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WBNS-TV, channel 10, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The station is an affiliate of the CBS Television Network and is owned by the Dispatch Broadcast Group, a subsidiary of the Columbus Dispatch, along with WBNS radio (1460 AM and 97.1 FM). WBNS-TV's studios, offices and transmitter are located west of Downtown Columbus, near the confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto rivers.

WBNS-TV currently broadcasts in stereo and uses its SAP channel for a variety of purposes, including simulcasts of its radio sister and simulcasts of NOAA weather radio. The Dispatch Broadcast Group broadcasting operations also include WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana.

History

WBNS-TV transmission tower (left), next to the WBNS-FM tower.

WBNS-TV began operations on October 5, 1949. The call letters stand for Wolfe Bank, Newspaper and Shoes, identifying to the owning Wolfe family's separate businesses in Columbus. WBNS radio had been a CBS affiliate for almost 20 years, so channel 10 immediately joined CBS television. It is currently the fifth longest-tenured CBS affiliate, behind WUSA in Washington, D.C., KFMB-TV in San Diego, WBTV in Charlotte and WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina. Channel 10 has used the on-air branding of 10TV since 1977. It is also one of only a few stations in the country to have had the same owner, call letters and primary network affiliation throughout its history, as well as the only major station in town still owned by Ohio interests.

Although the concentration of media ownership that exists between the WBNS stations and the Dispatch (the "N," or newspaper, in the station's calls) might seem to run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission's cross-ownership rules, the Wolfe family was granted an exemption because their ownership pre-dated the regulations which prohibited common ownership of co-located print and broadcast media in the middle 1970s.

WBNS-TV was known to produce such children's programming as Flippo the Clown, Romper Room, Luci's Toyshop and programs hosted by popular Columbus Zoo personality Jack Hanna. The station also featured "Fritz the Nite Owl," who hosted midnight movies during the 1970s and Sunday state government talk called Capital Square in the 1990s. Throughout much of the 1990s and early years of the millennium WBNS-TV was home to the 10TV Kids News Network (KNN); a local show, "Produced by kids, for kids." The half-hour show aired Saturday mornings. Several KNN kids have gone on to pursue careers in television news or public relations in central Ohio. Luci's Toyshop was a local WBNS-TV produced children's program. that was on the air from 1961 until 1972 offering puppets, cartoons and occasionally a live audience.

In 1995, WBNS-TV replaced Cleveland's WJW-TV as the default affiliate in the Mansfield area (part of the Cleveland-Akron DMA) after WJW went to Fox. The new Cleveland CBS affiliate, WOIO, unlike WBNS-TV, did not reach Mansfield with a Grade B signal. WBNS also replaced Toledo CBS affiliate WTOL on cable television in the Lima DMA.

The first live high-definition broadcast on the station's digital signal, WBNS-DT, took place in September 1998 in which the broadcast was a football game between Ohio State and West Virginia, making the station a pioneer in American digital television. The station claims this to have been the first locally produced HD broadcast in the US, however as several other stations throughout the country also lay claim to this distinction, the veracity cannot be verified.

The station has strong ties to the athletic department of Ohio State University. For many years, it has produced the coaches shows for both the football and men's basketball teams, along with a general program about Ohio State athletics in general. Additionally, its radio sister has been the flagship station of Ohio State football and basketball for decades. Formerly the station aired Ohio State games offered by ESPN Plus in both sports, including prime-time pre-emptions of CBS network programming for games. With the launch of the Big Ten Network in September 2007 and that network's exclusivity over live Ohio State sports, this was discontinued beyond selected CBS Big Ten basketball broadcasts on the weekends and latter portions of the conference tourney, although the programming outside of live sports remains produced by WBNS-TV.

On 12 June 2009, WBNS-TV launched Doppler 10 Now, a weather subchannel based on the Local AccuWeather platform.[1]

Digital programming

WBNS-TV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition,[2] it remained on channel 21.[3] As of June 12, 2009, WBNS-TV's digital signal is multiplexed on a full-time basis (it was previously only multiplexed for special events, such as CBS network coverage of the March Madness basketball tournament):

Virtual Channel Digital Channel Programming
10.1 21.1 main WBNS-TV programming / CBS HD
10.2 21.2 Doppler 10 Now / AccuWeather[1]

The high-definition feed for WBNS-TV is not available on Dish Network due to a contractual dispute between the two sides. In contrast, WCMH-TV, WSYX, and WTTE have been available in HD on Dish Network since April 1, 2009.

News operation

File:Wbns-ewn-open.jpg
WBNS-TV Eyewitness News open, 2004.

WBNS-TV was the first television station in the Columbus market to debut a news helicopter, "10TV SkyCam" (now "Chopper 10") in 1979, satellite news truck "10TV Skybeam" in 1986 and launch the Ohio News Network in 1997, which shares studio and office space with WBNS. It has been the TV home of Wheel of Fortune since 1983 and Jeopardy! since 1984.

Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, WBNS-TV has been a consistent ratings leader in programming and news for most of the time since records have been kept. In fact, for many years a popular saying in Columbus was "4 and 6 don't equal 10", referring to WBNS-TV and its rivals, WLWC/WCMH-TV (channel 4) and WTVN-TV/WSYX (channel 6).

The first major challenge to channel 10's dominance occurred in 1985, two years after WCMH began featuring the popular anchor team (and then-married couple) of Doug Adair and Mona Scott. From then until the to the mid 2000s, WBNS-TV and WCMH bounced back and forth for first place at 11 PM (and were virtually tied for ratings leads). However, since 2002, WBNS-TV has returned to a dominant position due to stronger CBS programming and CBS' reacquisition of Sunday-afternoon NFL telecasts. WBNS-TV usually rotates games among the three teams with followings in the Columbus market—the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals (all of whom are part of the CBS package for the American Football Conference).

During the Super Bowl XLI, channel 10 debuted a large marketing campaign to promote the launch of 10TV News in high definition. The song "Carousels (Dreaming of Tomorrow)" by Columbus rock band Alamoth Lane was used throughout the course of the campaign. Some of the band members were shot playing on the roof of WBNS with the Columbus skyline behind them. The song was also used to promote sister station WTHR's 50th Anniversary in 2007.[4]

The station began making preparations for the transition to HD in late March 2007, and debuted its 5:00 p.m. newscast in high definition on April 2, becoming the first television station in Central Ohio to produce newscasts in HD. The station's newscasts are now known as "10TV News HD", after having been known as "10TV Eyewitness News" for many years.

On November 7, 2008, WBNS-TV's morning-noon anchor Heather Pick died of breast cancer. Heather learned in 2004 that the disease she had beaten once in 1999 had returned. In her last public appearance, Heather hosted the "Spirit Celebration with Heather Pick", raising almost $500,000 for the Columbus Cancer Clinic.[5]

On January 3, 2011, WBNS expanded its weekday morning newscast to 2½ hours, starting at 4:25 a.m. Weekend anchors Jeff Hogan and Angela An will replace Chuck Strickler and Anietra Hamper as morning anchors, and weeknight 5:30 p.m. anchor Tracy Townsend will also replace Hamper and Strickler as noon anchors.[6]

On May 11, 2011, WBNS-TV expanded their advertising by leasing the Casto Building on the corner of High and Broad streets in downtown Columbus. The building was being leased by rival station WCMH-TV since 2008. On May 11, 2011, the WCMH-TV signs were replaced with those of WBNS'. There is studio space at street level of the Casto Building, which WCMH used for their NBC 4 on the Square, however, WBNS has decided not to utilize the studio space.[7]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • Your Esso Reporter (1949–1961)
  • News Check 10 (1961–1966)
  • Color News (1966–1969)
  • 10-TV Eyewitness News (1969–2007)[8]
  • 10-TV News HD (2007–present)[9]

Station slogans

  • There's a Forrest in Your Future (1975; promoting the arrival of anchorman Lou Forrest to the station)
  • 10-TV, We're Something to See! (circa 1980)
  • People You Can Count On! (1980s)
  • Your 24-Hour News Source (1991–2001)
  • Central Ohio's Most Watched News Station (2001–2003)
  • Central Ohio's News Leader (2003–present)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors
  • Angela An - weekday mornings (2000–present)
  • Andrea Cambern - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. (1991–present)
  • Jessa Goddard - weekend mornings (2011–present)
  • Jeff Hogan - weekday mornings (1998–present; formerly sports director)
  • Kurt Ludlow - weeknights at 5:30 p.m. (1986–1999, 2004–present)
  • Jerry Revish - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. (1980–present)
  • Chuck Strickler - weekend evenings (1994–present)
  • Tracy Townsend - weekdays at noon and weeknights at 5:30 p.m. (2006–present)
Weather team
  • Chris Bradley (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. (2006–present)
  • Mike Davis (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon (1987–present; former chief meteorologist)
  • Josh Poland - meteorologist/co-anchor; weekend mornings (2010–present)
  • AJ Smith (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend evenings (2009–present)
  • Chuck Gillespie - weekend fill in meteorologist in the morning (2011–present)
Sports team
  • Dom Tiberi - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m. (1981–present)
  • Beau Bishop - weekend sports anchor/reporter (2007–present)
  • Greg Miller - fill-in sports anchor/reporter (2010–present)
Reporters
  • Paul Aker - investigative reporter
  • Ashleigh Barry - general assignment reporter (2010–present)
  • Danielle Elias - general assignment reporter (2010–present)
  • Jason Frazer - general assignment reporter (2010–present)
  • Andy Hirsch - general assignment reporter (2007–present)
  • Maureen Kocot - general assignment reporter (1995–present; former weekend morning anchor)
  • Kevin Landers - general assignment reporter (1999–present)
  • Tanisha Mallett - general assignment reporter (2006–present)
  • Glenn McEntire - general assignment reporter (2007–present)
  • Karina Nova - general assignment and morning traffic reporter (2006–present)
  • Tino Ramos - general assignment reporter (1994–present; former weekday 5am anchor and weekend morning anchor)
  • Shayla Reaves - general assignment reporter (2010–present)
  • Tom Walker - Dispatch Washington, D.C. Correspondent
Chopper 10
  • Terry Ault - "Chopper 10" chief pilot/reporter (1979–present)
  • Greg Casagrande - "Chopper 10" line pilot (2001–present)

Notable former staff

Management

  • Tom Griesdorn - President and General Manager
  • Frank Willson - Director of Operations
  • Elbert Tucker - News Director
  • Tonya McCleary - Assistant News Director
  • Chuck DeVendra - Director of Sales
  • Paul Ballinger - Local Sales Manager
  • Pat Wise - National Sales Manager
  • Butch Moore - Sports Marketing Manager
  • Angela Pace - Director of Community Affairs
  • Pat Ingram - Director of Engineering
  • Patty Williams - Director of Finance
  • Carol Triplett - Commercial Traffic Manager
  • Mike Berry - Broadcast Operations Manager
  • Kristi Kunka - Art Director
  • Doug Jones - Promotions Manager

References

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference b&c1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2009/02/06/story_dtv_delay.html?sid=102
  3. ^ CDBS Print
  4. ^ "WBNS-TV Sister station's 50th Anniversary promo". WTHR-TV Indianapolis. Retrieved 2007-11-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ http://10tv.com/live/content/station/stories/2008/11/07/heather_pick.html?sid=102
  6. ^ http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2010/12/15/47785/wbns-expands-early-morning-news
  7. ^ http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2011/05/11/story-columbus-10tv-broad-high.html?sid=102
  8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWKzbbXxPA
  9. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxK84oDUq-E

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