WGME-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WGME-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Portland, Maine | |
| Branding | WGME 13 News 13 |
| Slogan | Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Breaking Stories. |
| Channels | Analog: 13 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS AccuWX TV (DT2) |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WGME Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | May 16, 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | We're Gannett of MainE (for former owner Guy Gannett) |
| Former callsigns | WGAN-TV (1954-1983) |
| Transmitter Power | 295 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 462 m (analog) 465 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 25683 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wgme.com |
WGME-TV, channel 13, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Portland, Maine, owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Its transmitter is located on Brown Hill west of Raymond. The station has studios on Northport Drive in Portland.
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[edit] WGME's tower
The 493.5-meter (1,619 ft) tall transmission tower of WGME, situated in Raymond, was built in 1959. It was, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records, the world's tallest architectural structure in those days. It was surpassed by KFVS-TV's tower in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1960. However, it remained the tallest structure in Maine until the erection of WMTW's tower in 2002.
[edit] History
Channel 13's first broadcast was on May 16, 1954 under the call sign of WGAN-TV. It was owned by Guy Gannett Communications (no relation to the much larger Gannett corporation that now owns rival WCSH) along with WGAN radio (560 AM and 103 FM) and the Portland Press-Herald). When the radio stations were sold in 1984, the WGAN call letters went with them. WGAN-TV then changed its call sign to the current WGME-TV. It remained the flagship station of Guy Gannett Communications until the company sold most of its television stations, including WGME, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1998. At one point, the station had offered The Tube, a 24-hour digital music video channel, on its second digital subchannel. However, it was dropped.
[edit] News operation
The station's newscasts led the ratings in Portland until the late-1980s when WCSH became number one. During the final years of Guy Gannett ownership in the 1990s, WGME launched weekend morning news that featured many live shots and in-studio interviews. The effort was abandoned due to poor ratings. Today's ratings show a resurgence in favor of WGME in several time slots often leading to anchors and station promotions touting "Portland's #1 5 P.M. Newscast" or "Maine's Fastest Growing Newscast". However, as of the February 2008 ratings period, WCSH ranked number one in each time slot and recorded its largest share of viewers in ten years.
In addition to its main studios, WGME operates an Lewiston / Auburn Bureau on Main Street in Lewiston (across the street from WCSH's bureau). A second bureau is in Augusta near the Maine State House. WGME is one of only a few stations owned by Sinclair that airs a nightly newscast. Most of the others were abandoned in 2005 when the company shut down News Central. Although WGME (or any of the other Portland television stations) does not own or operate a weather radar of its own, the station uses live, NOAA National Weather Service radar data from several regional sites. This data is presented in a forecasting system on-air that is known as "Doppler 4000 Storm Tracker".
Starting on February 5, 2007, WGME began to produce a weeknight 35-minute and weekend 30 minute 10 o'clock newscast for Fox affiliate WPFO. Known on-air as News 13 on Fox, it competes with the 10 o'clock news that airs on CW affiliate WPXT. That news is co-produced by Maine's NBC affiliates, WCSH & WLBZ. The WGME news on WPFO is possible because of a news share agreement between the two stations. In early-April of 2008, Hannaford Supermarkets pulled their ads from the station. According to the company, WGME aggressively reported on the security breach that occurred at the company.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Vivian Bean - weekday mornings
- Learning Matters segment producer
- John Hopperstad - weekday mornings and Noon
- Kim Block - weekdays at Noon, 5, and 6
- Healthy Living segment producer
- Jeff Peterson - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
- weekday morning reporter
- fill-in anchor
- Kiley Bennett - weeknights at 5:30, 10, and 11
- reporter
- Gregg Lagerquist - weeknights at 6 and 11
- reporter
- Doug Ray - weekends
- reporter
Storm Team 13 AccuWeather Meteorologists
- Charlie Lopresti (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights
- Sarah Long (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings
- Thursday's Child segment producer
- Craig Miller - weekdays at Noon
- weekends
Sports
- Dave Eid - Director seen on weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
- Evans Boston - weekends
- sports reporter
Reporters
- Lucas Colavecchio - weeknights
- Kate Barker - weekday mornings
- Doug Rafferty - Doug's Discovery segment producer
- station spokesperson
- Diana Ichton - Lewiston / Auburn Bureau
- Giovanna Bechard
- Catherine Parrotta
[edit] Past personalities
- Emily Apel: former reporter, now anchor/reporter KION in Salinas, CA
- Jeff Barnd: former co-anchor, to WLVI Boston, now anchor WBFF Baltimore. He also hosts "American Crossroads", a news magazine shown Sunday nights on WGME.
- Thom McGair: former reporter/substitute anchor was last at WLVI-TV Boston
- Barbara Barr: former weekend sports anchor/reporter (1998-2004), now reporter at WGAL, Harrisburg, PA
- Bruce Berlinger: former Chief Co-Anchor 1978-1989, also did kids interest features
- Julene Britt: former general assignment and sports reporter, late 1990s/early 2000s
- Crystal Canney: former reporter, now Spokeswoman for Maine Governor John Baldacci
- Tom Caron: former sports anchor/reporter, to NESN
- Tom Chisolm: former metorologist, now Chief Meteorologist at WMTW
- Lisa Colbert: former weathercaster, now weathercaster at WSYX
- Doug Cook: former reporter, later an anchor & reporter at WMTW, and currently director of communications at Bowdoin College
- Paul Cousins: meteorologist, now director AtmosForecast Portland and provides recorded forecasts for several radio & television outlets throughout Maine.
- Kathy Curran: former investigative reporter late 1990s, now a reporter at WBZ (1999-)
- Brad Day: weekend meteorologist, late 1990s
- Paul Dellegatto: former meteorologist, 1985-86, now chief meteorologist at WTVT in Tampa
- Frank Fixaris: former sports anchor 1967-1992, was a sports radio talk co-host; deceased 2006.
- Dianna Fletcher: former Daybreak anchor/reporter, now media/p.r. consultant Fletcher Media.
- Chris Francis: former sports anchor/reporter (1996-1998)
- Lisa Gilbert: former sports anchor/reporter (1993-1996)
- Thom Hallock: former reporter, now an anchor at WPTZ in Plattsburgh, NY
- Gordie Hershiser: former sports director, mid 1990s
- Felicia Knight: former Anchor, worked at WABI-TV (Bangor, ME) during the 1980s, now director of communications for the National Endowment for the Arts
- Marnie MacLean: former anchor & reporter, now a reporter at WMTW
- Jennifer Miller: former Weekend/Fill-in anchor & reporter, now reporter for CBS News.
- Sayoko Murase: former Daybreak anchor, now with ShawTV, Vancouver, BC
- Bob O'Wril: former weatherman & longtime host of the MDA telethon. Deceased
- Adam Pellerin: former weekend sports anchor/reporter, now a reporter at WFXT in Boston.
- Barbara Quill: former reporter & anchor (1973-1984)
- Max Riseman: former weekend meteorologist (2005-2007), now providing radio forecasts on WHOM and the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
- Mark Rosenthal: former chief meteorologist (2005-2006)
- Josh Judge: former weekend meteorologist, now meteorologist for WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH.
- Jennifer Sabih: former reporter/weekend anchor, now a reporter for KCAL & KCBS in Los Angeles.
- Steve Schwaid: former news director, now Sr. V.P. news & programming NBC Universal Stations NY.
- Dave Silverbrand: former anchor & "Dave's People" reporter, now living in Eureka, CA
- Amy Sinclair—former reporter who mainly did light feature and interest stories (1995-05/24/2007); now at New England Cable News
- Mindi Ramsey: former anchor/reporter, now weekend anchor/reporter for WVIT in Hartford,CT.
- Jeremy Reiner: former meteorologist, now a meteorologist at WHDH in Boston.
- Dave Santoro: former weekend/Daybreak meteorologist who became Chief Meteorologist in 1999, now a math teacher in the Portland, ME, public school system
- Joe Venuti: former meteorologist, now part-time meteorologist at WCVB in Boston.
- Ron Wolfe: former news director,
- Matt Zidle: former Daybreak & Noon meteorologist, now at WMTW in a similar capacity
[edit] Logos
 WGME logo used from mid-1980s until April 14, 1991. |
 WGME "NewsChannel 13" logo used from April 15, 1991 until late-1999. It is similar to the logo used by KSAZ in the late-1980s. |
WGME logo used April 3, 2006 to the present. |
[edit] External links
- WGME-TV
- WPFO "Fox 23"
- CBS
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WGME
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WGME-TV
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| Preceded by KOBR-TV Tower |
World's tallest structure 1,619 ft (493.5 m) |
Succeeded by KFVS TV Mast |
