WTNH

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WTNH
New Haven / Hartford / New London, Connecticut
City of license	New Haven
Branding	NewsChannel 8
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Digital: 10 (VHF)
Subchannels	8.1 ABC
Owner	LIN TV Corporation (WTNH Broadcasting, Inc.)
First air date	June 15, 1948
Call letters’ meaning	Television New Haven or Welcome To New Haven
Sister station(s)	WCTX
Former callsigns	WNHC-TV (1948-1971)
Former channel number(s)	6 (1948-1953) 8 (VHF analog, 1953-2009)
Former affiliations	primary: DuMont (1948-1949) CBS (1949-1955) secondary: NBC (1949-1955) DuMont (1949-1956) ABC (1950-1955)
Transmitter Power	20.5 kW
Height	342 m
Facility ID	74109
Transmitter Coordinates	41°25′22.7″N 72°57′4.1″W / 41.422972°N 72.951139°W / 41.422972; -72.951139
Website	wtnh.com

WTNH is the ABC affiliate for the state of Connecticut that is licensed to New Haven. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter in Hamden. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX. The two stations share studios on Elm Street in downtown New Haven. Syndicated programming on WTNH includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Judge Judy, and Rachael Ray. Along with WCTX, this station's master control room and some traffic responsibilities actually originate from hub facilities at NBC affiliate WWLP in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

[edit] History

The station debuted on June 15, 1948 as WNHC-TV broadcasting on channel 6. It was founded by the New Haven Register along with WNHC radio (1340 AM, now WYBC) and WNHC-FM (99.1 FM, now WPLR). It is Connecticut's oldest television station and the second-oldest in New England (WBZ-TV in Boston signed on less than a week earlier). It was originally an affiliate of DuMont and claims to have been the first full-time affiliate of that short-lived network. ^[1] It added NBC and CBS in 1949 with ABC following in 1950. In late-1953, WNHC-TV changed frequencies and moved to channel 8. The next year, the FCC collapsed Hartford and New Haven into a single market. It shared some NBC programming with New Britain's WKNB-TV (now WVIT) until 1955 as that station's signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven at the time. In 1955, the New Haven Register and the WNHC stations were bought by Triangle Publications of Philadelphia. Also in that same year, WNHC-TV lost its CBS affiliation when that network purchased Hartford's WGTH-TV (later WHCT and now WUVN).

The station became a sole ABC affiliate though it shared ABC programming with Waterbury-based WATR-TV (now WTXX) until 1966. It has been a primary ABC affiliate longer than any station in New England except WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine also located on channel 8. Triangle was forced to sell its television stations in 1971 after then-Pennsylvania Governor Milton J. Shapp complained the company had used its Pennsylvania stations in a smear campaign against him. The WNHC stations were among the first batch to be sold going to Capital Cities Communications along with sister stations WFIL-AM-FM-TV in Philadelphia and KFRE-AM-FM-TV in Fresno, California. However, Capital Cities could not keep the radio stations because it already owned the maximum number allowed at the time. As a result, WNHC-TV changed its call letters to the current WTNH-TV soon after Capital Cities took over. The station dropped the -TV suffix from its calls in 1985 but continued to call itself "WTNH-TV" on-air well into the 1990s. Capital Cities bought ABC in 1986 in a deal that stunned the broadcast industry. However, the FCC would not allow the merged company to keep WTNH due to a significant signal overlap with ABC's flagship station, WABC-TV in New York City.

Channel 8's signal decently covers Fairfield County, which is part of the New York City market, and most of Long Island. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas and would not even consider granting a waiver when the overlap involved two city-grade signals. As a result, channel 8 was spun off to a minority-controlled firm called Cook Inlet Communications. During the mid-1980s, the Sally Jesse Raphael Show originated from studios in New Haven studios until the show moved to New York City. Cook Inlet sold WTNH to the LIN TV Corporation in 1994. When a new UHF independent station in New Haven, WTVU (later WBNE and now WCTX) signed-on in 1995, WTNH began operating the station under a local marketing agreement (LMA). In 2001, LIN TV Corporation bought WCTX outright. On May 18, 2007, the company announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company. ^[2] It was the first station in the country to use videotape for local programming and one of the first to broadcast in color. On June 12, 2009, WTNH left channel 8 and moved to channel 10 when the analog to digital conversion was completed. ^[3]

[edit] News operation

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the station used the Action News format made famous at its former Philadelphia sister station, WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV). It switched to the current NewsChannel title in 1996. For many years, WTNH has been a distant runner-up in the market to WFSB. However, in recent times it has had to fend off a spirited challenge from WVIT at a resurgent third place. In addition, WTIC-TV established a forth competitive news department in 1989 and built it ever so slowly that now does well particularly with its late night broadcasts. There is a heavy regional tilt to WTNH's ratings for news and local programming and it has traditionally does far better in Nielsen's "Metro B" area (New Haven County) than "Metro A" (Hartford County). This trend does not hold for network programming. It is the only Connecticut station with a large Fairfield County audience as well even though that area is part of the New York City market. Since the start of the LMA with WCTX in 2000, WTNH been producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast for that station. In 2005, WCTX began simulcasting the 6 A.M. hour of WTNH's weekday morning news (known as Good Morning Connecticut) followed by a second hour, 7 to 8, seen only on WCTX.

The 6 o'clock hour was eventually dropped. In addition to their main studios, WTNH operates a New London Bureau in The New London Day newsroom on Eugene O'Neill Drive and a Hartford Bureau on Columbus Boulevard. Its weekday Noon newscast was originally an hour long but was reduced to 30 minutes in recent times after a lifestyle magazine show, known as Connecticut Style, was added at 12:30. Along with regional NOAA National Weather Service radar data, the station operates its own weather radar near its transmitter in Hamden. Together, these two sources are called "SkyMax Doppler Network". WTNH broadcasts a 24-hour local weather channel on a second digital subchannel. It features a live radar feed, current conditions, and updated forecasts by station meteorologists. This channel is also offered on WCTX's second digital subchannel. The station operates a mobile weather vehicle, built around a modified Dodge Durango, known as the "SkyMax Mobile Weather Lab". It operates a Bell 206L3 Long Ranger helicopter known as "Chopper 8". This is shared with sister stations WPRI-TV and WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island.

[edit] News team

Anchors

• Sonia Baghdady - weekday mornings and Noon
• Ted Koppy - weeknights at 6 and 11
• Keith Kountz - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 10
• Darren Kramer - weekday mornings and Noon
• Jocelyn Maminta - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
  • health reporter
• Ann Nyberg - weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• Sara Welch - weekend evenings and reporter
• Chris Velardi - weekend mornings and reporter

Storm Team 8

• Geoff Fox - weeknights
• Gil Simmons (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - weekday mornings
• Dr. Mel Goldstein - weekdays at Noon
• Matt Scott (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekends
• Sid Starks- Fil-in / weekends

Sports

• Noah Finz - Director seen weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• John Pierson - weekend evenings and reporter
• Marc Robbins - reporter

Reporters

• Alan Cohn - investigative
• Tina Detelj - New London Bureau
• Mark Davis - Chief Political Correspondent
• Desiree Fontaine - weekday traffic and features
• Dennis Protsko - helicopter
• Erin Cox - investigative and general assignment
• Crystal Haynes
• Jodi Latina
• Jamie Muro
• Annie Rourke
• Bob Wilson

[edit] Notable alumni

• Nancy Aborn
• Brian Burnell
• Mike Boguslawski
• Dennis Buckman
• Ed Caputo
• Jon Crane
• Leon Collins - now at WFSB
• Verna Collins
• Persefone Contos
• Judy Chong
• Skip Church
• Kristen Cusato
• Wendy Cicchetti
• Kendra Farn
• Joe Francis
• Dick Galliette
• George Grande
• Jim Hoffer
• Christina Hager - now at WBZ-TV
• Marci Izard - now at WGGB-TV
• Bob Jones
• Tom Lewis - now at WTIC-TV
• Cathy Marshall
• SallyAnn Mosey
• Bob Norman
• Janet Peckinpaugh
• Bob Picozzi
• Sam Rosen
• Stelio Salmona
• Anna Sava
• Pat Sheehan
• Jocelyn Sigue
• Sue Simmons - now at WNBC-TV
• Jayne Smith
• Peter Standring
• Sid Starks
• Andrea Stassou
• Alexandra Steele - now at The Weather Channel
• Diane Smith
• Tricia Taskey
• Al Terzi - now at WFSB
• George Thompson
• Mike Warren
• Carla Wohl

[edit] References

1. ^ DuMont TV historical website, Chapter 3: Stations, C. Ingram
2. ^ LIN TV Corp. Exploring Strategic Alternatives, LIN TV, May 18, 2007
3. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

[edit] External links

Connecticut portal

• WTNH-TV/DT "NewsChannel 8"
• WTNH wireless
• WCTX "My TV 9"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTNH