WOTV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WOTV | |
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| Battle Creek / Kalamazoo, Michigan | |
| Branding | WOTV 4 (cable channel) |
| Slogan | My ABC is WOTV 4 |
| Channels | Analog: 41 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC WXSP (MyNetworkTV) (DT2) |
| Owner | LIN TV Corporation (WOOD License Company, LLC) |
| First air date | July 24, 1971 |
| Call letters’ meaning | modified version of sister station WOOD-TV |
| Sister station(s) | WOOD-TV WXSP-CA |
| Former callsigns | WUHQ-TV (1971-1992) |
| Transmitter Power | 5000 kW (analog) 270 kW (digital) |
| Height | 329 m (analog) 311 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 10212 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wotv.com |
WOTV, channel 41, is the ABC-affiliated television station in Battle Creek, Michigan. Its transmitter is located in western Barry County near the town of Orangeville. Owned by LIN TV, the station is sister to NBC affiliate WOOD-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WXSP-CA. All three stations share studios on College Avenue Southeast in downtown Grand Rapids.
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[edit] Overview
WOTV primarily serves the southern portion of the West Michigan DMA (Kalamazoo and Battle Creek), while WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids (the market's other ABC affiliate) serves the northern portion. Recently, WOTV has promoted itself as a full market ABC station including Grand Rapids. The station provides at least secondary coverage to nearly all of the West Michigan market.
The station currently identifies as WOTV 4 in reference to its channel position on area cable systems. Its current logo reads like "WOTV 41" though the emphasis is more on the "4" (representing the cable position) than on the "1" (reprenting part of "41", its analog UHF channel). Although the "1" is clearly visible, WOTV insists it isn't there.
[edit] History
The station signed on air on July 24, 1971 as WUHQ-TV (UHF HeadQuarters). It was owned by Channel 41, Inc., a group of 19 investors from Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. WUHQ signed on because the southern portion of the West Michigan market did not receive an adequate signal from WZZM. Originally licensed on channel 9, WZZM swapped channels with WWTV in Cadillac and moved to channel 13 just before signing on in 1962. As a result, WZZM's transmitter is located farther north than the other West Michigan stations in order to protect WTVG in Toledo, Ohio.
In the early days, WUHQ could not get ABC to provide a direct network feed. The station was forced to switch to and from WZZM's signal during the times when ABC network programming was being shown.
This practice, however, was less than satisfactory as WZZM often pre-empted network programming in favor of locally originated or other programming (such as Billy Graham crusades). In cases where WUHQ had advance notice of such pre-emptions, the station was able to procure filmed copies of the pre-empted network programming for broadcast. However, WZZM sometimes pre-empted a program with no advance notice such as for breaking local news or severe weather reports. When this happened, WUHQ simulcasted WSJV in Elkhart, Indiana usually with less than satisfactory results. At times, atmospheric conditions were not suitable enough to simulcast WSJV, forcing WUHQ to substitute a film or other non-network programming.
WZZM's owners, Northstar Television, planned to buy WUHQ in 1991 and turn it into a satellite of WZZM. This would have created a strong combined signal with about 40% overlap. Northstar got preliminary FCC approval to do this but the deal fell through when Northstar was unable to come up with the funds necessary to close the transaction. Instead, WUHQ's owners entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with LIN Broadcasting, owner of WOTV (channel 8) in Grand Rapids. The deal closed on November 11, 1991. Shortly after, channel 8 changed its call letters back to WOOD-TV and moved the WOTV calls to channel 41. The WUHQ call letters are currently used on a low-power independent station in Grand Rapids. In 1996, the station boosted its transmitter power to 5 million watts, making it the most powerful station in West Michigan.
AT&T bought WOOD-TV and the LMA with WOTV in 1994. LIN TV reacquired WOOD-TV from AT&T in 1999 and bought WOTV outright in 2002.
As of December 2006, all WOTV operations have been consolidated at WOOD-TV's building in Grand Rapids. Reporter Gerry Barnaby, who joined channel 41 in 1993, left the station at end of the year. The longtime WUHQ / WOTV building was donated to a Battle Creek city entity, Battle Creek Unlimited, and the equipment was donated to the Calhoun County Vocational Educational Center.
Both WOTV and WZZM have had a unique history of having one ABC affiliate preempt network programming during Labor Day weekend for the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon while another airs the preempted ABC programming. In recent years, WOTV has aired the MDA Telethon while WZZM has aired ABC programming preempted by the telethon. It was the other way around in previous years, however. Also, Bill Steffen is the only news personality to appear on the telethon on both stations.
On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company.
[edit] News operation
Early in the station's history, WUHQ began a news operation that was the breeding ground for some of the most famous news personalities. However, it had no luck whatsoever against WOOD-TV and WWMT due to the limited viewer base. Even with Kalamazoo included, there simply were not enough viewers from that small segment of the total market.
On February 9, 1991 one of the station's news anchors, Diane Newton King, was murdered in her home near Marshall, Michigan. Her husband, Bradford King, was convicted of first-degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence. The case received national attention in 2004 when it was aired on Court TV's Forensic Files. The case was also profiled on A&E's City Confidential in an episode titled "Bad News in Battle Creek".
LIN finally decided to shut down WOTV's news operation (branded as 41 News) in August of 2003. Since then, the station has simulcasted or aired specially produced newscasts from WOOD-TV's 24 Hour News 8.
Currently, WOTV simulcasts most of WOOD-TV's newscasts (outside of NBC pre-emptions and ABC programming conflicts) with some exceptions. This includes weekdays at 12:30 P.M. for paid programming, weekend mornings, weekends at 6:30 P.M. for ABC's World News. On weekend evenings, WOOD-TV airs local news at 6 P.M. on WOTV. Near the half-hour point of each WOOD-TV newscast, the anchorperson teases stories that will air only on that station.
For the 2007 / 2008 television season, the 5 P.M. hour of news was replaced by TMZ on TV and Extra, leaving only the 6 and 11 P.M. WOOD news on WOTV during evening hours.
[edit] Slogans
- "Let The One Shine In" (1977) - Used by WUHQ instead of ABC's "Still The One" slogan while using the same music.
- "The 41 And Only" (early-1980s)
- "News That's Close to Home" (mid-1990's) - Positioned WOTV's local news and public service promotion. This slogan debuted following the local marketing agreement in 1992 between WOOD-TV and WTOV.
- "News From Where You Live.". (1990s) - Originated during WOTV's most recent attempt in producing its own newscast. A variant, "For Where You Live", has since been used for WOOD-TV's "Storm Team 8" after WOOD added a sixth meteorologist to its lineup. "From Where You Live" still appears on the bottom of all WOTV website pages in the copyright line.
- "My ABC is WOTV 4" (2003) - After the news department was shut down, this slogan was adopted to promote ABC programming paired with the market's leading newscast, 24 Hour News 8, as well as encourage people to watch ABC on WOTV instead of WZZM, the other ABC station. The "Phrase That Pays" is a regularly-scheduled contest built around the slogan.
[edit] Major personalities
Maranda is WOTV's Children's & Family Services Manager. Prior to joining WOOD / WOTV, she hosted a children's show on FOX affiliate WXMI. Her real name is Lori Cook. Bill Steffen is a WOOD-TV meteorologist who does primetime weather updates on WOTV. Prior to joining WOOD-TV in 2001, he was Chief Meteorologist at WZZM-TV from 1985 to 2001. He appears in the weather section of the WOTV homepage. See the WOOD-TV article for a complete listing of news team members.
[edit] External links
- WOTV channel 41
- WOOD-TV
- WXSP-CA channel 15
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WOTV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WOTV-TV
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