WLWT
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| WLWT | |
|---|---|
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| Cincinnati, Ohio | |
| Branding | News 5 |
| Slogan | Where The News Comes First |
| Channels | Analog: 5 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT+2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | February 9, 1948 |
| Call letters’ meaning | World's Largest Wireless (former sister to radio station) Television |
| Former callsigns | W8XCT (Experimental, 1946-1948) |
| Former channel number(s) | 4 (1948–1952) |
| Former affiliations | CBS/ABC/DuMont (all secondary, 1948-1949) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 295 m (analog) 310.5 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 46979 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wlwt.com |
WLWT-TV, also known as News 5, is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, broadcasting locally on VHF channel 5 as an NBC affiliate. The station is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television.
Despite often having been the highest-rated news station in the Cincinnati area in the past, WLWT had been lagging behind rivals WKRC-TV and WCPO-TV in recent years. As of 2006, however, the station has been seeing a turnaround in the ratings. Several former and current members of WLWT's news staff have been associated with politics, including Jerry Springer, Charlie Luken, Tom Atkins, J.D. Hayworth and Courtis Fuller.
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[edit] History
WLWT was established by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, owners of WLW radio, one of America's most powerful radio stations. After airing experimentally from 1946 as W8XCT (channel 1) [1][2], the station began commercial broadcasts on February 9, 1948. It originally carried programming from NBC, ABC, CBS and DuMont, but became solely an NBC affiliate in 1949 after WKRC-TV and WCPO-TV signed on respectively. WLWT was the 1st affiliate outside New York to join NBC. For many years, the station's IDs and advertising used a hyphen in its callsign ("WLW-T"), but that was dropped after Avco, which had purchased WLW radio and WLWT, sold off WLW(AM) in the 1960s. The hypenated "T" referred to Television as did WLW-D for Dayton, WLW-I for Indianapolis, WLW-C for Columbus and WLW-A for Atlanta, Georgia, which made up the tri-state's only interconnected network. "WLW Television" boasted a million dollars worth of talent resulting in such programs as "The Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club" (later hosted by Bob Braun after Lyons' retirement in 1967), "The Paul Dixon Show", and Midwestern Hayride. WLWT was the originator of these programs when its studios were located in the former Elks Building(re-christened "Crosley Square") in downtown Cincinnati when the station first took to the air. For a period during the 1970s, the station's slogan was, "5, The Originator" in reference to all of the local programming that was and had been produced by the station.
A young talent in 1950 was inspired by the Ruth Lyons television show and left his parents' vocation -- the ministry -- to enter the new field of TV broadcasting. Hiring young talent like Rod Serling, Mel Dibble -- or Mel Martin as he was known in TV, became a popular morning talk show host. A lot of what he did established the morning talk show format still employed today. Although he started on WCPO, he quickly switched to WLW-TV at a time when the station was making television history on a regular basis. Cincinnati was actually the "Hollywood" of TV in the early years. Two of his shows were Hi-Life Hilarities and Breakfast Party, and he also appeared for a week on NBC's Today Show with Dave Garroway. Coney Island, a popular amusement park at the time, even had a Mel Martin Day in his honor.
But his religious roots called him home again when in 1953, he went to the Taft Auditorium to hear the Rev. Billy Graham. He had a genuine "conversion" experience and re-entered the ministry, working for a time for the Graham crusade organization. He preached for years in various small towns, and traveled the world. In 1966, as Cincinnati's delegate to the World Congress on Evangelism in West Berlin, and sneaked into East Berlin to preach in secret basement churches. In 1977, he became pastor of Mariemont Community Church and served until his retirement in 1983. He died after a battle with cancer in 2002.
"He is an underacknowledged, yet integral part of WLW's history," his niece Barbara Moran recalled. "His show 'Breakfast Party' established a model for morning shows that followed. And one of his staffers was a young guy named Rod Serling, who later went on to create The Twilight Zone."
Avco took over the Crosley stations in 1968. When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enacted in 1969 its "one-to-a-market" rule, which enforced the ban on common ownership of two or more television stations with overlapping coverage areas while grandfathering some already existing instances, the common ownership of WLWT, WLWC, WLWD and WLWI was among those combinations which were grandfathered under the new rule. But in the mid-1970s, Avco decided to leave broadcasting and sold all of its stations to separate buyers, with WLWT (along with Avco-Embassy Television, Avco's production division) going to Multimedia, Inc. in 1976. As a result, the stations all lost their grandfathered protection, which led to an ownership conflict situation which Hearst-Argyle would encounter two decades later (see next paragraph). The FCC has since relaxed its adjacent-market ownership rules.
The Gannett Company bought the Multimedia group in 1995. As Gannett had owned The Cincinnati Enquirer since 1979 (and remains the newspaper's owner to this day), the company had to obtain a temporary waiver of an FCC cross-ownership rule which prohibited common ownership of a television station and a newspaper in the same market in order for Gannett to close on the Multimedia group. When the waiver expired in late 1996, Gannett opted to keep the Enquirer and swap WLWT and KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Argyle Television in exchange for WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York and WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a deal which was finalized in January 1997. Argyle merged with the broadcasting unit of the Hearst Corporation to form Hearst-Argyle Television in August 1997, forcing the newly-merged company to sell off WDTN (the former WLWD, which Hearst had owned since 1981) within a year of the merger's completion.
It is the only Cincinnati station (other than independents joining a television network) never to change its affiliation.
In June 2007, WLWT announced that they would partner with WLW radio to provide news and weather for that station. WLWT provided news and weather for the station for years when they were both Crosley stations, but eventual separate ownerships of the two stations led to WLW radio using WKRC-TV for news and weather resources. As a consequence, WLWT's news and weather will also be heard nationwide on WLW's XM Satellite Radio channel, at channel 173.
[edit] Digital television
The digital signal of WLWT is multiplexed:
[edit] WLWT-DT
WLWT-DT broadcasts on digital channel 35.
| Channel | Name | Programming | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | WLWT-HD | Regular WLWT programming | |
| 5.2 | NBC Weather Plus | 24-Hour Weather Channel from NBC with local updates |
[edit] News 5 Weather PLUS
WLWT's team of meteorologists consist of Chief Meteorologist Derek Beasley (AMS/CBM), meteorologist John Bateman (AMS), meteorologist Eric Green (AMS), and meteorologist Randi Rico. WLWT bills their radar as the Power Of 5 Radar Network. WLWT states that all five radars from Fort Wayne, IN, Indianapolis, IN, Louisville, KY, Cincinnati, OH, and Wilmington, OH, are live when all but the Cincinnati radar are NEXRAD Doppler radars from the National Weather Service. They use Baron Services Doppler radar software to power their weathercasts.
WLWT also has historically had a high rate of chief meteorologist turnover - it has had six chief meteorologists in the past ten years: Tom Burse, Dave Fraser, Angelique Frame, Byron Webre, Jim O’Brien and Derek Beasley.
WLWT airs NBC Weather Plus on digital channel 5.2.
[edit] Cincinnati Reds on WLWT
The first Cincinnati Reds was broadcast in 1947 on W8XCT, which in February 1948 became WLWT-TV. WLWT was the flagship station of the 5 state Reds Television Network from 1948 thru 1995. After 47 years of broadcasting Reds games, WLWT did not renew its contract, citing economic reasons along with pressure from NBC [3]. Waite Hoyt was the original announcer on WLWT, a simulcast with WLW Radio. George Bryson replaced him in 1956. When Ed Kennedy became the play by play announcer in 1961, he would remain for 11 seasons, working with Frank McCormick for 8 seasons. Also calling games on WLWT included: Ken Wilson, Charlie Jones, Bill Brown, Ray Lane, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan[4]
See Also List of Cincinnati Reds broadcasters
[edit] Newscasts
News 5 is WLWT's news operation. The team is led by Sandra Ali, Sheree Paolello and Derek Beasley as Chief Meteorologist. It is popular in Cincinnati for its Target 5 investigations.
[edit] Trivia
- The transmission tower seen at the beginning of CBS's popular sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati, actually belonged to WLWT — it was located at the now-former WLWT transmitter on 2222 Chickasaw Street. [5]
- WLWT sponsors an annual race in the Automobile Racing Club of America, a stock car racing series similar to NASCAR, at Kentucky Speedway. The station simulcasts the live coverage from the Speed Channel.
- WLWT is the only Cincinnati station to remain with its primary affiliation (NBC) since sign on,
- WLWT's branding used to be "Eyewitness News 5" until 2004. In the 1970s the news was called, Action 5 News and for a brief period, "The" News.
[edit] Notable WLWT Alumni
- Jerry Springer (anchor, now host of his own talk show, host of "America's Got Talent" on NBC, and the British version of "The Moment of Truth")
- Norma Rashid [ on Medical Disability due to rare stress induced Heart Condition.]
- Candace Hunter(evening anchor, now at the ABC 22/FOX 45 duopoly in Dayton,OH)
- Pete Scalia(traffic, now at WKEF/WRGT in Dayton,OH)
- Felicia Ferguson
- Pat Barry(weather)
- Charlie Luken
- Tom Burse Chief Meteorologist SNN6 Sarasota
- Jim O'Brien (Chief Meteorologist from 2004-2007, Now Morning Meteorologist at WXIN in Indianapolis)
- Mike Nichols (weekends and reporter) from 2001-2004.
- Bill Hemmer (Sports 1980's Later Hosted CNN Mornings)
- Thom Brennaman (Sports 1980's Later joined his father Marty as announcer for the Cincinnati Reds)
- Kristen Cornett (weather 2001-2006) then worked with NBC Weather Plus, now weekend weather at KMOV, St. Louis
- Peter Grant (anchor til late 1960s)
- Toria Tolley (reporter 1980s, went to CNN 1990)
- Ann Reskin (midday news anchor 1980s;)
- Frank Pierce (weather, 1960-1972)
- Tony Sands (chief meteorologist, mid 1950's-mid 1980s)
- Ken Torrey (meteorologist, 1972-1978)
- Steve Horstmeyer (meteorologist 1977-1989, went to WKRC-TV, now is going to be chief meteorologist at WXIX-TV)
- Mel "Martin" Dibble (1914-2002) Established morning show format; worked with Rod Serling
- Steve Physioc (Sports, early 80's)
- Solomon Wilcots (Sports, 1990's)
- J. D. Hayworth (Sports, 1986-1987,[6] went to KTSP-TV (now KSAZ-TV), Phoenix, then Congress; currently talk show host at KFYI, Phoenix.)
- Steve Douglas (anchor, 1970-1976; killed in a lightweight plane accident in 1976)
- Tom Atkins (anchor, 1966-1977)
- Betsy Ross (anchor)
- Byron Webre (chief meteorologist, now chief meteorolgist at KEYE-TV, Austin, Texas)
[edit] External links
- WLWT.com
- Chronomedia
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WLWT
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLWT-TV
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--24.217.192.77 (talk) 01:04, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
