WRIC-TV

WRIC-TV

Petersburg/Richmond, Virginia
Branding	WRIC-TV 8 (general) 8 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Central Virginia's Fastest Growing News Station
Channels	Digital: 22 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Media General (Young Broadcasting of Richmond, Inc.)
First air date	August 15, 1955 (1955-08-15)
Call letters' meaning	W-RIChmond
Former callsigns	WXEX-TV (1955-1990)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 8 (VHF, 1955-2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1955-1965)
Transmitter power	850 kW (digital)
Height	328 m (digital)
Facility ID	74416
Transmitter coordinates	37°30′45″N 77°36′5″W / 37.51250°N 77.60139°W / 37.51250; -77.60139
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.wric.com

WRIC-TV, virtual channel 8 (digital channel 22), is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Richmond, Virginia market. It is owned by Richmond-based Media General, as one of two flagship stations. The station is licensed to nearby Petersburg, while its studios are just off the Powhite Parkway extension (State Route 76) in the Arboretum office park in western Chesterfield County. Its transmitter is located in Bon Air. Syndicated programming on WRIC includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dr. Phil, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Steve Harvey, and The 700 Club.

History

The station began operation in 1955 as WXEX-TV, an NBC affiliate. It was originally licensed to Petersburg and was owned by Thomas Tinsley along with WLEE radio. Channel 8's transmitter was located in the Bermuda Hundred area of eastern Chesterfield County. Originally, it didn't cover Richmond nearly as well as did WTVR-TV (channel 6) and WRVA-TV (channel 12, now WWBT). The main studios were located in Petersburg. At first, a Richmond sales office was located at WLEE's studios on West Broad Street in Richmond; later, satellite studios were established just off Midlothian Turnpike in Bon Air, a suburb of Richmond.

The station swapped affiliations with channel 12 in 1965 and became and ABC affiliate. It has been with that network ever since. In 1968, the station (along with sister station WLEE-AM) was sold to Nationwide Communications. In 1969, a fire destroyed its original Petersburg studios. For a few weeks, the station had to broadcast from its transmitter, then set up temporary offices and studios in a vacated store in Petersburg. The station later moved in a brand new facility on Crater Road that it named Blandford Manor. In 1981, Nationwide sold off sister station WLEE-AM.

WXEX's call letters were changed on April 23, 1990 to WRIC-TV and the station moved its studios to the current location in Chesterfield County. However, it is still licensed to Petersburg; unlike the other stations in the market, it identifies as "Petersburg/Richmond." Nationwide would sell all three of its ABC-affiliated television stations, including WRIC, to Young Broadcasting in 1993.

The station's owner, Young Broadcasting, went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. The station was part of a bankruptcy auction scheduled for July 14, 2009 but cancelled at the last minute.^[1] On July 22, a bankruptcy judge approved a plan in which Young's secured lenders would take over the company.

On September 28, 2011, WRIC-TV became the third commercial station (behind WWBT and WTVR) in Richmond to broadcast local news in high definition.

On November 1, 2011, WRIC-TV ceased to carry The Country Network on the station's 8.2 sub-channel after Young terminated their deal with TCN and dropped the channel on all of its stations that carried it. After Young made a deal to carry ABC's Live Well Network, it launched on June 1, 2012 on WRIC's 8.2 virtual sub-channel.

On June 6, 2013, Young Broadcasting announced that it would merge with Media General. Upon consummation, the merger made WRIC-TV one of two flagships of Media General (along with WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida) since Media General is headquartered in Richmond. It was the first legal opportunity for Media General in years to own a station in their home market, as they were unable to acquire the license for WWBT in 1956 due to the FCC's preference for a non-newspaper owner, and had to immediately unload WTVR in 1997 when it merged with WTVR's then-parent company due to cross-ownership restrictions involving the flagship Richmond Times-Dispatch, which was sold with Media General's newspaper business in 2012 to BH Media.^[2] The merger was approved on November 8, after Media General shareholders approved the merger a day earlier;^[3] it was completed on November 12.^[4]

Digital Television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WRIC-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 22.^[6] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers continues to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8.1.

News operation

News team^[7]

Anchors

• Ava-Joye Burnett - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Juan Conde - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Gene Cox - weeknights at 5:30 p.m.
• Morgan Dean - weekday mornings on Good Morning Richmond (4:30-7) and weekdays at 9 a.m.
• Christina Feerick - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Amy Lacey - weeknights at 5:30 p.m.
• Amie McLain - weekday mornings on Good Morning Richmond (4:30-7) and weekdays at 9 a.m.
• Kerri O'Brien - weekdays at noon
• Katelyn Sherwood - weekend mornings on Good Morning Richmond: Weekend (6-7 and 8-9 a.m.)

8 News Stormtracker Weather

• John Bernier (AMS Seal of Approval; member, NWA) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Katie Dupree - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., also general assignment and Wednesday-Friday morning traffic reporter (4:30-7 and 9-10 a.m.)
• Matt DiNardo (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Good Morning Richmond (4:30-7) and weekdays at 9 a.m. and noon
• Tim Pandajis (member, AMS) - meteorologist; weekend mornings on Good Morning Richmond: Weekend (6-7 and 8-9 a.m.), also Monday-Tuesday traffic reporter (4:30-7 and 9-10 a.m.)

Sports team

• Phil Orban - sports director/anchor; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Mitch Carr - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.

Reporters

• Ava-Joye Burnett - video journalist
• Sydney Cameron - video journalist
• Nate Eaton - general assignment reporter
• A.J. Lagoe - investigative reporter
• Josh Landon - general assignment reporter
• Kerri O'Brien - investigative reporter
• Claudia Rupcich - video journalist
• Katelyn Sherwood - video journalist
• Parker Slaybaugh - video journalist
• Mark Tenia - video journalist
• Tim Wronka - video journalist
• Nadeen Yanes - video journalist

Former on-air staff

• Anita Blanton - anchor/reporter (later at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, now at WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia)^[8]
• Bill Bowman - host of "Shock Theatre" (1970–76) ^[9]
• Tracy Butler - meteorologist (now with WLS-TV in Chicago)^[10]
• Derricke Dennis - Reporter (1997-1999; now a correspondent at WCBS-TV in New York) ^[11]
• Jason Guy - reporter and fill-in anchor (now at WESH/WKCF in Orlando, Florida) ^[12]
• Matt Lauer - host of "PM Magazine" (1980s; now with NBC News and host of Today)
• Mara MacDonald - reporter
• Chesley McNeil - meteorologist (now at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia) ^[13]
• Carole Meekins - anchor (now at WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee)^[14]
• Paul Milliken- morning meteorologist and traffic reporter (now at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia) ^[15]
• Jason Myers - meteorologist (now at WTVQ in Lexington, Kentucky)^[16]
• Lisa Schaffner - 6 and 11 p.m. news co-anchor (now public relations and marketing director for United Network for Organ Sharing)^[17]
• Wilma Smith - News Anchor and "Wilma Smith Show" host (1970s; later at WEWS-TV, then at WJW in Cleveland; retired from broadcasting on March 2013)^[18]
• Chip Tarkenton - sports director. Now the Director of Community Relations for Owens & Minor.
• Cheryl Tan - weekend anchor and reporter in the 1990s (now weekday morning traffic anchor, fill-in co-anchor and reporter at WAVY-TV and WVBT in Portsmouth, Virginia)^[19]
• Ric Young - weeknight 6 and 11 p.m co-anchor from April 1993 - April 1999 (later at rival WTVR-TV from August 1999 - January 2009; now a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and a host/writer and producer at the Voice of Russia Radio Network in Washington, D.C. and New York, New York)^[20]
• Gwen Williams - weather reporter and later anchor/reporter - 1992-2009. Currently the Director of Marketing and Communications at Virginia State University ^[21]
• Bruce Cunningham - sports director - 1977-79. Now at WBFF-TV Baltimore ^[22]

Newscast Titles

• The WXEX-TV Newsreel (1955-1960)
• The Big News (1960-1965)
• The 6 o'clock Report/The 11 o'clock Report (1965-1968)
• TV-8 Eyewitness News (1968-1992)
• TV-8 News (1992-1993)
• 8 News (1993–Present)

Station Slogans

• 8 is Great (early 1970s)
• Richmond's Choice for News (mid 1970s)
• TV-8 is Yours (late 1970s)
• Channel 8 and You (early 1980s)
• Eight is On Your Side (1989-early 1990s)
• Making a Difference (early 1990s-1995)
• Richmond's News People (1995-late 1990s)
• Live, Local, Late Breaking (late 1990s-2004)
• Straight to the Point (2004-2012)
• Richmond's Fastest Growing News Station (2012-2013)
• Central Virginia's Fastest Growing News Station (2013-present; slogan was later changed)

References

External links

• WRIC.com - Official Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRIC-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for WRIC
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WRIC-TV