WHIO-TV

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WHIO-TV is a television station in Dayton, Ohio. It broadcasts on channel 7 (digital 41) and is an affiliate of CBS. In 2009, WHIO-TV ranked as the #1 CBS affiliate in the United States.

Station history

WHIO was started on channel 13 on February 23, 1949 and moved to channel 7 in 1952. It is Dayton's first television station to start broadcasting, although WDTN was first to have its license granted. WHIO is the only station in Dayton to never change its affiliation. WHIO has been owned by Cox Enterprises since its inception. WHIO's transmitter is located on Germantown Street in western Dayton. WHIO began broadcasting all their newscasts in a 16:9 widescreen format on April 1, 2007, becoming the first Ohio station outside of Cleveland at the time to switch to the new format. Its news department NewsCenter 7 has been in first place in the Nielsen Ratings for many years and that trend continues to this day. The news team is led by Jim Baldridge, Cheryl McHenry, James Brown & Letitia Perry in the evening and Natasha Williams & John Paul in the morning. The station also has the largest team of news reporters and meteorologists than any other station in the Miami Valley.

WHIO also has served as the default CBS affiliate for most of the Lima (Ohio) DMA. (The station reaches most of the Lima DMA with a Grade B signal). This was especially the case before a low-powered CBS affiliate, WLMO-LP, went on the air in Lima. WHIO also remains on Time Warner's Lima cable systems, along with Columbus CBS affiliate WBNS-TV.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

WHIO-DT

WHIO-DT broadcasts on digital channel 41.

Digital channels

Channel	Name	Programming
7.1	WHIO-DT	CBS
7.2	7 Weather Now	The AccuWeather Channel

Analog-to-Digital Conversion

After the analog television shutdown scheduled for June 12, 2009 , WHIO-TV remained on its current digital channel 41 and stopped transmitting on channel 7 using PSIP to display WHIO-TV's virtual channel as 7.

Logo

The logo for the station is their version of the "Circle 7" logo -- an orange 7 against a blue background, encompassed by a thin orange circle, and juxtaposed by "WHIO-TV" written in blue on a white background, underlined in red. Both the logo and the slogan ("Coverage you can count on") identify WHIO-TV as the sister station of other Cox stations; particularly WSB-TV in Atlanta, which has a similar logo and identical slogan. Its sister station in Seattle, KIRO-TV, also has a similar logo, but a different version of the "Circle 7".

Until early 2007, the "7" in the logo was "broken" -- it had a diagonal line running where the two lines in the "7" meet. This logo has been used by WHIO-TV since the early-1970s at the latest. In early 2007, at the latest, the logo underwent a slight revision, removing this "break" from the "7".

Slogans

For years the station simply used "THE LEADER" slogan, even though that still holds true they have changed the slogan only a few times since using The Leader slogan. For a short time they used the slogan "THE MIAMI VALLEY NEWS LEADER" now they use a combination slogan "LIVE, LOCAL, LATE BREAKING - COVERAGE YOU CAN COUNT ON".

Weather

Storm Center 7

WHIO's team of meteorologists currently by the name of the Storm Center 7 weather team is led by Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson and also features Meteorologists Jeff Porter, Rich Wirdzek and Kimberly Thomson. WHIO bills their radar as 'New Live Doppler 7' powered by Baron Services.

WHIO was one of the first television stations in the United States to have its own weather radar.

WHIO did not switch to professional meteorologists until 1993 with the hiring of Heidi Sonen. WHIO then dropped the Accu-Weather service and hired other meteorologists to fill out the staff including former Weather Channel meteorologist Fred Barnhill. Air Force meteorologist Warren Madden was hired from the nearby Wright Patterson Air Force Base and he later went to The Weather Channel in December 1996.

After Sonen's retirement in 1997, the station hired more Penn State meteorology graduates for the role of Chief Meteorologist including Brian Orzel and Jamie Simpson.

In December 2004 they introduced StormCenter 7, which is a weather center that doubles as a set created by FX Group where weather reports can be done.

New Live Doppler 7

File:WHIOHDOPEN.PNG

NewsCenter 7 open.

On June 29, 2007, WHIO debuted their new doppler weather radar, billed as New Live Doppler 7. The radar is available anytime on the stations website.

7 Weather Now

On December 15, 2006, WHIO-TV launched 7 Weather Now, programmed 24 hours a day and frequently updated forecasts. Live coverage of developing severe weather can be found on 7 Weather Now, as well as the latest watches and warnings. Weekday mornings from 7am to 8am, a third hour of News Center 7 Daybreak airs exclusively on the channel. 7 Weather Now can be found on digital channel 7.2, channel 23 on Time Warner cable, and on the digitial tier at channel 708. A live stream of 7 Weather Now can be accessed on the WHIO-TV website at http://www.whiotv.com.

Widescreen news

WHIO began broadcast of all their newscasts in a widescreen format on April 1, 2007.

News Staff

NEWSCENTER 7 ANCHORS:

• Jim Baldridge (since 1972) Weeknights @ 6pm (to retire at the end of August 2009)
• Cheryl McHenry (since 1981) Weekdays @ 5pm, 5:30pm & 6pm
• James Brown (since 2002) Weeknights @ 5pm, 5:30pm & 11pm
• Letitia Perry (since 2001) Weeknights @ 11pm
• Natasha Williams (since 1993) Weekday Mornings
• John Paul (since 2008) Weekday Mornings & Noon
• Brittny McGraw (since 2008) Weekends at 6pm & 11pm
• Gabrielle Enright (since 1997) Saturday Mornings and Saturday Noon

NEWSCENTER 7 REPORTERS:

• Steve Baker (since 1980)
• Mark Bruce (since 2008)
• Kathryn Burcham (since 2007)
• Mike Campbell (since 1986)
• Jill Del Greco (since 2006)
• Danielle Elias (since 2007)
• Caryn Golden (since 1997)
• Becky Grimes (since 1978)
• Jim Otte (since 1988)

STORMCENTER 7 TEAM:

• Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson (since 1999)
• Meteorologist Jeff Porter (since 2005)
• Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek (since 2006)
• Meteorologist Kimberly Thomson (since 2007)

7 SPORTS ANCHORS:

• Sports Director - Mike Hartsock (since 1979)

Notable WHIO Alumni

• Lyle Stieg (sports)
• Patt Garwood, weather reporter 1980s, former wife of Sports Director Mike Hartsock
• Cathy Stelzer
• Anton Day
• Margaret Brosko
• Phil Donahue
• Gil Whitney, reporter, anchor and weather specialist (died in 1982)
• Don Wayne, long time 6, 7 and 11pm lead news anchor (retired in 1988, died in 1997)
• Tom Hamlin, sports director in 1960s, retired
• Ted Ryan (weather specialist, staff announcer) (1954-1992) (retired in 1992, filled-in part time till 2001, currently hosts the Children's Miracle Network Telethon)
• Donna Jordan (1995-2006) (lead anchor until 2006), now retired
• Traci-Hale Brown (2004-2006), weekend weather specialist
• Rebecca Combs (2000-2005), anchor/reporter
• Andrew Douglas (now at WMC-TV in Memphis, TN)
• Mike Dunston, reporter, (now anchor at WOFL-TV in Orlando, FL)
• Jim Blue
• Cathy Ballou (weather specialist 1986-1995, Now working for Parkview Hospital in Ft. Wayne, IN)
• Deborah Countiss (retired from WSYX in Columbus)
• Trevor Pettiford
• Shawn Ley (now at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, OH)
• Heidi Sonen, Chief Meteorologist 1993-1998
• Ed Krahling, long time anchor, (retired in 1993, died in 1998)
• Ken Jefferson, anchor (1977-2002)
• Mick Hubert, sports director (1979-1989) (The Voice of the Florida Gators)
• Dr. Sherry Stanley-Wheaton, health reporter
• Joe Parise, weekend weather specialist
• Paul Herdtner, anchor/reporter (now weekday morning anchor at WDAF-TV, Fox-owned station in Kansas City)
• Bruce Asbury, Lead Weather Specialist 1982-89 (fired by WHIO, named "BEST TV REPORTER" in Sarasota, FL in 2007)
• Tracie Savage, anchor/reporter 1986-91
• Rick Smith, staff announcer and host of "Summer Nights" and "WHIO Reports"(died in 2006)
• Sallie Taylor, anchor/reporter (1988-2007)
• Linda Robertson, anchor/health reporter now @ University of Dayton
• Sher Patrick, anchor/reporter(now PR Director at Community Blood Services in the Dayton area)
• Dave Freeman, Chief Meteorologist (now at KSNW in Wichita, KS)
• Guil Herrick, Sports reporter/anchor
• Paul Moses, anchor/reporter
• Myriam Wright, anchor/reporter (now news anchor in Worcester, MA)
• Sam Yates, anchor/reporter-retired from news, now head of Yates and Associates in Jensen Beach Florida.
• Vanessa Tyler, anchor/reporter, now @ WPIX-TV, New York City
• Joe Rockhold "Uncle Orrie", 1950s/60s children's show host and staff announcer,retired in 1969 (died in 1981)
• Ken Hardin "Ferdy Fussbudget" 1950s/60s children's show co-host and sidekick of Uncle Orrie. (died in 1991.)
• Steve Prinzivalli, meteorologist (now at WIVT in Binghamton, NY)
• Jack Jacobson "Nosey The Clown" 1950s early sidekick of Uncle Orrie and "Ignatz Hammerschlob" later as "Dr. Scar" and as general manager at KGUN in Tucson and author of book "The Sky Blazers",retired (died on March 23, 2008)
• Dave Eaton "Charlie Goodtime" 1970s children's show host
• Dick Bieser, manager of community relations and on air personality, retired in 1993.
• Scott Dean, Former Meteorologist on Daybreak Edition and Noon Newscenter (now at WTVD in Raleigh, NC)
• Chris Ingalls, reporter (now at KING in Seattle)
• Guy Fogle, sports (formerly of WDTN and WKEF also, now retired from news, and teaching at Carlisle High School in Carlisle,OH)
• Warren Madden, meteorologist (1992-1996), now at The Weather Channel
• Paul Miller, reporter/anchor (1975-1979), later NBC Correspondent, now retired.
• Bob Shreve, overnight host of "Night People Theater", a Friday night/Saturday morning movie program...similar to his Saturday night program in Cincinnati (died in 1990.)
• Cathy Stelzer, host of NewsCenter 7 Saturday and NewsCenter 7 Springfield Bureau reporter.
• Denny Cheatham, Videographer/one-man band (1963-2009), retired
• Sylvia Newsome, anchor

See also

• Miami Valley Channel (former cable channel from WHIO-TV)

External links

• WHIO Website
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