WEAR-TV
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| WEAR-TV | |
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| Pensacola, Florida/Mobile, Alabama | |
| Branding | WEAR ABC 3 (general) Channel 3 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | First LIVE Local |
| Channels | |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WEAR Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | January 13, 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | The word EAR |
| Sister station(s) | WFGX |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 3 (1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS/ABC (1954-1955) |
| Transmitter Power | 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 579 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 71363 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 30°36′45.4″N 87°38′41.6″W / 30.612611°N 87.644889°W |
| Website | www.weartv.com |
WEAR is the ABC affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida viewing area. It is licensed to Pensacola and is one of two major commercial stations in the market that is licensed on the Florida side of the market, the other being sister station WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate. WEAR is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Its transmitter is located near Foley, Alabama, and its studios are located on Mobile Highway (US 90) in southwest Pensacola.
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[edit] Digital television
After the analog television shutdown scheduled for June 12, 2009 [1], WEAR will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 17 [2] using PSIP to display WEAR's virtual channel as 3.
[edit] History
WEAR began operation on January 13, 1954, which was almost a year after WALA-TV began. The station was founded by Charles Smith and Mel Wheeler. Initially the station was a primary CBS affiliate, while sharing ABC with WALA. When WKRG-TV signed on in 1955, WEAR became strictly an ABC affiliate.
In 1959, WEAR was sold to Rollins Telecasting. In 1987, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. In October 1997, WEAR and the other Heritage stations were sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, just as the remainder of Heritage Media was merging with News Corporation (the parent company of Fox). This sale also protected former longtime NBC affiliate WALA as the market's Fox affiliate; otherwise, WEAR would have been forced to switch its network affiliation to Fox.
WEAR started producing newscasts in HD on September 7, 2008. The station installed a new digital control room and re-built their news set. They are the first news operation in the Mobile/Pensacola market to produce a local newscast in high definition.
WEAR's newscasts tend to focus on coverage of the Northwestern Florida area as opposed to WKRG and WPMI-TV, which predominantly feature news concerning the southern Alabama area.
Sinclair prohibited its ABC affiliates, including WEAR, from airing a Nightline broadcast in 2004 because the company felt it was near anti-war rhetoric.[1]
[edit] Mediacom dispute
In late 2006, Sinclair entered into negotiations with Mediacom, the main cable provider for much of the Florida side of the Mobile-Pensacola market (including Santa Rosa County and Pensacola Beach). The two companies could not reach agreement over compensation rights. As a result, Mediacom pulled all of Sinclair's stations, including WEAR, from its systems on January 6, 2007. The dispute ended on February 2, when the two sides reached an agreement that restored WEAR to Mediacom systems.
[edit] Past personalities
- Ashley Chisolm (chief meteorologist) - At WEAR from 1993 until 2000 before leaving TV.
- Lance Sandstead (news anchor)
- Hank Astengo (sport anchor) - Now sports anchor for WCJB in Gainesville, Florida.
- Katie Horner (chief meteorologist) Now chief meteorologist at KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Jeff Weeks (morning weather) - No longer in TV.
- Beth Morgan (weekend weather)
- Sarah Pitzen (weekend weather)
- Annette Falwell (weekend news anchor) Now anchor-reporter at WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina.
- Dave Daughtry (news anchor) Went to WALA in Mobile, Alabama, and now appears to have left TV.
- Heather Tesch - Former reporter, now a meteorologist at The Weather Channel
- Ann Kerian - Former Anchor/Military Affairs Reporter - Now "Executive Coach, Consultant and Public Speaker"
- Bob O'Brien
- Shauna Dunlap - Former morning anchor, left WEAR and began working for the FBI
- Charles Basset - Former weekend anchor, now at KWTV in Oklahoma City
- Catherine Pegram - Former morning anchor, now at WABI in Bangor, Maine
- Sherri Hemminghaus
- Doug Mouton - Former weekend sports anchor, now works as a reporter at WWL-TV in New Orleans.
- Rob Manning - Former news reporter
- David Brandao - Former news reporter
- Sara Baumgartner - Anchor
- Byron L. Pfordte - Former Reporter/Newscast Director, currently Art Director for Sinclair Broadcast Group stations WXLV & WMYV in Greensboro, NC.
- Erin Ovalle - Former reporter, now reporter at Sinclair sister station WGME-TV in Portland, ME
- Francesca Maxime - Former 10pm anchor
- Liz Swaine - Began career at WEAR-TV; voted "Best Journalist in the Nation" while at KTBS-TV in Shreveport; candidate for mayor of Shreveport, 2006
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WEAR
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEAR-TV
- WEAR news anchorman suspended
[edit] References
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