WHEC-TV

WHEC-TV

Rochester, New York
Branding	10 NBC (general) News 10 NBC
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Digital: 10 (VHF) Virtual: 10 (PSIP)
Affiliations	10.1 NBC (1989-present) 10.2 Me-TV 10.3 weather
Owner	Hubbard Broadcasting (WHEC-TV, LLC)
First air date	November 1, 1953
Call letters' meaning	Hickson Electric Company (founders of WHEC radio)
Former callsigns	WVET-TV (shared operation, 1953-1961)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 10 (VHF, 1953-2009) Digital: 58 (UHF, 2005-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953–1989) ABC (secondary, 1953-1962)
Transmitter power	18.1 kW
Height	153 m
Facility ID	70041
Transmitter coordinates	43°8′7″N 77°35′2″W / 43.13528°N 77.58389°W / 43.13528; -77.58389
Website	whec.com

WHEC-TV, channel 10, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Rochester, New York, USA. WHEC-TV is owned by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting, and broadcasts from a studio/office facility on East Avenue in Downtown Rochester. The station's transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, New York.

Digital programming

On WHEC-DT2 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 110 is Me-TV .

Subchannel	Programming
10.1	Main WHEC programming / NBC
10.2	Me-TV[1]
10.3	"News 10 NBC Pinpoint Weather"

History

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) awarded the license of Rochester's second-oldest VHF station to two local firms who competed for the license. The Gannett Company, then the Rochester-based publisher of the Democrat and Chronicle and owners of CBS Radio Network affiliate WHEC (1460 AM) and the Veterans Broadcasting Company, owners of WVET radio (1280 AM, now WHTK), began shared operation of channel 10 on November 1, 1953, broadcasting from separate studios but using the same channel and transmitter. The combined WHEC-TV and WVET-TV operation shared a primary affiliation with the CBS Television Network, and also carried ABC programs on a secondary basis.

In 1961, the split-channel, shared-time arrangement between Gannett and Veterans Broadcasting ended. Veterans sold its half of channel 10 to Gannett as it was acquiring its own, fully owned station, WROC-TV (then on channel 5) from Transcontinent Broadcasting. The completion of the deal made WHEC-TV the sole occupant of the channel 10 frequency in Rochester. The following year WHEC-TV became a full-time CBS affiliate, as the ABC affiliation moved to newly signed-on WOKR (channel 13, now WHAM-TV). In 1966, channel 10 was one of the founding members of the "Love Network" that airs the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon every Labor Day. WHEC was the creator of the "cut-ins" that local stations insert into the national telethon, a concept that has since spread across the country.

Gannett split up its radio/TV holdings in 1971 when WHEC radio was sold to a local group (the station is now known as WHIC). Channel 10 was allowed to retain the WHEC-TV call letters. The station remained the Gannett Company's flagship television outlet until 1979, when Gannett sold channel 10 in the wake of its purchase of Combined Communications. Gannett feared the FCC, who several years earlier decided to eliminate several small-market print/broadcast ownership combinations, would force it to sell either the television station or the newspaper. Gannett retained the Democrat and Chronicle, which it continues to publish, and the company maintained its headquarters in Rochester until moving to Arlington, Virginia in 1985.

The new owners of channel 10 made U.S. television history. WHEC-TV became the first station to be purchased and wholly owned by an African-American group, led by investor Ragan Henry. Despite the historical notation, the Henry-led group's stewardship of WHEC-TV would be short-lived. In 1983 the Henry group traded WHEC to the original Viacom, in exchange for San Francisco radio station KDIA (now KMKY). Under Viacom ownership, channel 10 took part in another trade—this one the first (and only) network affiliation switch in Rochester. On July 1, 1989, WHEC-TV joined the NBC network, replacing WROC-TV (now on channel 8), which took on CBS. This move was the result of WROC-TV's poor performance and constant pre-emptions of network programming (NBC was very intolerant of pre-emptions at this time). The swap brought channel 10 in-line with sister stations WNYT in Albany and WVIT in New Britain, Connecticut, which had recently renewed their NBC relationships. In addition, NBC's strong primetime programming—NBC was the most-watched network at the time, while CBS was in distant third near the mid-point of the Laurence Tisch era—was another major factor.

Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, and merged its five-station group (WHEC-TV, WNYT, WVIT, KMOV in St. Louis, and KSLA-TV in Shreveport, Louisiana) into the Paramount Stations Group. However, in 1995, the company decided to divest itself of all stations not affiliated with its fledgling UPN network. In Spring 1996, Paramount traded WHEC-TV and WNYT to Hubbard Broadcasting in return for UPN affiliate WTOG-TV in St. Petersburg, Florida.

WHEC's digital signal on UHF channel 58 signed-on September 27, 2002 under a special temporary authority. For many years WHEC-TV was one of three Rochester area stations offered on cable in the Ottawa, Ontario/Gatineau, Quebec and Eastern Ontario regions. The Rochester area stations were replaced with Detroit, Michigan stations when the microwave relay system that provided these signals was discontinued. WHEC and other Rochester stations were available on cable in several communities along the north shore of Lake Ontario such as Belleville and Cobourg, Ontario. All Rochester affiliates with the exception of Fox affiliate WUHF were replaced with Buffalo stations in January 2009.

News operation

Nightly news open at 11.

During Viacom ownership, WHEC stayed steadily in second place in the Nielsen ratings between WHAM-TV and WROC. This was also because ABC was in first place while NBC was a distant third in the viewership ratings during that period. On January 30, 2006, the station launched a 24-hour weather station known as "News 10 NBC WeatherPlus" on a new second digital subchannel and Time Warner Cable digital systems. After the national service shut down on December 1, 2008, WHEC-DT2 reverted to a local weather channel. WHEC was the first station in Rochester to launch a weeknight newscast at 7 in 2008.

Even with ownership change to Hubbard, WHEC remained a solid runner-up in Rochester for many years. However, during the November 2008 ratings period, WHEC's weeknight broadcast at 11 fell to third place behind WHAM and WROC while the ratings for its other shows also plummeted (largely due to NBC's recent ratings struggles which have continued into the present day). At that time, it fell to a distant second overall closer to third-place WROC than it is to WHAM. However, this station recovered during the May 2009 sweeps with the weeknight news at 11 virtually tying WHAM and both are just ahead of WROC in that time slot.

The three stations became competitive during the May 2009 ratings period each winning different contests. WHAM still won total-day ratings with WHEC's biggest strength at the time being its late-night newscast. Meanwhile, WROC led in prime time. It has a fairly long-standing partnership with local news-talk outlet WYSL-AM 1040. The radio station simulcasts all weekday newscasts from WHEC except weeknights at 7. This arrangement is in exchange for advertisement time. In addition to the main studios, the station maintains a Finger Lakes Bureau in the Messenger-Post newsroom on Buffalo Street in Canandaigua.

During the ratings periods of 2011 (through July), WHEC's newscasts have remained in second place for most time slots. As of October 3, WHEC remains one of two stations in Rochester which have not yet upgraded their newscasts to high definition or 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen.

Newscast titles

• TV-10 News (1970s-1980s)
• NewsWatch 10 (1980s-1987)
• News Team 10 (1987–1993)
• News 10 (1993–1997)
• News 10 NBC (1997–present)

Station slogans

• "Rochester's News Leader" (1991–1993)
• "Rochester's 24-Hour News Channel" (1993–1997)
• "Live, Local, and Up to the Minute" (1997–2002)
• "Digging for Answers. Reporting Them First." (2002–2006)
• "Coverage You Can Count On" (2006–present)

News music packages

• "WHEC News Theme"
• "CBS News Ticker"
• "The Image Leader"
• "The Palmer News Package"
• "Everyday News Package"
• "Straight Talk"
• "Dayna"
• "Production Music: Action News"
• "The One and Only"
• "The Tower"

News team

Anchors

• Nikki Rudd - weekday mornings and reporter
• Pat McGonigle - weekday mornings and reporter (also heard on WRMM-FM 101.3)
• Rebecca Leclair - weekday mornings and noon (also reporter)
• Rich Funke - weeknights
• Janet Lomax - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 6
• Lia Lando - weeknights at 7 and 11
• Christine VanTimmeren - weekends and weekday morning reporter

Steve Scully, the C-SPAN Washington Journal producer, political editor, and host, began his television broadcasting career at WHEC.^[2]

Pinpoint Weather 10 Meteorologists

• Kevin Williams - Director seen weeknights
• Rich Caniglia - weekday mornings
• Josh Nichols (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - weekends

Sports

• Robin DeWind - Director seen weeknights at 6, 7, and 11 (also "Scholar Athlete of the Week" segment producer)
• Brett Stagnitti - weekends and weekday news reporter (also "Play of the Week" segment producer)

Reporters

• Ted Fioraliso - Finger Lakes Bureau backpack journalist
• Art Ginsburg - "Mr. Food" segment producer
• Ray Levato - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 6
• Brett Davidsen - investigative
• Lynette Adams - weekdays
• Berkeley Brean
• Thalia Hayden

References

1. ^ Where to watch Me-TV: WHEC
2. ^ "Interview with Steve Scully, C-SPAN -- December 2004". journalismjobs.com. http://www.journalismjobs.com/steve_scully.cfm. Retrieved May 4, 2011. 

External links

• WHEC-TV "10 NBC"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHEC-TV