WHAM-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WHAM-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Rochester, New York | |
| Branding | 13 WHAM |
| Slogan | More Local News. More Local Experience. |
| Channels | Analog: 13 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 13.1 WHAM-TV 13.2 CW-WHAM (CW) |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Newport Television |
| First air date | September 15, 1962 |
| Call letters’ meaning | taken from former sister radio station WHAM |
| Former callsigns | WOKR (1962-2005) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 996.2 kW (digital) |
| Height | 152 m (analog) 129 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 73371 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.13wham.com |
WHAM-TV ("13 WHAM") is the ABC network television affiliate in Rochester, New York. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 13, and its digital signal on UHF channel 59. (When full-power U.S. television stations end analog broadcasting in 2009 WHAM-TV must abandon channel 59, which will then be outside the UHF TV band, and begin sending digital signals on channel 13 exclusively.) It is currently owned by Newport Television, LLC. Its transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, New York.
WHAM is the only station in Rochester that has never changed its affiliation.
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[edit] History
The station signed on air at exactly 4:00pm on September 15, 1962, under the call sign WOKR (for "We're OK, Rochester").
In March of 1970, WOKR was sold to Flower City Television Corp. In 1977, Flower City was sold to Post Corporation, a media conglomerate based in Wisconsin. George N. Gillett Jr. purchased the station from Post Corporation in August of 1984 transferring it into Gillett Holdings, Inc. Hughes Broadcasting Partners (Paul Hughes and Veronis Suhler & Associates) purchased the station in June of 1991. Guy Gannett Communications acquired WOKR in April of 1995. The Ackerley Group acquired the station from Guy Gannett Communications (who sold most of their stations to Sinclair Broadcast Group, which already owned WUHF Fox31 in Rochester, and at the time duopolies were illegal) in 1998, with the acquisition closing in April of 1999. The station came under common ownership with Rochester's WHAM radio in June of 2002 after Ackerley Group merged with Clear Channel, WHAM radio's owner. Speculation immediately started about whether WOKR would take on the WHAM-TV calls, which had last been used on Rochester television by what is now WROC-TV from 1949 to 1956.
On January 10, 2005 at 1:42 am, channel 13 signed off the air for the last time as WOKR and returned to the air at 4:59 am that same day as WHAM-TV.
WHAM has led the news ratings in Rochester for many years, and lead anchor Don Alhart has been at the station since 1966, as well as longtime local anchors Ginny Ryan and Doug Emblidge.
For many years WHAM-TV was one of 3 Rochester area stations offered on Cable in the Ottawa/Gatineau and Eastern Ontario regions. The Rochester area stations were replaced with Detroit stations in September 2003 when the microwave relay system that provided these signals was discontinued. However, WHAM and other Rochester stations are still available in several communities along the north shore of Lake Ontario, such as Belleville, Ontario and Cobourg, Ontario.
On November 13, 2006, WHAM-TV took over control of what was then Rochester's CW (now CW-WHAM), the cable-only CW affiliate previously operated by the Rochester division of Time Warner Cable. As a result, the station is now being simulcast on a subchannel of WHAM-DT.
On January 15, 2007, WHAM-TV began producing a four-hour, 5-9 AM morning newscast for CW-WHAM. WHAM itself simulcasts the first two hours of that newscast.
Portions of WHAM-TV's programming, including the noon newscast, are streamed on the Internet as of 2007.
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting holding company established by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.[1] WHAM radio is not part of the sale to Providence Equity, and it is currently unknown if the callsign will revert to WOKR or remain WHAM-TV.
On September 8, 2007, CW-WHAM begun airing Next Era Wrestling's Superstars of Wrestling, a popular wrestling program filmed and produced locally for the Rochester audience.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Don Alhart
- Ginny Ryan
- Doug Emblidge
- Norma Holland
- Holly Maynard
- Evan Dawson
Reporters
- Susan Ashline
- Rachel Barnhart
- Liz Bonis - Health reporter
- Sean Carroll
- Jane Flasch
- Susan Harf - Life Strategist
- Kathy Kriz - Special Projects Reporter
- Liz Medhin
- Steve O'Brien
- Chalonda Roberts
- Patrice Walsh
Weather
- Glenn Johnson - Chief meteorologist
- Mark McLean - Noon
- Marty Snyder - Mornings
- - Weekends
Sports
- Mike Catalana - Sports Director
- Kevin Roche - Weekends
- Jason Fiume - Reporter
[edit] Past personalities
- David Aldrich - (2001-2005) (morning and noon meteorologist) now at WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Rich Becker - (1996-99) (sports anchor) now sports director at WXXA-TV in Albany, New York
- Pat Billone - (former meteorologist)
- LaSalle Blanks - (1994-1997)(former Reports and anchor) now anchor at WVEC-TV in Hampton Roads, Virginia
- Mike Brookins - (former meteorologist) now weekend meteorologist at WSTM-TV in Syracuse, New York
- Traci Buch - (former sports anchor and reporter) now doing PR and golf media for Reynolds Plantation Golf Community.
- Dick Burt - (news anchor 1962-1987) Retired in 1987 after 25 years of service to Channel 13, and died of a heart attack in 2001[2]
- Jonathan Carlson - (reporter)- now a reporter/anchor at WSPA-TV in South Carolina
- Jerry Carr - (original announcer and local game and children's show host) now station manager at WXEL-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida[3]
- Kyle Clark - (Former Reports and anchor)now with KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado
- Tricia Cruz - (former Morning Reports) now Report WIVB-TV in Buffalo NY
- Keith Eichner - (meteorologist) now fill-in meteorologist at WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York
- Darren Mark - (former Morning Reports) now at KSHB-TV Kansas City, Missouri
- Richard McCollough - (meteorologist) founder of McCollough's Award Winning (28 national awards including 7 Telly Awards) Mirusmedia Productions; now meteorologist at WSPA-TV in the Greenville/Asheville/Spartanburg market.
- Wanda Miller - (former anchor) now professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
- Kristen Miranda - (former anchor) now at WBTV Charlotte, North Carolina
- Stan Munro - (former Morning Reports) is now engaged in creating art with toothpicks. Created Toothpick City sculpture.
- Bill Peterson - (1982-2001) (chief meteorologist) Retired in 2001 for health reasons, and died of lung and heart disease on August 5, 2006[4]
- Jim Redmond - (consumer reporter) now working at Excellus Blue Cross, Rochester New York
- Gavin Reynolds - (former Reports) now studying law at Fordham University
- Peter Robbins - (former Reports and anchor) now at West Palm Beach, Florida
- Brian Rooney - (1981-1985) (former reporter) now at ABC News. He is the son of CBS-TV commentator Andy Rooney.
- Brian Washington - (former Reports and anchor) left for WSPA-TV in the border area of North Carolina and South Carolina
- Christine Webb - (Former Health reporter) now with Central Florida News 13 in Orlando, Florida
- Al White - (consumer reporter); retired after 16 years' service as investigative reporter for WWOR-TV New York; died May 9, 2006 of a heart attack
[edit] External links
- 13WHAM-TV || Rochester
- RNYN - WHAM Television
- The CW WHAM - 13WHAM.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WHAM-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WHAM-TV
[edit] References
- ^ Clear Channel Communications (2007-04-20). "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ "Northeast Radio Watch, May 21, 2001", Scott Fybush, 2001-05-21. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ "Northeast Radio Watch, January 10, 2005", Scott Fybush, 2005-01-10. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ "Celebrating the Life of Bill Peterson", WHAM-TV, 2006-11-22. Retrieved on 2007-01-14.
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