WAVY-TV

WAVY-TV, channel 10, is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Hampton Roads area (comprising the cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Newport News). WAVY is owned by LIN Television Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox affiliate WVBT (channel 43). The two stations share studios and offices in Portsmouth, and WAVY-TV broadcasts from a transmitter in located in Suffolk, Virginia.

Translators

In addition to its main signal, WAVY-TV is rebroadcast on seven translators. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} Both W30CI and W42DP are located in the Eastern Shore of Virginia and are municipally-owned by Accomack County rather than WAVY Broadcasting, LLC and LIN TV. The Translators located in the Greater Hampton Roads area are owned and operated by WAVY Broadcasting, LLC and LIN TV.

Digital Television

History

WAVY-TV, the Hampton Roads area's third-oldest VHF television station, began operations on September 1, 1957. It was originally owned by Tidewater Teleradio along with WAVY radio (1350 AM, now WGPL). The channel originally signed-on as an ABC affiliate but swapped with then-NBC affiliate WVEC-TV in 1959 due to its radio sister's long affiliation with NBC radio. In 1968, it became the second station owned by what was then known as LIN Broadcasting. WAND in Decatur, Illinois was the first owned by the company but was sold-off to a new owner in November 2007. As a result, WAVY-TV became the earliest station acquisition that is still owned by LIN TV through various ownership changes within the company along with one name change. In April 1989 WAVY-TV moved to their current studios located on Wavy Street in downtown Portsmouth, VA from their longtime studio's that was located in an another part of Portsmouth, VA of which was reported to be a former farmers market. WAVY-TV and WVBT-TV studios is located across the street from the nTelos Wireless Pavilion and near or across the street from the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, VA. Both WAVY-TV and sister station WVBT-TV share the same studios located on Wavy Street in Portsmouth, VA.

Shortly after WVBT became the area's WB affiliate in 1995, WAVY began operating that station though a local marketing agreement (LMA). LIN TV came to an affiliation agreement with Fox in November 1995 and WVBT became one of the company's affiliates with the network in August 1998. LIN TV purchased that station out-right in February 2002. WAVY was the first in the market to broadcast a digital signal in 2001. On June 12, 2009 at 9 in the morning, WAVY-TV's digital signal remained on channel 31 when the analog to digital conversion was completed.^[6]

CATV

In the 1970s and 1980s, WAVY was once received as far west in Halifax and Enfield in North Carolina. Lawrenceville, Brunswick County also once carried WAVY.^[7]

News operation

WAVY airs thirty hours of local news a week. It operates its own weather radar, called "Super Doppler 10", at it studios. It was the first in the area to air a local broadcast at 5:30 in the morning (beginning in 1992) and added weeknight 5:00 (in 1989) and 5:30 (in 1994) newscasts.^[8] It is known for being the first Hampton Roads station to use a helicopter to cover local news after introducing "Chopper 10" in 1982. The current Bell 206 Longranger helicopter has been used since 2000.^[9]

When WVBT made the switch to Fox in 1998, WAVY started producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on that station. It was not the market's first prime time show as CBS affiliate WTKR produced a short-lived newscast on WGNT from 1995 until 1997.^[10] ABC affiliate WVEC-TV also produced a prime time show on WPEN-LP from 1995 until it started LNC 4 (later LNC 5; now defunct) in 1997.^[11] WVEC continued to produce a 10 o'clock news on that station until January 30, 2009. The 45-minute broadcast on WVBT is followed by the Fox 43 Sports Wrap with sports news and highlights.

On July 21, 2008 at noon, WAVY and WVBT became the first stations in the market and their station group company to produce local newscasts in high definition. This is in contrast to rival WVEC's news being produced in 16:9 digital widescreen which is not true high definition but matches the ratio of HD television screens.^[12] WVBT added an hour-long extension of WAVY's weekday morning news on February 2, 2009. The show airs in an entertainment and lifestyle program format.

Until January 2007, WVBT operated a 24-hour local weather channel on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as the "WAVY Weather Station", it is now cable exclusive to address E/I requirement concerns although listings on zap2it.com continue to show it as airing over-the-air.^[13] It can be found on Mediacom channel 9, Charter channel 22, and Cox digital channel 227. There are live current conditions, updated forecasts, and a sweep of "Super Doppler 10". According to television listings on WVBT's website, it airs the "Fox AccuWeather Channel" on its second digital subchannel which contradicts zap2it.com and removal of the "WAVY Weather Station".^[14]

On September 12, 2011, The Hampton Roads Show, an hour-long local lifestyle and entertainment program, moved from WVBT at 8 a.m. to WAVY at 11 a.m. With the move, weekend sports anchor Chris Reckling became co-host.^[15]

WAVY Weather Station

The WAVY Weather Station is a local cable channel, formerly seen as a digital subchannel of WAVY-TV and later WVBT-TV 43.2. The WAVY Weather Station broadcasts taped weather segments by WAVY-TV's meteorologists. It also shows live Super Doppler 10 imagery and Super Doppler 10 WeatherNet data.

The WAVY Weather Station started in 1995 as Local Weather Station, or LWS. It was one of the first 24-hour cable weather channels for LIN TV, the name was also used on other LIN-owned stations such as WISH-TV and WANE-TV. The name was changed to WAVY Weather Station in 2003.

The WAVY Weather Station was available over-the-air as a digital subchannel, but was pulled around New Year's Day 2007 when FCC rules were tightened regarding E/I programming and EAS testing and alerts on subchannels.

The WAVY Weather Station can be seen on Cox Cable digital channel 227 in the Greater Hampton Roads area.^[16] The WAVY Weather Station can also be seen on other cable systems and channels across Hampton Roads, Northeastern North Carolina, Northern Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Eastern Shore of Virginia.^[17]

News team

Notable former staff

• Barbara Ciara, weekend co-anchor from 1983 until 1988, when she left for WVEC. Now working at WTKR.^[18] Also President of the National Association of Black Journalists
• Lloyd Dobyns, news co-anchor in the 1960s with Vern Jones. Later a correspondent and anchor with NBC News (1969–1986) where he hosted the news magazine Weekend from 1974-1979. Winner of a Peabody Award.^[19]
• Rhonda Glenn, weather reporter, talk show host and anchor in the 1960s and 1970s. Golf commentator for ABC (1978- ). First full-time national TV network female sportscaster (ESPN, February 6, 1981). Amateur golfer and author of dozens of magazine articles and books on the sport. Manager of Communications for the USGA.
• Hillary Howard, former weekend meteorologist during the late 1980s, now a host for WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C.
• Lisa Joyner, formerly at The Best Damn Sports Show Period, currently host of TV Guide Channel's inFANity.^[20]
• Diana Morgan, anchor-turned-actress, seen in series such as JAG, The Bold and the Beautiful, Babylon 5 and The West Wing and films such as Titanic.
• Byron Pitts, military reporter from 1984-86, now at CBS News^[21]
• Charles Pugh, anchor/reporter in the 1990s. Served as a weekend anchor and reporter at WJBK-TV in Detroit from 1999 - 2009.^[22] Currently president of the Detroit City Council.^[23]
• Thomas Roberts, consumer reporter/weekday afternoon co-anchor during late 1990s, former anchor at CNN Headline News, now an afternoon anchor at MSNBC.
• Marny Stanier, weekend meteorologist. Left for The Weather Channel in April 1987.
• Stan Verrett, now an anchor at ESPN and ESPNEWS, also worked for WVEC.
• Kelly Wright, now at Fox News Channel.
• Terry Zahn, joined as reporter and weekend anchor in 1981, became lead anchor in 1984, left in 1993 and joined WVEC in 1994, where he served as lead anchor until his death in 2000.

References

External links

• WAVY-TV website
• WAVY-TV mobile
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WAVY-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for WAVY-DT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WAVY-TV