WHOI (TV)
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| Peoria/Bloomington, Illinois | |
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| Branding | HOI 19 (general) HOI 19 News News 25 (during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows) CW 4 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Accurate. Balanced. To the Point. Your Home Team (during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows) |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 19 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 19.1 ABC 19.2 The CW |
| Owner | Barrington Broadcasting (operated through JSA and SSA by Granite Broadcasting Corporation) (Barrington Peoria License, LLC) |
| First air date | October 20, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Heart Of Illinois |
| Sister station(s) | WEEK-TV |
| Former callsigns | WTVH-TV (1953–1965) WIRL-TV (1965–1973) WRAU-TV (1973–1985) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 8 (VHF, 1953–1963) 19 (UHF, 1963–2009) Digital: 40 (UHF, 2003–2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1953–1957) DuMont (secondary, 1953–1955) |
| Transmitter power | 195 kW |
| Height | 203.1 m |
| Facility ID | 6866 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°39′11.1″N 89°35′14.4″W / 40.653083°N 89.587333°W |
| Website | centralillinoisnewscenter.com |
WHOI is the ABC-affiliated television station for West Central Illinois licensed to Peoria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on North Stewart Street in Creve Coeur. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station is operated by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation through joint sales and shared services agreements. This makes it sister to NBC affiliate WEEK-TV.
Both share studios on Springfield Road in East Peoria along with Four Seasons Broadcasting-owned MyNetworkTV affiliates WAOE and low-powered WBQD-LP. The latter has master control and some internal operations based at the Springfield Road facilities but technically serves the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa. Syndicated programming on WHOI includes: Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Ellen, and The Doctors.
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[edit] Digital programming
It operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. This can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 (hence the CW 4 branding). WHOI-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus.
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 720p | 16:9 | Main WHOI programming / ABC |
| 19.2 | 480i | 4:3 | "CW 4" |
[edit] History
It was Peoria's second television station signing-on as WTVH-TV on October 20, 1953. The station was owned-and-operated by Hilltop Broadcasting which was co-owned by the Peoria Journal Star. [1] Its first studios were on North Madison Street in Downtown Peoria. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on VHF channel 8 [2], it was a primary CBS affiliate but also carried shows from ABC and DuMont. The latter ceased operations in 1955 and WTVH lost CBS when WMBD-TV began broadcasting.
The Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, later known as Metromedia, purchased the station in 1959. Four years later, WTVH was bumped down to UHF channel 19 so that a third commercial VHF station could sign-on in the Quad Cities using that channel (the new station, WQAD-TV, is also an ABC affiliate). In 1965, it was sold to the owners of WIRL-AM 1290 who changed the call sign to WIRL-TV. It became WRAU-TV in 1973 and adopted its present calls of WHOI in 1985. The call sign WTVH was picked up by a channel in Syracuse, New York around 1976.
In 1987, WHOI came under the ownership of Adams Communications following a merger with its previous owner, Forward Communications. The station was sold to Brissette Broadcasting in 1991 then to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. When Benedek merged with Gray Television in 2002 following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, WHOI was spun off to Chelsey Broadcasting.
Starting in 1998, it began to run a cable-only WB affiliate. Known by the fictional call sign "WBPE", it was on channel 4 on most cable systems in the area. In April 2004, WHOI and KHQA-TV in the Hannibal, Missouri/Quincy, Illinois media market became two of the founding stations of current owner Barrington Broadcasting. On September 18, 2006, when The WB and UPN merged to create The CW, "WBPE" became part of The CW Plus which is a similar operation to The WB 100+. WHOI's digital signal added a new second digital subchannel to simulcast this programming to offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. The channel then began to use WHOI-DT2 as its official calls. [3]
On March 2, 2009, it was announced that the operations of WHOI and its CW subchannel would be taken over by WEEK-TV through joint sales and shared services agreements. Sixteen employees were transferred to WEEK-TV but as many as thirty were laid-off immediately while WHOI moved to that channel's studios. [1] This left the five full-power commercial stations in the market operated by two entities. The WHOI and CW subchannel websites were immediately changed to redirects to WEEK-TV's web address. As part of the agreement, Granite-owned CBS affiliate WTVH (which is the oldest television station in Syracuse) was folded into Barrington's NBC affiliate WSTM-TV and low-powered CW affiliate WSTQ-LP in a similar way on the same day. [4]
On June 12, WHOI remained on channel 19 when the analog to digital conversion was completed [5] with the "WHOI" calls being transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 19 to the new digital channel 19 and the "WHOI-DT" call sign from the pre-transition digital channel 40 being permanently discontinued. However, the PSIP identifier still identifies the station's main channel on 19.1 as "WHOI-DT".
[edit] News operation
During the 1980s and early-1990s, WHOI aired a nightly 5:30 o'clock newscast and showed ABC World News Tonight weeknights at 6 and weekends at 5. This provided viewers with a local broadcast seven nights a week while other stations aired national news. By 2009, before being consolidated with WEEK-TV, WHOI produced local newscasts weeknights at 5, 6, and 10. Weekend broadcasts were Saturday nights at 6 and 10 and Sunday nights at 5:30 and 10. The weekday morning show, HOI 19 News Daybreak, continues to air from 5 to 7 after America This Morning and before Good Morning America.
After the merger, four on-air staff were consolidated with WEEK-TV's news department and continue to be seen on-air. Otherwise, this station uses other staff from that station for all other content. WHOI's weeknight 5 and 6 o'clock broadcasts were replaced with one at 5:30. ABC World News was then moved to 6. That channel still airs a separate broadcast weeknights at 10. On weekends, the station simulcasts WEEK-TV although this may be pre-empted by ABC programming. The weekday local broadcasts on WHOI air from a new secondary set at WEEK-TV's studios.
On September 13, 2010, WHOI began airing a talk and lifestyle magazine show called Good Company. It airs weeknights at 5 from another secondary set. WEEK-TV does not air early evening news at 6 on Sundays but WHOI does. Both stations currently offer the area's only local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen enhanced definition. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the ratio of HD television screens. Like all CW Plus stations in the Central Time Zone, WHOI-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 5 to 8.
[edit] Newscast titles
- News Scene 19 (1970s)
- 19 News (1980s-1988)
- 19 Eyewitness News (1988–1995)
- HOI (19) News (2001–present)
- News 25 (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows)
[edit] Station slogans
- "Count on a Friend, Turn to 19" (1989–1992, used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
- "The Heart of Illinois" (1992–2008, general)
- "Your News Source" (1992–1995)
- "Where Every Second Counts" (2002–2008, news)
- "Accurate. Balanced. To the Point." (2008–present)
- "Your Home Team" (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows)
[edit] News team
+ denotes personnel not seen on WEEK-TV
Anchors
- + Mark Welp - weekday mornings and Good Company host
- + Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings and Good Company host
- weekday morning weather
- + Jen Christensen - weeknights and "News Anchor Mom" segment producer
- Denise Jackson - weekends and reporter
Storm Team 19 Meteorologists
- Chuck Collins (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 10
- Lee Ranson - weeknights at 5:30
- Ashley McNamee - weekends and news reporter
- fill-in news anchor
Sports
- Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights
- Pep Rally and Sports Final host
- Marc Strauss - weekends and news reporter
- Josh Simon - sports reporter
- Lee Hall - Pep Rally and Sports Final host
Reporters
- Eric Shangraw - "You Gotta Eat" segment producer
- Joy Miller - "Ask Dr. Joy" segment producer
- Art Ginsburg - "Mr. Food" segment producer
- Leigh Ann - "Fresh Ideas" segment producer
- Maggie Vespa
- Gina Ford
[edit] References
- ^ a b Tarter, Steve (March 2, 2009). "Owners of WEEK taking over WHOI operations". Peoria Journal Star. http://www.pjstar.com/business/x1959832349/Owners-of-WEEK-TV-taking-over-operations-of-WHOI-TV. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
- ^ http://dumonthistory.tv/a10.html
- ^ http://www.hoinews.com/news/content.aspx?id=14614
- ^ http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/the_staff_of_wtvh_laid.html
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
[edit] External links
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- ABC network affiliates
- The CW Television Network affiliates
- Television stations in Illinois
- Channel 19 digital TV stations in the United States
- Channel 19 virtual TV stations in the United States
- Channel 4 branded TV stations in the United States
- Television channels and stations established in 1953
- Media in Peoria, Illinois
