WPEC
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| WPEC | |
|---|---|
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| West Palm Beach, Florida | |
| Branding | CBS 12 (general) CBS 12 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Your Local News Leader |
| Channels | |
| Subchannels | 12.1 CBS 12.2 232 Mi Pueblo TV |
| Owner | Freedom Communications (Freedom Broadcasting of Florida Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | January 1, 1955 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Photo Electronics Corporation (station owner from 1973 to 1996) |
| Former callsigns | WEAT-TV (1955-1973) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 12 (1955-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1955-1988) |
| Transmitter Power | 29.5 kW |
| Height | 291 m |
| Facility ID | 52527 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 26°35′18″N 80°12′30″W / 26.58833°N 80.20833°W |
| Website | cbs12.com |
WPEC, digital channel 13, is the CBS-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida. Its transmitter is located southeast of Wellington. The station is the flagship of Freedom Communications and has studios on Fairfield Drive in Mangonia Park. Syndicated programming on WPEC includes: Live with Regis & Kelly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, and The Doctors.
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[edit] History
The station first signed on as an ABC affiliate (with the call letters WEAT-TV) on January 1, 1955. In 1973, the WEAT calls were changed to the current WPEC which stood for Photo Electronics Corporation in reference to the station's then-current owner. The WEAT call sign is currently used by an area radio station owned by the CBS Corporation. On January 1, 1989, it switched affiliations to CBS after the network purchased WCIX in Miami from TVX, Inc. WCIX's (now WFOR) over-the-air signal was weaker than the other Miami VHF stations north of the city, so getting WPEC to switch made up for the shortfall in coverage. New sign-on WPBF took WPEC's old ABC affiliation forcing WTVX (who lost CBS) to become an independent station. A similar situation happened to NBC when CBS returned to channel 4 as WFOR and NBC was demoted to channel 6. This caused WPEC to lose much of its Broward County audience to WFOR. Rival station WPTV gained Broward County NBC market share from WTVJ that was now on channel 6. On April 8, 2009, WPEC announced that it was eliminating its 24-hour local weather channel (known as "CBS 12 Now") in favor of a new Spanish-language television station known as "232 Mi Pueblo TV". Like the weather channel, this new service can also be seen on Comcast digital cable channel 232. WPEC made the transition to digital-only broadcasting on June 9, 2009, due to the analog shutdown and digital conversion. WPEC broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 13. However, digital television receivers will continue to display the station's virtual channel as 12.
[edit] Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 12.1 / 13.1 | main WPEC programming / CBS HD |
| 12.2 / 13.2 | "232 Mi Pueblo TV" (Spanish language television channel) |
After the analog television shutdown scheduled for June 12, 2009 [1], WPEC-TV will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 13 [2] using PSIP to be displayed as virtual channel 12.
[edit] News operation
Following the May 2009 sweeps period, WPEC finished in third place in household ratings at 5p, 530p and 6p. Typically the station finishes in second place in most time periods behind market leader WPTV. The station also produces newscasts that air on a second station. FOX requested most of its affiliates air local news in 1990. To satisfy this, the area's affiliate WFLX (at the time owned by Malrite Communications) entered into a news share agreement with WPEC. On September 11, 1991, the station began to produce a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on WFLX (known as the FOX 29 Ten O'Clock News) that quickly expanded to a full hour. In 2000, WPEC began to produce an hour-long weekday morning news program at 7 on WFLX (known as the FOX 29 Morning News).
On September 6, 2006, that production expanded to two hours. The two stations maintain separate news sets and on-air identities but share a weather set and news personnel. In April 2004, WPEC started using "Doppler 12000 StormTrac" regional weather radar technology similar to the "VIPIR" system used by rival NBC affiliate WPTV. It is now called "CBS 12 StormTrac Radar". On January 31, 2008, the station became the second (behind WPTV) in South Florida (including Miami / Fort Lauderdale) to broadcast local newscasts in high definition. The launch included a new set, graphics, news music package, and on-air branding. The WFLX broadcasts were included in the upgrade. Effective October 11, 2008, the station airs local news on Saturday mornings starting at 5. Also, The Saturday Early Show moved to 7 A.M. which allowed WPEC to add a local newscast at 9. On Sunday mornings, the station added an hour of local news at 8. In addition to their main studios, WPEC operates a Treasure Coast Bureau on East Prima Vista Boulevard in Port Saint Lucie. Monday through Saturday nights, it is the only television station in the market to air local news at 7. The station operates a helicopter known as "Sky 12".
[edit] Newscasts
Monday-Friday
- CBS 12 Daybreak - 5-7 AM
- CBS 12 News at Noon - Noon-12:30 PM
- CBS 12 News @ 5 - 5:6-5:30 PM
- CBS 12 News @ 5:30 - 5:30-6 PM
- CBS 12 News @ 6 - 6-6:30 PM
- CBS 12 News @ 7 - 7-7:30 PM
- CBS 12 News 11 @ 11 - 11-11:35 PM
Saturday-Sunday
- CBS 12 Daybreak - 5-7 AM & 9-10 AM (Sat.) 6-9 AM (Sun.)
- CBS 12 News @ 6 - 6-6:30 PM (may be preempted by sports programming)
- CBS 12 News @ 7 - 7-7:30 PM (Saturday only. May be preempted by sports programming)
- CBS 12 News 11 @ 11 - 11-11:30 PM
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Curt Fonger - weeknights 6pm and 11pm
- 4pm webcast producer and anchor
- Liz Quirantes - weeknights 5pm, 6pm and 11pm
- Juan Carlos Fanjul - weeknights 7pm
- Emily Pantelides - weeknights 7pm
- I-Team reporter
- Suzanne Boyd - weeknights 5pm, 5:30pm and 10pm (WFLX)
- Eric Roby - weeknights 5:30pm and 10pm (WFLX)
- Ric Blackwell - weekdays 5am-7am, 7am-9am (WFLX) and Noon
- Claudia Shea - weekdays 7am-9am (WFLX) and Noon
- Ashley Glass - weekdays 5am-7am and reporter
- John Bachman - weekends 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm and weekday reporter
- Tara Cardoso - Sundays 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm and weekday reporter
- Althea Paul - Saturdays 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm and weekday reporter
- Ben Becker - weekends 6am-8am
- Kara Kostanich - weekends 6am-8am and weekday reporter
CBS 12 StormTrac Meteorologists
- John Matthews (NWA Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights 5pm-6:30pm, 7pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm and Sundays 6am-8am
- Chris Farrell (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekdays 5am-7am, 7am-9am (WFLX) and noon
- Michael Ehrenberg (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - Saturdays 6am-8am, 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm and Sundays 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and 11pm
Sports
- Pat Murphy - Sports Director seen Monday - Thursday at 6pm, 10pm (WFLX) and and 11pm
- host of Sports Plus Sundays at 11:30pm
- Josh Samuels - Friday - Saturday sports anchor 6pm and 11pm and weekday sports reporter
Reporters
- Marci Ross - weekday morning traffic and "Sky 12"
- Allison Bybee - Treasure Coast Bureau
- Al Pefley
- Chuck Weber
- Alex Zequeira
[edit] Notable alumni
- Chandra Bill- now at WPTV
- Tim Malloy-now at WPTV
- Bryan Garner-now at WPTV
- Stephanie Dukes
- Paul Cavenaugh
- Stephanie Geilbach
- Laurel Sauer
- Bob Nichols
- John Frankel- now at HBO Real Sports
- Suzy Kolber- now at ESPN
- Al Terzi- now at WFSB-TV
- Gary Tuchman- now at CNN
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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