WMTW

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WMTW
city =
station_
station_slogan = Where the News
Comes First
station_branding = TV 8 WMTW (general)
News 8 WMTW (newscasts)
analog = 8 (VHF)
digital = 46 (UHF)
8 (post-2009)
other_chs = W26CQ Colebrook, NH
W27CP White River Junction, VT
affiliations = ABC
AccuWX (on DT2)
network =
founded =
airdate = August 31, 1954
location = Poland Spring / Portland, Maine
callsign_meaning = MounT Washington
former_callsigns = WMTW-TV (1954-2007)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Hearst-Argyle Television
licensee = Hearst-Argyle Properties, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = DuMont (secondary, 1954-1955)
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
1,000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 608 m (analog)
586 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 73288
coordinates = coord|43|50|44.2|N|70|45|40.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wmtw.com/ wmtw.com]

WMTW, channel 8, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Portland, Maine that is licensed to Poland Spring. Its transmitter is located near West Baldwin. Owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, the station has studios in the Time and Temperature building on Congress Street in downtown Portland. Syndicated programming on WMTW includes: "Wheel of Fortune", "Jeopardy!", "Dr. Phil", and "Ellen".

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

In 2009, WMTW will remain on channel 8 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf]

Repeaters

In 2005, WMTW activated two repeaters to make up for lost coverage when it signed off from Mount Washington. This includes one in Colebrook, New Hampshire and another in White River Junction, Vermont. Under normal conditions, the translators should have been built before WMTW moved its transmitter to Baldwin in order to comply with FCC regulations. However, Canadian communications authorities had to agree to the proposed locations for the translators, and this delayed construction until after WMTW activated its new transmitter. Colebrook is part of the Portland market but White River Junction is considered to be part of the Burlington, Vermont / Plattsburgh, New York market.

This location is in the coverage area of NBC affiliate WNNE (that is also owned by Hearst-Argyle) which is a semi-satellite of NBC affiliate WPTZ (another Hearst-Argyle station). Although WNNE's transmitter is located on Mount Ascutney, well south of White River Junction, it operates a repeater in Lebanon. FCC regulations do not usually allow that two or more stations from two or more different markets have coverage of the same location (in this case, White River Junction). This rule, however, does not apply to repeaters. Incidentally, White River Junction is within the fringe area of ABC affiliate WMUR-TV (yet another station owned by Hearst-Argyle).

History

The station signed on for the first time on August 31, 1954. It has always been an ABC affiliate though it aired some DuMont programming for a year. Its sign-on made Portland one of the smallest markets in the country with three network affiliates on the VHF band. WMTW used to have a transmitter located atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. This gave WMTW one of the largest coverage areas of any station in the eastern U.S. At one point, WMTW was seen as far away as Montreal, Canada, and many parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts. It was considered to be the northern Vermont and Montreal ABC affiliate of record until WVNY signed on in 1968.

Even after WVNY signed on, WMTW still had a large audience in northern Vermont. WMTW stayed on most Montreal cable systems until the early-1990s. WMTW's transmitter tower had been originally been designed in 1940 by Edwin Armstrong for one of the first FM radio stations in the country. WMTW built a new tower there in the 1960s but Armstong's tower remained as a standby. Jack Paar of Tonight Show fame owned the station WMTW for a short period in the 1960s after he left national television. He hosted several programs on WMTW during that time. The station had to leave Mount Washington in 2002 due to part of the FCC's digital television mandate. Two FM stations currently occupy separate broadcast facilities on the top of the mountain. The FCC requires analog stations to broadcast alongside their digital counterparts until 80% of the viewing audience can watch the digital signal.

Had WMTW-DT been built on the mountain, it would have had to operate at low power due to the lack of commercial electric power up there. A low-powered signal would have resulted in an inadequate signal for Portland and the more populated areas of the market, and so, WMTW built a new TV tower in Baldwin, Maine, and signed off from Mount Washington for the last time on February 5, 2002. Obviously, the new transmitter site does not serve as large an area as the Mount Washington tower did, but it provides a better TV signal to the highly populated areas of the market. In 2004, WMTW was sold to a new owner, Hearst-Argyle Television. In 2007, the station dropped its longtime use of the -TV suffix.

ister radio stations

There was a WMTW-AM 870 in Portland that was a news-talk station. It was sold by Harron Communications, the now-former owners of WMTW-TV to Nassau Broadcasting Partners in 2003. Today, it is WLVP and is an ESPN Radio affiliate. This station, along with WLAM 1470 and WHXR 106.7 were all branded as "Newsradio WMTW". This set of stations aired and produced local news and talk programs as well as simulcasts of WMTW-TV's newscasts and carried the now defunced news radio service of the Associated Press. In addition, there have been several stations known as WMTW-FM co-owned with channel 8. The first became WHOM 94.9 (which continues to transmit from Mount Washington), and the second was the FM sister station to WMTW AM which was located on 106.7 MHz. It is also owned by Nassau, and is currently WHXR. An earlier WMTW-FM was not connected to any other WMTW apart from also transmitting from Mount Washington.

News operation

Throughout the years, WMTW has been ranked at a distant third behind WGME and WCSH. With its statewide resources including sister station WLBZ in Bangor, WCSH has long been the market leader. WGME has recently begun to perform well at 11 o'clock and is gaining popularity in other time slots. WMTW, in partnership with Time Warner Cable, operate a 24-hour cable news station on channel 9 ("TW9") throughout the Portland market. The cable station repeats local newscasts that aired on channel 8. It does not simulcast live newscasts that are seen on the main WMTW channel. Unlike most ABC affiliates, the station does not broadcast local news during the week in the 5 o'clock hour. WMTW schedules its weeknight news team for the 11 P.M. Sunday newscast during sweeps periods. Although the station does not air weekend morning news, there are live weather updates provided during "Good Morning America Weekend Edition". Although WMTW claims to be the only Portland television station to have live doppler radar, it does not own or operate a weather radar of its own.

Instead, the station uses live, NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) radar data that originates from the NWS Local Forecast Office in Gray. During weather segments, it is presented in a forecasting system known as "News 8 First Warning Live Doppler". A live video feed of this system is offered on WMTW's website. On August 30, 2007, WMTW launched "News 8 NOW" on its second digital subchannel. It is part of The AccuWeather Channel and features local news, weather, and sports updates. There are also national weather forecasts that are provided by AccuWeather. Several public service announcements air on the subchannel as well. "News 8 NOW" is offered on Time Warner and Comcast digital cable channel 165 as well as its website. In the Summer of 2008, WMTW was given several awards. This includes the "New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Newscast", the "Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuing News Coverage", and "AP Station of the Year Honor".

News team

Anchors
*Norm Karkos - weekday mornings and Noon
*Shannon Moss - weekday mornings and Noon
*Jon Camp - weeknights
*Tory Ryden - weeknights
*Jim Keithley - weekends and reporter
*Tracy Sabol - weekends and reporter

"News 8 WMTW First Warning Weather Team"
*Tom Chisholm - Chief seen on weeknights
*Matt Zidle - weekday mornings and Noon
*Jason Nappi - weekend mornings
*Gray Stabley (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend evenings
*Russ Murley - fill-in snd executive weather producer

Sports
*Travis Lee - Director seen on weeknights and sports reporter
*Dave Guthro - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters
*Steve Minich - outdoors and human interest stories
*Sally Kidd - national correspondent
*Nikole Killion - weekday morning national correspondent
*Laurie Kinney - national correspondent
*Keith Baldi
*Jackie Couture
*Danielle Strauss

Alumni

"Anchors"
*Elisa Boxer
*Doug Cook - reporter
**now communications director at Bowdoin College
*John Dougherty - managing editor
**currently retired
*Darya Folsom - now at KRON-TV
*Michelle Frey - reporter
*Patrick Greenlaw
*Denise Keniston - reporter
*Jeannine Lauber - host of periodic station specials
*Jeff Peterson - now at WGME
*Rachael Ruble - weekday mornings
*Neila Smith
*Dennis Spellman - now at KIAH

"Meteorologists"
*Pete Bouchard - now at WHDH-TV
*Tom Elliman
*Joan Trapp Weise - deceased
*Jessica York - now at RSN

"Reporters"
*Katie Brace - now anchor and reporter at WPTV-TV
*Gabe Caggiano - now at KZTV
*Bob Dyk - deceased
*Bob Elliot - features
**deceased
*Marty Engstrom - weather reporter
**enginner
**now retired
*Lisa Gardner - weekdays, now communications manager for Jobs for Maine's Graduates
*Traci Mitchell - weekday morning national correspondent
*Kathryn Sotnik - weekdays
**now at WPRI-TV
*Michael Weber - now at CBS Newspath
*Christine Young - investigative reporter, working in New York since 2005
*Ryan Welch - weekend sports anchor
**weekday sports reporter

References

External links

* [http://www.wmtw.com/ WMTW channel 8]
*TVQ|WMTW
*TVQ|W26CQ
*TVQ|W27CP