WAGT

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WAGT
WAGT/NBC Augusta logo
CW Augusta logo
Augusta, Georgia (United States)
Branding NBC Augusta
NBC Augusta 26
The CW Augusta (DT2)
Slogan We're Augusta's Great Television / Straight to the Point. / Your News. Your Choice.
Channels

Digital: 30 (UHF)
Subchannels 26.1 NBC
26.2 The CW
Owner Schurz Communications, Inc.
(WAGT Television, Inc.)
First air date December 24, 1968
Call letters’ meaning We're
Augusta's
Great
Television
Former callsigns WATU-TV (1968-1981)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
26 (1968-2009)
Former affiliations NBC (primary, 1968-1970)
silent (1970-1974)
Transmitter Power 400 kW
Height 483 m
Facility ID 70699
Transmitter Coordinates 33°24′20.7″N 81°50′0.5″W / 33.40575°N 81.833472°W / 33.40575; -81.833472 (digital)
Website www.nbcaugusta.com
www.cwaugusta.com
www.wagt.com

WAGT is an NBC-affiliated television station located in the Augusta, Georgia (United States) television market. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 30. Its transmitter is located in Beech Island, South Carolina.

WAGT also carries an affiliation with the CW Television Network on its second digital subchannel (26.2), known as "The CW Augusta".

Contents

[edit] Digital TV

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel Programming
26.1 / 30.1 NBC Augusta (NBC)
26.2 / 30.2 The CW Augusta (The CW)

[edit] History

WAGT began operations on December 24 (Christmas Eve), 1968 as WATU-TV, the third television station in Augusta; two Washington, D.C.-based men, Harold Twisdale and David Steel, were the leaders of the original ownership group[1]. Unfortunately, the station became another of numerous UHF start-ups of that era to fail to obtain a foothold against long-established VHF competition, as the new channel 26 found it impossible to obtain a full-time network affiliation. Its two competitors, WJBF (channel 6) and WRDW-TV (channel 12) both had secondary NBC affiliations and both aired many NBC programs. In fact, it was not unusual for tape-delayed NBC programs to air on both WJBF and WRDW-TV between 7 and 7:30 p.m., before their respective networks' prime-time feeds began for the evening; WJBF also aired NBC's Today and Tonight shows. Mainly because of this situation, WATU went dark in 1970. Finally, WATU obtained a primary NBC affiliation in 1974 and returned to the air; WJBF and WRDW-TV eventually dropped all their NBC programing.

Twisdale and Steel sold WATU to local businessmen Thomas Jones and Francis Robertson, operating as Augusta Telecasters, Inc., in the late 1970s[2]. Jones and Robertson, in turn, sold to Schurz Communications in 1980. WATU changed its call letters to WAGT in late 1981. For much of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the station used the branding "26 Power."

On September 21, 1995, its news debuted under the name 26 News. Before September 1995, WAGT had virtually no newscasts aside from cut-ins during Today and Top 'o the Day, a 30-minute weekday noon news and lifestyle show. Top 'o the Day was first hosted by Judith Upchurch and Reese LeRoy. Upchurch was later replaced with Kathy Marks, who was one of the main anchors at Augusta's WJBF in the 1980s.

Over the years WAGT changed its branding, adopting variations like 26 Action News. WAGT finally re-branded in 2003 as WAGT News; between 2003 and 2005, Action News was completely phased out, along with the "3D Weather" or "3-Degree Guarantee" weather segment.

In 2005, the newscasts were branded NBC 26 News, completely phasing out the call letters "WAGT" in most, but not all station graphics and logos (due to the fact their graphics package by design company Television By Design, was less than a year old and still carried the WAGT NEWS monikor) Along with this rebrand came new changes, like updates to the news set, graphics, and StormTracker Live Doppler Radar. In early 2007, WAGT once again changed its identity to prepare for the digital phase-out of channel numbers in February 2009, this time to "NBC Augusta", which resulted in the complete phase out of the channel number "26" out, making the station resemble its digital subchannel sister, CW Augusta. In 2008, WAGT began branding in several voice promos and during newscasts referring to themselves as "NBC Augusta 26", however, there were no major graphical changes due to the new "NBC Augusta" graphics by Giant Octopus are still less than a year old.

In 2009, the bug logo on the newscast introduced a modified "NBC Augusta" logo with a bold Century Gothic typeface "26" off to the right of the logo. There have been several voice-over sequences within promos and graphics that have updated the branding to "NBC Augusta 26" without a change in graphics. However, the main station graphics, their website, and the station's weather cut-ins during programming hours still brand as "NBC Augusta". At this point, WAGT brands as either "NBC Augusta", "NBC Augusta 26", "26 News", or "NBC 26 News". Changes to the logo in main graphics have not been seen yet.

The longest serving current anchor is Chief Meteorologist Jeff Rucker, who joined the station in 1999. Chris Kane, sports director from 1997 to 2006, left to join The Golf Channel, but returned to Augusta in 2008 as weekend sports anchor on rival station, WJBF. A few months later the longest running sports anchor in Augusta History, Stan Byrdy, joined NBC Augusta as sports director and served that position until July 2009. At the same time in just as big a surprise popular weather forecaster Jay Jefferies, who had just left WRDW-TV after a decade on the air, took a full-time position at NBC Augusta. These moves along with moving Bridgett Williams to evenings and hiring Georgia native Trent Butler as anchor has given the station a long needed boost in experienced players.

[edit] The CW Augusta

The CW Augusta logo

The CW Augusta, the local CW affiliate, broadcasts from WAGT's digital signal on UHF channel 30.2 / 26.2.

The station first opened on September 18, 2006 as the replacement of the market's UPN and WB affiliates (digital WRDW-DT2 and cable-only "WBAU"), due to the Time Warner/CBS merger of the UPN and WB networks.

WAGT continued their News at Ten newscasts on this new station under the name CW Augusta Now in 2006. The newscast was tailored towards more younger audiences, and was anchored by Liz Hill. On Monday, April 23 2007, CW Augusta Now was discontinued and replaced with NBC Augusta News at 10, a more traditional newscast. Liz Hill now anchors the morning newscast.

As of April 2008, NBC Augusta News at 10:00 was discontinued as well, and instead brings CW programming to the time slot.

[edit] Station branding

WAGT studios in 2006, featuring former "WAGT Augusta" branding. The building has since been updated with current "NBC Augusta"/"The CW Augusta" logos.
  • "TV-26" (1981-1986)
  • "26 Power" (1986-1995)
  • "26 News" (1995-1998)1
  • "Action News/26 Action News" (1998-2003)
  • "WAGT News" (2003-2005)
  • "NBC 26 News" (2005-2006)1
  • "NBC Augusta" (2007-present)
  • "NBC Augusta 26" (2008-present)

1Still used on occasion in newscasts to shorten the "NBC Augusta 26" branding.

[edit] Current on-air personalities

[edit] Anchors

[edit] Reporters

[edit] Weather

[edit] Sports

[edit] Past on-air personalities

  • Judy Alley, morning anchor/reporter (?)
  • Andy Andersen, chief meteorologist (1995-1998, now at KCEN-TV, Waco, Texas)
  • John Appicello, sports director (1995-1997, now at WSLS-TV, Roanoke, Virginia)
  • Ben Baker, sports anchor/reporter (2002-2004, was at WCIV-TV)
  • Jeff Bidwell, sports anchor/reporter (now in Paducah)
  • Bob Bonner, sports anchor/reporter (now at WECT, Wilmington)
  • Jason Boyer, general assignment reporter (2006-2007)
  • George Brown, consumer reporter/anchor (1997-2001, now at WMC-TV, Memphis)
  • Michael Buczyner, investigative/general assignment reporter (2005-2008, now at WBFF-TV, Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Stan Byrdy, Sports Director (? - 2009)
  • Bruce Capers, chief meteorologist (1998-1999)
  • Amy Cowman, anchor/reporter (2004-2006, now at WHBQ-TV)
  • Barbara Dawson, general assignment reporter (1999-2002, joined rival ABC station, WJBF, 2002-2004)
  • Rich Everitt, anchor/reporter (2001-2004, now owner of local production company)
  • Brooke Foster, meteorologist (2005-2006, now at KECI-TV)
  • Stacy Fronczak, weather forecaster (1999-?)
  • Neil Gordon, consumer reporter/anchor/reporter/news director (hosted "Buzz on Biz" segment on WRDW-TV and show on WNRR-AM until 2009. Returned to WAGT with "Buzz on Biz" in 2009 and moved to WRDW-AM)
  • Chrystina Head, general assignment reporter (2003-2005, now at WITI-TV)
  • Jesse Horne, morning editor/photographer,(1999-2000, now at KUSA-TV)
  • John Impemba, general assignment reporter (2006-2006, died in fall of 2006)
  • Danielle Johnson, general assignment reporter (?-2008)
  • Mechelle Jordan, anchor/reporter (1995-2003, now at KYTX)
  • Chris Kane, sports anchor/sports director (1997-2006, now at rival ABC station, WJBF)
  • Diane Keller, meteorologist (1996-?)
  • Tom Knight, meteorologist (?-2003, now retired, fills-in occasionally)
  • Cassandra Lawton (IMDb), anchor/Reporter (1995-?, while at WAGT appeared in a bit (news anchor) role in That Darn Cat 1997 remake, scene filmed at WAGT studios)
  • Richard Lom, morning anchor/reporter (1997-2000, now at WLEX, Lexington)
  • Chris Maddox, meteorologist (2000-2005, now freelance meteorologist with WAAY, Huntsville, Alabama)
  • Stephanie Maxwell, reporter/anchor (2001-2003, now at WHNS-TV)
  • Leon Moore, weekend anchor/reporter (2001-2004)
  • Will Nunley, now owner of WNRR-AM
  • Steve Parrett, anchor/reporter (1995-?)
  • Mike Petchenik, weekend anchor/reporter (2001-2005, now at WLKY-TV)
  • Jim Pinkerton, anchor/reporter/assistant news director (2002-2006, now at WSBT-TV)
  • Ben Peine, morning meteorologist (2005-2008, now at WHAS-TV)
  • Joshua Quinn, general assignment reporter (2002-2006, now at WISN-TV)
  • Danielle Reese, anchor/reporter (1997-2004)
  • Creshon Saunders, weekend anchor/reporter (?, now at WRBL-TV)
  • Dave Terlizzi, meteorologist (?-2005)
  • Tina Terry, weekend anchor/reporter (2003-2008)
  • Darin Wernig, sports anchor/reporter (?-2006)
  • Clint Wilson, general assignment reporter (2004-2005)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1969
  2. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1979

[edit] See also

Television portal
State of Georgia portal

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGT"
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