WYFF
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WYFF | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson, South Carolina/Asheville, North Carolina | |
| City of license | Greenville SC |
| Branding | WYFF 4 (general) WYFF News 4 (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Live Local Breaking News |
| Channels | Analog: 4 (VHF) |
| Translators | W06AE Clayton GA |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television (WYFF Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | December 31, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | We're Your Friend Four |
| Former callsigns | WFBC-TV (1953-1983) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 610 m (analog) 577 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 53905 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wyff4.com |
WYFF is the NBC television affiliate based in Greenville, South Carolina. It serves a market which includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson in South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. The market takes in large portions of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. Its transmitter is located near Caesars Head, South Carolina. WYFF 4 WeatherPlus is offered on WYFF's digital feed.
WYFF currently broadcasts its digital feed on channel 59. This is in the range of channels that is to become vacant after the digital television conversion is complete. Therefore, when analog broadcasts end in February 2009, WYFF will move its digital feed to channel 36 (which is now used by WCNC in Charlotte for its analog feed). However, WYFF's digital feed will continue to use the virtual channel numbers 4.1 (main programming) and 4.2 (Weather Plus).
Contents |
[edit] History
The station went on the air on December 31, 1953 as WFBC-TV, South Carolina's fifth television station. It was owned by the Peace family and their News-Piedmont Publishing Company along with The Greenville News, Greenville Piedmont and WFBC radio (1330 AM, now WYRD, and 93.7 FM). For its first two years of operation, its studios were located on Paris Mountain before moving to its current location on Rutherford Street in 1955. Norvin Duncan was the station's first news anchor, moving from the radio side.
"Monty's Rascals" (started in 1960) was one of the station's popular children's shows, starring two channel 4 weathermen: Monty DuPuy (who left in 1978) and Stowe Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey (wearing a hat with an old Santa's beard). The show continued as "The Rascal's Clubhouse" after DuPuy's departure in 1978 and continued until 1982. Two years later, Hoyle retired. An earlier version of the program, "Kids Korral," was hosted by Johnny Wright.
During the 1960s, personalities from channel 4 included Dave Partridge and Jim Phillips (Phillips died in 2003), better known to listeners of Clemson Tiger football radio broadcasts as "the voice of the Clemson Tigers". Locally televised color programming also began in February 1967. In 1968, News-Piedmont merged with Southern Broadcasting to form Multimedia, Inc., with WFBC-AM-FM-TV as the flagship stations.
In the mid 1970s the famous Arrow 4 logo was introduced and was used in one form or another for many years. Partridge succeeded Duncan as anchor of the 6 and 11 o'clock news. In 1976 Kenn Sparks joined, and the 6 o'clock news went to a full hour called The Scene at Six. Later, in 1979, the long-running 'Your Friend Four' slogan was introduced and seen in a 1980 edition of TV Guide.
The 1980s brought new personalities to channel 4, like James Baker, sportscasters J.D. Hayworth, (later Congressman from Arizona), Roger Berry, Mark Marino and weatherman Charlie Gertz (who died in 2003 from a stroke). Action News 4 became NewsCenter 4 in the early 1980s.
In 1983, due to new rules restricting common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same market, Multimedia sold off its Upstate cluster. In an unusual trade of one group's flagship station for another, WFBC-TV was traded to Pulitzer Publishing Company in return for KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis. At that point, Channel 4 changed its call letters to WYFF-TV (We're Your Friend Four) Pulitzer also acquired WXII-TV in the Piedmont Triad as part of the same deal. Although Pulitzer closed on WXII later in 1983, the acquisition of WYFF would not be finalized until January of 1985 because Pulitzer had to sell off WLNE-TV in Providence in order to comply with FCC ownership limits of the time; in the interim, Pulitzer operated WYFF under a time brokerage agreement with Multimedia. New personalities include Carl Clark, Kim Brittain, and Carol Anderson (later Carol Goldsmith) who co-anchors the 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 11 o'clock newscasts. In the late 1980s, Carol Anderson was replaced by Annette Estes who came from its rival station WSPA-TV. Stan Olenik also came from WSPA. Goldsmith later took her spot back from Estes after Estes made an off-color slip on live air.
NewsCenter 4 became simply known as News 4 in the 1990s. Charlie Gertz retired, and the "arrow 4" logo was dropped by 1991.
Channel 4 was the first Upstate television station to begin 24/7 broadcasting, and did so sometime in the mid-late 1980s. They ran NBC News Overnight (later Nightside) /Home Shopping Spree/CNN Headline News overnight. They have since 2005 discontinued CNN Headline News (and previously the Home Shopping Spree) overnight and now run NBC Late Night/drama reruns/home-garden shows/paid programming overnight.
In 1999 Hearst-Argyle bought Pulitzer's entire television division, including WYFF-TV.
In 2009, WYFF-TV will leave channel digital 59 and move to digital channel 4 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.
[edit] Programming
Here's a list of NBC programs that were pre-empted by WFBC/WYFF over the years (most of which ended up on channel 40 WAXA, (now WMYA-TV), those include:
- Alvin and the Chipmunks- It aired on WYFF-TV until 1986 it was seen instead on WAXA-TV now (WMYA-TV) before WYFF-TV picked it back up in the late 1980s.
- Underdog
- Who, What or Where- Replaced by WFBC-TV's local talk show Today in The Piedmont
- The Facts of Life- NBC daytime reruns during 1984-85, seen instead on WAXA-TV
- Kidd Video- It was seen instead on WAXA-TV
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV
- Super Password- It was pre-empted by WYFF-TV during its entire run, and shown instead on WAXA-TV
- Foofur- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV
- Time Machine- Another WYFF-TV pre-empted NBC show that WAXA-TV aired in 1985.
[edit] News Anchors
- Gordon Dill, WYFF News 4 Today
- Kim McCrea, WYFF News 4 Today
- Sharon Johnson, WYFF News 4 at Noon
- Beth Brotherton, WYFF News 4 at 5
- Nigel Robertson, WYFF News 4 at 5
- Michael Cogdill, WYFF News 4 at 6 and 11
- Carol Goldsmith, WYFF News 4 at 6 and 11
- Kelly Coakley, WYFF News 4 Today Weekend
- Mark Allen, WYFF News 4 at 6 and 11 Weekend
[edit] Meteorologists
- John Cessarich, chief meteorologists WYFF News 4 at 5, 6, and 11 (AMS)
- Dale Gilbert, WYFF News 4 Today and Noon
- Keisha Kirkland, WYFF News 4 weekend mornings
- Jillene Wahl, Weather Producer (CBM) and fill in
[edit] Sports Anchors
- Geoff Hart, sports director
- Mike Giordano, weekends
[edit] Past Personalites
- Jeff Abell, reporter (now at WBFF-TV Baltimore, Maryland)
- James Baker, news anchor
- Chuck Bell, meteorologist (now at WRC-TV Washington, DC)
- Sterlin Benson, news anchor (now Sterlin Benson Webber)
- Judy Booker, meteorologist (now at rival WSPA-TV)
- Kim Brittan, news anchor
- Carl Clark, news anchor (later went to rival WSPA-TV)
- Kevin Coakley, news anchor
- Marc Cox, news anchor (now at KMOV-TV, St. Louis)
- Norvin Duncan, news anchor (D)
- Monty DuPry, meteorologist
- Annette Estees, news anchor (came from rival WSPA-TV)
- Stephany Fisher, news reporter (now at WGCL-TV Atlanta)
- Terrie Foster, reporter (now at WLOS-TV)
- Charlie Gertz, meteorologist (D)
- Todd Gladfelter, meteorologist
- Erin Hartness, reporter (now at WRAL-TV)
- J.D. Hayworth, sports anchor (later a former Arizona congressman)
- Stowe Hoyle, meteorologist
- Liza Hughes, reporter
- Paul Johnson, sports reporter
- Kimberly Lohman, reporter
- Bob Mihalic, weekend sports anchor
- Stan Olenik, sports reporter (came from rival WSPA-TV)
- Dave Patridge, news anchor
- Jim Philips, sports director (D)
- Patrick Rockey, news reporter, meteorologist
- Mike Seidel, meteorologist (now at The Weather Channel)
- Jonathan Serrie, news reporter (now in Atlanta)
- Marv Starks, Education Reporter (D)
- Barbara Sloan, news anchor
- Kenn Sparks, news anchor (now at BMW)
- Steven Stock, news reporter (now in Florida)
- Tyler Suiters, sports, weekend sports anchor (now at KOCO-TV)
- Liz Walker, weekend anchor (later went to rival WHNS and now at Charter Communications)
- Brad Willis, news reporter
- Jim Wogan, sports reporter, now at WATE-TV, Knoxville
(D)=Deceased
[edit] External links
- WYFF4.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WYFF
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W06AE
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WYFF-TV
|
|||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
