| New Britain/Hartford/ New Haven, Connecticut |
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|---|---|
| Branding | NBC Connecticut HD (general) NBC Connecticut News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Connecticut's News Leader (news) We are Connecticut (general) |
| Channels | Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 30 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 30.1 NBC 30.2 NBC Plus 30.3 Universal Sports |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | NBCUniversal (NBC Telemundo License, LLC) |
| First air date | February 13, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Viacom International Television (reference to former owner Viacom) |
| Former callsigns | WKNB-TV (1953-1957) WNBC (1957-1960) WHNB-TV (1960-1978) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 30 (UHF, 1953-2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (secondary, 1953-1955) |
| Transmitter power | 250 kW |
| Height | 434 m |
| Facility ID | 74170 |
| Website | NBCConnecticut.com |
WVIT, virtual channel 30, is the NBC owned and operated television station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut.
Contents |
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main WVIT programming / NBC |
| 30.2 | 480i | 4:3 | NBC Plus |
| 30.3 | Universal Sports |
Digital subchannel 30.2 carried NBC Weather Plus; national network operations for that service ended in December 2008. Currently NBC Plus airs on that channel. This utilizes the same graphics as Weather Plus, with a new 'NBC Plus' logo and without the on camera meteorologist segments. As of September 2011, WVIT is the last remaining NBC-owned station to continue to air NBC Plus; all of the other NBC-owned stations have replaced NBC Plus with local versions of the NBC Nonstop channels pioneered by the one on the second digital subchannel of WNBC in New York City.
In June 2009, WVIT left channel 30 and moved to channel 35 when the analog to digital conversion completed.[1]
WVIT signed on for the first time on February 13, 1953 as WKNB-TV, a sister station to WKNB radio (840 AM, now WRYM). The calls stood for Kensington-New Britain. It is Connecticut's second-oldest television station, and the first on the UHF band. It has always been an NBC affiliate, and is the only major station in Connecticut to have never changed its affiliation. However in the early years, it carried some CBS programming as well.
In 1954, only a year after channel 30 signed on, Hartford and New Haven were combined into a single television market. However, WKNB's signal was not strong enough to cover southern Connecticut at the time--a problem that would hamper channel 30 for almost a quarter-century. As a result, a few NBC programs continued to be seen in the market on New Haven's WNHC-TV (now WTNH) for another year due to this shortfall in channel 30's coverage. Well into the 1960s, many viewers northeast of Hartford used outdoor VHF antennas to watch NBC programming via WBZ-TV in Boston, while viewers southwest of Hartford with outdoor TV antennas received NBC via network flagship WRCA-TV (now WNBC) in New York City; reception was often spotty.
NBC itself purchased the WKNB stations in December 1956, and renamed channel 30 WNBC (for New Britain, Connecticut) a month later. It planned to boost the station's signal to cover all of the market, but these plans never materialized. In its first stint as an NBC-owned station, channel 30 failed to gain much headway in the ratings, largely because television manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability until 1964. Viewers had to buy an expensive converter to watch WNBC, and even with one the picture was barely viewable. Nonetheless, NBC bought channel 30 as part of an experiment to determine whether UHF could be competitive with VHF.
In September 1957, the Travelers Insurance Company signed on independent WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB), Hartford's first and only VHF station. Within a year of its debut (and despite its radio sister having been an NBC radio affiliate for over thirty years) WTIC-TV became Connecticut's CBS affiliate, replacing its owned-and-operated station, WHCT-TV (channel 18, now WUVN). NBC then realized its UHF experiment was a lost cause and sold WNBC and WKNB to Transcontinental Properties in 1959. Although Transcontinental Properties technically owned Channel 30, it entered into a limited partnership with the H & E Balaban Corporation (a company founded by Harry and Elmer Balaban, the two youngest brothers of then-Paramount Pictures head Barney Balaban) to operate the station. In addition to a share of Channel 30, H & E Balaban acquired dozens of radio stations in primarily mid-sized markets, and even launched WCLQ-TV (now WQHS-TV in Cleveland over the next quarter-century, eventually changing its name to Balaban Stations by the early-1970s. In 1960, the calls changed again -- this time to WHNB-TV (for Hartford-New Britain). This change came because NBC wanted the WNBC calls for its flagship radio and television combination in New York City.
In 1966 WHNB became, once again, one of two NBC affiliates in Connecticut: the network signed with WATR-TV (channel 20) in Waterbury in order to get its programming into New Haven on a strong signal. While WATR-TV was on UHF, television manufacturers were now required to include all-channel tuning. Channel 30 itself made up for the shortfall in its market coverage by operating two low-power translators (starting in 1971): W79AI in Torrington on channel 79 [1] and W59AA in New Haven on channel 59 [2].
Transcontinental/Balaban sold WHNB to Viacom in 1978. Viacom changed its call letters to WVIT (for "Viacom International Television") to reflect its new ownership. Viacom immediately announced plans to boost WVIT's signal. In 1980, channel 30 signed on with a new transmitter that more than doubled its coverage area, giving it a clear signal to New Haven for the first time. Even with the power boost, some areas of New Haven still didn't get a good signal, so the channel 59 repeater was kept in service. Viacom also beefed up WVIT's news operation, which had long been an also-ran behind WFSB and WTNH due to its weak signal in New Haven. After the signal boost, however, it became a factor in the ratings for the first time in decades. WVIT became the market's sole NBC affiliate in March 1982, when WATR-TV's affiliation contract with NBC ended and the station became independent WTXX (it is now WCCT-TV). The Torrington translator was turned off in 1987, and the New Haven repeater was shut down in the middle 1990s to allow full-powered WTVU (now WCTX) to begin operations.
Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, and all of Viacom's stations became part of the Paramount Stations Group. Within the next year, following the launch of the United Paramount Network venture it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries, Paramount/Viacom began to sell off its non-UPN affiliated stations. WVIT, which was Viacom's first station purchase in 1978, ended up being the last non-UPN outlet sold in 1997. As part of a three-way deal, which closed on December 8 of that year, WVIT was sold to former owner NBC, while Paramount/Viacom ended up with WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island and WWHO in Columbus, Ohio, two stations owned by Fant Broadcasting which NBC operated by way of local marketing agreements.
With NBC's second acquisition of the station came a greater investment into and expansion of the news department. For most of the time since the turn of the century, WVIT has waged a spirited battle with WTNH, with the two stations regularly trading the runner-up spot in the market behind long-dominant WFSB.
In August 2007; plans were finalized to begin construction of a new high-definition and "green" studio facility to replace the station's old studio, which had been in use since the station's inception. Ground was broken in October 2007, and construction was completed in Summer 2009. The new facility was constructed on the same plot of land as the old facility, and the old facility was later demolished. On July 16, 2009; WVIT moved into their new facility, and re-branded from NBC 30 to NBC Connecticut HD. In addition, WVIT began broadcasting newscasts in high definition, becoming the first station in the market to do so.
Current anchors
NBC Connecticut Weather Center
Sports team
Reporters
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