WESH
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| WESH | |
|---|---|
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| Daytona Beach/Orlando, Florida | |
| Branding | WESH 2 (calls pronounced as a word, "Wesh") |
| Slogan | Where the News Comes First |
| Channels | Analog: 2 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (Orlando Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | June 11, 1956[1] |
| Call letters’ meaning | Wright EScH (original licensee for the station) |
| Sister station(s) | WKCF |
| Former callsigns | WESH-TV (1956-1987) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 54.9 kW (digital) |
| Height | 504 m (analog) 511 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 25738 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.wesh.com |
WESH is the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television along with the area's CW affiliate, WKCF. WESH's transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida. The tower is the tallest man-made structure in Florida, at 1,740 feet (530 m). The station also serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Gainesville market, and can be seen on the fringes of the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville markets.
WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. The primary news anchors at WESH are Martha Sugalski, and Jim Payne. The position of "Chief Meteorologist" was formerly held by Dave Marsh, who retired on July 31, 2006, after 37 years at WESH. Tony Mainolfi was named the new "Chief Meteorologist" on May 3, 2007.
NBC Weather Plus can also be seen on WESH's digital signal, on channel 2.2 / 11.2.
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[edit] History
WESH first went on the air on June 11, 1956. Businessman W. Wright Esch (for whom the station is named) won the license, but sold it to Perry Publications of Palm Beach just before the station went on the air. The original studio was located in Holly Hill, near Daytona Beach.
WESH has always been an NBC affiliate. However, WESH's original tower was only 300 feet (91 m) high, which was tiny even by 1950s standards. This limited its coverage to Volusia County. As such, it shared the NBC affiliation in Central Florida with WDBO-TV (now WKMG-TV). It finally became the sole NBC affiliate for the Central Florida market on November 5, 1957. On that day, the station activated a new 1,000-foot (300 m) tower in Orange City. WESH's tower is located farther north than the other major Orlando stations because of FCC rules requiring a station's tower to be within 15 miles (24 km) of its city of license. Also, WESH is short-spaced to WPBT, the PBS member station in Miami.
Perry sold WESH to Cowles Communications of Des Moines, Iowa in 1965. Cowles later moved its headquarters to Daytona Beach, and built a satellite studio in Winter Park. Cowles exited broadcasting in 1984 and sold two of its stations, WESH and Des Moines' KCCI, to H&C Communications of Houston. Under H&C, WESH closed its original Holly Hill studio in 1989, replacing it with a new studio on Ridgewood Avenue (US 1), near International Speedway Boulevard (US 92) in Daytona Beach. The station's primary operations also moved to a brand new studio in Winter Park in 1991, located on Wymore Road, alongside Interstate 4.
In 1980, while still owned by Cowles, the station built its current tower on the same site as the 1,000-foot (300 m) tower. The new tower allowed for WESH to expand its coverage into areas like Lakeland, Gainesville, and St. Augustine. The channel 2 signal travels a very long distance under normal conditions. The 1,000-foot (300 m) tower was dismantled in the late 80's.
The Hobby family, owners of H&C, exited broadcasting in 1995, selling off its stations to various owners. WESH and KCCI were sold to Pulitzer. Pulitzer sold its entire broadcasting division, including WESH and KCCI, to Hearst-Argyle in 1999. This gave WESH its third owner in 15 years.
On May 8, 2006, Hearst-Argyle announced its purchase of then-WB (now CW) affiliate WKCF from Emmis Communications. Emmis is also exiting broadcast television so it could concentrate on radio. This acquisition was completed on August 31, 2006; resulting in Orlando's third commercial duopoly operation. Orlando's other two duoplies are Cox-owned WFTV/WRDQ and Fox-owned WOFL/WRBW. WESH began producing a morning newscast for WKCF in January 2007. WESH also produces a nightly weathercast for its independent sister station serving the Tampa Bay market, WMOR-TV.
On the June 21, 2006 episode of The Tonight Show, Ross the Intern made an appearance as a guest meteorologist.
Since the 1980s, WESH's newscasts have usually been in second place in the Central Florida television market to WFTV. However, in recent years, WESH's newscasts have traded second and third place with WKMG, while its relatively new 4 pm newscast (though the higher-rated of the two 4 pm newscasts) continues to trail The Oprah Winfrey Show on WFTV by a wide margin. This coincides with NBC's recent ratings struggles.
WESH called its news department "NewsCenter 2" for most of the 1980s, and it's eleven o'clock newscast was called the NewsCenter 2 Nightcast. The station then switched to "Newschannel 2" in the 1990s before adopting the current "WESH 2 News" in 2005. Also in 2005, it began pronouncing the call letters as a word.
WESH began broadcasting newscasts in high definition on November 1st, making WESH the 2nd station in Orlando to go HD behind WFTV, and the 4th Hearst-Argyle station to go HD. [1]
[edit] Anchors
- Scott Walker, Sunrise/Noon
- Martha Sugalski, 5,6, and 11
- Syan Rhodes, Sunrise/Noon
- Raoul Martinez, WESH 2 News on CW 18 (7-9 AM),Weekends, 6,11 (Temporary)
- Jim Payne, 4,5 and 11
- Jeff Lennox, Sunrise Weekend Edition
- Erika Washington, WESH 2 News on CW 18(7-9 AM)
- Aixa Diaz, Sunrise Weekend Edition
[edit] Meteorologists
- Jason Brewer, Sunrise and WESH 2 News on CW 18 (AMS)
- Ivan Cabrera, Weekend Mornings (AMS/NWA)
- Tony Mainolfi, 5, 6, and 11 (AMS-CBM/NWA)
- Malachi Rodgers, 6 and 11 Weekends
- Amy Sweezey, Noon and 4 (AMS-CBM/NWA)
[edit] Sportscasters
- Pat Clarke, weekend sports anchor & Host of UCF Sports Sunday
- Guy Rawlings, weeknights 6 & 11
[edit] Reporters
- Danielle Bellini, general assignment reporter (rejoined in Jan. '08)
- Dan Billow, Space reporter, Brevard County Bureau Chief
- Jason Chepenik,Financial Analyst
- Greg Fox, Government reporter
- Dr. Todd Husty,Medical Reporter
- Bob Kealing, Investigative reporter
- Sally Kidd, Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
- Nikole Killion, Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
- Laurie Kinney, Washington D.C. Bureau reporter
- Craig Lucie, general assignment reporter
- Dan McCarthy, Chopper 2 pilot
- Dave McDaniel, reporter (Primarily covers) Seminole County
- Michelle Meredith,Investigative reporter
- Claire Metz, Volusia/Flagler county bureau chief
- Roger Moore, Film Critic
- Amanda Ober, General assignment reporter
- Kendra Oestreich,General assignment reporter
- Gail Paschall-Brown, General Assignment reporter
- Jim Philips, Commentary
- Kimberly Williams, traffic reporter
- Todd Wilson, General assignment reporter
[edit] Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 2.1 / 11.1 | main WESH/NBC programming |
| 2.2 / 11.2 | NBC Weather Plus |
[edit] Analog-to-digital conversion
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 [2], WESH will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 11. [3] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WESH's virtual channel as 2.
[edit] External links
- WESH Official Website
- WESH Brings NBC to Central Florida - WESH History
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WESH
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WESH-TV
[edit] References
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says June 11, while the Television and Cable Factbook says May 29.
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101230919&formid=387&fac_num=25738
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