WVII-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WVII-TV | |
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| Bangor, Maine | |
| Branding | ABC 7 Fox Bangor (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Your Bangor News |
| Channels | Analog: 7 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 7.1 WVII-TV/ABC 7.2 Fox / MNTV |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Rockfleet Broadcasting (Bangor Communications, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 15, 1965 |
| Call letters’ meaning | VII (Roman numeral 7) |
| Sister station(s) | WFVX-LP |
| Former callsigns | WEMT (1965-1976) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 79 kW (digital) |
| Height | 250 m (analog) 229 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 3667 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wvii.com |
WVII-TV, channel 7, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Bangor, Maine. Its transmitter is located south of East Eddington near the Penobscot and Hancock County line. WVII is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting as part of a duopoly with primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate WFVX-LP. The two stations share studios on Target Industrial Circle in Bangor.
WFVX does not broadcast a digital signal of its own, and as a result, is carried on WVII's second digital subchannel. Via cable, WVII serves as the default ABC affiliate for the Presque Isle television market.
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[edit] History
The station first took to the air on October 15, 1965 under the call sign of WEMT. The current call letters, WVII-TV, were adopted in 1976. WVII is the only television station in Bangor to have never switched its network affiliation. It is also one of only two stations in Bangor to broadcast in stereo.
During the mid-1990s, the station suffered a failure of its transmitter due to a fire. This knocked the station off-the-air during a Bangor Hydro-Electric advertisement. It would not return to full power broadcasting for several months. However, the station was available on cable through a temporary transmitter. TCI Cable and WVII had facilities that shared a rear property line on Target Industrial Circle. The cable company ran a line from their building to WVII allowing the station to continue normal operations while purchasing a replacement transmitter. WVII became the first station to broadcast in stereo in the mid-1990s as a result of the new transmitter. Cause of the fire was later determined to be a snake seeking winter warmth which caused a short circuit.
In 2000, Rockfleet Broadcasting made its first venture into UHF broadcasting by leasing channel 30, a former secondary PBS station. The station changed its call letters to WCKD and network affiliation to UPN. In 2003, after an attempt to affiliate WCKD with Fox failed, Rockfleet purchased a new station. The station was assigned the call letters WFVX-LP, was set up to broadcast on channel 22, and received the Fox affiliation.
WVII's contract with Time Warner Cable to offer ABC programming in HDTV was established at the start of September 2007 and will expire in 2011. WVII-DT can be seen on digital cable channel 708. In August of 2008, the station will air three New England Patriots pre-season games.
[edit] Station controversy
In October of 2006, WVII made national news in a New York Times article that quoted General Manager Michael Palmer as saying that when "Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories." "Until then," he added. "No more." Mr. Palmer said he wanted no more stories broadcast on global warming because: "a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive." Mr. Palmer said in his e-mail message to his operations manager and two women who served as a news anchor and a reporter that he placed "global warming stories in the same category as 'the killer African bee scare' from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct." [1]
[edit] News operation
WVII has always had local newscasts but they have never had the same level of success as the two older stations in the market, WABI-TV and WLBZ. Due to this fact, WVII has long been ranked at a distant third. The station produces local news weeknights at 6, 10, and 11. Except for the sports reports, WFVX's 10 o'clock and WVII's 11 o'clock newscasts are taped earlier in the evening. There are also local weather cut-ins during the weekday edition of Good Morning America. The WVII and WFVX news team is made up of five people as WVII outsources weather forecasts to AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania. All three newscasts are simulcasted on conservative talk radio station WNZS.
[edit] News team
- Tony Consiglio - rotating anchor
- producer
- Cindy Michaels - rotating anchor
- reporter and producer
- Sean Cryan - sports director
- Amy Belanger - assignment editor
- Brian Sullivan - reporter
- Aaron Jackson - reporter
AccuWeather Meteorologists
- Jim Kosek (AMS Seal of Approval) - weeknights
- Jack Boston - weekday morning cut-ins and website
- Bernie Rayno - fill-in
[edit] External links
- WVII-TV/DT "ABC 7"
- ABC
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WVII-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVII-TV
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