WLBZ
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| WLBZ (semi-satellite of WCSH Portland, Maine) |
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| Bangor, Maine | |
| Branding | WLBZ 2 WLBZ NewsCenter 2 |
| Slogan | People You Know, News You Trust |
| Channels | Analog: 2 (VHF) |
| Translators | WGCI-LP 4 Skowhegan W57AQ Calais |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC WX+ (on DT2) |
| Owner | Gannett (Pacific and Southern Company, Inc.) |
| First air date | September 12, 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | taken from former sister station WLBZ-AM |
| Sister station(s) | WCSH |
| Former callsigns | WTWO (1954-1958) WLBZ-TV (1958-1997) |
| Former affiliations | primary: CBS (1954-1955) secondary: CBS (1955-1959) ABC (1954-1965) |
| Transmitter Power | 51.3 kW (analog) 250 kW (digital) |
| Height | 192 m (analog) 198.8 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 39644 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wlbz2.com |
WLBZ, channel 2, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Bangor, Maine, owned by Gannett. Its transmitter is located on Rider Bluff in Holden. The station has studios located on Mount Hope Avenue in Bangor. WLBZ is sister station and semi-satellite to Portland's NBC affiliate WCSH. For the most part, it simulcasts WCSH. However there are some shows that are seen on channel 6 that do not air on channel 2. Via cable, it serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Presque Isle television market.
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[edit] History
The station began broadcasting on September 12, 1954, had the call letters WTWO (sometimes rendered as W-TWO), and was owned by Murray Carpenter. It aired programming from CBS, NBC, and ABC but was a primary CBS affiliate. It switched its primary affiliation to NBC in 1955.
In 1958, the station was sold to the Rines family's Maine Broadcasting System (owners of WCSH-AM-TV in Portland). The Rines family also owned WLBZ-AM 620 and changed WTWO's call letters to WLBZ-TV to match its new radio sister. At the same time, the station dropped all remaining CBS programming. WLBZ-TV continued to share ABC with WABI-TV until WEMT-TV (now WVII-TV) signed on in 1965.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the station was perhaps best known as the home of Eddie Driscoll. Driscoll hosted many programs on the station and was known for his improvisation skills and sense of humor. Driscoll died on September 24, 2006 after suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.
Also in the 1970s, WLBZ-TV added an outlying transmitter in Calais. That allowed cable systems in Atlantic Canada to distribute WLBZ by a microwave link from the border. This doubled or even tripled WLBZ's coverage area and viewership. Most Canadian cable systems dropped WLBZ after 1996 with the last one doing so in 2004.
In the 1980s, WLBZ-AM was sold off and renamed WZON. The Maine Broadcasting System sold WLBZ-TV and WCSH to Gannett in 1997, the same year WLBZ dropped the -TV suffix from their callsign.
In October of 2005, WLBZ began offering NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel. It is also seen on Time Warner digital cable channel 166. Along with WLBZ meteorologist Steve McKay, the entire WCSH weather team is featured on NewsCenter Weather Plus. WCSH simulcasts the channel on its own second digital subchannel.
[edit] Repeaters
In addition to its main signal, WLBZ operates two repeaters. W57AQ has a construction permit to broadcast a digital signal on channel 8 (with the same call letters)
| Call letters | Channel | City of license | Transmitter location |
|---|---|---|---|
| WGCI-LP | 4 | Skowhegan | Larone section of Fairfield |
| W57AQ | 57 | Calais | Conant Hill in Charlotte |
[edit] News operation
Beginning in the 1980s, WLBZ started simulcasting many WCSH newscasts prepared with a statewide view. This process continues today with only the weeknight 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts locally produced from WLBZ's studios. Otherwise, statewide coverage is offered in all other newscasts. To correspond with WCSH, WLBZ uses the NewsCenter title. On the weeknights at 5:30 and 11, WLBZ meteorologist Steve McKay provides Bangor weather cut-ins. The weeknight 6 o'clock sports report on WLBZ features a sports anchor reporting from WCSH's studios. The statewide newscasts that originate from WCSH tend to take on a regional feel with news coverage from Portland, Bangor, or wherever news occurs from around the state. The combination of WCSH & WLBZ offers the largest and most extensive coverage of news from Maine.
The station co-produces with WCSH a nightly 10 o'clock newscast called NewsCenter at 10 on Portland's CW affiliate WPXT. During the week, news and sports are broadcasted from WCSH's studios in Portland (with some local Bangor stories featuring WLBZ reporters and photojournalists airing) while weather forecasts originate from Steve McKay at WLBZ. On the weekends, the program is broadcasted entirely from Portland (again with some local Bangor stories being seen). As is the case with the WLBZ simulcasts of WCSH news, WPXT's news programs take on a regional feel with news coverage from Portland, Bangor, and the state of Maine.
An outdoors and human-interest program called Bill Green's Maine airs on Saturday nights at 7 PM on WLBZ (it is simulcasted on WCSH). In 2003, WCSH launched 207 (a local magazine show) that airs weeknights at 7 PM on WCSH, as well as the next day at 4 AM on WLBZ and WCSH. 207 Weekend premiered on September 2, 2007 and airs Saturdays at 7:30 (following Bill Green's Maine) on both stations. The "207" name comes from Maine's only telephone area code.
Unlike most NBC affiliates, WLBZ airs weekend newscasts at Noon that are simulcasted from WCSH. In addition to their main studios, WLBZ shares two news bureaus with WCSH. The Lewiston / Auburn Bureau is located on Main Street in Lewiston. The Midcoast Bureau is located on Main Street in Rockport.
[edit] News team
+ denotes news personnel based at WLBZ
Anchors
- Lee Nelson - weekday mornings and rotating at Noon
- Sharon Rose - weekday mornings and rotating at Noon
- + Chris Facchini - weeknights at 5 and 6
- reporter
- + Kara Matuszewski - weeknights at 5 and 6
- Rob Caldwell - weeknights at 5:30
- co-host of 207
- Cindy Williams - weeknights at 5:30
- Pat Callaghan - weeknights at 11
- Kathleen Shannon - weeknights at 11
- co-host of 207
- Brian Yocono - weekend mornings and Noon
- weekday reporter at the Lewiston / Auburn Bureau
- Caroline Cornish - weekend evenings
- weekday reporter
NewsCenter Weather Plus Meteorologists
- + Steve McKay (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weeknights
- Kevin Mannix - weekday mornings
- Roger Griswold - weekdays at Noon
- weekend evenings
- Kelly LaBrecque - weekend mornings and Noon
- WCSH weeknight associate producer
- Joe Cupo - seen on NewsCenter Weather Plus
Sports
- Bruce Glasier - Director seen on weeknights at 11
- John Smist - weeknights at 6
- sports reporter
- fill-in sports anchor
- Lee Goldberg - weekend evenings
Reporters
- Bill Green - recreation / human-interest
- host of Bill Green's Maine
- Fred Nutter - Editorial Director seen on weekly editorials that air after Friday evening's 6 o'clock news
- replayed on Sunday and Tuesday mornings at 6:57
- Don Carrigan - Midcoast Bureau
- covers political campaign and other issues
- + Sarah Delage - backpack journalist
- + Scott Sassone - backpack journalist
- + Aaron Roberts
- Kristin Cullen
- Susan Kimball
- Vivien Leigh
- Chris Rose
[edit] Station alumni
- Eddie Driscoll - host (deceased in September 2006)
- Jackie Couture - reporter (now with WMTW-TV in Portland, ME)
- Eloise Daniels - anchor (now a licensed N.C. Realtor with LKN Realty Group; married to former WVII meteorologist, Matt Morano, morning meteorologst at Charlotte News 14)
- Pete Churney - weather anchor (now trains rare, pygmy hippopotamuses for a circus in Monrovia, Liberia in Africa)
- Jill McDonald - medical reporter (now works at Eastern Maine Healthcare in Brewer)
- Tim Gaier - reporter
- Donna Gormley - weeknight 5 and 6 PM co-anchor (wife of Maine State Representative Chris Greeley)
- Mark Finneran - reporter (now out of business)
- Jan Smith - anchor and reporter (now Assistant News Director at WTOC-TV in Savannah, Georgia)
- Dale Duff - sports director (now program director and morning host at WZON-AM)
- Jeff Solari - sports reporter and promotions director (now afternoon host at WZON)
- Jennifer McNeil - anchor (now out of business, married to Pete Bouchard, Chief Meteorologist at WHDH-TV in Boston)
- Rory (Rhori) Johnston - anchor (now at WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tennessee)
- Dave Ahlers - producer, anchor, and reporter (now the voice of hockey's Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights in Nebraska)
- Christina Hager - reporter (now at WBZ-TV in Boston, daughter of retired NBC News Correspondent Robert Hager)
- Deborah Feldman - reporter (now at KING-TV in Seattle, Washington)
- Kevin Kelley - producer and reporter (became reporter at NECN in Boston, now press secretary for Senator Susan Collins in Washington, DC)
- Sharon Rose - anchor (now at WLBZ sister station WCSH in Portland)
- Kimberly Brown - anchor (recently left WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
- Dan Harris - anchor and reporter (now at ABC News)
- Julia Bovey - reporter (now at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC)
- Jennifer Knight - reporter
- Ken Barlow - meteorologist (now chief meteorologist at WBZ-TV in Boston)
- Jeanne Meserve - anchor and reporter (now at CNN)
- Mollie Halpern- producer, later anchor at WPXT Fox 51 in Portland, now on-air host for Comcast in Pittsburgh, PA
- Matt Fine - sports director and reporter (now teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- Vince Bevacqua - anchor and reporter (now at WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio)
- Dave Finger - feature reporter
- Mike Beaudet - reporter (now investigative reporter at WFXT-TV Boston)
- Neil Orne - weather anchor (now at WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee)
- Rob Caldwell - anchor and reporter (now at WCSH)
- Pat Callaghan - anchor and reporter (now at WCSH)
- Brian Yocono - reporter (now at WCSH)
- Matt Friedman - weeknight 5 and 6 PM anchor, also reporter
- Todd Gutner - weekdays at Noon and weekend evenings (now at WBZ-TV in Boston)
- Ric Tyler - former anchor and reporter (now talk show host WVOM, afternoon drive WKSQ, private businessman)
- Wayne Harvey - sports director and reporter (now reporter at WABI TV5, Bangor also Harness Racing Track Announcer at Bangor Raceway)
[edit] External links
- WLBZ channel 2
- WLBZ wireless
- WCSH channel 6
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WLBZ
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLBZ-TV
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