WBAL-TV

WBAL-TV

Baltimore, Maryland
Branding	WBAL-TV 11 (general) WBAL-TV 11 News, 11 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Live. Local. Latebreaking.
Channels	Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels	11.1 NBC 11.2 WBAL Plus
Affiliations	NBC (1948-1981 and 1995-present)
Owner	Hearst Television (WBAL Hearst Television, Inc.)
First air date	March 11, 1948
Call letters' meaning	BALtimore
Sister station(s)	WBAL, WIYY
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 11 (VHF, 1948-2009) Digital: 59 (UHF)
Former affiliations	CBS (1981–1995)
Transmitter power	5 kW
Height	299 m
Facility ID	65696
Transmitter coordinates	39°20′5″N 76°39′3″W
Website	www.wbaltv.com

WBAL-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11. It is one of the flagship stations of Hearst Television, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, which also owns sister radio stations WBAL (1090 AM) and WIYY (97.9 FM). The three stations share a studio and office facility on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, near the transmitting tower WBAL-TV shares with WIYY and four other Baltimore television stations. Syndicated programming includes Live with Kelly, The Nate Berkus Show, Anderson, The Dr. Oz Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, with Inside Edition, and Access Hollywood.

Digital television

On digital subchannel 11.2, Comcast Xfinity digital channel 208, and Verizon FiOS channel 460 is WBAL Plus; Programming on the channel consists of local weather information under the "11 Insta-Weather Plus" branding, newscasts and other special programming. It launched in August 2005 as "11 Insta-Weather Plus", an affiliate of NBC Weather Plus until the network dissolved in November 2008; after that, the subchannel carried automated local and regional weather information provided by NBC Plus until April 2009, when the current programming format was adopted. On March 5, 2012, WBAL will launch a 10 p.m. newscast on WBAL Plus.

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
11.1	1080i	16:9	Main WBAL-TV programming / NBC
11.2	480i	4:3	WBAL Plus

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBAL-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009 , as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station had been broadcasting its pre-transition digital signal over UHF channel 59, but returned to channel 11 for its post-transition operations. Several VHF digital stations received permission for a power increase later that month after stations experienced signal problems as a result of changing their digital channel from UHF to VHF. WBAL-TV chose to test its equipment before making a commitment.

History

WBAL-TV began operations on March 11, 1948 from its original studios on North Charles Street in Downtown Baltimore. It was owned by Hearst Corporation along with WBAL radio and two newspapers, the Baltimore News-Post and the Baltimore American (which later merged as the Baltimore News-American before shutting down in 1986). It is one of two Hearst-owned stations to have been built from the ground up by the company (the other being Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV), and the oldest to be continuously owned by Hearst through their various television subsidiaries through the years.

At its launch, WBAL-TV was an NBC affiliate. Early programming include Musical Almanac, Look and Cook, and Know Baltimore, along with news and sports productions. In the 1950s, the station introduced Romper Room, Baltimore's first live morning variety show. This show eventually became a nationally franchised program. Another long-running show of the 1950s was the weekday Quiz Club, co-hosted by local personalities Brent Gunts and Jay Grayson. Baltimore Sun columnist Jacques Kelly described it at the time of Grayson's death in June 2000, as "pure 1950s live television ... executed on a low budget ... the genial hosts ... ruled the 1 p.m. airwaves".

WBAL-TV produced several local bowling shows in the 1960s and early 1970s, including Strikes and Spares, Pinbusters, Duckpins for Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, and Spare Time. The station even went as far as building bowling alleys at its studios. It also launched several children's entertainment shows during this period, such as Rhea and Sunshine, Pete the Pirate, P.W. Doodle, Heads Up, and the teen-oriented Kirby Scott Show.

WBAL-TV's first stint as an NBC affiliate ended on August 30, 1981, when the station swapped affiliations with WMAR-TV (channel 2), then owned by the Baltimore Sun, and became a CBS affiliate. CBS was not pleased with WMAR-TV's frequent pre-emptions and low news ratings. As a CBS affiliate, however, channel 11 pre-empted an hour of the network's daytime schedule everyday, as well as half of its Saturday cartoon lineup. Channel 11 also did not run CBS's late night programming. Baltimore viewers who wanted to see the entire CBS line-up could do so through WDVM-TV/WUSA in Washington, D.C., which was available over-the-air in most of the Baltimore area and pre-empted little network programming.

The WBAL-TV studio and office facility, on Television Hill in Baltimore.

In 1994, the E.W. Scripps Company, the present owners of WMAR-TV, negotiated with ABC to affiliate with its Baltimore station as part of a multi-station deal. In response, CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting formed a partnership (they later merged) resulting in the CBS affiliation moving from WBAL-TV to Westinghouse's WJZ-TV (channel 13), Baltimore's longtime ABC affiliate. Largely by default, channel 11 rejoined the NBC network on January 2, 1995, and has remained the market's NBC affiliate since then. It should be noted that WBAL-TV had been invited to switch affiliations to ABC in 1977 (when ABC was the number-one network in primetime), and turned them down out of concerns about the poor ratings for ABC's evening newscasts.

The station was a prominent feature in the movie Diner, set in Baltimore. One of the character's girlfriends works there, and another character watches College Bowl, an NBC program aired on WBAL-TV.

WBAL is one of the few NBC affiliates that does not air the fourth hour of Today. Excluding most regular season games (seen mostly on WJZ), WBAL is the official station of the Baltimore Ravens, and aired most of their regular season games in 1996 and 1997. WBAL produces and airs the majority of the team's preseason games, but will use the NBC network feed if NBC picks up a Ravens preseason game for telecast.

News operation

For many years, WBAL-TV had waged a spirited battle for first place in the ratings with WJZ-TV. For example, In 1974, WBAL introduced the Action News format to Baltimore. Characterized by short, usually 90 second, news "packages" and upbeat introductory news themes, Baltimore's Action News briefly replaced Channel 13 as the number one news station in Baltimore during the mid-seventies. The architect of the success was news director Ron Kershaw, who had come to Baltimore from Texas and was considered somewhat ahead of his time. He brought in talented anchors like Sue Simmons and Spencer Christian and streamlined the news operation. Kershaw later brought other innovations to WNBC-TV in New York and WBBM-TV in Chicago as news director at those stations. Since the late 1980s, it has been branded News 11, WBAL-TV 11 News, or just simply 11 News.

From the early 1960s through the 1970s, WBAL-TV was the ratings leader in Baltimore. WJZ-TV took the lead in the 1970s and held it for 30 years, but WBAL-TV was a strong runner-up for most of that time. In recent years, WBAL-TV's newscasts placed first at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. However, in the November 2009 Nielsen ratings sweeps period—the first since the debut of The Jay Leno Show - WBAL's 11 p.m. newscast fell precipitously from first to a distant second behind WJZ. (By contrast, the 11 p.m. newscast on WRC-TV in nearby Washington, D.C. was one of the least affected late-night newscasts of any NBC affiliate or O&O in the country; it continued to dominate its competitors). WBAL still leads at 5 and 6 p.m. With NBC taking Leno off of prime-time in February 2010, it could take some time before the 11 o'clock newscast would regain the lead.

WBAL-TV lent then-meteorologist Sandra Shaw to Hearst-Argyle sister station WDSU-TV in New Orleans on September 1, 2008, to assist with the Louisiana station's coverage of Hurricane Gustav.

On January 3, 2009, WBAL-TV became the second station in Baltimore (behind WBFF-TV) to launch local news and weather in high definition. Only the in-studio cameras and the stations' helicopter were in HD at the time of the switch. For over a year, most field reports were still in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. Most field reports are currently shot in 16:9 widescreen enhanced definition. Starting on Monday, March 5 will be the the premiere of 11 News at 10 on WBAL Plus, which will make the second station in Baltimore with a 10 p.m. newscast.

Awards and achievements

WBAL-TV has boasted many television firsts, including:

• the first Baltimore television station to broadcast in color;
• the first station in Maryland (and the eighth in the world) to acquire a videotape cartridge machine;
• the first station in Baltimore to acquire a mobile satellite news-gathering system (dubbed "NEWSTAR 11");
• the first Baltimore station to hire an African-American news anchor and an African-American news director.

In addition, WBAL-TV became the first Baltimore TV station to win a Peabody Award for local news coverage (and the first Baltimore television station to win the award in any category in more than fifty years). WBAL's "11 News" was also awarded as one of the top three Best Television Newscasts by the National Headliners Association, alongside WFAA-TV in Dallas, and sister station WCVB-TV in Boston.

Other awards include:

• regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, the George Polk Award and the American Bar Association Gavel Award - for excellence in reporting and journalism;
• Outstanding television news operation in Baltimore (by the Associated Press and United Press International)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

WBAL-TV reporters Deborah Weiner and Jayne Miller prepare for a live shot during the funeral of former Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer, April 27, 2011

Anchors

• Kate Amara - weeknights at 10 p.m. on WBAL Plus (beginning March 5, 2012)
• Mindy Basara - weekday mornings 11 News Today (5-7 a.m. on WBAL; 7-8 a.m. on WBAL-DT2); also investigative reporter
• Sarah Caldwell - weekdays at noon; also weekday morning traffic reporter ("Traffic Pulse 11")
• Rod Daniels - weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Donna Hamilton - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.; also "Health Alert" reporter
• Lisa Robinson - weekend mornings; also host of "11 TV Hill" and investigative/general assignment reporter
• Stan Stovall - weekday mornings 11 News Today (5-7 a.m. on WBAL; 7-8 a.m. on WBAL-DT2) and weeknights at 5 p.m.
• Deborah Weiner - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also investigative reporter

InstaWeather+

• Tom Tasselmyer (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights and 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
• John Collins (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., and Thursdays at noon
• Ava Marie - meteorologist; Monday-Thursday mornings 11 News Today, Monday-Wednesdays at noon and Sunday mornings
• Tony Pann (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Tuesday-Friday 11 News Today, Saturday Mornings 11 News Saturday Morning and Fridays at noon

11 Sports

• Gerry Sandusky - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Pete Gilbert - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., also sports reporter
• Keith Mills - sports anchor; weekday mornings 11 News Today

Reporters

Veteran WBAL-TV reporter Rob Roblin, April 27, 2011.

• Kerry Cavanaugh - general assignment reporter
• David Collins - general assignment and investigative reporter
• Kim Dacey - general assignment reporter; also fill-in traffic reporter ("Traffic Pulse 11")
• Sheldon Dutes - general assignment reporter
• Jennifer Franciotti - general assignment reporter
• Lowell Melser - general assignment reporter
• Jayne Miller - chief investigative reporter
• Kai Reed - general assignment reporter
• Rob Roblin - general assignment reporter
• Barry Simms - general assignment and investigative reporter
• Roy Taylor - "SkyTeam 11" pilot reporter
• Tim Tooten - education reporter

Hearst Television Washington Bureau

• Sally Kidd - Hearst Washington bureau reporter
• Nikole Killion - Hearst Washington bureau reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Curt Anderson (now in the Maryland General Assembly)
• Sade Baderinwa (now with WABC-TV in New York City)
• Campbell Brown (formerly at CNN)
• Ron Canada - newscaster during the 1970s and early '80s (now working as an actor)
• Spencer Christian (now with KGO-TV in San Francisco)
• Carol Costello (now at CNN)
• Jay Grayson - co-host of the weekday Quiz Club in the 1950s
• Brent Gunts - on-air personality in the 1950s who became the station's vice president and general manager for 14 years, until 1973
• Mike Hambrick
• Al Herndon - pioneering 1950s weatherman who wore a gas station attendant's uniform while delivering the forecast
• Rolf Hertsgaard - evening news anchorman for 15 years in the 1950s and 1960s
• Vicki Mabrey (now with ABC News)
• Ruth Ann "Rudy" Miller, reporter in the 1970s and then anchor in the 1980s (filed EEOC lawsuit after being fired)
• Royal Parker (1962-mid 1990s)
• Lisa Salters (now with ESPN)
• Sue Simmons (now with WNBC-TV in New York City)
• Ron Smith (died on December 19, 2011 at age 70, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer)
• Julius Westheimer

External links

• Official website
• WBAL-TV History
• WBAL-TV's YouTube Video Channel
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBAL-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WBAL-TV