WLVI-TV
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| WLVI-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Cambridge - Boston, Massachusetts | |
| Branding | CW 56 |
| Slogan | See Where It's At |
| Channels | Analog: 56 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | Sunbeam Television (WHDH-TV) |
| First air date | August 31, 1953 (current license dates to December 21, 1966) |
| Call letters’ meaning | LVI = 56 in Roman numerals |
| Sister station(s) | WHDH-TV |
| Former callsigns | WTAO-TV (1953-1956) WXHR-TV (1962) WKBG-TV (1966-1974) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1953-1956; 1962; and 1966-1995) The WB (1995-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 2240 kW (analog) 550 kW (digital) |
| Height | 360 m (analog) 346 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 73238 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.cw56.com |
WLVI-TV, channel 56, is a CW Television Network affiliate licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and serving the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI-TV is owned by Sunbeam Television and is a sister station to WHDH-TV (channel 7), Boston's NBC affiliate. The two stations share studios in WHDH's downtown Boston facility, and WLVI's transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts.
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[edit] History
Channel 56 is the oldest UHF license in Boston. It first went on the air on August 31, 1953 as WTAO-TV, owned by Middlesex Broadcasting. The station's studio and transmitter were located atop of Zion Hill, in Woburn, Massachusetts. WTAO was written off as a failure and signed off for the last time on March 30, 1956 due to low viewership and lack of revenue from sponsors. The station went back on the air, now owned by Harvey Radio Labs, on May 17, 1962, as WXHR-TV for a six-month FCC study before being taken off the air again on November 17 of the same year.
The channel 56 license was purchased by Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe in 1966. The new owners returned the station to the air on December 21, 1966 as independent WKBG-TV (Kaiser Broadcasting/Boston Globe), from the same studios/transmission tower atop Zion Hill in Woburn that WTAO/WXHR had utilized. In 1969, the station's studios moved from Woburn to Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester section of Boston. In the early 1970s, the station's transmitter moved to its current site in Needham. The antenna in Needham site gave channel 56 better coverage of the southern portion of the Boston market than the Woburn site afforded.
As a Kaiser station, channel 56's schedule consisted primarily of cartoons, off-network sitcoms and old movies. However, it was willing to experiment with such projects as Universal Television's Operation Prime Time (although Paramount Television would contribute some programs as well) and syndicated reruns of National Geographic specials in prime time. Such common independent-station programming as a Saturday "Creature Double Feature" (following repeats of The Outer Limits) reached youthful and cult audiences. U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien has credited the station's rotation of classic musicals in its prime-time movie offering with encouraging him to consider a career as a performer.
For most of its tenure as an independent, channel 56 was well behind WSBK-TV (channel 38) in the ratings. Still, it was carried on most cable systems throughout New England, and channel 56 did carry some sports programming of its own, including road games of the Boston Celtics from 1966 to 1969 and road telecasts of the Boston Bruins from 1966 to 1967. It also carried road telecasts of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers (now the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes) during the early 1970s.
In 1974, the Boston Globe sold its share in WKBG back to Kaiser. The call letters were then changed to the current WLVI-TV that May, and in 1977, Chicago-based Field Communications (which had owned 22.5 percent of Kaiser since 1972) purchased WLVI and the other Kaiser stations. In 1983, WLVI was sold to the Gannett Company as part of a liquidation of Field's television assets.
Under Gannett, WLVI continued its general entertainment format, which included children's programming from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m., as well as from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. under the WLVI Kids' Club banner. For the generation of New England children growing up during this period, "Uncle Dale" Dorman was the familiar personality fronting the Kids' Club, hosting the cartoons and appearing in hosted commercial segments. By 1990, Dorman left the station and was replaced by Paul Wagner and Elizabeth Dann, who appeared in new segments of their own and, like Dorman, doubled as announcers.
WLVI also started a news department, which soon resulted in a 10:00 p.m. newscast, and continued use of the Field Communications-style station branding and logo for quite a while. From 1985 to 1990, channel 56 again became the broadcast home of Celtics road games.
In 1994, Gannett sold the station to the Tribune Company, which affiliated the station with the newly-launched WB Television Network in January 1995. The station's newscast later became known as The Ten O'Clock News on WB 56.
The station was temporarily off the air in August 1998 when a crane that was erecting a nearby studio-to-transmitter link (STL) tower collapsed onto WLVI's building. Though no one was injured and the damage was confined to the station's office spaces, the incident resulted in several hundred thousand dollars worth of damages. The station used a satellite truck for network programming downlink and studio space at WCVB-TV for its 10 p.m. newscast.
In 1999, WLVI began a one-year stint as the flagship station of the Boston Red Sox. The station also discontinued its morning kids programming block in favor of a short-lived morning newscast. The station also began running more syndicated talk and reality shows. Afternoon children's programming continued to be provided by Kids' WB until early 2006 . Channel 56 was the last commercial station in the Boston market that continued to broadcast weekday children's programming.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge into a new network called The CW Television Network. The new network signed 10-year affiliation agreements with most of Tribune's WB affiliates, including WLVI. It would not have been an upset had WSBK been chosen, however. Network officials had been on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Boston was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong. The CW began operations on September 18, 2006, and WLVI became known as Boston's CW. To correspond to the affiliation switch, the station's daily 10 PM newscast became known as The Ten O'Clock News on Boston's CW.
On September 14, 2006, four days prior to the launch of the CW, Tribune Broadcasting announced that WLVI would be sold to Sunbeam Television, owner of WHDH-TV, for $117.3 million. The sale received final approval in late November 2006 from the FCC, creating Boston's third television duopoly (the others are Hearst-Argyle owned WCVB and WMUR, and CBS-owned WBZ-TV and WSBK).
Even though the sale to Sunbeam had already become official by then, Tribune continued to operate WLVI until December 18, 2006, when the Tribune-run station website was closed and replaced with a redirect to the new Sunbeam-run website, and the final Tribune-produced newscast aired. WLVI's operations were merged with those of WHDH, and all of the station's equipment was moved to WHDH's studios on Bulfinch Place (just six miles from WLVI's old Morrissey Boulevard studio), and the station's news department was closed. The consolidation resulted in about 130 layoffs from WLVI, though some newsroom staffers were retained by WHDH, which took over production of WLVI's daily 10 PM newscast. Also, the station's sales department was transferred to the new location. The old set and equipment of WLVI was sold at auction several months later.
With the sale, WLVI changed its branding to CW 56, though the station is sometimes called New England's CW on-air. It has largely become a "pass-through" for automated programming.
Also with the sale to Sunbeam, WLVI is the largest CW station not owned by either Tribune or CBS Corporation, the two main founding ownership groups of the network.
WLVI may take on the responsibility of airing NBC programs when WHDH is not able to such as in a news-related emergency.
[edit] Digital Television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 56.1 / 41.1 | Main WLVI programming |
In 2009, WLVI-TV will leave channel 56 and move to channel 41 when the analog to digital conversion is complete, however, with the use of PSIP, the station will continue to appear on Channel 56.[1]
[edit] News Operation
On December 1, 1969, WKBG debuted a 10 P.M. newscast, called Ten PM News, anchored by legendary Boston television anchorman Arch MacDonald. It is also notable for being the first on-screen job for Natalie Jacobson who went on to become lead anchor at WCVB-TV in the 1970s. This newscast was short-lived, however. Another station in the Boston market, WXPO-TV in Lowell, had also briefly done a 10 o'clock newscast in 1969.
Field Communications started a news department shortly before putting the station up for sale. It began producing a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast which initially was a pair of ten-minute locally-produced inserts in what otherwise was an hour-long simulcast of CNN Headline News. Under Gannett ownership, WLVI expanded it into a half-hour broadcast on April 23, 1984. This was the third attempt at a primetime newscast in the Boston market. Debuting as The News at Ten, it established itself with top-drawer talent early on with Boston news veteran Jack Hynes as lead anchor and Bill O'Connell handling sports. Hynes' co-anchors in the first several years included Julie Emry, Darlene McCarthy (who later went to WHDH-TV), Uma Pemmaraju, and finally Karen Marinella, who arrived in 1990 and remained until the end of WLVI's Tribune-produced newscast in December of 2006.
By the early-1990s, the newscast had become THE Ten O'Clock News (always emphasizing "the") and had expanded to a full hour. For well over a decade, WLVI was the 10 P.M. ratings leader with or without competition in the arena. Although PBS affiliate WGBH-TV was the only other local station running a newscast at 10 (until 1991), it was not considered a major competitor since WGBH is a public television station. In the Fall of 1993, Fox affiliate WFXT launched the NECN-originated Fox 25 News at Ten and independent WSBK-TV introduced the WBZ-produced WBZ News 4 on TV 38, giving WLVI serious competition. By then, 10 o'clock viewers were loyal to WLVI and the station remained number-one in the ratings.
At that time, Jack Hynes relegated himself to weekday contributor / fill-in anchor while regularly anchoring the weekend newscasts. This paved the way for later lead anchors Jon Du Pre, Jeff Barnd, and finally Frank Mallicoat. Mallicoat had handled sports and general assignment reports before stepping up to co-anchor the weeknight show with Karen Marinella in 2002. Another mainstay of WLVI's THE Ten O'Clock News was Chief Meteorologist Mike Wankum who first joined the team in 1993. Wankum soon gained a following with his unique approach to forecasting and won numerous New England Emmys.
The only time WLVI programmed news outside their established 10 P.M. slot was in June of 2000 when they premiered Boston's WB in the Morning. A mix of news, talk, and lifestyle features, the show aired for two hours in the morning (from 6 to 8 A.M.) Previously, sitcom reruns and some children's programming had aired in the time slot but the station managed to keep the same amount of kids' shows on the schedule without sacrificing. The program lasted two years but could not hold its own against the other local newscasts and national morning shows. The show was canceled in the spring of 2002.
By 2003, with fierce competition emerging from WFXT's now-in-house news department, ratings for WLVI's news started to slide. Within a year, the station had fallen to third place behind both WFXT (which was now #1) and WSBK's Nightcast at 10 (produced again by WBZ). The WSBK newscast was canceled in January of 2005 and WLVI was left in second place. However, it would not regain its former glory during the rest of its tenure as a Tribune-owned station.
Due to the increasing popularity of the WFXT newscast and after Tribune closed local television newsrooms in Philadelphia and San Diego, there were unconfirmed rumors that Tribune would shut down the WLVI news department and have it outsourced to another channel or even canceled altogether. WLVI had initially denied that its newsroom would be closed.
As a result of the sale to Sunbeam Television, WHDH took over production of WLVI's 10 P.M. newscast using its existing staff. As the sale only covered the license, network affiliation, and technical equipment, most of WLVI's 150 employees remained employed by Tribune until being let go. Newscaster Jack Hynes closed the station's final newscast noting: "someone (else) should have bought the station", calling the sale and shutdown "a tragic chapter in Boston's television history".
WHDH started producing WLVI's newscast on December 19, 2006. On that date, the newscast became known as 7 News at 10 on CW 56. WHDH indicated that there might eventually be a new weekday morning newscast (again) on WLVI which would compete with WFXT's highly popular weekday morning show.
From the start of the WHDH-production on WLVI until July of 2007, the newscasts featured the music and graphics package currently used on Sunbeam's only other television property, WSVN in Miami. Starting in July, WLVI began airing a newscast opening that resembles those seen on WHDH except with a 7 News at 10 title. Consequently, the transitions are much flashier than the Tribune-produced newscast and even those on WHDH. There is no "CW 56" channel bug shown during the broadcast. Instead, there is a Circle 7 logo with a smaller "CW 56" logo below that in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. The newscast airs from 10 to 11 P.M. seven days a week. This is a change, as Tribune produced only a half-hour newscast on Saturday nights. For use on WLVI, WHDH introduced new lifestyle and entertainment segments to fill the hour-long broadcast (mirroring some from WSVN).
[edit] News team
7 News at 10 PM on CW 56 (10 to 11 P.M.)
Weeknights
- Anchors:
- Matt Lorch
- Frances Rivera
- Weather:
- Pete Bouchard
- Sports:
- Joe Amorosino
- Entertainment:
- Romeo
- Reporter:
- Kim Khazei
Weekends
- Anchors:
- Brandon Rudat
- Lauren Przybyl
- Weather:
- Jeremy Reiner
- Sports:
- Julie Donaldson / Larry Ridley
WLVI uses additional news personnel from WHDH. See that article for a complete listing.
[edit] Past Personalities
These personalities were part of WLVI's news team when the station was sold to Sunbeam Television.
Weekdays
- Frank Mallicoat - anchor (now at WFXT)
- Karen Marinella - anchor (no longer in TV)
- Mike Wankum - Chief Meteorologist (now at WCVB-TV)
- Mike Ratte - Sports Director (now at WVIT)
Weekends
- Paul Mueller - anchor and weeknight reporter (now at WLNE-TV)
- Stephanie Leyden - anchor and weeknight reporter
- Joe Venuti - meteorologist (now at WCVB-TV)
- Jamie Kenneally - sports anchor
These other notable personalities were also part of WLVI's own in-house news team when the station produced its own newscasts.
- Arch MacDonald - first anchor (deceased)
- Jerry Brown - first Chief Meteorologist
- Jack Hynes - anchor (retired)
- Natalie Jacobson - anchor (retired)
- Kristin Caira - reporter (now at NECN)
- Jim Corbin - weather (now at WLNE-TV)
- Bill O'Connell - sports anchor / reporter
- Henry Eaton - reporter
- Bob Gamere - sports anchor / reporter
- Steve Udelson - Chief / weekend meteorologist
- Ron Harris - Chief / weekend meteorologist
- Julie Emry - anchor (last seen at KOIN)
- Darlene McCarthy - anchor (retired)
- Uma Pemmaraju - anchor (now at Fox News Channel)
- Odetta Rogers - anchor
- John Rooke - sports anchor / reporter
- Joe Shortsleeve - anchor (now at WBZ-TV)
- Jon Du Pre - anchor (now at KNXV)
- Susan Corwin (now known as Susan Hirasuna) - Health reporter/anchor (now atKTTV)
- Jeff Barnd - anchor (now in Baltimore) at WBFF-TV
- Michael Barkann(now at Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia)
- Glenn Pearson - anchor
- Genevieve Rossi - morning reporter
- Tory Ryden - reporter (now at WMTW-TV in Portland,ME.)
- Karen Twomey - reporter (now at WBZ-AM)
- Jon Monahan - reporter (now at WFXT-TV)
- Darin Adams - morning meteorologist
- Adam Chodak - reporter (now at KUSA-TV)
- Barbara Conrad - weekend meteorologist
- Terrell Harris - reporter
- Rosalind Jordan - reporter
- Christina Huey - weekend anchor
- Lauren Jiggetts - reporter (now at WMAQ-TV)
- Jon Keller - critic at large (now at WBZ-TV)
- Shelli Lockhart - anchor (now at WDAF-TV)
- Barbara Morse - health reporter (now at WJAR)
- Thom McGair - reporter
- Jim Smith - reporter (now on WBZ-TV)
- Bonnie Scheinder - weekend weather (2002-2003) now at CNN.
[edit] References
- WLVI-TV (3-27-2005). The Boston TV Dial.
- "Channel 7 owner to buy WLVI-TV 56". Boston Globe, September 15, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Station Website
- WHDH Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WLVI
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLVI-TV
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