WCIA
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WCIA channel 3 is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Champaign, Illinois. Owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc., it has a sister station, WCFN-TV, the MyNetworkTV affiliate licensed to Springfield, Illinois. Both WCIA and WCFN are operated out of a studio on Neil Street in downtown Champaign. Its transmitter is located near Seymour.
History
Hitting the Airwaves
WCIA first broadcast on November 13, 1953 and was owned and operated by Midwest Television, Inc. headquartered in Champaign. The late August C. Meyer Sr., a lawyer and chairman of the board of the Champaign-based Bank of Illinois, founded Midwest Television in 1952. Meyer expanded the company's market presence by buying WMBD-AM-FM-TV in Peoria, Illinois in 1960 and KFMB-AM-FM-TV in San Diego, California in 1964. Midwest sold off majority control of its Illinois television holdings to Nexstar in 1999. Nexstar acquired Midwest's remaining interest in the Illinois stations in 2001.
The station was originally affiliated with CBS, NBC, and DuMont networks [1]. DuMont shut down in 1956, and WCIA dropped NBC in 1959 when WCHU-TV (now WICD) started. It also carried a few ABC shows in the early 1950s.
WCIA was a major beneficiary of an exception to the FCC's "2 1/2 + 1" plan for allocating VHF television bandwidth. In the early days of broadcast television, there were 12 VHF channels available, and 69 UHF channels (later reduced). The VHF bands were more desirable because they carried a longer distance. Because there were only twelve VHF channels available, there were limitations as to how closely the stations could be spaced. After the FCC opened the UHF band in 1952, it devised a plan for allocating VHF licenses. Under this plan, almost all of the country would be able to receive two commercial VHF channels, plus one noncommercial public access channel. Most of the rest of the country ("1/2") would be able to receive a third VHF channel. Other areas of the country would be designated as "UHF islands," since they were too close to larger cities for VHF service. The "2" networks became CBS and NBC, "+1" became PBS, and "1/2" became ABC, which, as the weakest network, usually wound up with the UHF allocation where no VHF was available.
Under the original plan, New York City and Los Angeles received seven commercial VHF licenses while most other large markets received three commercial VHF licenses and a public VHF license. However, under pressure from President Harry Truman, the FCC granted an additional VHF license to Chicago, and moved a VHF license from Springfield to St. Louis. This meant there could only be a single commercial VHF license, plus a public license (eventually occupied by the University of Illinois' WILL, on channel 12), between Chicago and St. Louis.
A central Illinois powerhouse
As the only commercial VHF station in central Illinois, WCIA has been one of the country's most dominant television stations for most of its history. On two occasions, it fought off attempts by WICS/WICD and WAND to force it onto the UHF band by claiming that moving to UHF would cause it to lose 150,000 viewers.
Despite its dominance of the market, WCIA only provides a grade B signal to the Springfield area. It originally wanted to build its tower in White Heath, near Decatur. The tower would have been placed on some of the highest ground in central Illinois. However, just after construction began, Prairie Television, owner of WTVP (now WAND), filed an objection. Even though it was obvious that Champaign-Urbana and Springfield-Decatur were going to be considered a single market, Prairie claimed WCIA was encroaching on its territory. To avoid delays, WCIA moved to its current location near Seymour. Despite this, Decatur (the second-largest city in the western half of the market) receives the channel 3 signal very well.
While it frequently trounced WICS/WICD and WAND in the ratings, Meyer decided to open a low-powered relay of WCIA on channel 49 to get better coverage in the state capital. In 1982, this became a full-powered station, WCFN. In 2002, WCFN broke off from WCIA and became the area's UPN affiliate (it has since joined My Network TV), presumably because WCIA's digital signal would travel far enough to cover Springfield. However, WCIA is still available on WCFN's digital subcarrier.
Logos
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WCIA Logo, circa 1970 to 2000 -
WCIA Logo, 2005 to present
Station names over the years
Slogans
WCIA has used the popular "Hello News" image campaign and slogan from Gari Communications since the 1980s and is still used on the station today for its "Hello Central Illinois" campaign.
- "Your News Leader"
- "Central Illinois News Leader"
- "At Home with You"
- "The World at Home"
News Themes
Over the years WCIA has been going through numerous theme changes. They include:
- "Captain from Castile: Conquest," Alfred Newman, 1960-1969
- "Cool Hand Luke: The Tar Sequence," Lalo Schifrin Music, 1969-1972
- "Move Closer To Your World," Mayoham Music, 1972-1975
- "On Top Of It All," Mayoham Music, 1975-1982; this theme was later used at several other stations, including WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and KDBC-TV in El Paso, Texas.
- "Hello News," Gari Communications, 1982-1989
- "The Great News Package," Gari Communications, 1989-1994
- "Hello News," Gari Communications, 1994-1998
- "This Is Your News," Gari Communications, 1998-2006
- "The CBS Enforcer Music Collection," Gari Communications, 2006-present
Entertainment
Happy Home, 1950s
Welcome Travelers, 1950s
At the Hop, 1950s-1960s, hosted by John Coleman, later by Ed Mason
Sun-Up, 1960s, hosted by Tom Jones
Sheriff Sid, 1960s
Dialing for Dollars, 1960s-1970s
Way Out with Cousin Trebor, 1963-1965
The Second Cup, 1970s
The Bruce Weber Show
PM Magazine
Illinois Journal
WCIA's Removal from Bloomington/Normal Cable Systems
At one time, WCIA-TV was available on Bloomington/Normal Cable along with WMBD-TV until March 2000. That year, Nexstar Broadcasting, who had bought out Channel 3 and Channel 31, announced it would pull WCIA from AT&T Cable Services (now Comcast) in Bloomington-Normal due to competition with WMBD-TV. The move would make WMBD-TV the only CBS affiliate and mean that WMBD would not have to share advertisers with or lose ratings points to WCIA. A group of outraged Bloomington/Normal residents called "Citizens to Keep WCIA on the Air" started a group that protested against Nexstar telling them not to drop Channel 3. Nexstar did not listen, and eventually dropped WCIA from Bloomington/Normal area cable systems.
High-Definition Programming Troubles
In November of 2006 work began to re-secure WCIA’s existing tower at Seymour so it will be able to hold a new digital transmission line and antenna. The station claims it will begin broadcasting a high definition signal sometime in February 2007, but it will not be in time for the Super Bowl.[1] This marked the twelfth time the station has "updated" its proposed HD timeline, first starting in July 2006, then to September 2006, then to the end of 2006, to January 2007, to in time for the Super Bowl, now to no high power signal over the air until after the Super Bowl. No construction has have been announced for its WCFN Mechanicsburg tower site. WCIA did have an HD channel available on Insight cable in time for the Super Bowl however.
Personalities
Current
|
Former
- Tony Abel
- Abbie Alford
- Chanel Allen
- Ann Anderson
- Ryan Baker
- Susan Barnett
- Ramey Becker
- Eric Bertshe
- Alicia Bettes
- Lisa Braxton
- Mike Brookbank
- Judy Brown
- Elaine Cagas (Quijano)
- Carl Caldwell
- Colleen Callahan
- Marta Carreira
- Shaun Chaiyabaht
- Jonathan Choe
- Mike Cleff (now at WLFI, West Lafayette, Indiana)
- Christopher Coffey (now at KTBC, Austin, Texas)
- John Coleman
- Chris Curtis
- Paul Davis
- Renee Drane (Malone)
- Jason Elliott
- Gene Ellrick
- Carol Fowler
- Dave Freeman(now at KSNW, Wichita, Kansas)
- Jeff Hackett
- Pam Hansen
- Alexandra Harold
- Alissa Havens
- Jennifer Hendricks
- Alan Heymann
- Eric Horng
- Dave Shaul
- John Paul
- Ed Kelly
- Alexis Johnson
- Kevin Johnson
- Daralene Jones
- Tom Jones
- Nancy Jordan
- Mike Kaplan
- Suzanne Kaye
- Steve Kelly
- Ed Kieser
- Van King
- Cindy Klose
- Mary Sue Kruger
- Amy Lester
- Michelle Liu
- Jack Margraves
- Michael Marsh
- Gabrielle Martin
- John Mayo
- Joe Mazan
- Pat McCraney
- Scott McGee
- Matt Metcalf
- Tim Moore
- Rich Mueller
- Amy O'Keefe
- Jason Overstreet
- Cheryl Pettis
- Ted Pretty
- Eric Rasmussen
- Dan Roan
- Suzanne Reid
- Wyndham Jack "Mr." Roberts
- Andy Sachs
- Martin Savidge
- Tom Schoendinist
- Cliff Shell
- Catie Sheehan
- Donna Shulte
- Sally Shulze
- Jerry Slabe
- Wynne Smiley
- Fred Sorenson
- Denise Strzelczyk
- Rick Sullivan
- Mike Tannura
- Steve Trainor
- Maureen Umeh
- John Valenziano
- Brenda Vaughn
- Dennis Vaughn
- Christina Wall
- Bob Waters
- Meredith Welsch
- Elizabeth Wenger (now at WXII, Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
- Chris Widlic
- Don Wilcox
- Carrie White
- Trisha Whitkanack (later Shepherd)
- Larry Wood
References
External links
- WCIA Home Page
- Template:TVQ
- A three-part history of WCIA, with many pictures.
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