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WCMH-TV, channel 4, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the NBC television network and owned by Media General. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Columbus. NBC-4 broadcasts from its studio and office complex near the Ohio State University on Olentangy River Road. Until 2011, WCMH broadcast partly from a studio in downtown Columbus, a remote studio that was located at the corner of High and Broad Streets and was called "NBC 4 on the Square". It included a large window behind the anchor desk that allowed the camera to capture the activity of the downtown workday.[1]

History

Columbus' first television station began operations on April 3, 1949 as WLWC on channel 3. The station's original owner was the Cincinnati-based Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, a division of the Avco Company.[2] Crosley also owned WLW radio and WLWT television in Cincinnati, as well as WLWD television (now WDTN) in Dayton. Together these stations comprised the "WLW Network", and they emphasized their connection to each other within their on-air branding: the Columbus station was known as WLW-C.

Like all of the WLW television stations in Ohio, WLWC was an NBC affiliate, though it carried some programming from the DuMont network until WTVN-TV (now WSYX) took the DuMont affiliation when that station launched in September 1949. In 1952, following the release of the FCC's Sixth Report and Order, a VHF frequency realignment resulted in WLWC moving to channel 4, trading channels with NBC-owned WNBK (now WKYC-TV) in Cleveland.[3]

The Crosley TV station group, which would later grow to include WLWI (now WTHR) in Indianapolis, WOAI-TV in San Antonio, and WLWA (now WXIA-TV) in Atlanta, adopted the Avco name during the middle 1960s. Along with NBC programming, the Crosley/Avco stations in Ohio and Indianapolis also aired common programming, including The Paul Dixon Show, Midwestern Hayride, The Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club (later to become The Bob Braun Show), The Phil Donahue Show, and telecasts of Cincinnati Reds baseball.

In 1970, the common ownership of WLWC, WLWT, and WLWD was given protection through a "grandfather clause" from a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that which prohibited media companies from owning two or more television stations with overlapping signals. In 1975, Avco announced the sale of its broadcasting outlets due to losses at the parent company. With the loss of the stations' grandfathered protection, the four WLW television stations had to be sold to separate purchasers due to FCC regulations regarding overlapping broadcast signals. Channel 4 was sold in February 1976 to the Providence, Rhode Island-based Outlet Company, who changed the station's call letters to the current WCMH-TV.[4][5][6]

The old WCMH TV "Chopper 4" landed at Wellston Heliport Base while covering a breaking news story as, Grant Lifeflight II 's BK 117 N4493X sits on the pad. It was later replaced by the helicopter pictured below in the early 2000 (picture taken by Earl Wilbur and was used with the photographer's permission)
WCMH logo from May 27, 2008-January 23, 2011.

Outlet sold its broadcast interests to NBC in 1996, and channel 4 became an NBC owned-and-operated station, spending much of the next decade as one of two stations in the market to hold such status; the other was UPN's WWHO which was owned by Fant Broadcasting, Inc. and operated under an LMA Agreement. WWHO-TV was later owned purchased by Viacom which merged with CBS in 1999. WWHO-TV was subsequently sold to LIN TV and is now owned by Manhan Media and controlled by WSYX.

WCMH-TV was placed up for sale by NBC-Universal on January 9, 2006, along with sister stations WJAR-TV in Providence, WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, and WNCN-TV in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Media General, the Richmond, Virginia-based company which already owned five NBC affiliates in the southeastern United States, announced it would purchase the four stations on April 6, 2006; the sale was finalized on June 26, 2006.[7] As a result, channel 4 became Media General's first station in the Great Lakes region.

For several months after the sale closed, WCMH's website and those of the other three stations remained in the format used by the websites of NBC-owned stations. In December 2006, WNCN and WJAR launched redesigned websites, which are no longer powered by Internet Broadcasting. On December 11, 2006, WVTM's website followed suit, followed by WCMH on December 14. Media General has since located the master control for all Media General NBC affiliates at its Columbus studios.[8]

Digital Television

Channel Video Aspect Name Programming
4.1 1080i 16:9 WCMH-DT Main WCMH-TV programming / NBC
4.2 480i 4:3 RTV Me-TV[9]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. WCMH replaced RTV with Me-TV on September 26, 2011, as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with Media General; the channel replaced RTV on some Media General-owned stations in other markets.[10]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCMH-TV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition,[11] it remained on channel 14 [12] using PSIP to display WCMH-TV's virtual channel as 4 on digital television receivers.

News operation

WCMH-TV's former studio in downtown Columbus.
WCMH's current helicopter.

For most of its history, WLWC/WCMH-TV has been second in the Columbus ratings, except for the station's 11:00 p.m. news, which occasionally beats market leader WBNS-TV. For nearly 20 years, Hugh DeMoss anchored channel 4's evening newscast, called The DeMoss Report. By the late 1970s into the early 1980s, however, the NBC affiliate languished in third place. In 1983, the station brought in veteran news anchor Doug Adair and his then-wife, reporter Mona Scott, from WKYC-TV in Cleveland as the station's main anchoring team. They brought a "happy talk" format to the market for the first time, as well as launching the 5:30 p.m. newscast. WCMH began a slow rise that would result in the station overcoming WBNS to reach number-one in the market, and in the process, the mid-1980s NewsWatch 4 team of Adair, Scott, meteorologist Jym Ganahl, and sportscaster Jimmy Crum (who joined the station shortly after its 1949 debut) became the most popular anchor team in Columbus television history. This also coincided with NBC's becoming the number one network during that time.

The 1990s brought changes to the normally stable WCMH-TV. In 1990, Mona Scott decided to leave channel 4, and was replaced by Angela Pace. Pace would leave for WBNS-TV in 1992, and Doug Adair and Jimmy Crum both retired in 1994. Pace's and Adair's replacements, respectively, were Colleen Marshall and Cabot Rea, and the pair have helmed WCMH-TV's evening newscasts since then. The changes resulted in an earlier audience fall-off, but channel 4 once again passed WBNS-TV for the overall lead for a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and often won 11 o'clock news ratings over WBNS (due to NBC winning prime time and late night ratings over CBS during those years). For a few years, from 2000 until 2003 WCMH also won the morning news race with the combined anchor team of Tylar Bacome, Anietra Hamper, Bob Nunally and Beth Dalponte/Kellie Hanna covering traffic. WCMH is currently the #2 station in the market in all other time slots except at noon when it trails both WBNS and WSYX. WCMH and WSYX have also been trading second and third place during the evening time slots.

On Saturday January 4, 2008 WCMH became the second major Columbus station to begin broadcasting local newscasts in high definition.[13] Prior to the opening of NBC 4 on the Square on May 27, NBC 4 had planned to move its entire news operation to that facility. However, when those plans fell through, WCMH's main studio was upgraded to high definition. (Ultimately, NBC 4 on the Square was used only for some of the station's weekday morning shows.) Like most other stations with high-definition newscasts, WCMH relies mostly on upconverted 16:9 widescreen standard definition footage for its remote field reports. On May 11, 2011, NBC 4 on the Square came to an end due to dismal ratings (it has remained a distant second to WBNS-TV on weekday mornings ever since NBC4 on the Square was founded), with the morning newscast productions returning to the main WCMH facility full time. Rival station WBNS-TV leased the space from Casto (owner of the property) and the well recognizable NBC 4 logo was replaced by WBNS's logo. [14]

In January 2011, the station debuted a new rounded logo and new image promos emphasizing its long time personalities and community involvement.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • Three City Final (1957-1959) (originating from WLW-T in Cincinnati, also airing on WLW-D and WLW-C; anchored by Peter Grant)
  • TV-4 Color News (mid 1960s)
  • TV-4 News at 6 / TV-4 News at 11 (1960s-1974)
  • The DeMoss Report (1974–1976)
  • NewsWatch 4 | The DeMoss Report (1976)
  • NewsWatch 4 (1977–1992)
  • News 4 (1992–1997)
  • NewsChannel 4 (1997–2002)
  • NBC4 News (2002–present)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors
  • Mindy Drayer - weekend mornings "NBC 4 Today"
  • Mikaela Hunt - weekday mornings "NBC 4 Today"
  • Mike Jackson - weekday mornings "NBC 4 Today" and noon
  • Candice Lee - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Colleen Marshall - weeknights at 5 (newsroom anchor), 6 and 11 p.m.; also an attorney with Columbus-based law firm Porter, Wright, Morris, and Arthur, LLP
  • Marshall McPeek - weekend mornings "NBC 4 Today"
  • Ellie Merrit - weeknights at 5 p.m.
  • Cabot Rea - newsroom anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
Weather team
  • Jym Ganahl (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. (since January 15, 1979)
  • Ben Gelber (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend evenings (since 1980)
  • Marshall McPeek (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings "NBC 4 Today"
  • Bob Nunnally - meteorologist; weekday mornings "NBC 4 Today" and noon
Sports team
  • Jerod Smalley - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Matt Barnes - sports anchor; weekend evenings
Reporters
  • Nadia Bashir - general assignment reporter
  • Mike Bowersock - general assignment reporter
  • Monica Day - traffic reporter
  • Robyn Haines - general assignment reporter; mornings
  • Mikaela Hunt - general assignment reporter
  • Tom Brockman - general assignment reporter
  • Tom McNutt - gardening expert
  • Ted Hart - political reporter
  • Rick Reitzel - general assignment reporter
  • Marcus Thorpe - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
  • Steve Wainfor - general assignment reporter

Notable former staff

References

  1. ^ "NBC 4 On the Square". NBC 4. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
  2. ^ "WLWC starts; Columbus video outlet opened by Crosley." Broadcasting - Telecasting, April 4, 1949, pg. 41. [1]
  3. ^ "Crosley is granted; FCC okays channel changes." Broadcasting - Telecasting, December 15, 1952, pg. 59. [2]
  4. ^ "Avco sells off another TV." Broadcasting, May 26, 1975, pg. 42. [3]
  5. ^ "Changing Hands." Broadcasting, January 19, 1976, pg. 33. [4]
  6. ^ WCMH-TV/Outlet Broadcasting advertisement. Broadcasting, February 23, 1976, pg. 77. [5]
  7. ^ [6]
  8. ^ "Media General Mid-Year Media Review" (PDF). Media General. Retrieved 2008-03-13. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Where to watch Me-TV: WCMH
  10. ^ Me-TV Beefs Up Roster With 10 New Stations, TVNewsCheck, September 15, 2011.
  11. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
  12. ^ CDBS Print
  13. ^ http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2008/01/whered-we-go.html
  14. ^ [7]
  15. ^ "Former NBC 4 Sportscaster Jimmy Crum Dies". NBC 4i. 6 January 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2011.

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