WTKR
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| Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Portsmouth/Newport News, Virginia | |
|---|---|
| Branding | NewsChannel 3 |
| Slogan | Taking Action, Getting Results (news) VIPIR Means Accuracy (weather) |
| Channels | Digital: 40 (UHF) Virtual: 3 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | CBS (secondary until 1953) |
| Owner | Local TV, LLC (Local TV Virginia License, LLC) |
| First air date | April 2, 1950 |
| Call letters' meaning | Dual meaning: * Tidewater Knight Ridder (former owners)[1] * tribute nod to WTAR (rhyming scheme) |
| Sister station(s) | WGNT |
| Former callsigns | WTAR-TV (1950–1981) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 4 (1950-1952) 3 (1952-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Primary: NBC (1950–1953) Secondary: DuMont (1950–1955) ABC (1950–1957) |
| Transmitter power | 950 kW |
| Height | 377 m |
| Facility ID | 47401 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°48′31″N 76°30′13″W / 36.80861°N 76.50361°W |
| Website | www.wtkr.com |
WTKR is the CBS affiliate television station serving the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, officially known as the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News DMA. The station is licensed to Norfolk and broadcasts on channel 40 (virtual channel 3). Its transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia. Owned by Local TV, the station is sister to The CW affiliate WGNT.
The main office and studio is located in Norfolk, and has additional studios in Virginia Beach on Atlantic Avenue at the Oceanfront and inside the office of the Daily Press in Newport News. The station formerly operated news bureaus in the Town Center area of Virginia Beach and in the City Center at Oyster Point section of Newport News. The station's transmission tower is located in northwest part of Suffolk, Virginia, transmitting with 950 kilowatts of power at a height of 1,250 feet (380 m) on a tower owned by ATC and co-located with WHRO, WTVZ and WPXV. It is the tallest antenna in southeastern Virginia.
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[edit] Digital programming
WTKR began digital broadcasts on channel 40 on March 11, 2002 at 4:15pm. On June 12, 2009, WTKR-TV's digital signal remained on channel 40 when the analog to digital conversion was completed.
[edit] History
The station began operation on channel 4 on April 2, 1950 as WTAR-TV, Virginia's second television station. It carried programming from all four networks of the time--NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont--but was a primary NBC affiliate. It was owned by the Virginian-Pilot along with WTAR radio (AM 790, now on AM 850), Virginia's first radio station. It moved to channel 3 in 1952. When WVEC-TV signed on a year later as an NBC affiliate, WTAR-TV became a primary CBS affliliate, retaining its secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations (DuMont folded two years later).
WTAR became solely affiliated with CBS in 1957, when WAVY-TV signed on as the ABC affiliate (WAVY and WVEC would swap affiliations in 1959 making the latter station the ABC affiliate) When the Virginian-Pilot reorganized its various holdings as Landmark Communications in 1967, WTAR-AM-FM-TV became the flagship stations.
The station was one of several in the country to produce a local version of PM Magazine from the late 1970s to mid-1980s.
The Federal Communications Commission began tightening its ownership restrictions in the 1970s, eventually barring common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets. Landmark tried to get grandfathered protection for its flagship Hampton Roads cluster, but was unsuccessful. In 1981, it opted to sell channel 3 to Knight-Ridder, who changed the station's calls to WTKR. The new calls reflected the new ownership and also sounded similar to the old ones. Knight-Ridder sold WTKR and sister station WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island to Narragansett Television in 1989. Narragansett sold WTKR to The New York Times Company in 1995. On May 7, 2007; the Times sold its entire broadcasting division, including WTKR, to current owner Local TV.[2]
In June 2010, Local TV announced that it would be acquiring The CW affiliate WGNT from CBS Corporation. WTKR managed the station through a time brokerage agreement from that point until Local TV closed on the purchase on August 4. This purchase created the market's second co-owned duopoly operation, after the LIN TV-owned combination of WAVY and Fox affiliate WVBT.
[edit] Eastern Shore Translators
There are two low-powered translators of WTKR that are located in the Eastern Shore of Virginia and are municipally-owned by Accomack County rather than Local TV, LLC. [3] [4] WTKR-TV and Local TV, LLC does not own and operate any translators located in the Greater Hampton Roads area.
- W22DN Channel 22 Craddockville
- W39CS Channel 39 Onancock
[edit] News operation
Over the years, the station expanded its news operation to include about 30 hours of local news production per week. During the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, independent station WSKY-TV aired two weeknight 11 o'clock newscasts from WTKR during its coverage of the basketball tournament. The station did broadcast late newscasts at Midnight when the coverage concluded. [5]
WTKR started the area's first 4 p.m. newscast on September 8, 2009.[6] This is the station's second attempt at a newscast during the 4 p.m. hour, as WTKR had aired a short-lived 4:30 p.m. newscast in 1995.[7]
WTKR began producing and airing its local newscasts in high definition on January 26, 2009 with the 5:00PM broadcast. [8] WTKR is the third station in the Hampton Roads market, after WAVY-TV and WVBT, to begin airing high definition newscasts (as opposed to the upconverted widescreen standard definition format of WVEC's newscasts).
[edit] News staff
| Anchors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Year Joined | |
| Juliet Bickford | Weeknights at 4pm and 5pm | 2008 |
| Barbara Ciara | Weeknights at 4pm, 5pm and 5:30pm | 2000 |
| Erica Greenway | Weekend evenings | 2010 |
| Bianca Martinez | Weeknights at 4pm, 6pm and 11pm | 2003 |
| Laila Muhammad | Weekday mornings and noon | 2007 |
| Blaine Stewart | Weekday mornings and noon | 2007 |
| Kurt Williams | Weeknights at 5:30pm, 6pm, and 11pm | 1988 |
| Reporters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year Joined | ||
| Reed Andrews | General assignment | 2010 |
| Juliet Bickford | "Don't Waste Your Money"/"Taking Action Against Crime" | 2008 |
| Barbara Ciara | Reports for evening shows | 2000 |
| Marie Coronel | General assignment | 2007 |
| Kristen Crowley | Traffic/Look What's Cookin' | 2007 |
| Erica Greenway | General assignment | 2010 |
| Anjali Hemphill | General assignment | 2010 |
| Bonnie Johnson | Look What's Cookin' | 2008 |
| Jessica Larche | Investigative | 2010 |
| Mike Mather | Investigative | 1998 |
| Eric Levy | General assignment | 2010 |
| Laurie Simmons | General assignment | 2011 |
| VIPIR Weather | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Year Joined | |
| Patrick Rockey | Chief Meteorologist; weekday evenings | 2002 |
| Myles Henderson | Meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon | 2010 |
| Tony Smith | Forecaster; weekend evenings | 2011 |
| Blaine Stewart | Forecaster, fill-in | 2007 |
| Sports | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position | Year Joined | |
| Ted Alexander | Weekend sports anchor, Locker Room host | 1996 |
[edit] Notable former on-air staff
- Ed Hughes, often called the Walter Cronkite of Hampton Roads, from 1967 (as WTAR) to his death from cancer in 2004.
- Paula Miller, reporter from 1984 until 1999. Now member of the Virginia House of Delegates.[9]
- Bob Rathbun, sports anchor from 1990 until 1991. Previously at WTAR Radio for 12 years. Now play-by-play announcer for Atlanta Hawks.
[edit] References
- ^ http://articles.dailypress.com/1999-05-15/features/9905150026_1_wtkr-stations-letters
- ^ NY Times CO. Sell TV Group to Equity Firm for $530M; Second equity group to buy a media business in two weeks., NewsInc. (via HighBeam Research), January 8, 2007.
- ^ http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=W39CS#station
- ^ http://easternshore.vartv.com/
- ^ http://www.dailypress.com/business/dp-biz_wtkr_0319mar19,0,1611931.story
- ^ http://www.vartv.com/pdf/WTKR_2009_08_31.pdf
- ^ http://asoundidea.com/Articles/copy/DP010795.html
- ^ http://vartv.com
- ^ Welcome to Delegate Paula Miller's Web Site
[edit] External links
- WTKR website
- WTKR Facebook Page
- WTKR MySpace Page
- WTKR Twitter Page
- WTKR Mobile WAP portal
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WTKR
- Query TV Fool's coverage map for WTKR
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WTKR-TV
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