WCPO-TV

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WCPO-TV
Cincinnati, Ohio
Branding	ABC 9 (general) 9 News (newscasts)
Slogan	On Your Side Always On
Channels	Analog: 9 (VHF) Digital: 10 (VHF)
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	The E.W. Scripps Company (Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company)
First air date	July 26, 1949
Call letters’ meaning	Cincinnati POst
Former channel number(s)	7 (1949–1952)
Former affiliations	Primary: ABC (1949-1961) CBS (1961-1996) Secondary: DuMont (1949-1955)
Transmitter Power	316 kW (analog) 16.3 kW (digital)
Height	305 m (analog) 272 m (digital)
Facility ID	59438
Transmitter Coordinates	39°7′30.6″N, 84°29′56.2″W
Website	www.wcpo.com

WCPO-TV ("ABC 9") is a broadcast television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts on analog channel 9 and digital channel 10. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street, in Cincinnati. The station is currently the flagship station of The E. W. Scripps Company, which had previously owned the now-defunct Cincinnati Post (which ceased publication at the end of 2007).

Contents 1 History 1.1 Hostage situation 2 Digital television 2.1 WCPO-DT 3 Weather 4 HD Newscast 5 Newscasts 5.1 Weekdays 5.2 Weekends 6 2007 Controversy 7 WCPO News Staff 8 Notable WCPO alumni 9 Station Presentation 10 External links 11 References

[edit] History

The station first signed on the air on July 26, 1949 as Cincinnati's third television station. It was dual ABC and DuMont affiliate. The call letters came from the Post, who also owned WCPO-AM. Originally on channel 7, it moved to channel 9 in 1952. With DuMont's demise in 1956, WCPO was left with just ABC until it swapped affiliations with WKRC-TV in 1961, becoming a CBS affiliate.

In 1994, Scripps and ABC announced a long-term affiliation deal, which called for four Scripps-owned stations switching to ABC. WCPO was included in the deal, which ABC agreed to as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS in Cleveland. Both of those stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox. However, while three other Scripps-owned stations included in the same deal switched to ABC in December of 1994 and January of 1995, Scripps had to maintain CBS affiliation on WCPO for an additional one and a half years because WKRC's affiliation contract with ABC did not run out until June of 1996. That month, the two stations finally reversed the 1961 affiliation swap, with WCPO rejoining ABC and WKRC reuniting with CBS.

In recent years, WCPO and WKRC have been battling each other for first place in the local television viewership ratings, while NBC affiliate WLWT has been lagging behind in third or fourth place.

All Scripps-Howard ABC affiliates, including WCPO, preempted Saving Private Ryan in 2004.

WCPO produced The Uncle Al Show, a children's show that ran from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s. Beginning in the early 60s, WCPO was the undisputed leader in local newscasts, led by anchor and news director Al Schottelkotte, and remained Cincinnati's news leader for over 20 years.

[edit] Hostage situation

On the early morning of October 15, 1980, WCPO and most of its news staff became part of a major news story when a terrorist seized control of WCPO's newsroom.^[1]

James Hoskins, a radical, held reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman at gunpoint in the parking lot of WCPO's studios. Then after barging his way into the newsroom, took seven more hostages. An admitted terrorist, Hoskins stated in a videotaped interview with Green that he had, among other things, murdered his girlfriend before arriving at the studios. After voicing his displeasure with local government, Hoskins ended by saying that he would let his hostages go, but only after they helped him to barricade himself in their newsroom in anticipation of a violent shootout with police. Green and the others pleaded with Hoskins to get help, but to no avail.

WCPO's news staff ran special newscasts from the parking lot most of that morning. True to his word, Hoskins eventually let all the hostages go, and the standoff ended later that morning when Hoskins shot himself dead while on the phone with SWAT negotiators.

Green was awarded a Peabody Award for her handling of this situation. She later married anchor and then-news director Al Schottelkotte. The two remained married until his death in 1996.

[edit] Digital television

The digital signal of WCPO is multiplexed:

[edit] WCPO-DT

WCPO-DT broadcasts on digital channel 10.

Digital channels

	Channel	Name	Programming
	9.1	WCPO-HD	Regular WCPO programming
	9.2	Weather Tracker	Local 24-Hour weather channel

[edit] Weather

WCPO's forecasters are chief meteorologist, Steve Raleigh and meteorologists Larry Handley, Steve Norris and Cyndee O'Quinn. Cincinnati has always been a battleground for weather coverage, especially since the Montgomery / Blue Ash tornado of 1999. WCPO bills their radar as Ultimate Doppler 9, VIPIR 9, and TrueView. Their main radar in Batavia is one of the fastest radars in the nation, with an update usually every ten seconds.

On July 1, 2003, WCPO began to operate a second Doppler weather radar out of the Clermont County Airport in Batavia. In combination with the radar located at WCPO's transmission tower site, both radars were named Ultimate Doppler Radar. The new radar operates at a height of 100 ft. with its base 834 ft. above sea level. Currently, only the Batavia radar is used, even when attenuation at the site leaves a radius around the radar blank. The old radar at the transmission site is no longer used.

In July 2007, WCPO showed its new capability of placing actual satellite images (such as those from Google Earth) on the ground rather than just the green topo map. This helps the meteorologists at the station by showing them exactly where it's raining in relation to streets, buildings, ballfields, etc.

The TrueView system allows for local and nationwide radar sweeps. During local sweeps, National Weather Service NEXRAD radars in Wilmington, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky are used. The VIPIR 9 technology also utilizes the NEXRAD radars and Ultimate Doppler 9 to create its 3D images.

[edit] HD Newscast

WCPO launched its high-definition newscast on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 6:00 PM ET. Improvements around the station include upgraded weather graphics that match WHIO-TV's upgrade (see above), new panel displays on set (to replace rear-projection CRT monitors on set and old plasma displays with obvious burn-in) and Scripps purchasing JVC HDPro equipment for WCPO.^[2] Currently the studio cameras are HD, while live field reports are SD widescreen.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• Good Morning Tri-State 4:55 to 7:00 a.m.

Bernard Watson, Kathrine Nero, Larry Handley (weather), Denise Johnson (traffic)

• 9 News @ Noon: 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

Tanya O'Rourke, Larry Handley (weather)

• 9 News @ 5: 5:00 to 5:30 p.m.

Clyde Gray, Carol Williams, Steve Raleigh (weather)

• 9 News @ 5:30: 5:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Brendan Keefe, Tanya O'Rourke, Steve Raleigh (weather), Dennis Janson (sports)

• 9 News @ 6: 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

Clyde Gray, Carol Williams, Steve Raleigh (weather), Dennis Janson (sports)

• 9 News @ 11: 11:00 to 11:35 p.m.

Clyde Gray, Carol Williams, Steve Raleigh (weather), Dennis Janson (sports)

[edit] Weekends

• Good Morning Tri-State 8:00-9:00am

Jenell Walton, Cyndee O'Quinn (weather)

• 9 News @ Noon: 12:00-12:30pm

Jenell Walton, Cyndee O'Quinn (weather)

• 9 News @ 6: 6:00-6:30 p.m.

Julie O'Neill, Steve Norris (weather), John Popovich (sports)

• 9 News @ 11: 11:00-11:35 p.m.

Julie O'Neill, Steve Norris (weather), John Popovich (sports)

• Sports of All Sorts: 11:35 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

John Popovich Cincinnati's longest running sports show

[edit] 2007 Controversy

On March 7, 2007 at 5:45 morning anchor David Rose was pulled off the air for slurring his words. He was let go 3 weeks later. ^[3]

[edit] WCPO News Staff

[edit] Notable WCPO alumni

• Pete Delkus – chief meteorologist from 1996 to 2005, now chief meteorologist at WFAA-TV in Dallas
• Deb Haas – married to WEBN's Eddie Fingers
• Al Schottelkotte – anchor and news director (deceased)
• Al "Uncle Al" Lewis - First art director for WCPO, and host of The Uncle Al Show for 35 years.
• Michael Flannery – reporter for "9 On Your Kids Side" segment
• Janette Smith Noon & 5PM Anchor from 1995-1998 went to anchor mornings at WFAA-TV in Dallas,Texas now seen hosting a Home Improvement show on the DIY Network and on specials for HGTV about Habitat for Humanity
• Randy Little – on air for 20 years until WCPO dropped his contract^[4]
• Denise Dory
• Kathy Smith
• Paula Faris
• Stacy Case – now a correspondent for CBS News^[5]
• Bill Hemmer – now an anchor at Fox News
• Brian Patrick – weatherman/anchor
• Bob Allen (weather)
• Betsy Ross

[edit] Station Presentation

Wcpox.jpg WCPO-TV's ident from the early 1970s.

[edit] External links

• WCPO.com
• WCPO, Ch. 9 (from Scripps)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WCPO-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WCPO-TV

[edit] References

v • d • e Broadcast television in the Cincinnati market  (Nielsen DMA #33) WLWT 5 (NBC) - WCPO 9 (ABC) - WKRC 12 (CBS) (The CW on DT2) - WPTO 14 (PBS) - WPTD 16 (PBS) - W17AY 17 (TBN) - WXIX 19 (Fox) - WOTH 25 (A1) - WBQC 38 (Ind) - WKOI 43 (TBN) - WCET 48 (PBS) - WKON 52 / WCVN 54 (PBS/KET) - WSTR 64 (MNTV) Local cable television stations WCM - FSN Ohio - ONN

v • d • e ABC Network Affiliates in the state of Ohio WEWS 5 (Cleveland) - WSYX 6 (Columbus) - WCPO 9 (Cincinnati) - WTVG 13 (Toledo) - WLQP-LP 18 (Lima) - WKEF 22 (Dayton) - WYTV 33 (Youngstown) See also: CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, MyNetworkTV, CW and Other stations in Ohio

v • d • e The E.W. Scripps Company Corporate Leadership: Kenneth W. Lowe (President & CEO) Newspapers owned by Scripps Howard News Television Stations owned by Scripps Howard Broadcasting ABC: KNXV · WCPO · WEWS · WFTS · WMAR · WXYZ • Independent Station: KMCI • NBC: KJRH · KSHB · WPTV Cable Television Networks owned by Scripps Networks Other Assets held by Scripps Interactive Media Annual Revenue: $2.2 billion USD (2004) · Employees: 10,000 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: SSP · Website: www.scripps.com