WPBF
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| WPBF | |
|---|---|
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| Tequesta / West Palm Beach, Florida | |
| Branding | WPBF-TV 25 WPBF News 25 |
| Slogan | Where You Come First |
| Channels | Analog: 25 (UHF) Digital: 16 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC The AccuWeather Channel (DT2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (WPBF-TV Company) |
| First air date | January 1, 1989 |
| Call letters’ meaning | West Palm Beach, Florida |
| Transmitter Power | 5000 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 455 m (analog) 454 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 51988 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wpbf.com |
WPBF, channel 25, is the ABC-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida, licensed to Tequesta. Its transmitter is located south of Fort Pierce and I-95 in Martin County. Owned by the Hearst Corporation and operated by its publicly-traded television division Hearst-Argyle Television, the station has studios on RCA Boulevard in the Monet section of Palm Beach Gardens.
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[edit] History
WPBF first went on the air January 1, 1989 owned by Brenda Skipper and Sylvia Salinas. The original plans called for the station to be an independent. However, in mid-1988, CBS, which was due to lose its longtime Miami affiliate, WTVJ to NBC, bought Fox affiliate WCIX (now WFOR-TV). WCIX only provided a Grade B ("rimshot") signal to Fort Lauderdale and Broward County because its transmitter was located farther south than the other Miami stations. CBS persuaded the longtime ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, WPEC to switch to CBS in order to get a city-grade signal in Fort Lauderdale. In the fall of 1988, ABC made the decision to affiliate with WPBF rather than with the former CBS affiliate, WTVX. These changes occurred on the day of WPBF's sign on. WPBF had bought a large inventory of classic sitcoms and cartoons, but now had no time to air them. It sold this programming to WTVX a couple of months after signing on, when that station shut down its news department.
Initially, WPBF had a small news department. In 1993, WPBF was sold to Paxson Communications (which at the time owned several FM radio stations and a few ABC and CBS affiliates), who added additional newscasts to the schedule. In 1997, Paxson sold their radio stations and network affiliates (including WPBF) in order to finance their acquisition of stations for the Pax TV network (now ION Television), with channel 25 going to Hearst Corporation, its current owner. As soon as the transaction was finalized, Hearst handed over control of WPBF to its majority-owned subsidiary, Hearst-Argyle Television.
[edit] Programming
All Hearst-Argyle ABC affiliates, including WPBF, preempted Saving Private Ryan in 2004. WPBF was one of three ABC affiliates in Florida that preempted the movie. WPBF remains the lowest rated network affiliated television station in the West Palm Beach market behind WFLX, WPEC, and WPTV (in ascending order). This can be attributed to WPLG's very strong over the air signal in Palm Beach County and its availability on Comcast cable systems throughout the area. Since 1999, WPBF has aired the popular game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Before that year, the two shows aired on separate stations (Jeopardy! being on WPTV and Wheel of Fortune being on WPEC).
[edit] News operation
On July 12, 2006, WPBF started airing a half-hour, 4 o'clock weekday newscast called Weather First at 4. While the main intention of this new broadcast was to cover West Palm Beach area weather, news updates and headlines were added after a short time. This production is streamed live on the station's website. WPBF is the only West Palm Beach station to air news weekdays at 4. On July 17, WPBF added 30 minutes to its weekday morning news which then began airing at 5:30. It became a full, two-hour broadcast on January 28, 2008. WPBF debuted a new traffic reporting system on February 14.
This included a new traffic segment, "Beat the Traffic". The station launched weekend morning news on March 8. Unlike other ABC affiliates, WPBF does not air news at Noon during the week. Also, the station does not maintain a sports department. WPBF's weather radar is known as "Weather First True View" and is located north of West Palm Beach. WPBF offers The AccuWeather Channel on its second digital subchannel and Comcast digital cable channel 208. Known as Weather First TV, it is also streamed live on the station's website.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- J.P. Hervis - weekday mornings
- Kristin Hoke - weekday mornings
- Jon Shainman - weeknights at 4, 6, and 11
- Lisa Hayward - weeknights at 4, 5, and 5:30
- Tiffany Kenney - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11
- health reporter
- Bob Kaple - weekend mornings
- reporter
- Meredith McDonough - weekend mornings
- reporter
- Angela Rozier - weekend evenings
- reporter three days a week
- Jim Abath - Sunday evenings
WPBF News 25 Weather First Specialists
- Mike Lyons - Chief seen on weeknights
- Felicia Rodriguez - weekday mornings
- Eric Burris (AMS Seals of Approval) - weekend mornings
- Kate Wentzel (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekend evenings
- weather reporter
Reporters
- Marianne Milano - website
- Terri Parker - investigative
- Traci Mitchell - weekday morning national correspondent
- Laurie Kinney - national correspondent
- Sally Kidd - national correspondent
- Nathalie Pozo - weekday traffic
- Amanda Salinas
- Lesley Dale
- Rosheka Norman
- Brian Albert
- Cathleen O'Toole
[edit] External links
- WPBF-TV/DT
- ABC
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WPBF
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPBF-TV
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