WIBW-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WIBW-TV | |
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| Topeka, Kansas | |
| Branding | WIBW-TV 13 |
| Slogan | Kansas' News Leader |
| Channels | Analog: 13 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS MyNetworkTV (DT2) |
| Owner | Gray Television, Inc. (Gray Television Licensee, Inc.) |
| First air date | November 15, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Indiana Broadcast Works (original owner of WIBW-AM's predecessor in Logansport, Indiana) |
| Former affiliations | All secondary: DuMont (1953-1955) NBC (1953-1967) ABC (1953-1983) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 193 kW (digital) |
| Height | 421 m (analog) 379.1 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 63160 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wibw.com |
WIBW-TV is the CBS affiliate in Topeka, Kansas. It broadcasts on channel 13 and is owned by Gray Television. Its transmitter is located near Maple Hill, Kansas.
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[edit] History
WIBW-TV, the second television station in Kansas, debuted on November 15, 1953. It was owned by Capper Publications, publisher of the Topeka Daily Capital, along with WIBW-AM 580. It carried programming from all four networks at the time, but was a primary CBS affiliate. Capper persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to make Topeka its own market. While Topeka and its close-in suburbs receive the Kansas City stations very well, some parts of northeastern Kansas get a marginal signal at best.
Channel 13 was the only station in Topeka for 12 years. However, Topeka viewers didn't have to worry about missing their favorite shows, since the Kansas City stations all decently cover Topeka and started appearing on cable in the rest of the market in the 1960s.
In 1957, Stauffer Publications, owner of Topeka's other newspaper, the Topeka State Journal, bought Capper Publications. The two newspapers, which later merged as The Topeka Capital-Journal, and WIBW-AM-FM-TV remained the flagships of Stauffer Publications (later renamed Stauffer Communications) until 1995, when it merged with Morris Communications Corporation of Augusta, Georgia. As a condition of the sale, Morris had to sell Stauffer's television holdings. Most of the former Stauffer television holdings, including WIBW-TV, were sold to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. In 2002, Benedek merged with WIBW's current owner, Gray Communications, now Gray Television. The radio stations are still owned by Morris today along with the Capital-Journal.
Beginning in the Fall of 2006, the station's DT2 subcarrier added programming from My Network TV, a network launched by Fox parent News Corporation and a secondary affiliation with the CoLours TV Network.
As it is the only commercial station in Topeka on the VHF band (the Public Broadcasting System affiliate KTWU, is on channel 11) and the only station in town for 12 years, channel 13 has not surprisingly been the dominant station in the market for as long has records have been kept.
Currently, Wheel of Fortune airs on WIBW. Jeopardy!, on the other hand, airs on rival ABC affiliate KTKA (Topeka is one of the very few markets to carry Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune on separate stations).
[edit] Kansas Now 22
WIBW, along with Wichita ABC affiliate KAKE and Cox Communications, also is part of a Kansas cable network, Kansas Now 22. WIBW and KAKE show five minute segments of taped news every fifteen minutes, then an additional three minute taped weather segment. The two stations have alternating time slots for both news and weather segments. Live news or weather bulletins from KAKE-TV in Wichita interrupt normal taped operations on the channel.
[edit] Trivia
WIBW is one of the few stations west of the Mississippi River whose call sign begins with the letter W. There are two explanations for this anomaly. One dates to WIBW-AM's roots as a station in Logansport, Indiana. It moved to Topeka in 1927. The move was sponsored by Daily Capital owner and Kansas Senator Arthur Capper, who added a W to the initials of the Indiana station's owner, Indiana Broadcast Works.
However, the W/K divide for call signs was not always the Mississippi River, and Kansas was on the eastern side of the original call divide. Thus it was perfectly acceptable to have a W in Kansas.
[edit] Past On-Air Personalities
- Al Austin
- Michelle Bandur (now at KMTV-TV)
- Ben Bauman (now at KTKA-TV)
- Gary Bender
- Mike Binkley
- Heather Claybrook (now at WDAF-TV)
- Homer Cunningham
- Mark Davidson (now at KSNW-TV)
- Terri-Rae Elmer (KFI, Los Angeles)
- Mike Elliot
- Don Free (now at the Kansas City Royals)
- Ron Harbaugh (now at Topeka Public Schools)
- Amy Hawley (now at KSHB-TV)
- Jim Doblin (back anchoring WIBW AM radio, former reporter/producer jimdoblin.com)
- Hilton Hodges
- Jim Hollis (now at Washburn University)
- John Holt (now at WDAF-TV)
- Mike Jerrick (now at Fox News Channel)
- Gordon Jump
- Bob Kearns
- Bernie Koch (Now at the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce)
- Pat Krueger
- Bill Kurtis
- Jason Lamb (now at WDAF-TV)
- Jolene Leiker
- Mary Loftus
- Mike Marusarz (now at KSHB-TV)
- Sandra Olivas (now at KCTV-TV)
- Ron Paradis
- Steve Physioc
- Russ Ptacek
- Roger Ready
- Dave Relihan (now at WIBW (AM))
- Anne Rubenstein-Tisch
- Devin Scillian (now at WDIV, Detroit and a children's author)
- Greg Sharpe (now at Husker Sports Network in Lincoln, Ne.)
- Tai Takahashi (now at WTVQ-TV)
- Stella Thurkill
- David Oliver (now at KOLR TV Springfield Missouri)
- Gerry Wallace (retired from KFI, Los Angeles)
- Fred White (now at the Kansas City Royals)
- Dana Wright (now at KCTV-TV)
- Lisa Stites (now at KETV ABC Omaha)
[edit] Logos
 WIBW old logo |
WIBW current logo |
 WIBW News old logo |
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WIBW
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WIBW-TV
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