WVIT

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WVIT, channel 30, is the NBC owned-and-operated station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut.

History

WVIT signed on for the first time on February 15, 1953 as WKNB-TV, a sister station to WKNB radio (840 AM, now WRYM). The calls stood for Kensington-New Britain. It is Connecticut's second-oldest television station, and the first on the UHF band. It is also the only station in Connecticut to have never changed its original affiliation.

In 1954, only a year after channel 30 signed on, Hartford and New Haven were collapsed into a single television market. However, WKNB's signal was not strong enough to cover southern Connecticut at the time--a problem that would hamper channel 30 for almost a quarter-century. NBC continued to air some programming on New Haven's WNHC-TV (channel 8, now WTNH) for another year due to this shortfall in channel 30's coverage.

NBC itself purchased the station in 1957 and renamed it WNBC-TV (for New Britain, Connecticut). It planned to boost the station's signal to cover all of the market, but these plans never materialized. In its first stint as an NBC-owned station, channel 30 failed to gain much headway in the ratings, largely because television manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability until 1964. Viewers had to buy an expensive converter to watch WNBC-TV, and even with one the picture was barely viewable. Nonetheless, NBC bought channel 30 as part of an experiment to determine whether UHF could be competitive with VHF.

In September 1957, the Travelers Insurance Company signed on independent WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB), Hartford's first and only VHF station. Within a year of its debut (and despite its radio sister having been an NBC radio affiliate for over thirty years) WTIC-TV became Connecticut's CBS affiliate, replacing its owned-and-operated station, WHCT-TV (channel 18, now WUVN). NBC then realized its UHF experiment would end up as a lost cause and sold WNBC-TV to Transcontinental Properties in 1959. In 1960, the calls changed again -- this time to WHNB-TV (for Hartford-New Britain). This change came because NBC wanted the WNBC calls for its radio and television cluster in New York City.

In 1966 WHNB became, once again, one of two NBC affiliates in Connecticut: the network signed with WATR-TV (channel 20) in Waterbury in order to get its programming into New Haven. Channel 30 itself made up for the shortfall in its market coverage by operating two low-power translators (starting in 1971) in Torrington on channel 79 [1], and later in the 1980s, on channel 59 in New Haven.

WHNB was sold to Viacom in 1978, and changed its call letters to WVIT (for "Viacom International Television") to reflect its new ownership. Viacom immediately announced plans to boost WVIT's signal. In 1980, channel 30 signed on with a new transmitter that more than doubled its coverage area, giving it a clear signal to New Haven for the first time. Viacom also beefed up WVIT's news operation, which had long been an also-ran behind WFSB and WTNH due to its weak signal in New Haven. After the signal boost, however, it became a factor in the ratings for the first time in decades. WVIT became the market's exclusive provider of NBC programming in March 1982, when WATR-TV's affiliation contract with NBC ended and the station became independent WTXX. The Torrington translator was turned off in 1987, and the New Haven repeater was shut down in the middle 1990s to allow full-powered WTVU (now WCTX) to begin operations.

Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994. Within the next year, following the launch of the United Paramount Network venture it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries, Paramount/Viacom began to sell off its non-UPN affiliated stations. WVIT, which was Viacom's first station purchase in 1978, ended up being the last non-UPN outlet sold in 1997. As part of a three-way deal, which closed on December 8 of that year, WVIT was sold to former owner NBC, while Paramount/Viacom ended up with WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island and WWHO in Columbus, Ohio, two stations owned by Fant Broadcasting which NBC operated by way of local marketing agreements.

With NBC's second acquisition of the station came a greater investment into and expansion of the news department, and by the start of the new millennium WVIT was regularly trading the number-two position in the market with WTNH.

In August 2007, the station finalized plans to begin the construction of a new studio facility to replace its current facility. The new building has been erected in the lot that formerly was the parking lot for the station. Ground was broken in October 2007. Currently, the plan is that the news will begin to broadcast from the new studios when NBC30 becomes NBC Connecticut HD in June of 2009.

Digital television

The station's digital signal, UHF 35, is multiplexed:

Virtual Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
30.1	1080i	16:9	Main WVIT programming / NBC HD
30.2	480i	4:3	NBC Plus
30.3	480i	4:3	Universal Sports

30.2 carried NBC Weather Plus; national network operations for that service ended in December 2008. Currently NBC Plus airs on that channel. This utilizes the same graphics as Weather Plus, with a new 'NBC Plus' logo and without the on camera meteorologist segments. NBC30 still brands its weathercasts as 'NBC Weather Plus'. This is likely to change when they debut their new set and studio in their brand new building this summer.

In 2009, WVIT will leave channel 30 and move to channel 35 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.

Current personalities

Anchors

• Brad Drazen - NBC Connecticut Today & 11 AM
• Yvonne Nava - NBC Connecticut Today & 11 AM
• Lisa Carberg - NBC Connecticut @ 5 & 6 PM
• Keisha Grant - NBC Connecticut @ 5, 5:30 & 11 PM
• Gerry Brooks - NBC Connecticut @ 5:30, 6 & 11 PM
• Anjuli Porter - NBC Connecticut - Weekend Mornings
• Lauren Petty - NBC Connecticut - Weekend Evenings

Weather

• Brad Field - chief/weeknight meteorologist
• Bob Maxon - morning meteorologist
• Ryan Hanrahan - weekend evenings
• Darren Sweeney - weekend mornings
• Jeremy Schmidt - freelance meteorologist

Sports

• Joe D'Ambrosio - sports reporter/substitute anchor
• Kevin Nathan - sports director/weeknight anchor
• Mike Ratte - weekend anchor

Traffic

• Mark "The Shark" Christopher

Reporters

• Debra Alfarone
• Monica Buchanan - Anchor/Reporter
• Debra Bogstie
• Susan Goodman
• Doug Greene
• Ryan Hanrahan- Meteorologist/Reporter
• Marla Matthews
• Tom Monahan - Chief political correspondent
• Amy Parmenter
• Diana Perez
• Andrew Pergam - Managing Editor NBCConnecticut.com
• Lauren Petty - Anchor/Reporter
• Anjuli Porter - Anchor/Reporter
• Amanda Raus
• Jeff Stoecker

Notable alumni

• Garett Argianas
• Barry Barents
• Chris Berman
• Lew Brown
• Logan Byrnes
• Tom Condon
• Mike Crispino
• Brian Dow
• Anthony Everett
• Van Hackett
• Bill Hansen
• Bill Hennessey
• Karen Hepp
• Cavell Jobert Nappi
• Brian Kilmeade
• Kal Kolby
• Polly Kreisman
• Kevin Lemanowicz
• Rob Marciano
• Dr. David Marks
• Duby McDowell
• Natalie Morales
• Rob Morrison
• Joanne Nesti
• Janet Peckinpaugh
• Sean Phillips
• Mindi Ramsey
• Beasley Reece
• Jay Richard
• Samantha Ryan
• John Sablon
• R.D. Sahl
• Steve Savard
• Brian Shactman
• Derek Slap
• Phil Steele
• Erika Tarantal
• Tony Terzi
• Jim Vicevich
• Chris Wragge
• Bob Wilson

External links

• WVIT website
• WVIT Wireless
• WVIT Tower
• UHF Morgue: W79AI, former WVIT translator
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