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My apologies, but WRTV has a general logo and newscast logo.
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WRTV continues to air the entire ABC network schedule, although the station has no weekend morning local newscasts.
WRTV continues to air the entire ABC network schedule, although the station has no weekend morning local newscasts.


==ABC in the Terre Haute Market ==


When [[WBAK]] in [[Terre Haute]] (now [[WFXW]]) left ABC for [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]], WRTV became the default ABC station for the Indiana side of the market. It is viewable in Terre Haute with a rooftop antenna and is carried by all cable systems on the Indiana side of the Terre Haute market. For the Illinois counties in the Terre Haute television market, many systems offer [[WICD (TV)|WICD]] from [[Champaign, Illinois]] or [[WEHT]] from [[Evansville, Indiana]].


==Personalities==
==Personalities==

Revision as of 03:02, 16 June 2008

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

WRTV, "RTV6", is the ABC television affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its transmitter is located in Indianapolis.

The station's audio signal can be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial in much of central Indiana. This is because the audio signal of channel 6 is located at 87.75 MHz. This frequency assignment applies to all channel 6 television stations in countries using the NTSC-M standard.

History

The station signed on the air on May 30, 1949 under the call sign WFBM-TV with a documentary entitled Crucible of Speed covering the history of the Indianapolis 500, followed by the inaugural live television broadcast of the event. It is Indiana's oldest television station. It was owned by Consolidated Television and Radio Broadcasters along with WFBM-AM 1260 (now WNDE).

It was originally a CBS affiliate with secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations. When WTTV signed on a few months later, WFBM shared ABC programming until 1954, when WISH-TV signed on and took over the ABC affiliation. In 1956, WFBM took the NBC affiliation from WTTV.

Consolidated merged with Time-Life in 1957. As part of an FCC-mandated sale, WFBM-TV was sold to McGraw-Hill in 1972 along with sister station KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV) in Denver, KOGO-TV (now KGTV) in San Diego and KERO-TV in Bakersfield, California. At that time, the station assumed its current calls, WRTV. In 1979, WRTV traded affiliations with WTHR and became an ABC affiliate. NBC was the lowest rated network in the late 1970s while ABC rose to the ranks of the highest rated network that same time and was seeking out stronger local stations in many markets, thus motivating this affiliation switch in Indianapolis. WRTV is one of the few stations in the country to have been a primary affiliate of all three original networks.

WRTV today

WRTV has been a leader in adding inovation to Indiana broadcasting. Some of WRTV's innovations over the years, have included the first station in the state to broadcast in color, the first use of videotape, the first to use news mini-cams, the first use of microwave (a [pre-runner to satellite) (Insta-Cam), the first satellite truck (NewStar 6), the first cable news on NewsChannel 64 (now 6 News 24/7), the first use of non-linear digital editing, the first use of digital news cameras, the first entry into web publishing (TheIndyChannel.com), and the first into cellphone delivery of news (6NewsOnTheGo) and VODcasting.

RTV6 has lagged in the ratings behind WTHR and WISH in the market. This has gone on since the mid 90's.

On September 10, 2007, the same day the new anchor team of Todd Wallace and Trisha Shepherd debuted, WRTV launched a 7:00 p.m. newscast, a first for the Indianapolis market (and the second in Indiana). Station Vice President and General Manager Don Lundy attributes the decision to "longer commutes and longer work days" that prevent viewers from being home by 5 or 6. 6NEWS First at 5:00, the first five o'clock newscast launched in 1988 remains at 5pm. The syndicated EXTRA airs at 5:30pm followed by 6NEWS at 6:00pm, then followed up by World News with Charles Gibson at 6:30pm and the new 6 NEWS at 7PM.

Newscasts

WRTV continues to air the entire ABC network schedule, although the station has no weekend morning local newscasts.


Personalities

WRTV primary anchors seen weeknights.

Anchors

Weather:

Sports:

Reporters

Notable WRTV Alumni

Trivia

  • One of WRTV's former news staff was Emily Gimmel. Gimmel was the youngest of news reporters at WRTV at the age of 22.
  • Dan O'Rourke, after news internship became WRTV's youngest reporter at age 21, and youngest anchor at 22.
  • Kevin Gregory (the chief meteorologist) is the son of former WTHR chief meteorologist Bob Gregory.
  • Bob McLain, who still appears occasionally, was the station's primary meteorologist from 1972 to 2001; he covered the Super Outbreak of 1974 and the Great Blizzard of 1978.
  • In 1993, local video of hockey game and the station logo is used in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
  • Hal Fryar (aka "Harlow Hickenlooper") was one of nine local Three Stooges show hosts from across the country cast as villains in the Three Stooges full-length feature "The Outlaws Are Coming! The Outlaws Are Coming!"
  • Bill Crawford, weatherman during the 1950s and early 1960s, was really a dentist by profession. Meteorology was only his hobby.
  • One of the station's newest projects is a hilarious online series of videos called "Off the Cuff" featuring their meteoroligist Paul Poteet and traffic reporter Tom Davis. The shows features random comedic antics from Paul and Tom and other players such as Morning News Anchor Grace Trahan and Director Betty Barista.
  • Harlow Hickenlooper's famous rendition of "Happy Birthday", which always resulted in his getting a pie in the face, was patterned after Jerry Colonna who always exaggerated certain songs. It can be heard on Hal Fryar's website www.harlowhickenlooper.com.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WRTV&oldid=219620789"