WSBT-TV

WSBT-TV

South Bend, Indiana United States
Branding	WSBT (general) 22 WSBT News (newscasts)
Slogan	First, Fast, Accurate
Channels	Digital: 22 (UHF)
Subchannels	22.1 CBS 22.2 SBT2 22.3 Stormtracker WX
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Schurz Communications (WSBT, Inc.)
First air date	December 21, 1952
Call letters' meaning	South Bend Tribune
Sister station(s)	WSBT (AM), WNSN
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 34 (UHF, 1952–1957?) 22 (UHF, 1957?–2009) Digital: 30 (UHF, –2009)
Former affiliations	All secondary: NBC/ABC/DuMont (1952–1954) DT2: UPN (2003–2006)
Transmitter power	266 kW
Height	332.6 m
Facility ID	73983
Transmitter coordinates	41°37′0″N 86°13′1″W / 41.61667°N 86.21694°W / 41.61667; -86.21694
Website	www.wsbt.com

WSBT-TV, UHF digital channel 22, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in South Bend, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship television station of owner Schurz Communications. The station's studios are located on East Douglas Avenue in Mishawaka, and its transmitter is located in South Bend. Syndicated programming featured on the station includes Dr. Phil, Jeopardy!, Katie, Criminal Minds, America's Court with Judge Ross and Wheel of Fortune.

History

The station first signed on the air on December 21, 1952 and was founded by the Schurz family, the owners of the South Bend Tribune. WSBT-TV was originally affiliated with all four major networks of the time: it was a primary CBS affiliate with secondary affiliations with NBC, ABC and DuMont; it lost the latter three networks when WSJV (channel 28, now a Fox affiliate) signed on in March 1954. It was the first UHF station in the United States to produce a live telecast, a five-minute local news bulletin. Although WSBT has been the earliest UHF television station to have broadcast continuously, it has switched channels once during the analog era. Originally broadcasting on UHF channel 34, the station moved to channel 22 around 1958.

WSBT was the first station on UHF to telecast a high school basketball tournament, which came from John Adams High School. In 1953, WSBT-TV had several sports-related firsts. In the fall of that year, WSBT became the first television station in the country to present a closed-circuit telecast of a college football practice. This allowed Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy to direct the practice, as he was hospitalized at the time. WSBT-TV was also the first station in Indiana to broadcast in color, starting in 1954 in new studios designed by architect William Pereira.

WSBT logo, used from 1994 to 2013.

WSBT-TV is one of the very few stations to have had the same call letters, owner and primary network affiliation throughout its history as well as the only commercial television station in South Bend to remain owned by a locally-based company. When the Federal Communications Commission tightened its cross-ownership regulations in the 1970s to bar common ownership of television stations and newspapers in the same market, the combination of the Tribune and the WSBT radio and television stations were among the few such combinations that were grandfathered under those rules – a situation that remains in effect since all four of the media properties that were grandfathered remain owned by the Schurz family to this day. WSBT has the distinction of being the longest-tenured CBS affiliate in the state of Indiana.

The station unveiled its new studio facility in Mishawaka on November 16, 2008, beginning with the station's 10 p.m. newscast (which airs on its second digital subchannel). With the relocation, WSBT became the first station in South Bend to produce and broadcast its local programming in high definition. The television station joined the radio stations which began broadcasting from the new facility a few weeks earlier.^[1] The former WSBT studio building is now home to the area's PBS member station WNIT (channel 34).

On August 4, 2008, WSBT announced plans to purchase Weigel Broadcasting's three stations in the market, ABC affiliate WBND-LP (channel 57), CW affiliate WCWW-LP (channel 25) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYS-LP (channel 69). Since the three stations are all low-powered outlets, they are not counted under FCC ownership rules which permit common ownership of a full-power television station and one or more low-power stations. Alongside WSBT-DT's existing three channels, the purchase would have given Schurz Communications a total of six channels in the market across four stations, including two "Big Four" network affiliates. However, in the absence of action by the FCC, the deal was called off in August 2009.^[2]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

In 2003, WSBT launched a UPN-affiliated digital subchannel (branded as "UPN Michiana") on digital channel 22.2. WSBT-DT2 became an independent station in September 2006, when UPN shut down and its programming was merged with that of The WB to form The CW. At that point, "UPN Michiana" was rebranded as "SBT2".

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSBT-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, 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 relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 30 to its former analog UHF channel 22 for post-transition operations.^[4]

News operation

WSBT-TV presently broadcasts 25½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and one hour on Sundays). The station maintains a news and weather content agreement with its associated radio stations WSBT (960 AM) and WNSN (101.5 FM) as well as Douglas Road Radio-owned WHFB-FM (99.9) and WZOC (94.3 FM); it also partners with the South Bend Tribune, the newspaper which founded the station, with news stories seen in the Tribune and to provide weather forecasts.

On September 5, 2006, the station began producing a half-hour weeknight 10 p.m. newscast on its second digital subchannel (currently branded as WSBT News at 10 on SBT2), after WSBT-DT2 lost its UPN affiliation. On November 16, 2008, WSBT became the first television station in the South Bend market to being broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. With the switch to HD, WSBT moved from its old studios after 53 years in South Bend, to a new all-digital, state-of-the-art facility in Mishawaka. The upgrade also included a brand new studio, weather center and graphics package.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• The Early Report/The Late Report (19?–1978)
• 22 Eyewitness News (1978–1983)
• WSBT Eyewitness News (1983–1994)
• WSBT News 22 (1994–2007)
• WSBT News (2007–2011)
• 22 WSBT News (2011–present)

Station slogans

• Channel 22, Go for It! (1970s)
• Your Hometown Station (1990–1994)
• Michiana's News Channel/Live, Local, Latebreaking (1994–1997)
• Together, Making a Difference (1997–2007)
• Your Local News Leader (2007–2013)
• First, Fast, Accurate (2013–present)

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On-air staff

Current on-air staff^[5]

Anchors

• Kristin Bien - Saturday mornings; also weekday morning reporter
• Jennifer Copeland - weeknights at 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m.
• Diane Daniels - weekend evenings; also freelance reporter
• Bob Montgomery - weekday mornings on First Thing in the Morning (5-7 a.m.)
• Rick Schutt - weeknights at 5, 6, 10 (on WSBT-DT2) and 11 p.m.
• Leanne Tokars - weekday mornings on First Thing in the Morning (5-7 a.m.)
• Cindy Ward - weeknights at 5:30 and 11 p.m.

Weather team

• Paul Emmick (member, AMS) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 10 (on WSBT-DT2) and 11 p.m.
• Cari Peugeot (member, AMS) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on First Thing in the Morning (5-7 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
• Matt Rudkin (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturday mornings and weekend evenings
• Abby Weppler - meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 5:30 p.m., also heard weekday mornings on WNSN radio

Sports team

• Pete Byrne - sports director; weeknights at 6, 10 and 11 p.m.
• Carl Deffenbaugh - sports reporter; weekend evenings

Reporters

• Annie Chang - general assignment reporter
• Chad Damp - general assignment and sports reporter
• Ed Ernstes - general assignment reporter
• James Fillmore - multimedia journalist
• Rachel Lake - multimedia journalist
• Ted Land - general assignment reporter
• Kelli Stopczynski - weeknight 5 and 6 p.m. reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Sage Steele - reporter (1995–1997; now at ESPN)^[6]
• Kate Sullivan - reporter (now anchor at WBBM-TV in Chicago)

References

External links

• Official website
• SBT2 website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSBT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WSBT-TV