WJHG-TV

WJHG-TV

Panama City, Florida/Dothan, Alabama
City of license	Panama City, Florida
Branding	NewsChannel 7 The CW Panama City (DT2) My7 (DT3)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On!
Channels	Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels	7.1 NBC 7.2 The CW 7.3 MyNetworkTV 7.4 WX
Affiliations	NBC (1953-1973 and since 1982)
Owner	Gray Television, Inc.
First air date	December 1, 1953
Call letters' meaning	James Harrison Gray (founder of Gray Communications)
Former callsigns	WJDM-TV (1953-1960)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF) (1953-2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary 1953-1973; primary 1973-1982) DuMont (secondary 1953-1955) CBS (secondary 1953-1961)
Transmitter power	67 kW
Height	261.8 m
Facility ID	73136
Transmitter coordinates	30°26′0″N 85°24′51″W
Website	www.wjhg.com

WJHG-TV, channel 7 is the NBC affiliate for Panama City, Florida. Owned by Gray Television, its studios are located in Panama City Beach, while its transmitter is located in Youngstown.

Digital television

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
7.1	720p	16:9	Main WJHG-TV programming / NBC
7.2	480i	4:3	The CW Panama City
7.3			My7 (MyNetworkTV)
7.4			VIPIR Weather

History

WJHG was founded in 1953 as WJDM-TV, owned by businessman J.D. Manley. The station aired local programming such as church services and wrestling, and went as an independent for a period of time before securing a primary affiliation with NBC and secondary affiliations with CBS and ABC. Mel Wheeler purchased the station in 1957, and in 1960, James Harrison Gray, the founder of Gray Communications, bought the station and changed the call letters to the current WJHG-TV, after his initials.

WJHG dropped CBS in the 1960s after WTVY in Dothan, Alabama became the default CBS affiliate for Panama City as well. In 1973, WJHG became an exclusive ABC affiliate when WDTB (channel 13, now WMBB) began, taking the NBC affiliation. In 1982, WMBB and WJHG switched networks.

In 1998, WJHG was almost sold when the Phipps family sold WCTV to Gray Communications. This would have violated the pre-1996 ownership rules because WJHG's grade B signal covers the extreme western parts of the Tallahassee market. The 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed for overlapping fringe signals, so Gray kept WJHG. Instead, Gray ended up selling its flagship station, WALB in Albany, Georgia, because its city-grade signal overlapped that of WCTV's in the Georgia portion of the Tallahassee market, still protected under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules.

Then in 2002, Gray bought most of Benedek Broadcasting's stations, including WTVY, whose tower is located in Bonifay, Florida, providing a signal that covers all the way from Fort Walton Beach, Florida to Troy, Alabama. By this time, signal contours were no longer an issue and Gray could keep both stations.

Since both stations are available on cable in both Dothan and Panama City, WJHG will run WTVY stories that take place in those parts of northwestern Florida that are in northern part of the Panama City market, and WTVY will run WJHG stories on Panama City and the coast. Sometimes, WTVY will run its own stories on Panama City, but WJHG does not cover Dothan at all (southeastern Alabama's default NBC affiliate is Montgomery's WSFA).

On June 28, 2010, WJHG began broadcasting their newscasts in 16:9 widescreen SD format.

Circle 7 logo & affiliation changes

The station used the "Circle 7" logo as far back as the 1950s without objection from the ABC television network. At some point ABC had trademarked the logo for use by its owned and operated stations that shared the dial position (Channel 7) in several major television markets across the nation. In 1982 when Gray Communications switched the WJHG-TV network affiliation to NBC the rival ABC network ordered WJHG to cease using the logo. Station manager Ray H. Holloway produced archival film and still photographs that showed the local station had been using the "Circle 7" logo longer than the network, but in order to bring the matter to a quick and satisfactory end the station elected to modify the logo. The modification was minor (the bottom of the circle was left open) but enough to pacify executives at ABC in New York who were upset over the station's decision to "defect" to NBC. However, non-ABC stations still use designs similar to the Circle 7 logo including Ed Ansin's WHDH (NBC) in Boston, and WSVN (FOX) in Miami.

News operation

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• The World Today/Panama City Today (1960s–1970s)
• Channel 7 Spotlight News (1960s, with the patriotic "Guadalcanal March" as the theme music")
• TV-7 News (1980s–1990)
• NewsChannel 7 (1990–present)

Station slogans

• "Let`s Get Together on Channel 7" (1970–1971; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Hello Northwest Florida, Hello Channel 7" (1974–1975; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Welcome to the Bright New World on Channel 7" (1975–1976; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Let Us Be The One on Channel 7" (1976–1977; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Channel 7's The One You Can Turn To, We're The One" (1978–1979; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "You and Me and Channel 7" (1980–1981; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Now is the Time, Channel 7 is the Place" (1981–1982; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Working for You" (1990–1997)
• "Northwest Florida's News Leader" (1994–1997; news slogan)
• "Spirit of the Panhandle" (1997–2007)
• "Coverage You Can Count On" (2007–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Donna Bell - weekday mornings and noon
• Paris Janos - weekday morning field anchor
• Tom Lewis - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.; also executive producer
• Joe Moore - weekdays at noon and weeknights at 5 p.m.
• Meagan O'Halloran - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
• Erica Rakow - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
• Meredith TerHaar - weekday mornings; also reporter
• Neysa Wilkins - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.

VIPIR 7 Weather Team

• Chris Smith (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Jim Loznicka (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
• Sandra Osborne - weather anchor; weekend evenings, also weeknight reporter

Sports team

• Scott Rossman - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Mark Vaughn - sports anchor; weekend evenings, also sports reporter

Reporters

• Bryan Anderson - Marianna Bureau reporter
• Chad Mira - general assignment reporter; also producer
• Whitney Ray - Tallahassee Bureau reporter (through Capitol News Service)
• Kavontae Smalls - general assignment reporter; also web producer
• Amber Southard - general assignment reporter
• Mike Vasilinda - Tallahassee Bureau reporter (through Capitol News Service)

External links

• WJHG Website
• WJHG-DT2, "The CW Panama City" Website
• WJHG-DT3, "My 7" Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WJHG
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WJHG-TV