WTWO
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| WTWO | |
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| Terre Haute, Indiana | |
| Branding | WTWO |
| Channels | Analog: 2 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | September 1, 1965 |
| Call letters’ meaning | channel TWO |
| Sister station(s) | WFXW |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 290 m (analog) 248 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 20426 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.mywabashvalley.com |
WTWO is the NBC-affiliated television station in Terre Haute, Indiana. It operated on analog channel 2. Through a joint sales agreement (JSA), it operates the local Fox affiliate, WFXW. Its transmitter and headquarters are located in Farmersburg, Indiana.
The station's callsign was originally assigned to Bangor, Maine station WLBZ, which returned it to the FCC in 1963.
WTWO-TV switched to using digital camera gear in May 2007, with every field reporter and photographer equipped with digital gear.
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[edit] History
WTWO first signed on the air on September 1, 1965 at 7 a.m. The first program was, naturally, The Today Show. A primary NBC affiliate, the station also carried ABC network programs either on tape delay or by occasionally pre-empting NBC programs (the most famous being a prememption of Star Trek). Local primary CBS affiliate WTHI-TV (channel 10) also carried some ABC programs in the same way.
This practice ended by 1973, when Terre Haute finally obtained a full-time ABC affiliate, WIIL-TV, channel 38 (now, ironically enough, Fox affiliate WFXW).
"W-2 News" was the first newscast, running with that title until 1967. When Iliana Telecasting sold channel 2 to Booth Newspapers, some on-air and branding changes occurred. That year, the station became "TV-2" (while retaining a hyphen in the callsign, "W-TWO"), and the local news adopted the name "Total News Tonight".
The first newscast in full color aired in 1971. Two years later, the newscast rebranded again to "TV-2 Eyewitness News", the name it bore until 1994. "NewsChannel 2" was then adopted. After the sale of the station in 1997 to Nexstar Broadcasting from TCS Television Partners, the station amended the title to "WTWO NewsChannel 2". Starting in spring 2006, the station dropped reference to its analog channel number, using the call letters "WTWO" only. While the revised branding includes the phrase "NewsChannel", it is never mentioned on the air. Newscasts are referred to individually as "WTWO Today", "Live at Five", "Evening Edition", "Late Edition", and "Weekend Edition". "WTWO Today" repeats on WFXW at 7/6 a.m. Central so Illinois viewers can watch it at a later time.
On December 10th, 2007, the Friday-only local lifestyle/entertainment program "The Valley Showcase" expanded to 5 days a week at 11am, including local news and weather. This marks a return to 'midday' news on WTWO for the first time since 2002.
WTWO's digital signal is on channel 36.1 (PSIP virtual channel 2.1), and is still broadcasting from a low-power transmitter providing "city grade" coverage to Terre Haute. Plans are to have a full-power digital transmitter online before the start of the Summer Olympics in August 2008 (which NBC is airing). In June of 2008, WTWO-DT began to air HD-available programming from the network.
[edit] Controversy
WTWO made national news in early 2006 by declining to air the controversial (but short-lived) NBC program The Book of Daniel, citing protesting calls and emails from viewers as the rationale for its decision. "Our relationship with NBC always provided for the right to reject programming. I am reaffirming that right to let them know I will not allow them to make unilateral decisions affecting our viewers." WTWO General Manager Duane Lammers said in a statement on the WTWO website. [1] [2] Due to poor ratings and several other affiliates following suit with WTWO, NBC cancelled the show after only three episodes. A plotline on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip about the NBC affiliate in Terre Haute refusing to air the show because of a sketch called "Crazy Christians" was probably loosely based on this incident.
Also in 2006, WTWO aired a controversial one-minute promotion criticizing rival WTHI over its weather coverage. The commercial claimed that WTHI's Doppler weather radar was inferior to WTWO's because WTHI's radar was located within downtown Terre Haute; thus, its "dead zone" sat over thousands of residents, instead of WTWO's, whose "dead zone" sat over a corn field. The ad also mentioned that the combined experience of WTWO's weather team was more than that of WTHI's staff, and that WTHI's power had multiple points of failure in contrast to WTWO's. [3] The promotion became a source of amusement on Comedy Central's The Daily Show because of its use of hyperbole and techniques reminiscent of political "attack ads." [4] After WTWO's general manager called the Daily Show "hard-up for material" in a local newspaper [5], Jon Stewart mocked the station further in the following night's opening.
A response video to The Daily Show and Stewart that was supposed to be for internal uses at the station was leaked on YouTube; it has since been removed, but has sprung up once more on iFilm.
[edit] Logos
 Previous WTWO logo, 1997-March 2006 |
 Current WTWO logo, used since March 2006 |
 WTWO logo used to promote projects, such as Making Good Things Happen or Making Green Things Happen. |
[edit] Syndicated programming on WTWO
- Jeopardy! at 7:30 p.m.
- Judge Judy at 11:30 a.m.
- Martha at 2:00 p.m.
- The Montel Williams Show at Noon
- The Rachael Ray Show at 3:00 p.m.
- The Oprah Winfrey Show at 4:00 p.m.
- Wheel of Fortune at 7:00 p.m. (7:30 p.m. weekends)
Times in Illinois are one hour earlier.
[edit] Current WTWO/WFXW On-Air Staff
- Tom McClanahan, News Director/Feature Reporter
- Dana Winklepleck, morning/Valley Showcase news anchor
- Patrick Fazio, 5pm, 6pm, 10pm, & 11pm news anchor
- Elyse Evans, 5pm, 6pm, 10pm, and 11pm news anchor
- Alexis King, morning meteorologist/Valley Showcase host
- Jon Swaner, weekend news anchor, reporter
- Jesse Walker, Chief Meteorologist
- Dan Reynolds, Weekend meteorologist, Tech Talk
- Kristin Cutler, fill-in meteorologist/producer
- Jason Pensky, Sports Director/anchor
- Rick Semmler, weekend sports anchor/reporter/photographer
- Katie Shane, reporter
- Sarah Fortune, reporter
- Andrea Dessoffy, reporter
[edit] Notable WTWO Alumni
- Kathy Dash, news anchor/news director (now at Rose-Hulman Institute)
- Ann Shea, anchor for "The Weekly Special" (operating out of IU Bloomington WTIU-PBS)
- Nancy Hauskins, news anchor (went to WKRN Nashville, now anchoring a political show)
- Jennie Runevitch, weekend anchor/reporter (now at WTHR Indianapolis)
- Matt Seigel, sports reporter (now at KMTV Omaha)
- Jim Payne, news anchor (now at WESH-TV Orlando)
- Ray Dalessio, weekend sports anchor (now at CNN Headline News)
- Mike Royer, weekday meteorologist (now at WVTM-TV Birmingham)
- David Brown, Meteorologist (now an anchor/reporter at WCVB in Boston)
- Kate Williams, news anchor/reporter (now at WXIN-TV Indianapolis)
[edit] External links
- WTWO home page
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WTWO
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WTWO-TV
- Mediageek.net's coverage of the WTWO vs. Daily Show issue
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