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WYFF is the NBC television affiliate based in Greenville, South Carolina. It serves a market which includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson in South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. The market takes in large portions of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.

History

The station went on the air on December 31, 1953 as WFBC-TV, South Carolina's fifth television station, and the Carolinas first sole NBC affiliate. It was owned by the Peace family, publishers of the Greenville News and Greenville Piedmont, along with WFBC-AM-FM. For its first two years of operation, its studios were located on Paris Mountain before moving to its current location on 505 Rutherford Street in 1955. Norvin Duncan was the station's first news anchor, moving from the radio side.

"Monty's Rascals" (started in 1960) was one of the station's popular children's shows, starring two channel 4 weathermen: Monty DuPuy (who left in 1978) and Stowe Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey (wearing a hat with an old Santa's beard). The show continued as "The Rascal's Clubhouse" after DuPuy's departure in 1978 and continued until 1982. Two years later, Hoyle retired.

During the 1960s, personalities from channel 4 included Dave Partridge and Jim Phillips, better known as the radio voice of the Clemson Tigers (who died in 2003). Locally televised color programming also began in February 1967. In 1968, the Peace family media holdings were reorganized as Multimedia, Inc. with WFBC-AM-FM-TV as the flagship.

In the mid 1970s the famous Arrow 4 logo was introduced and was used in one form or another for many years. Partridge succeeded Duncan as anchor of the 6 and 11 o'clock news. In 1976 Kenn Sparks joined, and the 6 o'clock news went to a full hour called The Scene at Six. Later, in 1979, the long-running 'Your Friend Four' slogan was introduced and seen in a 1980 edition of TV Guide.

The 1980s brought new personalities to channel 4, like James Baker, sportscaster J.D. Hayworth (later Congressman from Arizona), and weatherman Charlie Gertz (who died in 2003 from a stroke). Action News 4 became NewsCenter 4 in the early 1980s.

In 1983, Multimedia swapped WFBC-TV to Pulitzer Publishing in exchange for that group's KSD-TV St. Louis. With the change of ownership came a change of call letters to WYFF-TV (We're Your Friend Four). The station's logo also changed in 1983. New personalities include Carl Clark, Kim Brittain, and Carol Anderson (later Carol Goldsmith) who co-anchors the 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 11 o'clock newscasts. In the late 1980s, Carol Anderson was replaced by Annette Estes who came from its rival station WSPA-TV. Stan Olenik also came from WSPA. Goldsmith later took her spot back from Estes after Estes made an off-color slip on live air.

NewsCenter 4 became simply known as News 4 in the 1990s. Charlie Gertz retired, and the "arrow 4" logo was dropped by 1991.

WYFF (or WFBC?) was the first Upstate television station to begin 24/7 broadcasting, and did so sometime in the mid-late 1980's. They ran NBC News Overnight (later Nightside)/Home Shopping Spree/CNN Headline News overnight. They have since 2005 discontinued CNN Headline News (and previously the Home Shopping Spree) overnight and now run NBC Late Night/drama reruns/home-garden shows/paid programming overnight.

In 1999 Hearst-Argyle bought Pulitzer's entire television division, including WYFF-TV.

Programming

Here's a list of NBC programs that was pre-empted by WFBC/WYFF over the years, those include:

Syndicated programming

Syndicated programming formerly shown on WYFF

Current and past station personalites

  • Monty DuPuy - Worked as a weatherman at WFBC-TV from the 1950s til 1978 when he moved to radio. He hosted Monty's Rascals with Stoyle Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey from 1960 til 1978.
  • Norvin Duncan - WFBC's first newscaster who passed away in April 2003.
  • Stoyle Hoyle - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1950's till his retirement in 1984. Also known as Mr. Doohickey on Monty's Rascals/The Rascals Clubhouse.
  • Kenn Sparks - Anchored for WFBC/WYFF from 1976 til 1994.
  • Charlie Gertz - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1980 til his retirement in 1991. He died in Bethesa, Maryland from a stroke in June 2003.
  • J.D. Hayworth - Sportscaster for WFBC/WYFF from 1981 til 1986, now a congressman from Arizona.
  • Jim Phillips - Known as The Voice of Clemson who anchored sports for WFBC-TV from 1968 til 1981. He died in September 2003. Ironically, Pete Yanity, from WSPA-TV, succeeded him on the Tiger Sports Network.
  • Carl Clark - Anchored for WYFF-TV from 1983 til 1994, he retired from the station and went to rival WSPA-TV until he retired from TV in 2003.
  • Annette Estes - Came from rival WSPA-TV in 1987 to replace Carol Goldsmith as co-anchor in 1987, after Estess said the f-word on the air while the microphone was on.
  • Carol Goldsmith - Joined WYFF-TV in May 1985 as a reporter, now anchors 5PM,6PM,and 11PM newscasts with Michael Cogdill.
  • Stan Olenik - Came from rival WSPA-TV in the late 1980s to be a sportscaster for WYFF-TV.
  • Tim Walker - Joined the station in 1994. He currently anchors with Sharon Johnson on the 5:30PM newscast.
  • Michael Cogdill - Joined WYFF-TV in 1989 as a reporter/weekend anchor, now co-anchors with Carol Goldsmith on the 5PM,6PM, and 11PM newscasts.
  • Lee Brown - Joined WFBC-TV in the 1970s, currently a news director for WYFF-TV.
  • John Cessarich - Joined WYFF-TV after Charlie Gertz's retirement in 1991 as a current weatherman.
  • Geoff Hart - Joined WYFF-TV in 1993 as a sportscaster, he's also a sports director for the station.
  • Kim Brittan - Joined WFBC-TV in 1982 to replace Barbara Sloan as co-anchor with James Baker for the newscasts. She left in the mid-1980s. She's now at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • Dale Gilbert - Joined WYFF-TV around the 1980s to become weekend weathercaster, now morning and noon weatherman for the statio.
  • Frank Blair - Worked at WFBC-TV around in the 1950s or 1960s, was a Today Show newsanchor until 1976. He died in 1995.
  • Liz Walker - Worked as a weekend anchor in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival WHNS-TV in the late 1990s as a weekend anchor. She's now working for Charter Communications.
  • Judy Booker - Worked as a weekend weatherwoman in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival station WSPA-TV in the early 2000s as a weekend morning weatherwoman until the present.

Station logos

External links

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