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WCTV

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WCTV is a TV station that is the CBS television affiliate for the Tallahassee, Florida television market. The station is owned by Gray Television and is based in Tallahassee. The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 6 and its digital signal on UHF channel 46. WCTV covers the middle part of the Florida Panhandle and extreme southern Georgia. Its transmitter is located in Metcalf, Georgia due to FCC regulations requiring the transmitter to be no farther than 15 miles (24 km) from the city of license, which is Thomasville, Georgia. The WCTV Tower is a 609.6 meter high guy-wired aerial mast, and is the tallest man-made structure in Georgia.

The station operates a semi-satellite, WSWG in Valdosta, Georgia; WSWG serves as the CBS affiliate for Albany.

History

The station first signed on September 15, 1955 from a studio on North Monroe Street in Tallahassee, but the station is now located at 1801 Halsted Street. WCTV was originally owned by John H. Phipps.

Although it has always considered itself a Tallahassee station, it was licensed to Thomasville because the FCC had allocated only one VHF channel to Tallahassee, channel 11. Florida State University had managed to have the FCC designate channel 11 for noncommercial use so it could put WFSU-TV on the air; UHF was not considered viable at the time. Until the FCC required all sets to have all-channel capability in 1964, UHF stations were unviewable without a converter. Even with one, the picture quality was marginal at best. Hoyt Wimpy, owner and founder of WPAX radio in Thomasville, persuaded the FCC to grant the Phipps family a license for channel 6 in Thomasville, the nearest city to Tallahassee that had a VHF allocation available and could provide city-grade coverage of Tallahassee and north central Florida, as well as southwestern Georgia. The main reason the FCC assigned the frequency to Thomasville is because Tallahassee is short-spaced to the channel 6 allocation in Orlando; WKMG-TV (coincidentally a CBS affiliate also) occupies the Orlando channel currently. WCTV operated a live studio in Thomasville for many years, and still has a bureau there.

WCTV was the only commercial station in the area until WECA-TV (now WTXL-TV) began operations in 1976. It originally carried programming from all three networks, but was a primary NBC affiliate. After only a year on the air, WCTV switched to CBS and has been affiliated with that network ever since. However, it carried a secondary ABC affiliation until WECA signed on. It is still the only commercial VHF station in the market (the only other VHF stations are PBS members WFSU-TV (still on channel 11) and WXGA-TV (part of Georgia Public Broadcasting, airs on channel 8).

It was owned by the Phipps family until it was sold to Gray Communications, now Gray Television, in 1996. Gray's purchase of WCTV forced Gray to sell WALB-TV, its flagship station in Albany, because WALB's signal has city-grade quality in most of the Georgia side of the market (including Thomasville and Valdosta).

However, in 2004, Gray purchased WSWG in Valdosta, a UPN affiliate for the Albany market. WCTV operates this station from its Tallahassee facilities The WSWG Studio is located in Moultrie, Georgia. The station dropped UPN in September of that year and is now a semi-satellite of WCTV. The acquisition created a strong combined signal with just under 50% overlap; WCTV had been the default CBS affiliate for Albany for many years.

In March 2006, WCTV moved from its longtime studios on County Road 12 in northern Leon County to new facilities on Halstead Boulevard in Tallahassee. The Halstead Boulevard location used to house the now-defunct Florida's News Channel, a cable-only operation.

Current WCTV Eyewitness News Personalities

ANCHORS

  • Frank Ranicky, 6 PM (joined WCTV in 1972)
  • Julie Montanaro, 6 PM (joined in 1990)
  • Angela Salerno, Live @ 5 (joined in 2006)
  • Art Myers, The Good Morning Show & Eyewitness News @ Noon (joined in 1984)
  • Shonda Knight, The Good Morning Show (joined in 2006)
  • Triston Sanders, The Good Morning Show & Eyewitness News @ Noon (joined 2004; currently anchor & executive producer)
  • Liza Park, weekend evening anchor (joined in 2004)
  • Lee Gordon, co-anchor 5:30 & 11 pm newscasts (rejoined in 2007 after serving as sports director until 2004)
  • Angela Howard, co-anchor 5:30 PM & 11 PM newscasts (joined in 2008)

WEATHER TEAM

  • Mike McCall, Chief - Weeknights @ 5, 5:30, 6 & 11 PM (since 1993)
  • Rob Nucatola, Weekday Mornings & Noon (since 2000)
  • Sheena Samanipour, Weekend Mornings & Evenings (since 2008)

SPORTS TEAM

  • Elton Gumbel, 5:30 & 11 PM; related to national sports anchors Bryant and Greg Gumbel
  • Andrew Christopher, Weekend evenings
  • Phil Jean, Sports reporter
  • Sam Lane, Sports Reporter

REPORTERS

  • Lanetra Bennett
  • Heather Biance
  • Caroline Blair
  • Tara Herrschaft
  • Roman Lillie
  • John Rogers
  • Blaine Tolison
  • Stephanie Springer
  • Stefan Weeks
  • Whitney Ray (from Capitol News Service)
  • Mike Vasilinda (from Capitol News Service [1])

VIDEOGRAPHERS

  • AJ Nettles
  • Alfred Walker
  • Stefan Weeks
  • Joe Bonner (chief videographer)

Past Personalities

Main anchors

  • Frank Pepper -- d. 2001 (Broadcast WCTV's first newscast in 1955.[1])
  • Anna Johnson (now WCTV's community affairs director)
  • Pam Forrester
  • Carmen Cummings (now Alumni Affairs Director at FAMU)
  • Gary Bartlett (now owns his own real estate business)
  • Sarah Grady
  • Jeff Ehling (weekend anchor/reporter 1990-1996; now at KTRK-TV Houston, Tex.)
  • Valerie Lacy
  • Ann Howard-Nucatola (reporter; anchor of short-lived "My News at 7" on WCTV-DT2 in 2006)
  • April Douglas (now at WALA-TV Mobile)
  • John Harrington (2004-2007)
  • Sharon Tazewell (now at WNCN-TV NBC17 Raleigh)
  • Roy Weissinger (later with WEWS-TV, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Claudine Cleophat, weekend mornings

Meteorologists/Weather anchors

  • Mike Rucker (chief)
  • Lane Roberts (mornings)
  • Nancy Dignon (weekends, early-mid 1990s; now at WTXL Tallahassee)
  • Jackie Johnson (weekends; now at KCAL-TV/KCBS-TV Los Angeles)
  • Matt Barrentine (weekends, ?-2004; now at WALA-TV Mobile)
  • Brian Fowler (weekends, 2004; now at WMGT-TV Macon)
  • Ray Hawthorne (weekends, 2004-2008; now at Weather Central, Madison, Wis.)
  • Michael Koolick (fill-in, 2005-2007; now off-camera weather producer at WFOR-TV Miami)
  • Stephen Bowers (fill-in, 2007-2008; now at WTOK-TV Meridian, Miss.)
  • William "Willie the Weatherman" Ragsdale[2]

Sports anchors

  • Randy Ruditz (mid-late 1990s; deceased 2003)
  • Lee Gordon (sports director (1999-2004), currently WCTV co-anchor 5:30pm & 11pm newscasts (rejoined in 2007)
  • Melissa Maikos (?-2007, now at WTOC-TV Savannah)
  • Beau Bishop (?-2007, now at Ohio News Network)
  • Trenton Davis (?-2007)

Reporters and fill-in anchors

  • Jan Jeffcoat (now at WFLD-TV Fox News Chicago)
  • Melissa Buchanan (now at WVIT NBC30 Connecticut)
  • Ilyssa Trussel (now at WTEV-TV/WAWS-TV CBS47/FOX30 Jacksonville)
  • Mike Tolbert (now at WTEV/WAWS)
  • Bill Pearson (now at WEAR-TV Pensacola)
  • Laura Kadechka (now at WINK-TV Fort Myers)
  • Kate Gaier (now at News 14 Carolina)
  • Christina Vitale (now at WITN)
  • Seshmi Robertson (now an Entertainment Reporter at CFNews13 and Central FL on Demand in Orlando)
  • Andrea Candrian
  • Marise Estime
  • Erica Green
  • Sean Lavin (now reporting at WFTV in Orlando, FL)
  • Patty Harrison
  • Ann Mercogliano
  • Leonard Horton (now at The Florida Channel in Tallahassee)
  • Angelica Alvarez (now at WMBD-TV Peoria)

WCTV-DT2

WCTV has also operated a MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Tallahassee area on one of its digital sub-channels since 2006. It has been an affiliate of the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays Television Network since the 2006 season when it replaced WFXU.

See also

Technical Data

Analog channel 6 transmitter parallel NEC 1430AL 47.5 kW peak visual power.
Digital channel 46 transmitter Harris Sigma CD3 68.9KW peak power

  • WCTV tower
    WCTV tower
  • Analog transmitter.
    Analog transmitter.

References

  1. ^ Ensley, Gerald (2001-11-20). "Tallahassee, Fla., Broadcasting Icon Dies". Tallahassee Democrat.
  2. ^ "WCTV morning show staff : Tallahassee, Florida (with archive picture link)". Florida Electronic Library. Retrieved 2008-03-30.


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