WTXL-TV

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WTXL-TV
Tallahassee, Florida
Branding	ABC 27
Channels	27 (UHF) analog, 21 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Calkins Media ("Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota")
Founded	1976
Former callsigns	WECA-TV (1976-84)
Former affiliations	None
Website	wtxl.tv

WTXL-TV is the ABC-TV affiliate station for Tallahassee, Florida and southern Georgia, broadcasting on channel 27. The station is owned by Calkins Media, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based mass media company that owns several small newspapers in Pennsylvania and two other television stations: WWSB in Sarasota and WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama. It was previously owned by Media Ventures Management, and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to an outsourcing agreement ^[1] [1], the first of its kind in the United States. This agreement merged virtually all of WTXL-TV's operations with that of Sinclair's NBC affiliate WTWC. Denis LeClair, General Manager of WTXL-TV and WBXT-TV at the time, was made General Manager for WTXL, WBXT and WTWC under this agreement. He would be followed by Chris Butterick and then Bob Franklin. Eventually, Kim Urbuteit would be named General Manager of WTXL only as Bob Franklin oversaw WTWC.

Contents 1 History 2 WB News at Ten 3 June 2, 2006 arrests 4 Newscast lineup 4.1 Weekdays 4.2 Saturdays 4.3 Sundays 5 Current personalities 6 Past personalities 6.1 Main anchors 6.2 Meteorologists/Weather anchors 6.3 Sports anchors 6.4 Reporters and fill-in anchors 6.5 Others 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

WTXL-TV debuted in September 1976 as WECA-TV, owned by local businessman Evans Craig Allen. In the early years, its slogan was "We can do it!" -- a play on the call letters. By its fourth year of broadcasting, the station used the slogan "Up & Coming" ^[2]

In 1984, Allen sold the station to Tallahassee 27 Limited Partnership, led by former Senator Joseph Tydings and former Congressman Lou Frey. They changed the call letters to the current WTXL-TV. The station's history page claims the new owners took over in 1985, but according to the FCC files, the call letters changed in 1984.

As a result of the 2001 outsourcing agreement with Sinclair, WTXL moved from its original studios on Thomasville Road into the WTWC building in Killearn Lakes Plantation (on Deerlake Road) on March 17, 2002. On February 20, 2006, the partnership between the stations was dissolved after Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota gave notice of termination to the agreement to Sinclair Broadcasting. As a result, WTXL moved out of the WTWC building and discontinued producing news briefs, severe weather cut-ins, and Today Show local weather updates for the station, which it had done since 2001.

WTXL is currently the only station that does not broadcast a high definition signal to Tallahassee residents over the air waves or on Comcast cable, but is anticipated to provide some HD service by May 28, 2007 ^[3].

WTXL was renting studio space from Florida State University's PBS station, WFSU. [2] WTXL broke ground on their new facility on June 20, 2006 in the 10/90 Commerce Park in nearby Midway [3]. On March 10, 2007, WTXL officially moved to Midway and their new building. However, the operation is in a temporary studio and production will be working out of a satellite truck (on loan from WAAY-TV until the new facilities are fully complete). The first show out of Midway was the 11:00 pm on March 10, 2007. The station expects to be the first in the market to start high definition newscasts. [4]

[edit] WB News at Ten

On January 15, 2000, WTXL produced the first newscast for a The WB 100+ Station Group[5] station called the "WB 28 News at Ten." It was a 30-minute newscast which aired Monday through Friday and was produced and anchored by WTXL staff. The newscast aired only on Comcast Cable ("WB 28" was an affiliate of The WB 100+ Station Group), and billed as Tallahassee's only 10pm newscast. The newscast and cable channel had three variations: "WB 28 News at Ten," "WB 11 News at Ten," and then "WB 6 News at Ten." The newscast title and channel number changes were dependent on changes of the network's channel listing on the Comcast cable system. The newscast on WB 6 was cancelled in September 2003.

[edit] June 2, 2006 arrests

On June 2, 2006, a reporter and photographer from WTXL, photographer Phyllis Joy Ho and reporter Brandon York Beyer, were arrested in Doerun, Georgia for obstruction at the scene of a military helicopter crash at the tower of Albany, Georgia television station WFXL. They were booked at the Colquitt County Jail in Moultrie, Georgia, and later released on a $750 bond. All charges were later dropped. [6]

[edit] Newscast lineup

[edit] Weekdays

• ABC 27 News at Sunrise - 5:30AM-7AM

Anchor: Brandon Beyer

Weather: Dave Priem

• ABC 27 First News at 5:00 - 5PM-6PM

Anchor: Lauren Dorsett

Weather: Nancy Dignon

• ABC 27 News at 6:00 - 6PM-6:30PM

Anchor: Lauren Elise

Weather: Nancy Dignon

Sports: Brad Dalton (Thursday/Friday: Sean Smith)

• ABC 27 News at 11:00 - 11PM-11:35PM

Anchor: Lauren Elise

Weather: Nancy Dignon

Sports: Brad Dalton (Thursday/Friday: Sean Smith)

[edit] Saturdays

• ABC 27 News at 6:30 - 6:30PM-7PM

Anchor: Amanda Anderson

Weather: Don Harrigan

Sports: Sean Smith

• ABC 27 News at 11:00 - 11PM-11:30PM

Anchor: Amanda Anderson

Weather: Don Harrigan

Sports: Sean Smith

[edit] Sundays

• ABC 27 News at 6:30 - 6:30PM-7PM

Anchor: Amanda Anderson

Weather: Don Harrigan

Sports: Brad Dalton

• ABC 27 News at 11:00 - 11PM-11:30PM

Anchor: Amanda Anderson

Weather: Don Harrigan

Sports: Brad Dalton

[edit] Current personalities

• News at Sunrise Anchor: Brandon Beyer (2005-Present)
• Weekend Anchor: Amanda Anderson (2005-2006; 2006-Present)
• 5:00 News Anchor: Lauren Dorsett (2007-Present; 5:00, 6:00, 11:00 from 2005-2006)
• 6:00, 11:00 News Anchor: Lauren Elise (2006-Present; Weekends 2006)
• Fill-in Anchor: Alex DiPrato (2006-Present)

• Sports Anchor: Brad Dalton (2006-Present)
• Weekend Sports Anchor: Sean Smith (2006-Present)
• Fill-in Sports Anchor: Eric Thompson (2006-Present)

• Chief Meteorologist: Nancy Dignon (2003-Present)
• News at Sunrise Forecaster: Dave Priem (2006-Present; fill-in weather anchor 2003-2004; Weekends 2005-2006)
• Weekend Forecaster: Don Harrigan (2006-Present)

• Reporter: Amanda Anderson (2003-Present)
• Reporter: Todd Morrill (2005-Present)
• Reporter: Rebecca Baer (2005-Present)
• Reporter: Lenita Williams (2006-Present; 5:00, 5:30 News Anchor 2003-2006)
• Reporter: Alex DiPrato (2006-Present)
• Reporter: Abbey Phillips (2006-Present)
• Reporter: Stewart Moore (2006-Present)

[edit] Past personalities

[edit] Main anchors

• Lee Mainella (1978) (deceased)
• Ken Lass (1978-83) (Currently at WDJC-FM in Birmingham, Alabama)
• Jerry Brown (years unknown) (Currently at WMBB)
• Tom Campbell (years unknown) (Currently at WRDW-TV)
• Donna Hicken (1984-1985) (Mornings) (Currently at WTLV)
• Steve Ring (1993-?; 2000-2003) (6 and 11 p.m.) (Currently at WVNS)
• Betsy Singer (mid 1990s) (Currently at KTTC)
• Patricia Scott (1995-1997) (5, 6, 11 p.m.)
• Kelly Harvey (1996-1999) (6, 11 p.m. Anchor) (Currently in law school at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law)
• Ethan Forhetz (1997-1999) (Currently at KYTV (TV))
• Tammy Robiconti (1997-2003) (5, 6, 11 p.m.) (Currently Dir. of Marketing & Public Relations for St. Petersburg General Hospital, St. Petersburg, FL)
• Myra Monroe (1997-2000) (5 and 5:30 p.m.)
• Tammie Fields (1998-2001) (Weekends) (Moving from WJXT to WTSP in March 2007)
• Sydney Fisher (?-2000) (Mornings)
• Rod Carter (?-2000) (Weekends) (Currently at WFLA-TV)
• Bob Trotter (?-2000) (Weekends)
• Rick Boone (1999-2002) (Mornings & 5 p.m.) (Currently at KTAL)
• Dan Cohen (2000-2002) (Weekends) (Currently at KFMB)
• Cathleen O'Toole (2000-2003) (Mornings) (Currently at WPBF)
• Stacey Brenan (2002-2004) (Weekends)
• Amy Basista (2002-2005) (5, 6, and 11 p.m.) (Currently at WCMH)
• James Jackson (2002-2005) (Weekends, then mornings) (Currently at WEAR)
• Shonda Knight (1999-2006; reporter 2000-2003; Anchor 2003-2006) (Mornings) (Currently at WCTV) [7]
• Robert Burns (2003-2006) (5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.)

[edit] Meteorologists/Weather anchors

• Dan Hogan (1979-1980)
• Mark Reynolds (early 1980s) (Currently at WJHL)
• Charles Paxton (1983-1984) (weekends) (now with National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
• David Neal (1988-early 1990s) (Currently at WBRC)
• Connor Vernon (1984-1988) (Formerly at KTBC-TV in Austin, TX. Currently at WTVY)
• John Scalzi (early 1990s-1995) (weekends) (Currently at WWSB)
• Glenn Willey (1990s?) (Currently at WTVD)
• Justin Kiefer (1994?-1997) (Currently at WMBB)
• Dave Anthony (Cocchiarella) (?-1997?) (Currently at Central Florida News 13)
• Tom Siler (1994-2003) (Chief) (Currently at WEAR)
• Gerald Brinkley (mid 1990s?) (Fill-in)
• Mike Nichols (1997-2000) (Mornings) (Currently at KBMT)
• Chris Zelman (1999-2001) (Weekends) (Currently at WPTV)
• Mike Rucker (2001-2002) ("Director of Weather Operations")
• Peter Kulevich (2001-2002) (Weekends)
• Stephanie Abrams (2002-2003) (Mornings) (Currently at The Weather Channel)
• Jordan DeTillio (2002-2004) (Weekends)
• Joe Sigman (2002-2006) (Fill-in) (Current Promotions Director at WCWG)
• Joe Smith (2002-2003) (Weekends)
• Casanova Nurse (2003-2006) (Weekends/Mornings) (Currently at KHCW)
• Craig Gold (2005) (Weekends) (Currently at KTKA)

[edit] Sports anchors

• Gene Deckerhoff (1976-1978) (original sports director) (Current play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Florida State University Seminoles)
• Tom Mees (1978-1979) (ESPN anchor, drowned August 14, 1996)
• Rich Lenz (sports director) (1980s) (Currently at WDSU)
• Dave Neal (early 1990s) (Currently with Fox Sports South and Jefferson Pilot Sports)
• Wayne Evans (?-1997)
• Tom Block (?-1998) (Sports Director) (Currently with Florida State University and Seminole Radio Network and Sun Sports)
• Mike Nabors (1997-1998)
• Sean Woodland (sports director) (1998-2000) (Currently at WJXT)
• Seth Grossman (1998-2000)
• Preston Scott (2000-2006) (Sports Director) (Currently at 100.7 FM WFLA in Tallahassee)
• Jimm Patterson (2000-2006)
• Matt Stitsinger (2001-2003) (Weekends) (Currently works for Louisville University Athletic Dept.)

[edit] Reporters and fill-in anchors

• Jeff Hager (mid 1990s)
• Kim Fettig (?-1997?) (Currently at WGCL-TV)
• Erika Ragland (1996-1998)
• Keith Ingram (1997-2001)
• Greg Davis (?-1997?)
• Thema Ponton (1998-1999)
• Ryan Young (2000-2001?) (Currently at WSB-TV)
• Sandra Edmond (2000-2003)
• Kimberly Curth (2000-2002) (Currently at WKRG)
• Lisa Remillard (2003-2005) (Currently at WFTS)
• Carolyn Kluck (2004) (Fill-in Weekend Reporter) (Currently at WLOS as Carolyn Ryan)
• Carley Wegner (2004-2005) (Friday morning entertainment reporter) (Currently at WNCT)
• Stacy White (2004-2005)
• Brandon Tucker (2004-2005)
• Arnitrice Harrison (2005) (Fill-in reporter)

[edit] Others

• Glen Walker (Currently at KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV)
• J. P. Peterson (Currently at WFLA-TV)
• Sherry Christian (Currently at WHP-TV)
• Deborah Feyerick (Currently at CNN)

[edit] References

1. ^ Sinclair Press release regarding WTWC/WTXL outsourcing agreement, 1 October 2001
2. ^ 1980 WTXL logo and slogan (bottom of page)
3. ^ WTXL to provide HD service, per chief engineer; see 03-22-07, 09:46 AM posting

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTXL