WEAR-TV
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| WEAR-TV | |
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| Pensacola, Florida/Mobile, Alabama | |
| Branding | WEAR ABC 3 Channel 3 Channel 3 News |
| Slogan | First LIVE Local |
| Channels | Analog: 3 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WEAR Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | January 13, 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | The word EAR |
| Sister station(s) | WFGX |
| Former affiliations | CBS/ABC (1954-1955) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 574.9 m (analog) 579 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 71363 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.weartv.com |
WEAR is the ABC affiliate for the Pensacola, Florida, Mobile, Alabama, and Fort Walton Beach, Florida viewing area. It is one of two major commercial stations in the market that is licensed on the Florida side of the market, the other being sister station WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate. WEAR is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Its transmitter is located near Robertsdale, Alabama, and its studios are located on Mobile Highway (US 90) in southwest Pensacola.
As a Pensacola-based station, their newscasts tend to focus on coverage of the Northwestern Florida area as opposed to WKRG and WPMI, which predominantly feature news concerning the southern Alabama area.
Sinclair prohibited its ABC affiliates, including WEAR, from airing a Nightline broadcast in 2004 because the company felt it was near anti-war rhetoric.[1] Prior to July 19, 2005 Sinclair prohibited WEAR from broadcasting Jimmy Kimmel Live in the late night time slot.[citation needed] WEAR also chose not to air the soap opera Port Charles for its entire six-year run.[citation needed]
WEAR also operates WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate station broadcasting on channel 35.
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[edit] Personnel
The WEAR news desk is headed by Sue Straughn, who was the first black female news anchor in the area. She started at the station in 1973 as a clerk typist and now helms the Dayside, five o'clock and six o'clock newscasts.Bob Solarski, who has been anchor since March 1994, co anchors the 5 and 6 with Straughn, and the 10pm newscast.
Allen Strum is the chief meteorologist and Dan Shugart is sports director and anchor.
[edit] History
WEAR began operation on January 13, 1954, which was almost a year after WALA began. The station was founded by Charles Smith and Mel Wheeler. Initially the station ran shows from both CBS and ABC. When WKRG signed on in 1955, WEAR became strictly an ABC affiliate.
In 1959, WEAR was sold to Rollins' Telecasting. The station continued as an ABC affiliate for many years. In 1987, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. In October 1997, WEAR and the other Heritage stations were sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, just as the remainder of Heritage Media was merging with News Corporation (the parent company of Fox). This sale also protected former longtime NBC affiliate WALA as the market's Fox affiliate; otherwise, WEAR would have been forced to switch its network affiliation to Fox.
WEAR is rumored to start producing newscasts in HD sometime during the summer of 2008. This will be the first news operation in the Mobile/Pensacola market to do so.
[edit] Mediacom dispute
In late 2006, Sinclair entered into negotiations with Mediacom, the main cable provider for much of the Florida side of the Mobile-Pensacola market (including Santa Rosa County and Pensacola Beach). The two companies could not reach agreement over compensation rights. As a result, Mediacom pulled all of Sinclair's stations, including WEAR, from its systems on January 6, 2007. The dispute ended on February 2, when the two sides reached an agreement that restored WEAR to Mediacom systems.
[edit] Past personalities
- Ashley Chisolm (chief meteorologist) - At WEAR from 1993 until 2000 before leaving TV.
- Lance Sandstead (news anchor)
- Hank Astengo (sport anchor) - Now sports anchor for WCJB in Gainesville, Florida.
- Katie Horner (chief meteorologist) Now chief meteorologist at KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Beth Morgan (weekend weather)
- Sarah Pitzen (weekend weather)
- Annette Falwell (weekend news anchor) Now weekend anchor News14 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Dave Daughtry (news anchor) Now at WALA in Mobile, Alabama.
- Jeff Weeks (Morning Weather) -
- Ann Kerian - Former Anchor/Military Affairs Reporter - Now "Executive Coach, Consultant and Public Speaker"
- Bob O'Brien
- Shauna Dunlap - Former morning anchor, left WEAR and began working for the FBI
- Charles Basset - Former weekend anchor, now at KWTV in Oklahoma City
- Catherine Pegram - Former morning anchor, now at WABI in Bangor, Maine
- Sherri Hemminghaus
- Doug Mouton - Former weekend sports anchor, now works as a reporter at WWL-TV in New Orleans.
- Rob Manning - Former news reporter
- David Brandao - Former news reporter
- Sara Baumgartner - Anchor
- Byron L. Pfordte - Former Reporter/Newscast Director, currently Art Director for Sinclair Broadcast Group stations WXLV & WMYV in Greensboro, NC.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WEAR
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEAR-TV
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