WHIO-TV
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| WHIO-TV | |
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| Dayton, Ohio | |
| Branding | WHIO-TV Channel 7 NewsCenter 7 |
| Slogan | Coverage You Can Count On |
| Channels | Analog: 7 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS 7 Weather Now (DT2) |
| Owner | Cox Enterprises, Inc. (Miami Valley Broadcasting Corporation) |
| First air date | February 23, 1949 |
| Call letters’ meaning | OHIO |
| Former channel number(s) | 13 (1949-1952) |
| Former affiliations | Secondary: DuMont (1949-1952) |
| Transmitter Power | 200 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 348 m (analog) 290 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 41458 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.whiotv.com |
WHIO-TV is a television station in Dayton, Ohio. It broadcasts on channel 7, and is an affiliate of CBS.
Contents |
Station history
WHIO was started on channel 13 on February 23, 1949 and moved to channel 7 in 1952. It is Dayton's first television station to start broadcasting, although WDTN was first to have its license granted. WHIO is the only station in Dayton to never change its affiliation. WHIO has been owned by Cox Enterprises since its inception. WHIO's transmitter is located on Germantown Street in western Dayton. WHIO began broadcasting all their newscasts in a 16:9 widescreen format on April 1, 2007, becoming the first Ohio station outside of Cleveland at the time to switch to the new format. Its news department NewsCenter 7 has been in first place in the Nielsen Ratings for many years and that trend continues to this day. The news team is lead by Jim Baldridge, Cheryl McHenry, & Letitia Perry in the evening and Natasha Williams & James Brown in the morning.
WHIO has won many awards including best news operation in Ohio along with best environmental coverage and airs top rated, local leading, syndicated programming such as Live with Regis & Kelly, Dr. Phil, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Entertainment Tonight, and Wheel of Fortune.
Logo
The logo for the station is their version of the "Circle 7" logo -- an orange 7 against a blue background, encompassed by a thin orange circle, and juxtaposed by "WHIO-TV" written in blue on a white background, underlined in red. Both the logo and the slogan ("Coverage you can count on") identify WHIO-TV as the sister station of other Cox stations; particularly WSB-TV in Atlanta, which has a similar logo and identical slogan. Its sister station in Seattle, KIRO-TV, also has a similar logo, but a different version of the "Circle 7".
Until early 2007, the "7" in the logo was "broken" -- it had a diagonal line running where the two lines in the "7" meet. This logo has been used by WHIO-TV since the early-1970s at the latest. In early 2007, at the latest, the logo underwent a slight revision, removing this "break" from the "7".
Storm Center 7
WHIO's team of meteorologists currently by the name of the Storm Center 7 weather team is led by Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson and also features Meteorologists Jeff Porter, Rich Wirdzek and Kimberly Thomson. WHIO bills their radar as 'New Live Doppler 7' powered by Baron Services.
WHIO was one of the first television stations in the United States to have its own doppler weather radar. During the 1974 tornado in Xenia, Ohio, Gil Whitney was the first to alert the public. Using the radar, Whitney spotted a "hook echo", indicating a tornado. Although there were thirty-four fatalities on that fateful day, without Whitney's warning there likely could have been hundreds more.
Although WHIO has always been a ratings leader and was well regarded in weather after Whitney's tenure, the station did not switch to professional meteorologists until 1993 with the hiring of Heidi Sonen. WHIO then dropped the Accu-Weather service and hired other meteorologists to fill out the staff including former Weather Channel meteorologist Fred Barnhill. Air Force meteorologist Warren Madden was hired from the nearby Wright Patterson Air Force Base and he later went to The Weather Channel in December 1996.
After Sonen's retirement in 1997, the station hired more Penn State meteorology graduates for the role of Chief Meteorologist including Brian Orzel and Jamie Simpson.
In December 2004 they introduced StormCenter 7, which is a weather center that doubles as a set created by FX Group where weather reports can be done. WHIO tracks severe weather 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If a Tornado Warning is issued for any of the seventeen counties in the WHIO-TV coverage area, which includes Western Ohio and extreme Eastern Indiana, The Emergency Alert System will break into the broadcast during a show, or local news with a red bar scrolling bulletin on the top of the screen while the severe weather information is relayed from NOAA Weather Radio.
New Live Doppler 7
On June 29, 2007, WHIO debuted their new doppler weather radar, billed as New Live Doppler 7, powered by Baron Services out of Huntsville, Alabama. WHIO's sister stations WSB-TV in Atlanta along with WFTV in Orlando have already rolled out this new system which consists of some of the most advanced weather equipment in the world including VIPIR HD, FasTrac HD, and StormWarn HD.
This brand new state of the art system will enable WHIO to have full high definition weather graphics and 3-D radar images. A detailed article about "New Live Doppler 7" is available on WHIO-TV.com. [1] The radar is available anytime on the stations website. [2]
7 Weather Now
On December 15, 2006, WHIO-TV launched 7 Weather Now, the Miami Valley's only local weather channel. 7 Weather Now is programmed 24 hours a day, featuring the New Live Doppler 7 Radar, News Center 7's weather cameras and frequently updated forecasts. Live coverage of developing severe weather can be found on 7 Weather Now, as well as the latest watches and warnings. Weekday mornings from 7am to 8am, a third hour of News Center 7 Daybreak airs exclusively on the channel.
7 Weather Now can be found on digital channel 7.2. Time Warner cable carries 7 Weather Now on basic channel 23 across much of the Miami Valley, and also on its digitial tier at channel 708. A live stream of 7 Weather Now can be accessed on the WHIO-TV website at http://www.whiotv.com.
Widescreen news
WHIO began broadcast of all their newscasts in a widescreen format on April 1, 2007.
News Staff
NEWSCENTER 7 Anchors And Reporters:
- Steve Baker
- Jim Baldridge
- James Brown
- Kathryn Burcham
- Mike Campbell
- Anton Day
- Stephanie Dutton
- Jill Del Greco
- Danielle Elias
- Gabrielle Enright
- Caryn Golden
- Becky Grimes
- Brittny McGraw
- Cheryl McHenry
- Jim Otte
- John Paul
- Letitia Perry
- Cathy Stelzer
- Natasha Williams
StormCenter 7 Team:
- Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson
- Meteorologist Jeff Porter
- Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek
- Meteorologist Kimberly Thomson
Sports Anchors:
- Sports Director - Mike Hartsock
- Margaret Brosko
- Don Brown
Notable WHIO Alumni
- Phil Donahue
- Gil Whitney, reporter, anchor and weather specialist (died in 1982)
- Don Wayne, long time 6, 7 and 11pm lead news anchor (retired in 1988, died in 1997)
- Tom Hamlin, sports director in 1960s, retired
- Ted Ryan (weather specialist, staff announcer) (1954-1992) (retired in 1992, filled-in part time till 2001, currently hosts the Children's Miracle Network Telethon)
- Donna Jordan (1995-2006) (lead anchor until 2006), now retired
- Rebecca Combs (2000-2005), anchor/reporter
- Andrew Douglas (now at WMC-TV in Memphis, TN)
- Mike Dunston, reporter, (now anchor at WOFL-TV in Orlando, FL)
- Jim Blue (now lead anchor at WNWO in Toledo, OH)
- Cathy Ballou (weather specialist 1986-1995, went to the Food Network, has since retired)
- Deborah Countiss (retired from WSYX in Columbus)
- Trevor Pettiford
- Shawn Ley (now at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, OH)
- Heidi Sonen, Chief Meteorologist 1993-1998
- Ed Krahling, long time anchor, (retired in 1993, died in 1998)
- Ken Jefferson, anchor (1977-2002) (now at WWSB-TV in Sarasota, FL)
- Mick Hubert, sports director (1979-1989) (The Voice of the Florida Gators)
- Dr. Sherry Stanley-Wheaton, health reporter
- Joe Parise, weekend weather specialist
- Paul Herdtner, anchor/reporter (now weekday morning anchor at WDAF-TV, Fox-owned station in Kansas City)
- Bruce Asbury, Lead Weather Specialist 1982-89 (fired by WHIO, named "BEST TV REPORTER" in Sarasota, FL in 2007)
- Tracie Savage, anchor/reporter 1986-91
- Rick Smith, staff announcer and host of "Summer Nights" and "WHIO Reports"(died in 2006)
- Sallie Taylor, anchor/reporter (1988-2007)
- Linda Robertson, anchor/health reporter now @ University of Dayton
- Sher Patrick, anchor/reporter(now PR Director at Community Blood Services in the Dayton area)
- Dave Freeman, Chief Meteorologist (now at KSN in Wichita, KS)
- Guil Herrick, Sports reporter/anchor
- Paul Moses, anchor/reporter(now an anchor at WLKY Channel 32 in Louisville)
- Myriam Wright, anchor/reporter (now news anchor in Worcester, MA)
- Sam Yates, anchor/reporter-retired from news, now head of Yates and Associates in Jensen Beach Florida.
- Vanessa Tyler, anchor/reporter, now @ WPIX-TV, New York City
- Joe Rockhold "Uncle Orrie", 1950s/60s children's show host and staff announcer,retired in 1969 (died in 1981)
- Ken Hardin "Ferdy Fussbudget" 1950s/60s children's show co-host and sidekick of Uncle Orrie. (died in 1991.)
- Steve Prinzivalli, meteorologist (now at WIVT in Binghamton, NY)
- Jack Jacobson "Nosey The Clown" 1950s early sidekick of Uncle Orrie, retired
- Dave Eaton "Charlie Goodtime" 1970s children's show host
- Dick Bieser, manager of community relations and on air personality, retired in 1993.
- Scott Dean, Former Meteorologist on Daybreak Edition and Noon Newscenter (now at WTVD in Raleigh, NC)
- Chris Ingalls, reporter (now at KING in Seattle)
- Guy Fogle, sports (formerly of WDTN and WKEF also, now retired from news, and teaching at Carlisle High School in Carlisle,OH)
- Warren Madden, meteorologist (1992-1996), now at The Weather Channel
- Paul Miller, reporter/anchor (1975-1979), later NBC Correspondent, now retired.
See also
- Miami Valley Channel (former cable channel from WHIO-TV)
External links
- WHIO Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WHIO
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WHIO-TV
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