WNEP-TV
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| WNEP-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | |
| Branding | WNEP TV 16 Newswatch 16 |
| Slogan | The News Station |
| Channels | Analog: 16 (UHF) Digital: 49 (UHF) |
| Translators | see article |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Local TV (Local TV Pennsylvania License, LLC) |
| First air date | WILK-TV: September 16, 1953 WARM-TV: February 6, 1954 WNEP-TV: January 1, 1956 |
| Call letters’ meaning | North East Pennsylvania |
| Former channel number(s) | WILK-TV: 34 (1954-56) |
| Transmitter Power | 1,150 kW (analog) 100 kW (digital) |
| Height | 506 m (both) |
| Facility ID | 73318 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wnep.com |
WNEP-TV, channel 16, is the ABC-affiliated television station for northeastern and north central Pennsylvania, licensed to Scranton. Its transmitter is located on Penobscot Knob in Mountaintop. Owned by Local TV, the station has studios on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic.
Contents |
[edit] Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 16.1 / 49.1 | main WNEP-TV programming / ABC HD |
| 16.2 / 49.2 | Newswatch 16 Anytime (24-hour news and weather channel) |
| 16.3 / 49.3 | SD version of WNEP-TV programming (used to feed cable systems) |
[edit] Translators
WNEP serves one of the largest coverage areas east of the Mississippi River. This area is very mountainous meaning that some areas cannot get a clear signal from channel 16. WNEP faces an additional problem because the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre television market is a "UHF island" due to the fact that it is too close to Philadelphia and New York City for VHF analog service. As a result, it operates the one of the largest translator systems of any station in the Eastern Time Zone.
| Call letters | Analog Channel | Digital Channel | City of license |
|---|---|---|---|
| W07DC | 7 | 7 | Allentown (Philadelphia market) |
| W10CP | 10 | 10 | Towanda |
| W14CO | 14 | 14 | Clarks Summit |
| W20AD | 20 | 20 | Williamsport |
| W26CV | 26 | 26 | Towanda (Elmira/Corning, NY market) |
| W36BE | 36 | 36 | State College (Johnstown market) |
| W39CV | 39 | 39 | State College (Johnstown market) |
| W40BS | 40 | 40 | Renovo |
| W61AG | 61 | 18, 28 | Stroudsburg |
| W66AL | 66 | 26 | Stroudsburg |
| W69CE | 69 | 15 | Towanda |
[edit] History
There were originally two ABC network affiliates in Northeastern Pennsylvania. WILK-TV channel 34 in Wilkes-Barre took to the air on September 16, 1953. It was followed by WARM-TV channel 16 in Scranton on January 2, 1954.
WILK wanted to get a head start on the other local stations when it signed on in 1953, going on the air at 2 p.m. rather than the 3 p.m. sign on that the other stations did. The engineers got the signal ready by Noon and decided to take a break. However, at lunch, they turned on the station to inspect their handiwork, only to find the signal was dead. They rushed back and were able to establish the link by 1:50 PM, 10 minutes before sign on.[1]
Getting a signal from ABC headquarters in New York City was a challenge in the early days with no access to satellites. As a result, WILK set up a microwave tower in Effort, about 45 miles east of Wilkes-Barre. From there, the network signal was bounced to the Penobscot Knob transmitter site. Often, station engineers had to adjust the Effort transmitter to accept a signal from WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (now WPVI-TV) if they were unable to receive the New York feed.
WILK-TV and WARM-TV were both losing money, in large part because ABC was not on an equal footing with NBC and CBS (and would not be until the 1970s). However, they stayed on the air because they were owned by well-respected local radio stations. By 1955, however, it was obvious that Scranton and Wilkes-Barre were going to be a single television market. Accordingly, WILK and WARM agreed to merge. The new station, WNEP-TV, went on the air on New Year's Day in 1956. It operates under WILK's license, but uses WARM-TV's channel 16 to provide more signal to its vast coverage area at less cost. Along with the merger came a new owner, Transcontinent Broadcasting of Buffalo, New York. WILK's old channel 34 was reassigned to WBJA-TV (now WIVT), another ABC affiliate in Binghamton, New York; the WARM-TV transmitter was donated a decade later to the area's PBS member station, WVIA-TV. WNEP-TV was based in WILK-TV's old studio in downtown Wilkes-Barre, but then as now it was licensed to Scranton since it assumed WARM-TV's old channel allocation. In 1962, it moved to a new studio near the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
WNEP initially struggled to survive, just like its predecessors. However, the station took off in 1958 thanks in part to ABC's color programming and the station's new transmitter on Penobscot Knob. The new transmitter, which was the first million-watt signal in the market, increased WNEP's broadcast range to cover 15 counties [1].
Despite its increased coverage area, WNEP bounced back and forth in the ratings for most of the next two decades. It was never able to achieve any consistency because viewers in Scranton thought of it as a Wilkes-Barre station, while viewers in Wilkes-Barre thought of it as a Scranton station. In the mid-1970s, news director Elden Hale decided to take a regional approach. He billed the station as serving "Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania," and stepped up coverage of the remote portions of the market. These areas had largely been ignored by the other stations in town. He also added the area's first (and as of 2008, only) news helicopter. This approach quickly paid off. In November 1976, WNEP surged to first place for the first time in a decade. After briefly falling back to second it surged to number one in 1978 (around the same time ABC became the nation's number one network) and has held the lead ever since.
Transcontinent merged with Taft Broadcasting in 1964. When Taft bought WIBF-TV in Philadelphia and changed the calls to WTAF-TV in 1969 (now WTXF-TV), it sought a waiver to keep both stations. WNEP's Grade B signal reaches the Lehigh Valley, which is part of the Philadelphia market. WNEP has also operated an outlying transmitter on channel 7 in Allentown for many years. The FCC normally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping coverage areas. While it initially granted the waiver, it reversed itself later in 1969 and forced Taft to sell WNEP. An employee group, NEP Communications, bought the station and presided over its surge to first place. In 1985, The New York Times Company bought the station and WNEP moved to its current studios in Moosic in 1989.
On January 4, 2007, the station, along with the eight other stations owned by The New York Times' broadcast media group, were sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners in a $575 million transaction. As of 12:01 a.m., May 7, 2007, the station is operated as part of Local TV LLC.[2]
[edit] Analog broadcast tower collapse
WNEP-TV's transmission tower broadcasting the analog signal on channel 16 collapsed on December 16, 2007 due to severe ice, winds, and snow at the transmitter location on Penobscot Knob[3]. The tower collapse also destroyed the transmitter building. No one was injured during the incident[3]. WCLH's FM antenna and transmitter, which was co-located on WNEP's analog TV tower, was also destroyed during the incident [4]. Transmission of the digital signal on channel 49 was restored after a brief interruption of power to the tower supporting the digital transmitter and antenna. WNEP's signal on local cable systems and satellite was restored by the end of the day on December 16, 2007. WNEP-TV partially restored its analog over the air TV signal by January 1, 2008 [5] by broadcasting from the nearby American Tower on Penobscot Knob supporting the WNEP-DT antenna as well as WOLF-TV/DT's antenna[6][7].
As the WNEP-TV analog broadcast tower collapsed on December 16, 2007, one of the falling guy wires supporting the WNEP-TV tower damaged the neighboring tower broadcasting WVIA-TV (analog and digital) and WVIA-FM by shearing off the top section of the WVIA tower supporting the antenna for the analog and digital TV signals. The antenna for WVIA-FM remained intact, as it is located on the lower section of the shared WVIA-FM-TV tower. The WVIA-TV analog signal on channel 44 was temporarily put off the air until service was restored through a back-up tower on Penobscot Knob[8].
The collapse of WNEP-TV's analog tower also severed power to the transmitters for WYOU-TV and WBRE-TV putting those stations off the air for a time[9].
[edit] Local programming
Many of the programs air on WNEP have been in-house productions rather than syndicated shows. The most popular of these was a children's program called The Land of Hatchy Milatchy. Another program, Uncle Ted's Ghoul School, once employed Bill O'Reilly as a writer. He was also a reporter at the station for a brief period during the mid-1970s. Also during the 1970s, WNEP produced two game shows, Bowling for Dollars and Dialing for Dollars. Unlike the station's newscasts, the game shows were absolute failures considering that they were pitted against other more successful national syndicated primetime games such as Family Feud and Match Game.
Today, WNEP produces two in-house programs: Pennsylvania Outdoor Life, a show about hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania, and Home & Backyard, a show about do-it-yourself home improvements, cooking and gardening. 'Pennsylvania Outdoor Life' airs Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on WNEP and 'Home & Backyard' airs Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. on WNEP. Both of these programs re-air on the "Newswatch 16 Anytime" channel. The station also participates in several local charity events, including the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and Scranton's annual Santa Parade.
[edit] News operation
The station is best known for its local newscasts which are among the highest-rated in the United States. [10] The station runs its newscasts under the branding of Newswatch 16. It has led the ratings in Northeast Pennsylvania for 30 years, and according to A.C. Nielsen data, attracts more viewers than the other stations in town combined.
The station's on-air personalities are well-known in the area. Chief Meteorologist Tom Clark has been with the station since 1981 and is one of the region's more popular broadcasters. His wife Noreen does forecasts on the weekend newscasts, and has been with the station since 1982. Marisa Burke, a native of nearby Danville, has been with the station since 1984 and now co-anchors the weeknight 6 o'clock newscast with Mike Lewis.
WNEP runs Newswatch 16 Anytime, a 24-hour news and weather channel that features rebroadcasts of newscasts. It is available on WNEP's second digital subchannel, area cable systems, and via live streaming video on its website.
In 1990, WNEP began producing a 10 pm newscast for the area's Fox affiliate, WOLF-TV--the first instance of one station producing newscasts for another. This move came after Fox requested its affiliates to begin airing newscasts.[11] WNEP broadcasts the newscast from a secondary set. Past station personnel that have anchored on WOLF-TV include Paul Grippi (who is now the weekend sports anchor) and Jill Garret. WNEP operates its own weather radar known as "Stormtracker 16". In 2003, WNEP installed a new set for its newscasts. The station uses three robotic cameras during its newscasts.
WNEP is the only media outlet in the market to utilize a helicopter, known as "Skycam 16", for news gathering purposes. The helicopter has been operational since the 1970s. It is also the only television station in the area to broadcast local news weeknights at 7. The station airs the Pennsylvania Lottery televised nighttime drawings live seven nights a week and the live Powerball drawing on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Tom Williams - weekday mornings and Noon
- weekday Noon producer
- Mindi Ramsey - weekday mornings and Noon
- Scott Schaffer - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 7
- Paola Giangiacomo - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 10
- Marisa Burke - weeknights at 6
- producer
- Mike Lewis - weeknights at 6 and 11
- Julie Sidoni - weeknights at 7
- Scranton / Lackawanna County reporter
- Andy Palumbo - weekend mornings
- weekday morning reporter
- Jon Meyer - weekend evenings
- Wilkes-Barre reporter
Storm Tracker 16 Meteorologists
- Tom Clark (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights
- featured on "Home & Backyard"
- Joe Snedeker - weekday mornings & Noon
- Noreen Clark - weekend mornings
- "In Your Neighborhood" segment producer
- Kurt Aaron - weekend evenings
- reporter
Sports
- Jim Coles - weeknights at 6, 7, 10, and 11
- Sharla McBride - weekend evenings
- sports reporter
- Steve Lloyd - sports reporter
- sports photojournalist
- fill-in
Reporters
- Randy Freeman - "Skycam 16" pilot
- Jill Garrett - health
- Jim Hamill - Central Pennsylvania Newsroom
- Nolan Johannes - Saturday morning weekly news recap producer
- "This Date in History" segment producer
- Norm Jones - Central Pennsylvania Bureau
- Ryan Leckey - weekday mornings, Noon, and weekends
- Sherman Burdette - consumer
- Bob Reynolds
- Sarah Buynovsky
- Josh Brogadir
- Bianca Barr
- Trish Hartman
The Pennsylvania Outdoor Life Team
- Don Jacobs - co-host
- "Home & Backyard" segment writer
- Ken Hunter - co-host
Field Reporters
- Mike Stevents - "On the Pennsylvania Road" reporter
- Dave Aucker
- Dale Butler
- Susan Gallagher
- Bob Hawkins
- Rick Koval
- Mike Stevens
- Jackie Vass
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- Newswatch 16 (1968-Present)
[edit] WNEP.com
WNEP's website launched in 1995. On May 2nd, 2008, a major redesign of WNEP.com was launched. This new design was a radical departure from the original design, and corrected many organizational errors to more fully comply with Web 2.0 standards.
[edit] Controversy
In the fall of 2005, on Newswatch 16 This Morning during a conversation about taking sick or personal days off, meteorologist Joe Snedeker jokingly suggested to morning anchor Kim Supon (who was pregnant at the time) that if he were her boss he would make her choose between her career and motherhood. Supon was visibly upset by the comment and walked off the set during the commercial break. When the newscast returned reporter Ryan Leckey was in the anchor chair. The incident received national attention including airing as a segment on MSNBC. In response to public outcry, Snedeker apologized on air during the next broadcast. [12] On November 17, 2006, Kim Supon left WNEP's morning broadcast to spend more time with her children.
[edit] References
- ^ a b WNEP history page
- ^ New York Times sells TV stations for $575M. Reuters (2007-01-04). Retrieved on 2007-01-05.
- ^ a b Steve Mocarsky and Mark Sowers. "Storm tips TV towers", The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), December 17, 2007.
- ^ Current News: WCLH FM off the air. WCLH (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) (December 17, 2007). Retrieved on December 17, 2007.
- ^ Restoring WNEP's Analog Signal. WNEP (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) (January 1, 2008). Retrieved on January 2, 2008.
- ^ Scott Fybush. Northeast Radio Watch - December 24, 2007 - Pennsylvania. Northeast Radio Watch (Rochester, New York). Retrieved on January 10, 2008.
- ^ Scott Fybush. Northeast Radio Watch - January 7, 2008 - Pennsylvania. Northeast Radio Watch (Rochester, New York). Retrieved on January 10, 2008.
- ^ WVIA-TV. "Ice Storm affects WVIA-TV Signal - FM and TV 44 still on the air", WVIA-TV (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), December 17, 2007.
- ^ PAHomePage.com. "WYOU and WBRE TV Signal Update", WYOU (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), December 17, 2007.
- ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA14061.html?display=RTNDASPECIAL
- ^ http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/02/12/daily.3/
- ^ http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15393404&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=8
[edit] External links
- WNEP-TV/DT
- WNEP wireless
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WNEP-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W07DC
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W14CO
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W26CV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W61AG
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W40BS
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W36BE
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W39BE
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W66AL
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W10CP
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W69CE
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W20AD
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNEP-TV
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