evenings
• Sid Starks -fill-in meteorologist

[edit] Sports

• Noah Finz - sports director, weekday anchor
• John Pierson - weekend anchor
• Marc Robbins - reporter

[edit] Reporters

• Dennis Protsko - Lead Airborne Reporter/Aerial Camera Operator (also with WPRI/WNAC)
• Daniel Peterman- Chopper 8 pilot
• Alan Cohn, I-Team reporter
• Erin Cox
• Mark Davis, Hartford bureau,Political rep.
• Darren Duarte
• Tina Detelj, New London bureau
• Marci Izard, traffic
• Jamie Muro
• Kent Pierce
• Tricia Taskey
• Bob Wilson
• Jodi Latina
• Annie Rourke, 10pm field reporter
• Veronica Douglas, special projects, wednesday's child
• Kent Pierce - also main substitite anchor

[edit] External links

• WTNH Website
• WTNH Wireless
• WCTX Website
• WTNH's Tower
• SupercalifragilisticexpialiDoppler Promo from YouTube
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTNH