WTOL

WTOL

Toledo, Ohio
Branding	WTOL 11 (general) WTOL 11 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Toledo's News Leader (official slogan) We Track Storms (weather slogan)
Channels	Digital: 11 (VHF)
Subchannels	11.1 CBS 11.2 Me-TV
Affiliations	CBS Television Network
Owner	Raycom Media, Inc. (WTOL License Subsidiary, LLC)
Founded	December 5, 1958
Call letters' meaning	TOLedo (TOL is also the IATA airport code for Toledo)
Former affiliations	NBC (secondary, 1958-1969) IND/Local news (11.2, 2005-2012)
Transmitter power	16.9 kW (digital)
Height	305 m (digital)
Facility ID	13992
Transmitter coordinates	41°40′22″N 83°22′47″W
Website	www.wtol.com

WTOL is the CBS- affiliated television station licensed in Toledo, Ohio. The station broadcasts on channel 11 (RF and PSIP) and can be seen quite clearly throughout Northwest Ohio, Southeast Michigan (including Detroit), and southwest Ontario (including Windsor and Essex County, where it was formally carried by Cogeco Cable systems along with WTVG and WNWO until 2009). WTOL is owned by Raycom Media and their studio is located in downtown Toledo. Syndicated programming on WTOL includes: Jeopardy!, Wheel Of Fortune, Dr. Phil and America Now.

History

WTOL-TV began broadcasting on December 5, 1958 as a CBS affiliate with a secondary NBC affiliation. It shared NBC with then ABC affiliate WSPD-TV (now WTVG) until 1969, when WDHO-TV (now WNWO-TV) replaced WSPD-TV as the ABC affiliate. WTOL then became exclusively affiliated with CBS. WTOL is also the only station in Toledo to never change its primary affiliation.

The station was originally owned by the Clients of Toledo, Ohio Investors along with WTOL radio (AM 1230, now WCWA; and FM 104.7, now WIOT). It was sold to Filmways (now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) in 1962. The Broadcasting Company of the South, a subsidiary of South Carolina insurer Liberty Life Insurance Company, bought WTOL in 1965 and later changed its name to Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation. Liberty reorganized itself as a holding company, The Liberty Corporation, in 1974, and WTOL came directly under the Liberty banner after Liberty sold off its insurance business in 2003. Liberty merged with Raycom Media in 2005. Raycom already owned WNWO, but couldn't keep both because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not allow one person to own two of the four biggest stations in a single market. It opted to keep the higher-rated WTOL and sold WNWO to Barrington Broadcasting.

In December 1994, WTOL replaced Detroit's WJBK on the lineup of Cancom (later Shaw Broadcast Services), which provided American networks to cable and satellite viewers in many areas across Canada (particularly Atlantic Canada and the Prairies). The changeover occurred shortly before WJBK was due to switch its affiliation from CBS to Fox. CBS was unable to sign a new Detroit affiliate (WGPR, now WWJ-TV) until mere days before the change, and as Cancom had to seek regulatory approval several months in advance, it elected to go with the affiliate in the largest market in close proximity to Detroit, WTOL. WTOL was carried by Cancom until 1999, when it was replaced with WWJ-TV.

During this time, WTOL was the de facto CBS affiliate for the southern part of the Detroit market, as WWJ-TV was all but unviewable in that area at the time.

WTOL had preempted some network programming for many years, but in recent years has carried the entire CBS network schedule. The only significant exceptions are for the airing of Billy Graham and St. Jude's Hospital specials. As of April 2006 it is still the most watched television station in Toledo. As of May, WTOL topped the ratings in every newscast, except for mornings, where WTVG took the ratings crown.

Since their debuts in syndication, both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have aired on WTOL.

Ever since its national debut, The Oprah Winfrey Show has been shown on WTOL. Oprah Winfrey ended her show on May 25, 2011. WTOL's 4:00 p.m. time slot was then taken over by the daily lifestyle magazine show America Now co-hosted by Leeza Gibbons and Bill Rancic beginning September 12, 2011. However, due to poor ratings, WTOL switched timeslots for America Now and Dr. Phil beginning on January 23, 2012. Therefore, Dr. Phil is shown at 4 p.m., leading into WTOL's 5 p.m. newscast.

Currently, WTOL doesn't broadcast any syndicated programming in high definition. However, WTOL is planning to begin broadcasting their syndicated programming and commercials in high definition sometime in 2012.

WTOL was known off-air as "Toledo Eleven" or "Toledo 11". WTOL is also one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of ABC affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati. WTOL is also one of a few television stations that air the "Does it Work?" reports by Lauren Keith of sister station KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The Ohio Lottery drawings have been originally shown on WTOL since the televised drawings began. However, on July 1, 2011, WTOL no longer broadcasted the nightly drawings or the game show Cash Explosion. The drawings and Cash Explosion were moved over to rival station WTVG channel 13.

In late September 2011, WTOL anchors began using Apple i-Pads during newscasts. WTOL is the second television station in Toledo to use iPads. WTVG was the first station to start using the technology.

In October 2011, WTOL was certified in having the most accurate weather forecasts in all of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. The certification came from WeatheRate, the only independent weather forecast verification company in the United States.

In January 2012, the LIN TV Corporation announced the sale of the local Fox affiliate WUPW to American Spirit Media for $22 million. Raycom was a former owner of WUPW, and American Spirit Media owns television stations in three other markets with Raycom-owned "Big Three" network-affiliated stations; the American Spirit Media stations in all three of those markets are operated by those markets' Raycom-owned stations through shared services agreements (SSAs). As a result, WTOL will take over the operations of WUPW through an SSA, effectively reuniting WUPW with its former (and WTOL's current) owner.

Also in January, WTOL had announced that it was affiliating 11.2 with the Me-TV network.

High Definition Newscasts

On April 21, 2011, during their 5 p.m. newscast, WTOL began broadcasting their newscasts in high definition; a couple of days earlier than expected. WTOL began promoting their switch to high defintiion on April 25. A new look to the news set also happened. The news set now has an orange and blue color scheme and has added the letters HD to the logo. Only the in-studio cameras are in 1080i high definition, and field coverage is in 16:9 enhanced definition. On August 9, 2011, WTOL began using HD graphics in its entire newscasts. Before, WTOL only used HD graphics in its weather forecasts. WTOL is the second news station in Toledo to make the upgrade to high definition. WTVG channel 13 was the first to begin broadcasting in HD on July 2, 2010. WNWO began broadcasting news in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen on August 15, 2011.

Digital Television

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
11.1	1080i	16:9	Main WTOL programming / CBS
11.2	480i	4:3	Me-TV

On June 12, 2009, WTOL turned off its analog signal. The station's digital signal relocated to channel 11 following the digital transition. Channel 11 DTV transmits at a lower power than it did on Channel 17 DTV, so in some locations, there has been a reduction in coverage. Many VHF stations are applying to the FCC for power increases to restore their coverage area after moving from UHF back to VHF.

On April 4, 2011, Raycom Media announced it would be affiliating its stations' subchannels with Me-TV, and WTOL-TV had announced on Monday, January 23, 2012 that it would be adding Me-TV to its signal. Effective at Noon on January 23, News Now 11 had reverted to "StormTrack 11" (a radar loop, accompanied with instrumental music), before switching to Me-TV at 6:00 AM on Monday, January 30, 2012. With the addition of Me-TV, WTOL now serves as the affiliate for Toledo, as well as the southern half of the Detroit-Windsor market (in a similar manner to WNWO-TV and its RTV subchannel).

WTOL 11 News Team

Current off-air staff

(as of February 2012)

Anchors

• Jerry Anderson - weeknights; also host of Leading Edge with Jerry Anderson
• Tim Miller - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
• Chrys Peterson - weeknights
• Tina Shaerban - weedays at noon; also morning traffic reporter
• Craig Thomas - Saturday mornings; also weekday morning reporter
• Melissa Voetsch - weekday mornings and 9:00 a.m.
• Jonathan Walsh - weekday mornings; also chief investigator
• Colleen Wells - weekend mornings; also weeknight reporter

Weather

• Robert Sheils (AMS) - chief meteorologist, weeknights
• Kimberly Newman - meteorologist, Thursday-Friday at noon and weekend mornings
• Chris Vickers (AMS-CBM) - meteorologist, weekday mornings and 9:00 a.m.
• Ryan Wichman - meteorologist, Monday-Wednesday at noon and weekend evenings

Sports

• Dan Cummins - sports director, weeknights; also host of The T Sports Report
• Mike Lacett - sports reporter; also sports achor fill-in
• Jordan Strack - sports anchor, weekends and weeknight fill-in; also co-host of The T Sports Report

Reporters

• Dick Berry - general assignment reporter
• Cristy Gimbel - general assignment reporter
• Lisa Rantala - general assignment reporter
• Amanda St. Hilaire - general assignment reporter
• Joe Stoll - general assignment reporter
• Rob Wiercinski - general assignment reporter
• Matt Wright - general assignment reporter

Notable past on-air staff

• Steve Hartman (now at CBS News)

Recent awards

Edward R. Murrow

• Overall Excellence

WTOL-TV, Toledo Ohio

• Best Newscast

WTOL-TV, Toledo Ohio-News 11 at 5:00

• Best News Series

WTOL-TV, Toledo Ohio- Teen Prostitution Shelly Brown and Paul Kwapich

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• George Thompson and the News (1958–1961)
• The Six O'Clock News/The Eleven O'Clock News (1961–1966)
• Eyewitness News (1966–1974)
• Toledo Eleven News (1974–1995)
• Toledo 11: The NewsChannel (1995–2004)
• WTOL News 11 (2004–2010)
• WTOL 11 News (2010–present)

Station slogans

• Move Closer to Your World (1970s)
• News People (1978-early 1980s)
• The News Channel (1995–2004)
• Toledo's News Leader (2004–present)

Sports

WTOL airs regional and national sports programming from CBS Sports. Local teams that appear on WTOL include Cleveland Browns regular season games (from NFL on CBS). Since WTOL's normal coverage area reaches within 75 miles of the Browns' home Cleveland Browns Stadium (including Sandusky, Norwalk, Bellevue, and Clyde) it is part of the Browns' blackout area.

External links

• WTOL Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTOL
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WTOL-TV