WKBN-TV
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2007) |
| WKBN-TV | |
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| Youngstown, Ohio | |
| Branding | 27 First News |
| Slogan | Where Your News Comes First |
| Channels | Analog: 27 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS Fox (DT2) |
| Owner | New Vision Television, Inc. (NVT Youngstown Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | January 11, 1953 |
| Former affiliations | Both secondary: ABC (1953-1957) DuMont (1953-1955) |
| Transmitter Power | 871 kW (analog) 700 kW (digital) |
| Height | 439.3 m (analog) 418 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 73153 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wkbn.com |
WKBN-TV Channel 27 is the CBS affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio.
WKBN-TV's headquarters are located in Boardman Township. WKBN also owns and operates WYFX-LP Channel 62, the local Fox affiliate and manages Parkin Broadcasting-owned WYTV Channel 33, the local ABC affiliate via a shared services agreeement. WKBN-TV's transmitter is located in Youngstown.
On November 15, 2006, Piedmont Television announced the sale of WKBN-TV and WYFX to New Vision Television, based in Atlanta. [1] The sale closed in early March 2007.
On April 19, 2006, WKBN-TV began airing its digital signal on UHF channel 41. The WKBN digital broadcast features CBS programming in high definition when available, and also carries a standard definition simulcast of sister station WYFX.
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[edit] Timeline
- January 11, 1953 [2]: station signs on, airs programming from, CBS, ABC, and DuMont
- 1956: DuMont signs off the air, leaving WKBN with CBS and ABC
- 1957: WKST-TV in New Castle, Pennsylvania (now WYTV in Youngstown) signs on as an ABC affiliate, leaving WKBN as a sole CBS affiliate
- 1997: Family owners, the Williamsons, sell the station to Gocom. Gocom later becomes Piedmont Television.
- November 15, 2006: Piedmont announces sale of station to New Vision Television.
[edit] News
WKBN has 5 daily newscasts from Monday to Friday:
- First News This Morning (5:00–7:00 a.m.) A morning news show, featuring local news and weather, as well as traffic updates and stories from around the world. It is anchored by Jeff Levkulich and Jackie Preston with weather from Rich Morgan, and live reports. First News This Morning is re-played on WKBN's sister station, WYFX, from 7–9:00 a.m..
- First News At Noon (12:00–12:30 p.m.) A mid-day news report which provides breaking news and updates of local and national news and sports. It also features Mr. Food, a nationally syndicated chef, who shows viewers a recipe. This newscast is anchored by Jeff Levkulich, with Rich Morgan on weather reports.
- First News At Five (5:00–5:30 p.m.) The five o'clock edition of First News features local news throughout the day, as well as previews of stories they will report on at the next newscast. In addition, studio guests will appear frequently. It is anchored by Whitney Ward, with weather by Don Guthrie, as well as a replay of the Mr. Food segment from the noon news.
- First News At Six (6:00–6:30 p.m.) The six o'clock news reports on the biggest stories of the day in the Youngstown area, as well as coverage of weather, sports, and community happenings. The news is anchored by Dave Sess and Whitney Ward, with weather by Don Guthrie, sports by Ryan Allison, and "neighborhood news."
- First News At Eleven (11:00–11:35 p.m.) A final recap of the day's news and sports highlights, hosted by Dave Sess, Whitney Ward, Don Guthrie, and Ryan Allison.
On the weekends, First News airs at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.. This newscast is anchored by TBA. The weekend news also features Paul Wetzl on weather, and Chad Krispinsky at the sports desk. In addition to newscasts, there is also a talk show on Sunday mornings, hosted by long time reporter Ode Aduma, who interviews various people from the area.
Ratings-wise, the channel is normally a competitive no. 2 with locally-owned rival WFMJ, frequently taking the no. 1 spot.
On December 10, 2007, WKBN and Parkin Broadcasting (the owner of WYTV) entered into a shared services agreement, in which WKBN will produce WYTV's newscasts. Because of this arrangement, there were several layoffs including WKBN's Joe Bell and Tricia Perry, both veteran reporters who have been with the station for many years.
[edit] Notable WKBN Alumni
[edit] Tom Holden (1938–2005)
For more than 30 years, Tom Holden was the face of Youngstown television news. Holden joined the WKBN-TV news team in March of 1972 as a reporter and sportscaster. He was made anchor of the evening newscast in 1974, a position he would hold until shortly before his death.
Known as "Hootie" to his friends, Holden was born in Youngstown in 1938. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Youngstown and received a bachelor of science in journalism from Kent State University.
Co-Anchor Gina Marinelli once said "We estimate Tom anchored more than 15,000 newscasts, raising an entire generation of Valley news watchers on his no-nonsense brand of journalism."[1]
Holden stepped down from his late news anchor duties on April 15, 2005. Suffering from emphysema, Tom Holden died on June 11, 2005.
[edit] Ode Aduma
New York City-born and raised Ode (pronounced oh-day) Aduma (born 1943) came to Youngstown in the early 1970's, after a career in fashion design. Joining the station as a field reporter in the days when reporters had to shoot their own video, Aduma's distinctive and polished voice on voice-over news stories made him more known than his face, with his distinctive outcue "For Newswatch 27, I'm Ode...Aduma."
Aduma gradually gained more face time over the years, as he eventually became host of "Sundays with Ode", a locally-produced public affairs program aired Sunday morning. Aduma continued to host the program until his retirement in 2005.
[edit] Karen Rowe
Karen Rowe was hired as the very first First News at 5:30 co-anchor, along with Bob Black, in 1992. She left the station in 1995 to take an anchor position in Indianapolis at WRTV, before going to Pittsburgh's KDKA in 1997. She left television news to become a full-time mother in 1998.
[edit] Robb Schmidt
Former WKBN-TV news anchor Robb Schmidt now works at Youngstown State as the assistant athletic director. Schmidt also is the play-by-play announcer for YSU Basketball.
[edit] Catherine Bosley
Anchorwoman Catherine Bosley became full-time night-side crime reporter and back-up anchor at WKBN-TV in 2000. In 2001, she was named morning show co-anchor at WKBN; she became the noon show anchor in 2003. However, that spring, Bosley participated in a wet t-shirt contest while on a vacation with her husband in Key West, Florida. The event was filmed, and the film of Bosley stripping and posing nude for the crowd was leaked on the Internet about 10 months later. As a result of the negative publicity, she resigned from WKBN. She is currently an anchor/reporter for WOIO-TV in Cleveland, Ohio.
[edit] WKBN Radio
WKBN (AM) also broadcasts in the Youngstown Area. WKBN-TV was originally owned by this radio station, along with WKBN-FM. However, the television station is now independent from either radio station.
Today, though, WKBN-TV retains a news and weather sharing partnership with Clear Channel Communications, which owns WKBN radio.
[edit] External links
- WKBN-TV
- History from WKBN-TV Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WKBN-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WKBN-TV
[edit] References
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