WABI-TV
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| WABI-TV | |
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| Bangor, Maine | |
| Branding | WABI-TV 5 TV 5 News |
| Slogan | The Spirit of Maine |
| Channels | Analog: 5 (VHF) |
| Translators | W61AO Calais |
| Affiliations | CBS The CW (on DT2) |
| Owner | Diversified Communications (Community Broadcasting Service) |
| First air date | January 25, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | from former sister radio stations |
| Former affiliations | primary: NBC (1953-1955) secondary: CBS (1953-1955) DuMont (1953-1955) ABC (1953-1965) NBC (1955-1959) |
| Transmitter Power | 39.8 kW (analog) 363 kW (digital) |
| Height | 402 m (analog) 390.9 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 17005 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wabi.tv |
WABI-TV, channel 5, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Bangor, Maine. Its transmitter is located on Peaked Mountain in Dixmont. It is the flagship station of Diversified Communications, which under the leadership of the Hildreth family, has owned the station since its inception. WABI's studios are located on Hildreth Street in West Bangor.
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[edit] Overview
WABI operates a repeater, W61AO channel 61, on Conant Hill in Calais. The tower is shared with W57AQ, which is a repeater for NBC affiliate WLBZ. Until the mid-1990s, W61AO was used to feed cable systems across the border in the Canadian Maritimes. With the advent of CANCOM, WABI's cross-border carriage has declined. Today, it is not carried on any systems across the border. That includes those in St. Stephen, New Brunswick which is in W61AO's signal range. Most of Atlantic Canada's cable systems carry WBZ-TV from Boston for CBS programming. WABI operates the area's CW affiliate on its second digital subchannel. That station is part of The CW Plus and is known on-air as Eastern and Central Maine's CW. WABI-DT2 is also offered on various cable providers including Time Warner.
[edit] History
WABI was the first television station in Maine to go on the air when it began broadcasting on January 25, 1953. It was owned by former governor Horace Hildreth along with WABI radio (910 AM and 97.1 FM, now WWBX). The station was a primary NBC affiliate but maintained affiliations with all major television networks. In 1955, it switched its primary affiliation to CBS. NBC completely disappeared from WABI's schedule in 1959. The station carried some ABC programs until WEMT-TV (now WVII-TV) signed on in 1965. The radio stations were spun off in the 1980s and are currently under the ownership of Clear Channel Communications. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner.
On July 28, WABI announced that it was to create a second digital subchannel to become an affiliate of The CW. On the station's website, an announcement said that Time Warner Cable, which was in the process of taking over coverage in the Bangor area for bankrupt Adelphia, would have cable-only WB 100+ affiliate "WBAN" on its system. WBAN would then become a simulcast of WABI-DT2. This was part of a three year deal with WABI which also let the main WABI channel be on the system as well. On September 18, The CW debuted on WBAN (now known officially as having the WABI-DT2 callsign) as part of The CW Plus service. On January 10, 2007, WABI introduced redesigned websites for itself and WABI-DT2.
[edit] Programming
WABI carries the full slate of CBS programming except for CBS News Up to the Minute. The station does not carry all of CBS' SEC college football games on the weekends. The games that are not shown appear on ION affiliate WBGR-LP. WABI does this because the games interfere with its 6 P.M. news and may run over 7 P.M. programming. The station often pre-empts CBS programming to air University of Maine sports. It usually re-schedules regular CBS prime time to air late night or the next morning. On its website, WABI offers free streaming video repeats of its newscasts. The station also offers pay-per-view streaming video of its local sports programming through an affiliated website.
[edit] News operation
WABI has led the news ratings in Bangor for many years. One main reason for this long dominance is that it is the only station in the market with a full schedule of live, local news from Bangor. Another factor is its status as the only locally owned-and-operated commercial station in town. A few of WABI's personnel have remained at the station for more than 20 years which is somewhat unusual given that Bangor has always been a fairly small market. In addition to their main studios, WABI operates two news bureaus. The Central Maine Bureau is located on Main Street in Waterville.
The Coastal Bureau is located on High Street in Ellsworth. When WBAN became WABI-DT2 on September 18, 2006, WABI added local news and weather updates from the main channel during The Daily Buzz, a simulcast of its weekday Noon news, and a new weeknight 10 o'clock newscast (seen only on WABI-DT2). In January of 2008, WABI began to produce half-hour long, 7 o'clock weekday morning news on WABI-DT2. This displaced the first half of the second hour of The Daily Buzz on that station.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Alan Grover - weekday mornings
- photojournalist
- Joy Hollowell - weekday mornings
- Jon Small - Assistant News Director seen weekdays at Noon
- Jim Morris - News Director seen on weeknights at 5 and 5:30
- Catherine Pegram - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
- Sharon Pelletier - weeknights at 6
- Craig Colson - weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
- Amy Erickson - weekends
Meteorologists
- Chris Ewing - Chief seen on weeknights
- Todd Simcox - weekday mornings and Noon
- Greg Dutra - weekends
Sports
- Tim Throckmorton - Director seen on weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
- Keith Erickson - Assistant Director seen on weekends
- live sports coverage anchor
- reporter
Reporters
- Susan Farley - Coastal Bureau
- Adrienne Bennett - Central Maine Bureau
- Kelly Pearson
- Cori Skall
- Wayne Harvey
[edit] Station alumni
Former Anchors
- Don Colson - also news director
- retired
- Jeffrey Hope - also reporter
- now at KTUU-TV
- Denise Keniston - anchor
- now president of the Maine Communication Network
- Felicia Knight - now Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts
- Mindi Ramsey - also reporter
- now at WNEP
- Jim Sackett - also reporter
- now at WPTV
- Kim Vatis - now at WMAQ
- Lanie Witt - also reporter
- now at EMH
- Dan Elias- also reporter
- now at WWLP
Former Meteorologists
- Steve Caporizzo - now at WTEN
- Mike Cejka - now at WIVB
- Jennifer Harcher - now at WOIO
- Chris Lambert - now at WBBH-TV
- Maureen McCann - now at News 8 Austin
Former Reporters
- Catherine Cambra - now at WMBD-TV
- Jon Chrisos - now at WEHT
- Jodi Hersey - now at Cumulus Radio
- James Hamill - now at WNEP-TV
- Ryan Hughes - now at WBBH-TV
- Jennifer Kolbusz - formerly with KSHB-TV
- Jeanne Meserve - now at CNN
- Melissa Monti - now at KRIS-TV
- Diana Olick - now at CNBC
- Lisa Scott - also fill-in anchor
- now at WIVB
[edit] External links
- WABI-TV/DT
- WABI-DT2 "Eastern and Central Maine's CW"
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WABI-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W61AO
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WABI-TV
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