WXII-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WXII-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point, North Carolina | |
| Branding | WXII 12 |
| Slogan | Your Home for Piedmont-Triad and Southwest Virginia News |
| Channels | Analog: 12 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (WXII Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | September 30, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | XII=Roman numeral 12 |
| Former callsigns | WSJS-TV (1953-1972) WXII (1972-1982) |
| Former affiliations | Secondary: ABC (1953-1963) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 815 kW (digital) |
| Height | 604 m (analog) 572 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 53921 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wxii12.com |
WXII, channel 12(Analog)/31(Digital), is the NBC television station licensed for the Greensboro–High Point–Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Piedmont Triad) designated market area. It is licensed to Winston-Salem and is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, a unit of the Hearst Corporation. Its transmitter is located on Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County, North Carolina. The station is carried on cable channel 11 in most parts of the market.
NBC Weather Plus is offered on WXII's digital feed titled "WXII 12 WeatherPlus."
Contents |
[edit] History
The station began operation on September 30, 1953 as WSJS-TV. It is the third-oldest surviving station in North Carolina, behind Charlotte's WBTV and Greensboro's WFMY-TV. The station at first was owned by a subsidiary of Piedmont Publishing, publishers of the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel along with WSJS radio (600 AM and 104.1 FM, now WTQR), and Hollywood star Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers.[1]
The station has always been affiliated with NBC. ABC was shared with WFMY until WGHP signed on in 1963. The station first broadcast from the basement of WSJS studios on Spruce Street in Winston-Salem. The first broadcast was of the first game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The station originally broadcast from an antenna near Kernersville. The tower was moved to Sauratown Mountain in 1955.
When Piedmont Publishing was sold to Media General in 1968, Gordon Gray, the longtime publisher of both papers, held onto WSJS-AM-FM-TV as Triangle Broadcasting. Gray also received the franchise for the city's cable system. However, the FCC ruled that TV stations could not also own the cable systems in their markets. Gray was thus forced to sell WSJS-TV in 1972 to Multimedia Inc., who renamed the station WXII-TV. The letters "XII" from "WXII" are the Roman numerals for the number "12", which is the station's channel number. At the time of the call letter change, the station ran a promotional ad parodying the death of Julius Caesar to amplify the Roman numeral theme.
Multimedia swapped WXII and WFBC-TV in Greenville, South Carolina (now WYFF) to Pulitzer in 1983 in exchange for KSD-TV in St. Louis (now KSDK). When Pulitzer bowed out of broadcasting in 1997, Hearst bought the entire group, including WXII.
[edit] Promotional campaigns
WXII used the "Hello News" theme package in the early 1980s. Their campaign song was "Hello Piedmont." The tune began with the words, "There's a feeling in the air that you can't get anywhere except the Piedmont."
Following the HELLO campaign of the early 80s, WXII hired a Florida production company to put together a new image campaign, "COUNT ON US". This was used for little more than a year and then dropped.
In the early 90s WXII was rebranded "Your Carolina News Connection".
As with most TV stations, WXII used custom versions of NBC campaigns-- one example being "Come Home to WXII". They also made a local version of "Come Home to the Best, Only on NBC" in 1988, featuring shots of NBC's stars and WXII's anchors throwing a party to coincide with the station's 35th anniversary. The latter clip can be seen on YouTube (originally uploaded by the station itself).
Ratings began to increase following a series of severe weather events in the late 80s and early 90s.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, WXII branded itself as NewsChannel 12, and its positioning statement was "Complete Local Coverage of the Western Piedmont." Once Hearst took full control (around 1999-2000), both the "NewsChannel" and positioning statement were dropped. The station then began branding itself as WXII 12 News. As of 2008, the station refers to itself (TV and Web) as WXII Digital Media.
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current
- Kenny Beck, weekend morning anchor/reporter.
- Austin Caviness, meteorologist.
- Nicole Ducouer, morning co-anchor/reporter.
- Dave Goren, sports director.
- Margaret Johnson, noon news anchor/reporter.
- Michelle Kennedy, meteorologist/reporter.
- Cameron Kent, co-anchor and former sports anchor.
- Bill O'Neil, reporter.
- Lanie Pope, chief meteorologist since 2001.
- Brian Slocum, meteorologist/fill-in anchor.
- Wanda Starke, co-anchor for 5, 6 and 11 p.m. news.
- Jennie Stencel, a morning news traffic reporter who in 2006 did her traffic update as a rap. The footage spread rapidly across the Internet and national television, including MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
- Craig Thomas, sports anchor/general assignment reporter.
- Kimberly Van Scoy, morning co-anchor/medical reporter
- Elizabeth Wenger, weekend anchor/reporter.
[edit] Past
- Nicole Jacobs, former reporter, now general assignment reporter at WTIC-TV Hartford (FOX)
- Rick Amme, former anchor (1980s-early 1990s).
- Tolly Carr, former morning anchor, charged with felony death by vehicle, felony serious injury by vehicle and driving while intoxicated in March 2007.[2] He was sentenced to 25-39 months in prison in August 2007.[3]
- Aixa Diaz, weekend morning anchor, WESH in Orlando, Florida.[4]
- Harvey Dinkins, farm reporter from 1954-1962. Dinkins was billed as "North Carolina's Favorite Farmer."[5]
- Denise Franklin, former anchor (1983-1992).
- Bob Gordon, the station's first announcer. Gordon, real name Robert Gordon Van Horn, hosted Bob Gordon Theater for 19 years.
- Jeff Hardin, former meteorologist (1998-2001). Currently Director of Communications for the NC Credit Union League.
- Chris Horne, former morning anchor. Currently a realtor with Prudential Carolinas in Forsyth County, NC
- Damany Lewis, former reporter/fill-in anchor (2004-2007) Now a reporter with KCRA (Sacramento, CA)
- Monica Malpass, former anchor & reporter. Has been the co-anchor at WPVI (Philadelphia) since 1988
- Melissa Marsh, former reporter/anchor (2002-2007)
- Steve Adamson, former Weekday Morning and Noon Meteorologist (1986-1994) Now at WXIA TV Atlanta
- Mike McClellan, former meteorologist. Currently working at Mobile Weather in Washington, IL
- Kathy Murphy, former anchor. Went to work for WGCL in Atlanta in the late 90s.
- Gene Overby, sports anchor and former voice of Wake Forest University athletics.
- Angela Pellerano, former reporter/fill-in anchor. Now weekend anchor/reporter with WTVR (Richmond, VA).
- Dan Rath, former sports anchor. Currently a realtor in Forsyth County, NC. Hosted weekly sports segment titled "I Dare Dan", in which viewers would challenge Rath at sporting or gaming competitions
- Chris Runge, former weatherman (1987 to 1996) Left WXII and went to work for WXLV (ABC affiliate in Winston-Salem). Now station manager for Educational TV Channel and school system spokesperson.
- Glenn Scott, former weatherman and longtime morning man on WSJS radio.
- Debbie Severs, former weather person.
- Mary Ann Sheboy, reporter for station for 19 years.[6]
- Bonnie Schneider, meteorologist (joined CNN in 2005).
- Fred Shropshire, former general assignment reporter (2002-2004). Shropshire worked as a reporter and fill-in anchor at WGN Chicago before becoming the weekend anchor for WTVD in Durham, North Carolina.[7]
- John Wendel, meteorologist for WCNC in Charlotte, North Carolina since January 2001.[8]
- Anthony Wilson, reporter & substitute anchor from 1990-1993; currently a weekend anchor and reporter at WTVD in Durham.[9]
- Scott Zahorik, former meteorologist.
- Paul Dellegatto, former chief meteorologist (1986-1990), now chief meteorologist at WTVT.
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- WSJS-TV News (1953-1967)
- Eyewitness News (1967-1977)
- NewsCenter 12 (1977-1985)
- Channel 12 News (1985-1992)
- Newswatch 12 (1992-1996)
- NewsChannel 12 (1996-2000)
- WXII NewsChannel 12 (2000-2003)
- WXII 12 News (2003-present)
[edit] External links
- WXII 12
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WXII-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WXII-TV
[edit] References
- ^ The Winston-Salem Journal, Magnolia Trees and Pulitzer Prizes, by Frank V. Tursi, page 182
- ^ News 14 Carolina
- ^ "Tolly Carr Learns His Fate," MSNBC
- ^ "New anchor, reporter coming aboard at WESH," Orlando Sentinel TV blog
- ^ The Winston-Salem Journal, Magnolia Trees and Pulitzer Prizes, by Frank V. Tursi, page 179
- ^ breakthrufilms.org
- ^ Fred Shropshire bio
- ^ John Wendel bio
- ^ Anthony Wilson bio
|
|||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
