WSAZ-TV

WSAZ-TV

Huntington - Charleston, West Virginia
City of license	Huntington, West Virginia
Branding	WSAZ NewsChannel 3 MyZTV & This TV West Virginia (on DT2)
Slogan	Severe Weather and Breaking News: It Matters
Channels	Digital: 23 (UHF) Virtual: 3 (PSIP)
Translators	16 W16CE Charleston
Affiliations	3.1 NBC 3.2 MyNetworkTV & This TV
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date	November 15, 1949 (1949-11-15)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 5 (VHF, 1949-1952) 3 (VHF, 1952-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949-1954) ABC (1949-1955) DuMont (1949-1956) all secondary
Transmitter power	724 kW
Height	363.7 m
Facility ID	36912
Transmitter coordinates	38°30′36″N 82°13′10″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.wsaz.com

WSAZ-TV, channel 3, is a television station located in Huntington, West Virginia, USA. Owned by Gray Television, it is the NBC affiliate for the Huntington-Charleston market, the second-largest television market (in terms of geographical area) east of the Mississippi River. The station serves 61 counties that cover central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southeastern Ohio. WSAZ operates studios in both Huntington and Charleston, and its transmitter is located in Milton, West Virginia.

WSAZ-TV's programming can also be seen in the Kanawha Valley on translator W16CE (channel 16) in Charleston. This station is carried on the Suddenlink Communications cable system in the eastern part of the market.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
3.1	1080i	16:9	WSAZ-HD	Main WSAZ-TV programming / NBC
3.2	480i	4:3	My Z TV	WSAZ-DT2 / MyNetworkTV / This TV

History

Early years

The oldest television station in West Virginia, WSAZ-TV began regular broadcasting November 15, 1949, on VHF channel 5. The station was originally owned by the Huntington Herald-Dispatch along with WSAZ radio (930 AM, now WRVC), and carried programming from all four networks at the time (NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont). However, it was a primary NBC affiliate due to WSAZ radio's long affiliation with NBC Radio. When WCHS-TV (channel 8) signed-on from Charleston in 1954, it took over the CBS affiliation and the two television stations shared ABC programming until WHTN-TV (channel 13, now WOWK-TV) signed-on from Huntington a year later. In 1955, WSAZ-TV dropped DuMont after the network shut down. It is the only commercial station in the market that has never changed its primary affiliation.

One story of how this channel's call letters originated dates from WSAZ radio's origins in 1923. Radio engineer Glenn Chase applied to the Secretary of Commerce for a license to operate a small radio station in Pomeroy, Ohio (it moved down and across the Ohio River to Huntington in 1927). In the application, he reportedly claimed that since he was building most of the station's equipment himself, "it would probably be the worst station from A to Z." Chase asked that appropriate call letters be assigned. His request was promptly granted and the calls WSAZ were given to him meaning "Worst Station from A to Z." A more likely story was that the allocation of the call letters WSAZ were pure coincidence as they were assigned by the Department of Commerce in an alphabetical sequence just after WSAX in Chicago and WSAY in Port Chester, New York. However, the myth persists that the calls stand for "Worst Station from A to Z" which WSAZ radio itself helped spread by using it as a slogan for many years.

In 1950, WSAZ-TV received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) permission to build a private microwave link to Cincinnati allowing viewers to get NBC programming live. As the nation's first privately owned microwave system, it was a remarkable feat for one of the smallest cities in the country at the time to have a television station. The first live broadcast was scheduled for a Labor Day baseball game, but the system broke down for four hours and forced WSAZ to broadcast a fire at a nearby hotel. The Cincinnati link was replaced in favor of one from Columbus, Ohio in 1952.

Also in 1952, the FCC released its Sixth Report and Order, which ended the four-year-long freeze in awarding station licenses and included a realignment of VHF channel assignments. As a result, WSAZ-TV moved to channel 3 in order to alleviate interference with fellow NBC affiliate WLWT in Cincinnati. The channel move also created an opening for a new channel 5 station in Weston, which signed-on as WJPB-TV (now WDTV) in March 1954. As part of the frequency switch, the FCC granted WSAZ a boost in broadcast power, which at the time, was the highest ever authorized for a television station. This allowed the station to penetrate more of its huge viewing area, most of which is a very rugged dissected plateau. However, as the regulation of domestic television stations were normalized, WSAZ's signal strength was reduced to the same levels as others in 1956. The station's transmission tower was the tallest in North America until WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina activated a taller tower in 1959.

Later years

The Herald-Dispatch sold WSAZ-AM-TV to Goodwill Stations, owner of WJR radio in Detroit and WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, in 1961. Goodwill was merged into Capital Cities Communications in 1964. Capital Cities spun off the WSAZ stations in 1971 as a result of its purchase of several stations from Triangle Publications, with WSAZ radio going to Stoner Broadcasting, and channel 3 being acquired by Lee Enterprises. Emmis Communications bought the station in 2000 after Lee decided to bow out of broadcasting. Emmis then sold WSAZ to Gray Television in 2005. The Gray purchase made WSAZ-TV a sister station to fellow NBC affiliate WTAP-TV (channel 15) in Parkersburg.

Being based in Huntington, WSAZ-TV is located fifty miles (80 km) away from West Virginia's state capital, Charleston. As such, the station opened a branch studio there in 1956. It also launched a low-powered repeater on UHF channel 23 to serve the Kanawha Valley soon after its signal was cut to standardized levels. While Charleston and its close-in suburbs receive the main WSAZ signal very well, it was marginal at best in much of the Kanawha Valley due to the area's rugged terrain. The translator was moved to channel 16 in 2003 after WSAZ began using channel 23 for its digital broadcasts.

Under federal must-carry rules, broadcasters can either allow cable TV systems in the market to carry their signals for free or charge a fee under retransmission consent provisions. On December 3, 2008, it was announced that Inter Mountain Cable (IMC), a cable provider serving parts of Eastern Kentucky, announced that it would drop WSAZ from its lineup unless an agreement was reached over retransmission consent. According to The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky, this dispute caused concern among officials in the city of Fleming-Neon where IMC holds the cable franchise. The city council in Fleming-Neon stated that the removal of WSAZ would violate IMC's franchise agreement.

On September 5, 2006, WSAZ launched a new second digital subchannel to be the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate. Although it is a digital subchannel, many local cable companies air WSAZ-DT2 as a separate channel on their systems. It ended analog operations on February 17, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 23. Digital receivers display the station's virtual channel as 3 through the use of PSIP. On August 29, 2009, WSAZ-DT2 dropped its previous overnight lineup of infomercials and began a secondary affiliation with This TV carrying programming from that network usually overnights and on weekends.

W16CE does have a construction permit to move from analog channel 16 to a digital signal on channel 15.

News operation

WSAZ Saturday Morning newscast title card

Since 1956, WSAZ's newscasts have featured two news anchors with one at the main studios in Huntington and the other in Charleston. NBC studied the format and used it as the basis for the Huntley-Brinkley Report anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City and David Brinkley in Washington D.C.. All of the big three networks have used this approach at one time or another since then.

WSAZ uses its low-power translator in Charleston to provide viewers with a "split" newscast. Weeknights at 5:30, 6 and 11, the two anchors appear together on screen until a certain point (usually 10–15 minutes into the newscast) when the show will "split." For the last 20 minutes of the newscast, viewers in the 28 counties of the Kanawha Valley who watch channel 16 and Suddenlink will see a newscast targeted specifically to them while viewers in the other 33 counties (as well as satellite viewers) will see a newscast featuring coverage from Kentucky and Ohio as well as West Virginia. WSAZ calls this concept "two-city news." Outside of the previous mentioned newscasts, all shows originate from the Huntington facilities. The weather and sports departments are also based there. In July 1993, WSAZ's weeknight First at Five broadcast was launched.

Largely because of its pioneering status in the state and its unique newscasts, WSAZ is one of the country's most dominant television stations. It has been the far-and-away market leader for as long as records have been kept. WCHS and WOWK have rarely come close, though for a brief period in the late-1990s, WOWK overtook WSAZ for first place in the northern (Charleston) side of the market. This channel also came in a close second to WCHS for a short period in late 2009-early 2010. This was due to lower lead-in numbers originated by The Jay Leno Show. WSAZ has since regained its first place ratings.

Since the station has traditionally been one of NBC's strongest affiliates, the network has been rumored on several occasions to buying WSAZ. However, NBC Universal has recently sold off many of its stations outside the top 15 markets. Huntington/Charleston is currently the 63rd market (the only market in the state in the top 100). Also, Huntington/Charleston has always been a small-to-medium market. NBC has owned only one television station located outside the top fifty markets.

Rumors abounded soon after the Gray Television purchase of WSAZ that WTAP would scrap its news department and simulcast WSAZ's newscasts instead. WSAZ has always covered Parkersburg events anyway and has long been available on cable on the West Virginia side of that market. However, WTAP's broadcasts bring in as much revenue as WSAZ in part because WTAP is the only full-power station in Parkersburg. WSAZ-DT2 airs a prime time newscast every night for a half-hour that is known as MyZTV Ten O'clock News. This competes with an hour-long show on Fox affiliate WVAH-TV which is produced by WCHS. At one point, the second digital subchannel had also aired a weekday morning show at 7 called Your Day on MyZTV but this has since been canceled. It currently repeats WSAZ NewsChannel 3 Today in the 7 o'clock hour and WSAZ NewsChannel 3 Midday weekdays at 12:30.

On January 3, 2012, WSAZ expanded their morning newscast to a 4:30 a.m. start time. The newscast, "WSAZ NewsChannel 3 Wake Up," is the second newscast in this timeslot in the market, following WOWK's morning expansion in May 2011.

In May 2012, WSAZ had the highest rated nightly news at 6:00 p.m. of ANY station in the Top 100 TV markets in the United States. The 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts ranked #2 among the Top 100.

In March 2013, WSAZ changed the name of the 10:00 p.m.-produced broadcast on WSAZ-DT2 from "MyZ 10:00 News" to "WSAZ NewsChannel 3 Ten O'Clock".

Local High Definition News

WSAZ remodeled the Huntington and Charleston newsrooms in late 2010 to prepare for high definition broadcasts. On June 26, 2011 at 6 p.m., WSAZ launched the first high definition newscast in the Charleston-Huntington DMA.This was second station in the state of West Virginia, following sister station WTAP in Parkersburg.

Pre High Definition News

Before the transition, the Charleston-Huntington DMA was the largest market without a newscast in either high definition or 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Following the upgrade, the Fort Smith – Fayetteville DMA became the largest without a high-definition or enhanced-definition widescreen local newscast. That was until KHBS/KHOG became the first station in the Fort Smith–Fayetteville market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 enhanced-definition widescreen in September 2011.

Out of market carriage

In West Virginia, WSAZ is carried in Glenville, Gilmer County in the Clarksburg DMA. In the Bluefield-Beckley DMA, it is carried in Ansted, Fayetteville and Page in Fayette County. It is carried as far north as Parkersburg, Wood County where NBC affiliate, WTAP is located in (Parkersburg DMA). In the southern part of the state, Suddenlink Cable in Beckley, Raleigh County carries WSAZ despite WVVA, the NBC affiliate in Bluefield covers the area very well. In McDowell County, it is carried in Panther and Welch. WSAZ is also carried on Horizon Telecom in Chillicothe in the Columbus DMA.

News Team

Anchors

• Rob Johnson - weekday mornings on Wake Up, Sunrise and Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.)
• Melanie Shafer - Tuesday-Thursday mornings on Wake Up, Sunrise and Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.)
• Susan Nicholas - Monday and Friday mornings on Wake Up, Sunrise and Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.); also reporter
• TBD - weekdays at noon on Midday
• Bill Murray - weeknights at 5:00 p.m. on First at 5:00; also reporter
• Amanda Barren - weeknights at 5:00 p.m. First at 5:00; also reporter
• Tim Irr - weeknights at 5:30 (5:30 Edition), 6:00 (Six O'Clock) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)
• Jessica Ralston - weeknights at 5:30 (5:30 Edition), 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)
• Cathleen Moxley - Saturday mornings on Saturday Morning (6:00-7:00 a.m.); also reporter
• Brooks Jarosz - weekends at 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)

First Warning Weather

• Tony Cavalier - Chief Meteorologist, weeknights at 5:00 (First at 5:00), 5:30 (5:30 Edition), 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)
• Brandon Butcher - weekday mornings on Wake Up, Sunrise and Today (4:30-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon on Midday
• Josh Fitzpatrick - Saturday mornings on Saturday Morning (6:00-7:00 a.m.) and weekends at 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)

WSAZ Sports

• Keith Morehouse - Sports Director; weeknights at 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)
• Brandon Arroyo – weekends at 6:00 (Six O'Clock), 10:00 (Ten O'Clock on WSAZ-DT2) and 11:00 p.m. (TONIGHT)
• Brad Myers - sports reporter

Reporters

• Andrew Colgrove
• Cathleen Moxley
• Lauren Schmoll
• Jennifer Rizzi
• Olivia Fecteau
• Rahel Solomon
• John Marra – home and garden expert, Saturday Report host (Saturday mornings at 5:30 a.m.) and "Green Thumb" segment producer

See also

• History of WSAZ-TV

External links

• WSAZ.com - Official WSAZ-TV Website
• MyZTV.tv - Official MyZTV Website
• WV.ThisTV.com - Official This TV West Virginia Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSAZ-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W16CE