WHAS-TV
 |
|
| Louisville, Kentucky | |
|---|---|
| Branding | WHAS 11 (general) WHAS 11 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Coverage You Can Count On (news) Start Here, Stay Here. (general) |
| Channels | Digital: 11 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 11.1 ABC 11.2 WHAS StormTeam Weather/The Local AccuWeather Channel |
| Affiliations | American Broadcasting Company |
| Owner | Belo Corporation (Belo Kentucky, Inc.) |
| First air date | March 27, 1950 |
| Call letters' meaning | Sequentially assigned by the federal government to the AM sister station; unofficially means We Have A Signal |
| Sister station(s) | WBKI-TV |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 9 (1950-1953) 11 (1953-2009) Digital: 55 |
| Former affiliations | Primary: CBS (1950-1990) Secondary: ABC (1950-1961) Digital: Wazoo Sports (on DT3, 2009-2011) |
| Transmitter power | 16.4 kW (digital) |
| Height | 392 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 32327 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°21′22.662″N 85°50′51.09″W / 38.356295°N 85.847525°W |
| Website | www.whas11.com/ |
WHAS-TV channel 11 is the ABC affiliated television station in Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Belo Corporation, the station's transmitter is located in Floyd County, Indiana, near the community of Floyds Knobs, while its studios are located on West Chestnut Street in downtown Louisville. Syndicated programming on WHAS includes Entertainment Tonight and Oprah.
Contents |
[edit] Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Aspect | Format | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.1 | 16:9 | 1080i | Main WHAS programming / ABC |
| 11.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Accuweather / WHAS StormTeam Weather |
[edit] Analog-to-digital conversion
WHAS-TV shut down analog transmissions on June 12, 2009,[1] and moved its digital broadcasts back to its previous analog channel number, 11.[2] Like most Belo ABC stations, WHAS's main signal is transmitted in 1080i rather than ABC's default 720p format.
[edit] History
The station began broadcasting on March 27, 1950 on channel 9 as Kentucky's second television station. It moved to its current location of channel 11 on February 7, 1953, after an increase in effective radiated power caused interference with WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.
It was owned by the Bingham family, publishers of the The Courier-Journal newspaper, along with WHAS-AM, Louisville's oldest radio station. Family patriarch Barry Bingham, Sr. handed over control to his son, Barry, Jr. in 1971. A 15-year family dispute culminated in a decision to split up the family's media holdings. WHAS-TV was sold to The Providence Journal Company in 1986, while WHAS-AM went to Clear Channel Communications and the Courier-Journal went to Gannett. The Journal Company merged with Belo in 1997.
The station originally was a primary CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation, owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with CBS Radio. When WLKY-TV signed on in 1961, WHAS-TV became a sole CBS affiliate.
In September 1990, WHAS-TV swapped affiliations with WLKY-TV and became an ABC affiliate. At the time of the exchange, ABC was the #1 rated network, with CBS a distant third in the midpoint of the Laurence Tisch era of the network's history. WLKY has since made strong strides in the market as cable penetration allowed WLKY's traditional UHF disadvantage to fade, and other factors allowed the station to strengthen its news operation and compete with WHAS's newscasts evenly. WHAS has seen some struggles over the years within seasons where ABC's schedule is weak, while WLKY's ties to CBS have boosted that station through most of the 2000s. With ABC's current schedule, both stations usually exchange top rankings in the news ratings race.
At some point in 2011, WHAS took over the operations of The CW affiliate WBKI-TV through a local marketing agreement (LMA). It is expected that WBKI will move its operations into the WHAS facility in the near future.
In 2011, after spending decades on the station, WHAS dropped Live with Kelly in favor of a new local morning show called "Great Day Live!", which features the currently popular format of local talk mixed with paid demonstration segments. Live was subsequently picked up by WDRB (Channel 41) in the same timeslot.
[edit] Programming
[edit] Special programming
The station annually broadcasts the WHAS Crusade for Children, a highly successful local telethon benefiting children's charities throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana. It also originated one of the nation's longest-running public service programs, Moral Side of the News, featuring a local interfaith clergy panel discussing the week's events in the light of faith. The panel also administers the annual grants from the Crusade for Children telethon.
[edit] Sports
WHAS-TV originated the first television broadcast of the Kentucky Derby in 1952. When the Derby moved to ABC in 1975 (local affiliate WLKY), Churchill Downs included a provision in the contract requiring ABC to allow WHAS to continue showing the Derby. The provision became moot when WHAS joined ABC several years later. However, after the Triple Crown races moved to NBC in the 1990s, WHAS-TV lost the rights to WAVE, the local NBC affiliate, though in 2006 regained the rights to the Belmont Stakes which has moved back to ABC. WHAS also simulcast the 2006 Breeders' Cup from Churchill Downs that aired on ESPN. With the departure of the Belmont to NBC in 2011 though, WHAS will no longer broadcast any Triple Crown horse racing.
Currently, WHAS is the flagship station for local broadcasts of Louisville Cardinals basketball. Sponsors include Kroger and Louisville Jewish Hospital.
In October 2009 WHAS launched the Wazoo Sports Network, a regional sports network devoted to high school and minor league athletics and sports from the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky, over its 11.3 digital subchannel, along with Lexington's WLEX. The network had previously been online-only before launching its subchannel service. The service was removed by WHAS on December 18, 2011 due to non-payment of services and a lack of confidence by WHAS in the network's business plan[3] [4]. Wazoo's parent organization filed for bankruptcy on January 9, 2012 [5].
[edit] News operation
Not surprisingly for a station with roots in a newspaper, WHAS-TV has been an innovator in news coverage. It was the first Kentucky station to use newsreel film.
In the late 1970s, WHAS-TV displaced long-dominant WAVE-TV and became the news ratings leader in Louisville. It held the lead through the early 21st century, often by a wide margin. While it still leads WAVE and WLKY in most time slots, its dominance is not nearly as absolute as it once was. In recent years, it has lost the 11 p.m. lead to WLKY. In the May 2006 ratings period, WHAS placed 4th at 11:00 behind Sex and the City re-runs on local Fox affiliate WDRB, but by May 2007 it had regained the runner-up spot behind WLKY. [6]
As a CBS affiliate in the late 1970s until 1991, its newscasts were titled "Action 11 News" In 1991, its news branding was changed to "Kentuckiana's News Channel, WHAS-11." Most recently in the late 1990s, the station began using "WHAS 11 News" to brand its news product. Since 1991, WHAS has been using versions of Frank Gari's "Newschannel" music package.
On January 2, 2006, WHAS began producing a 10:00pm newscast on WBKI-TV. On Monday, August 24, 2009, WHAS became the second station (behind WAVE-TV) in Louisville to broadcast its local news in widescreen. Unlike WAVE (and eventually WDRB), the WHAS newscasts are actually aired in 16:9 widescreen standard definition. The WBKI broadcast is currently presented in standard definition 4:3 due to that station not having a modern master control facility to receive the program in native widescreen. With the LMA between WHAS and WBKI now in place, WBKI's newscast presentations may be upgraded to widescreen.
[edit] WHAS News/station presentation
[edit] WHAS Newscast titles
- Focus: 1pm (1 p.m. newscast; 1960s-early 1970s)
- Channel 11 News Hour (5 p.m. newscast; 1960s-early 1970s)
- Focus: 11pm (11 p.m. newscast; 1960s-early 1971)
- TV-11 News (1971-1975)
- News 11 (1975–mid 1977)
- Action 11 (late 1977–Mid 1983)
- Action 11 News (Late 1983–1991)
- WHAS 11 News (1991–present)
[edit] On-air staff
[edit] WHAS-TV Current on-air staff
WHAS 11 News Anchors
- Claudia Coffey - weekdays at 4p
- Adrianna Hopkins - weekend evenings at 6:30p, 10p (on WBKI) and 11p
- Terry Meiners - weekday mornings "Good Day Live" at 9a
- Renee Murphy - weekdays at noon and 5:30p
- Rachel Platt - weekday mornings "Good Morning Kentuckiana" (5a-7a), "Good Day Live" at 9a
- Doug Proffitt - weeknights at 5p, 5:30p, 6p, 10p (on WBKI) and 11p
- Kelsey Starks - Weekday mornings "Good Morning Kentuckiana" at (4:30a-5a)
- Melissa Swan - weeknights at 5p, 6p and 11p
- Andy Treinen - weekday mornings "Good Morning Kentuckiana" (5a-7a)
First Alert StormTeam
- Monty Webb (AMS Member) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5p, 5:30p, 6p, 10p (on WBKI) and 11p
- Kristin Walls - meteorologist; weekends at 6:30p, 10p (on WBKI), 11p, "Good Morning Kentuckiana" Sundays.
- Ben Pine (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "Good Morning Kentuckiana" and Noon
- Reed Yadon - meteorologist; Saturday mornings "Good Morning Kentuckiana"
WHAS 11 Sports team
- Adam Lefkoe - sports anchor; weekends at 6:30p, 10p (on WBKI) and 11p
- Kent Spencer - sports director; weekdays at 6p, 10p (on WBKI) and 11p
WHAS 11 Reporters
- Johnny Archer - general assignment reporter
- Joe Arnold - general assignment reporter
- Bryan Baker - general assignment reporter
- Mike Colombo - general assignment reporter
- Adrianna Hopkins - general assignment reporter
- Gene Kang - general assignment reporter
- Brooke Katz - general assignment reporter
- Anna Prendergast - general assignment reporter
- Adam Walser - general assignment reporter
[edit] Notable former WHAS staff
- Kristen Cornett - Meteorologist (2001-2004) - (now at KMOV in St. Louis)
- Mort Crim (later became anchor for KYW-TV Philadelphia and WDIV-TV Detroit, now runs Mort Crim Communications)
- Milton Metz - host of WHAS-TV's "Omelet"(1970-1979),84 WHAS's "Metz Here"(1960's-1980's)
- Hugh Smith (later became anchor for WTVT in Tampa, Florida; died December 16, 2007)
- Stacy Smith (now at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh)
- Richard Threlkeld - American television news correspondent who spent 25 years with CBS News
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.[edit] Owners
- 1950-1986: Bingham family
- 1986-1997: Providence Journal Company
- 1997–present: Belo Corporation
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ Newkirk, Jacob (December 22, 2011). "WHAS11 joins WEHT in dumping Wazoo Sports". Jake's DTV Blog. http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/whas11-joins-weht-in-dumping-wazoo.html. Retrieved January 9, 2012. The article was updated on December 27
- ^ "Wazoo no longer available on 11.3 or digital channels". WHAS11.com. December 18, 2011. http://www.whas11.com/home/Wazoo-135831523.html. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ^ Sloan, Scott (January 9, 2012). "Kentucky broadcaster Wazoo Sports files for bankruptcy". Lexington Herald-Leader. http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/09/2022119/kentucky-broadcaster-wazoo-sports.html. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
- ^ [1][dead link]
[edit] External links
- WHAS 11 Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WHAS-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WHAS-TV
- WHAS Crusade for Children Website
- Wazoo Sports Website
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
