WCHS-TV
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| Charleston/Huntington, West Virginia | |
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| Branding | WCHS-TV 8 (general) Eyewitness News 8 |
| Slogan | Eyewitness News is On Your Side |
| Channels | Digital: 41 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | 8.1 ABC 8.2 TheCoolTV |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (WCHS Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | August 15, 1954 |
| Call letters' meaning | CHarleSton |
| Sister station(s) | WVAH-TV |
| Former channel number(s) | 8 (VHF analog, 1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1954-1958, 1962-1986) ABC (1958-1962) |
| Transmitter power | 475 kW |
| Height | 514.1 m |
| Facility ID | 71280 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°24′28.7″N 81°54′12.4″W / 38.407972°N 81.903444°W |
| Website | wchstv.com |
WCHS-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia. This area is the second-largest market in terms of area east of the Mississippi River and consists of 61 counties in Central West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Southern Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter south of Scott Depot along the Putnam and Kanawha County line.
Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station operates Fox affiliate WVAH-TV (owned by Cunningham Broadcasting) through a local marketing agreement (LMA). The two share studios on Piedmont Road in Charleston along I-64/I-77. Syndicated programming on WCHS includes: Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, The Nate Berkus Show and Anderson.
Contents |
[edit] Digital programming
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 8.1 | Main WCHS-TV programming / ABC |
| 8.2 | TheCoolTV |
[edit] History
WCHS-TV signed-on August 15, 1954 airing an analog signal on VHF channel 8. It was owned by the Tierney Company along with WCHS-AM 580 which is now owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation. The station was actually the second in Charleston after WKNA-TV. That channel had launched on UHF channel 49 as an ABC affiliate in 1953 but went dark in 1955 due to lack of viewership. Originally a CBS station with secondary ABC affiliation, WCHS became a full CBS affiliate when WHTN-TV in Huntington signed-on in 1955. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. [1]
In 1958, WCHS swapped affiliations with WHTN and became an ABC affiliate. The WCHS stations were sold to Rollins Telecasting in 1960. This television station reversed the swap and went back to CBS in 1962. In 1986, the station swapped affiliations once again with WOWK-TV.
The following year, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. The company sold off WCHS-AM in 1991. Heritage sold all of its remaining broadcasting properties (four television stations, LMAs for two other television stations, and 24 radio stations) to Sinclair in 1997 just as Heritage itself was being swallowed up by News Corporation. As such, the former Heritage stations retained the current network affiliations instead of becoming Fox owned-and-operated stations.
The Sinclair purchase of WCHS forced the company to sell WVAH which it had acquired three years before when it merged with Abry Communications to Glencairn as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not permit duopolies at the time. However, Glencairn's stock was almost entirely controlled by the Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair. In effect, Sinclair now owned both stations. The company further circumvented the rules by entering into a local marketing agreement with WVAH which allowed Sinclair to continue operating WCHS.
The other station retained its own studios on Mount Vernon Road in Hurricane along I-64 even although most of its operations were merged with WCHS. Eventually, WVAH's separate facilities were put on sale. Sinclair tried to merge with Glencairn in 2001 after the FCC decided to allow duopolies but could not repurchase WVAH because the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting and the local media agreement with WCHS continues to this day. There is overwhelming evidence that Glencairn/Cunningham is merely a shell corporation used by Sinclair to circumvent FCC ownership rules.
WCHS-TV ended analog operations on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 41. [2] Although digital tuners still also display it as 8 through the use of PSIP. One of the first televised presidential debates featuring John F. Kennedy took place at WCHS' studios. The nationally syndicated "Produce Corner" segments were taped at the studios as well.
[edit] Local HD
Their hasn't been plans or future plans to have WCHS/WVAH news operations in HD. WCHS/WVAH does carry some syndicated programming in HD. On June 26, 2011, WSAZ launched the second High Definition news cast in the state of West Virginia and the first in the Charleston-Huntington DMA,On June 3, 2011 WTAP in Parkersburg launched the first news outlet in West Virginia with local news in High Definition (HD).
[edit] Carriage disputes
[edit] Dish Network
Sinclair and Dish Network were both in a brief dispute over retransmission fees on May 17, 2005. [3] This dispute was resolved on May 20 and the notice was taken down. [4]
[edit] Suddenlink Communications
In Summer 2006, Charter Communications streamlined its operations which included selling off portions of its cable system which were "geographically non-strategic". Charter accounts in WCHS's market area were purchased by Suddenlink Communications (formerly known as Cebridge). Sinclair requested a $40 million one time fee and a $1 per sub per month fee from Suddenlink for retransmission rights of WCHS and WVAH on the Suddenlink cable system. [5] This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies and Sinclair pulled the two stations off-the-air in the Beckley market. After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement allowing WCHS and WVAH to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public. [6]
[edit] Time Warner Cable
It was announced on December 20, 2006, that Time Warner Cable systems in the Charleston/Huntington market would lose WCHS and WVAH starting December 31. However, this only applied to cable subscribers that were previously owned by Adelphia. [7] An extension agreement was made until January 12, 2007 for negotiations. [8]
[edit] News operation
For most of its history according to Nielsen ratings, WCHS has been a distant runner up to longtime dominant WSAZ-TV. This is especially the case in the western areas of the market (Huntington/Ashland, Kentucky/Southern Ohio) since the station does not maintain a bureau in Huntington. Unlike WOWK and WSAZ, WCHS has its main facility based in Charleston. As a result, there is a noticeable focus on West Virginia's Capitol and surrounding areas but there is coverage provided to the western vicinities as well.
This station and WOWK are usually more competitive in Charleston but WCHS ultimately has higher viewership. The two outlets have rarely come close to WSAZ except for a brief period in the late-1990s when WOWK overtook it for first place in the Charleston side of the market. WSAZ also came in a close second to WCHS for a short period in late 2009-early 2010. This was due to lower lead-in numbers originated by The Jay Leno Show and WSAZ has since regained its first place ratings.
WCHS currently uses the Eyewitness News branding for its news operation and produces three newscasts for sister station WVAH. This includes Eyewitness News This Morning on Fox 11 seen for an hour on weekday mornings from 7 until 8. There is also an hour long nightly prime time broadcast known as Eyewitness News at 10 on Fox 11. Although it competes with a nightly show at 10 on MyNetworkTV affiliate WSAZ-DT2, WVAH's broadcast is the market's only sixty minute late night news.
During the yearly college football season, its Saturday night newscast at 6 is regularly pre-empted by game coverage from the network. Unlike most ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WCHS does not air news weeknights at 5 and/or 5:30. On June 27, 2011, WSAZ will become the second station in West Virginia but first in Charleston to upgrade local newscasts to high definition. Shows on WCHS and WVAH remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition and no plans have been made to make any changes to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen and/or full high definition.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Jennifer McAndrews - weekday mornings and "Baby Steps" segment producer
- Patrick McMurtry - weekday mornings and noon (also "Behind the Kitchen Door" and "West Virginia Wildlife" segments producer)
- Deborah Linz - weekdays at noon and weeknights at 6
- Elizabeth Noreika - weeknights at 10 and 11
- Rick Lord - weeknights
- Kallie Cart - weekends and reporter
- Dave Benton - weekends and reporter
Eyewitness News Storm Team Meteorologists
- Jim Barach (CBM and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
- Douglass Harlow - weekday mornings and noon
- Ashley Smith - weekends and news reporter
Sports
- Mark Martin - Director seen weeknights and "Scholar-Athlete of the Week" segment producer
- Josh Lewis - weekends and reporter
- A.J. Good - reporter
Reporters
- Brad Rice - "West Virginia Wildlife" photojournalist and "Traveling West Virginia" segment producer
- Darrah Wilcox - weekday mornings and "Food Revolution Now" segment producer
- Kennie Bass - fill-in news anchor
- Dan Matics
- Kristin Keeling
- Atish Baidya
- Leslie Rubin
- Bob Aaron
Contributors
- Mark E. Hyman - Sinclair Vice President for Corporate Relations and Behind the Headlines host
- Lee Ann Miller - Ohio's Amish Country Recipes
- Armstrong Williams - The Right Side host
- Stephen Anderson - On the Trail host
- Kennie Bass - Screen Gems
- Joe Matusic - Baby Steps
[edit] References
- ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20050518014808/http://www.wchstv.com/
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20050521001246/http://www.wchstv.com/
- ^ http://multichannel.com/article/CA6349903.html
- ^ http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6361496.html
- ^ http://www.sbgi.net/template/shared_content/timewarner/index.shtml
- ^ http://www.timewarnercable.com/midohio/programming/notice.html
[edit] External links
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