WTVO

WTVO

Rockford, Illinois
Branding	WTVO Channel 17 (general) WTVO Channel 17 News Rockford's MyNetworkTV (on DT2)
Slogan	News Where You Live
Channels	Digital: 16 (UHF) Virtual: 17 (PSIP)
Subchannels	17.1 ABC 17.2 MyNetworkTV
Affiliations	Jewelry Television (overnights on DT2)
Owner	Mission Broadcasting (operated through JSA and SSA by Nexstar Broadcasting Group)
First air date	May 3, 1953
Call letters' meaning	Winnebago TeleVision Organization
Sister station(s)	WQRF-TV
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 39 (1953-1967) 17 (1967-2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1953-1995) DuMont (secondary, 1953-1956) UPN (on DT2, 2003-2006)
Transmitter power	196 kW
Height	201 m
Class	DT
Facility ID	72945
Transmitter coordinates	42°17′14″N 89°10′15.4″W

WTVO is the ABC-affiliated television station for Northern Illinois licensed to Rockford. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 (or virtual channel 17.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter at its studios on North Meridian Road/IL 24 in Rockford. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 908. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, WTVO is operated through joint sales and shared services agreements by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group. This makes it a sister outlet to Fox affiliate WQRF-TV and the two stations share studios. Syndicated programming on WTVO includes Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy, The People's Court and The Rachael Ray Show among others.

Digital programming

On WTVO-DT2 and Comcast channel 16 is the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate. Known on-air as Rockford's MyNetworkTV, syndicated programming on this station includes Excused, The Insider, Extra and America's Funniest Home Videos among others. During overnights, WTVO-DT2 airs paid programming from Jewelry Television.

Channels (physical/virtual)	Name	Video	Aspect	Programming
16.1/17.1	WTVO-HD	720p	16:9	main WTVO programming/ABC (HD)
16.2/17.2	WTVO-DT2	480i	4:3	Rockford's MyNetworkTV (SD)

History

The station signed-on May 3, 1953 as the market's first television outlet and is the oldest continuously operating UHF station in the northern portion of Illinois. Originally airing an analog signal on UHF channel 39 but moved to channel 17 in 1967. Interestingly, WQRF has operated from channel 39 since first signed-on in November 1978. WTVO was originally a primary NBC affiliate and shared secondary ABC status with WREX-TV.

When WCEE-TV (now WIFR) signed-on in 1965, it took the CBS affiliation sending ABC to WREX and leaving WTVO with just NBC. The station was locally owned by Winnebago Television (incoporated into the call sign, Winnebago TeleVision Organization) until 1986 when Young Broadcasting of New York State purchased it. After a 42-year run as the local NBC station, it swapped network affiliation with WREX taking the ABC affiliation in August 1995.

Another ownership change came on November 22, 2004 when Mission Broadcasting (a subsidiary of Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting) bought WTVO from Young for $21 million. WTVO shares studios with Nexstar-owned WQRF although this station essentially functions as the senior partner of the agreement. WQRF originates from the WTVO facility and this station produces programming for the former. For a number of years, WTVO carried selected Chicago Cubs telecasts originating from WGN-TV. However, in 1988, those telecasts moved to WIFR. During its days as an NBC affiliate, WTVO preempted a good number of network shows particularly in weekday and Saturday daytime as well as the Saturday edition of the NBC Nightly News in the 1980s.

A significant figure in its history was news anchor Bruce Richardson. He spent over 35 years at the station from 1956 until his retirement in June 1992. Richardson had the longest reign as a local news anchor in the history of Rockford television. Harold Froelich, one of WTVO's founders, served as General Manager for 37 years from sign-on until his retirement in 1990. In 1953, Froelich was one of the youngest General Managers in television. WTVO's secondary programming service launched on September 22, 2003 with offerings from UPN. Known on-air as "Rockford UPN 16", WTVO-DT2 replaced WHPN (now WBUW) in Madison, Wisconsin on Rockford area cable systems.

Access to UPN was actually lost a year earlier in 2002 after a change in WHPN’s ownership prompted an affiliation switch to The WB. That station's new owner, Acme Communications, was a major station group involved in The WB. Since UPN moved to a similar secondary programming service in Madison (known "UPN 14"), Rockford cable systems imported Chicago's WPWR-TV into the market as the de-facto UPN affiliate for Rockford until WTVO added "Rockford UPN 16". In September 2006 with the merge of UPN and The WB, WTVO-DT2 joined the other new network debuting at the time (MyNetworkTV) which is actually a sister operation to Fox that is seen on WQRF.

Newscasts

News open weeknights at 10.

In March 2006, WTVO began producing the market's second prime time newscast on WQRF known as Fox 39 News at 9. The broadcast only aired on weeknights unlike the area's original prime time show that was seen every night on cable-only WB affiliate "WBR" (produced by WREX). This distinction made WQRF's news Rockford's first over-the-air newscast at 9. Competition between "WBR" and WQRF was short lived because in late-2007, the former had its news canceled by WREX for an unknown reason. The time slot is currently used to replay that station's weeknight 6 o'clock show. Another addition to local newscasts on WQRF occurred on January 14, 2008 when WTVO launched Fox 39 Evening News at 6:30. That aired weeknights on its sister station up against the national broadcasts on the area's big three affiliates.

At some point in time after this, WQRF expanded Fox 39 News at 9 to a seven night operation and lengthened the weeknight version to a full hour. The station would eventually drop the 6:30 show on weeknights for an unknown reason. WIFR was the first outlet in Rockford to upgrade newscasts to high definition followed by WREX on December 12, 2010. Local news seen on WTVO and WQRF remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition and there are currently no plans made public to upgrade the two stations to either 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen or full HD level. Unlike most ABC affiliates, this station does not air a midday newscast during the week. WTVO-DT2 offers repeates of local news from the main channel.

Anchors

• Steve Stadelman - weekday mornings and weeknights at 5
• Mimi Murphy - weeknights at 6 and 10
• Kimberly Nelson - weeknights at 9
• Sachelle Saunders - weekends and reporter

WTVO First Warn Meteorologists

• Ty Shesky (CBM and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
• Candice King - weekday mornings
• Eric Nefstead (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends

Sports (both seen on The Sports Connection)

• Scott Leber - Director seen weeknights
• Ben Hutchison - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• Bob Ryder - Senior also fill-in news anchor on weekday mornings and weekends
• Marty Kasper - one man band
• Mark Stevens - one man band
• Alex Shabad
• Vi Nguyen

External links

• WTVO
• ABC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVO