WKYC-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WKYC-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Report The Facts, Respect The Truth.
station_branding = WKYC Channel 3 (general)
Channel 3 News (newscasts)
analog = 3 (VHF)
digital = 2 (VHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = NBC
NBC Weather Plus
subchannels = (see article)
founded = October 31, 1948
location = Cleveland, Ohio
callsign_meaning = KYW Cleveland
(nod to former calls of KYW-TV)
former_callsigns = WNBK (1948–1956)
KYW-TV (1956–1965)
former_channel_numbers = 4 (1948–1953)
owner = Gannett Company
licensee = WKYC-TV, Inc.
effective_radiated_power = 868 kW (digital)
erp_temporary = 93.3 kW (analog)
8 kW (digital)
HAAT = 312 m (analog)
296.1 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 73195
coordinates = coord|41|23|9.7|N|81|41|20.5|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wkyc.com/ www.wkyc.com]

WKYC-TV, channel 3, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Cleveland, Ohio, owned by the Gannett Company. Its studio is located on the shores of Lake Erie, while its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio.

History

Early years

The National Broadcasting Company launched the station on channel 4 as WNBK on October 31, 1948. It was the second station in Cleveland to sign on, eleven months after WEWS (channel 5), and was the fourth of the five original NBC owned and operated stations launched by the network, three weeks after WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) in Chicago. WNBK was a sister station to WTAM radio (1100 AM), which NBC had owned since 1930.

Although there was no coaxial cable connection to New York City, AT&T had just installed a cable connection between WNBK, WNBQ, WSPD-TV (now WTVG) in Toledo, KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota and KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis, creating NBC's Midwest network. WNBK became one of the originators of programming for the regional network, along with WNBQ.

Two days after signing on, on November 2, 1948, WNBK transmitted its coverage of the Truman/Dewey election results to the NBC Midwest Network. On January 11, 1949, WNBK began carrying NBC's New York-originated programming live via a cable connection to Philadelphia. In 1953, the station moved to channel 3, swapping frequencies with fellow NBC affiliate WLWC (now WCMH-TV) in Columbus) to alleviate same-channel interference with another NBC station, WWJ-TV (now WDIV) in Detroit.

Westinghouse moves in

In 1956, NBC persuaded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation to trade KYW radio and WPTZ-TV in Philadelphia to the network in return for WNBK and WTAM-AM-FM. NBC had long wanted to "trade up" its holdings to a market larger than Cleveland, which was a top-10 city in both radio and television at the time, and Philadelphia was the largest market in which it didn't own a station. The swap became official in February 1956, as NBC moved its operations (including much of its Cleveland staff) to Philadelphia to operate WRCV radio and television. Westinghouse took over the former WNBK/WTAM operation and changed its call letters to KYW.

Under Westinghouse ownership, KYW-TV launched "Barnaby", a children's program which starred Linn Sheldon as the title character. The show premiered in 1956 and was an immediate hit, running on weekday afternoons for ten years. Another Westinghouse creation was the country's first one-and-a-half-hour news block in 1959, called "Eyewitness" (a precursor to the "Eyewitness News" format), which comprised 75 minutes of local news with the then-15-minute "Huntley-Brinkley Report". In 1961, channel 3 originated a local 90-minute weekday daytime variety talk show with former band singer Mike Douglas, which went up against WEWS's "One O'Clock Club". Quickly eclipsing the competition, "The Mike Douglas Show" became so popular that Westinghouse decided to carry the program on its other stations in 1963, and eventually to syndicate the program nationwide.

NBC returns

Despite its success in Cleveland, Westinghouse was unhappy with how the 1956 trade with NBC played out. The company believed that NBC used extortion to get the Philadelphia stations, and Westinghouse complained to the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice about the moves that NBC employed in the swap. The investigation discovered that NBC tried to buy the Philadelphia stations, but Westinghouse had said no each time. Group W had only agreed to the deal after NBC threatened to remove its affiliation from WPTZ and Westinghouse's other NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston, unless Westinghouse agreed to the trade. In 1965, after an investigation that lasted nine years, the FCC reversed the trade and any profit that NBC made on the deal was lost. NBC re-assumed control of the Cleveland stations on June 19, 1965 and changed the call letters to WKYC, mostly as a nod to the success that Westinghouse experienced during their stewardship of the stations. WKYC-TV was separated from its radio sisters in 1972, when NBC sold WKYC-AM-FM to Ohio Communications. see|NBC|KYW (AM)|KYW-TV|WTAM

In a reverse of what took place in 1956, some radio and television staffers who worked for Westinghouse in Cleveland moved to Philadelphia along with the KYW call letters. This included news reporter Tom Snyder, news director Al Primo, and Mike Douglas. WKYC-TV continued to air the "Mike Douglas Show" for many years after both the host and the program moved to Philadelphia, where it remained until 1978. Westinghouse also took the "Eyewitness News" name and format with them; it would later return to Cleveland, being used on WEWS from 1969 to 1990. Other Westinghouse employees – such Linn Sheldon, Clay Conroy (who played "Barnaby"'s sidekick "Woodrow the Woodsman" before getting a spinoff show of his own), and staff announcer Jay Miltner (who had been with the station since its inception in 1948) – remained in Cleveland.

NBC also relocated many of their top Philadelphia radio and television executives and some on-air personalities to Cleveland, such as meteorologist Wally Kinnan. Kinnan's arrival displaced Dick Goddard, who had been with channel 3 since 1961. Goodard moved to Philadelphia with Westinghouse but returned to Cleveland weeks after the switch and joined WJW-TV (channel 8), where he remains to this day. One show that made the jump to Cleveland was the award-winning documentary series "Montage", produced and directed by Dennis Goulden. This nationally-acclaimed series of over 250 episodes investigated the issues and lifestyles of the Cleveland community during the 1960s and 1970s.

For much of the time between NBC's repurchase of the station and the dawn of the 21st century, WKYC-TV's news department was usually a very distant third in the ratings. Part of the reason was that during most of its second stint as an NBC owned-and-operated station, it served mainly as a farm system for NBC. Given Cleveland's status as a mid-major television market, most of the promising reporters or anchors that NBC employed at WKYC could end up being promoted to other higher-profile NBC-owned outlets, especially flagship WNBC-TV in New York City. Most notably, WKYC alumnus (and current "Today" show weatherman) Al Roker has gone on to a long and successful career with the network.

As a result of this practice, turnover at channel 3 was very high, and it was unable to establish a cohesive news department and successfully compete against either WJW-TV or WEWS in the ratings. Two of the few long-tenured personalities during this time included Joe Mosbrook and Del Donahoo. Both staffers joined WKYC in 1967 (Donahoo from WOW radio in Omaha) and enjoyed long tenures at the station. Mosbrook retired in 2002, while Donahoo was co-host of "Today in Cleveland" with Tom Haley until 1997 and a feature reporter (under the "Del's Folks" banner) until 2006.

At the same time, channel 3 enjoyed several technical advances with NBC's parent company, RCA (and since 1986, General Electric). It was Cleveland's first television station to broadcast full-time in color on September 13, 1965, the first to broadcast in stereo in 1985, and the first VHF station to closed-caption their local newscasts for the hearing-impaired in 1990.

From 1973 until 1984, WKYC tried to use the "Action News" newscast branding several times (later employed by WOIO in an unrelated manner), while also using the music and graphics associated with NBC-owned stations, which employed the "NewsCenter" name. On March 19 1984, the station dropped the "Action 3 News" name and referred to the newscasts as the current "Channel 3 News". WKYC also adopted a new logo and a new slogan called "Turn to 3"; the accompanying jingle was composed by Frank Gari. The "Turn to 3" jingle and image campaign was borrowed by many TV broadcasters around the world.Fact|date=September 2008 Various anchors – such as Virgil Dominic, Doug Adair, Dave Patterson, Mona Scott, Judd Hambrick, Leon Bibb and Dick Feagler – news sets, and imaging campaigns were tried out, usually with little to no success. Finally, after years of sagging ratings and continuing to be NBC's weakest O&O, the network sold majority (51 percent) control of WKYC to Multimedia, Inc. in 1990. As WKYC was the only network-owned and -operated station in Cleveland before the sale, the market would not get another until Fox bought out WJW in 1997.

At that time, Multimedia also operated Multimedia Entertainment (now a part of NBC Universal Television), which produced a number of weekday TV talk shows. As a result, Multimedia-produced talk shows such as "The Jerry Springer Show" (who himself had come from then-sister station WLWT in Cincinnati), "Sally Jessy Raphael", and "Donahue" ended up on WKYC's daily schedule.

The station, now no longer owned and operated by NBC, tried to rebuild the station's news department with an emphasis on local talent and continuity, under the tagline "We're building our station around you." In 1993, the NBC peacock was dropped from the primary station logo, which took a red-white-blue color scheme, though WKYC was still identified (and still is) as "Channel 3". WKYC even set up a telephone feedback hotline, dubbed "Talkback 3", intended to field suggestions and comments from viewers.

As an NBC affiliate

WKYC did not immediately reap any windfall from longtime CBS affiliate WJW-TV's switch to (and eventual purchase by) Fox in 1994. However, ratings for WKYC's newscasts gradually began to improve towards the end of the decade. The station started to finish in first in assorted timeslots and posted some of the highest ratings books in the stations' history. The Gannett Company purchased Multimedia in November 1995, and acquired the remaining 49 percent of the station from NBC in early 1999.

After Gannett's acquisition of Multimedia, Gannett attempted to trade Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT, which Gannett was required to sell to NBC after it acquired Multimedia, in exchange for NBC's sale of its stake in WKYC to Gannett. This fell through because NBC would have had to sell either WLWT or WCMH-TV in Columbus, because of significantly overlapping grade B signals. Also, because WCMH had stronger ratings in its market than did WLWT, NBC refused to consider this deal. NBC's ownership interest in WKYC was not attibuted to NBC at the time, although WKYC and WCMH have slightly overlapping Grade B signals.

Even after Gannett's purchase of WKYC, the station continued to suffer. For instance, in September 1999, WKYC expanded its 6 p.m. newscast to one hour. This aggravated viewers because "NBC Nightly News" was preempted until 7:00 p.m. This practice was reversed in July 2000 when "NBC Nightly News" was moved back to 6:30, and the second half hour was used to start a 7:00 p.m. newscast, which still airs to this day.

WKYC accomplished another first in Cleveland television history by becoming the first station in Northeast Ohio to broadcast in high-definition in 1999. Soon after Gannett bought full control of the station, it moved from its longtime studios in the former East Ohio Gas building to a state-of-the-art studio on the shores of Lake Erie.

Ratings emergence

WKYC finally became a factor in the Cleveland television race in 2002, when it picked up the "Dr. Phil" show and placed it in the 5–6 p.m. slot. This move proved to be very successful for two reasons. First, at 5 p.m., all of the other local stations were broadcasting news, so this gave viewers an alternative. Second, WKYC was able to get many viewers to change channels at the end of WEWS's 4 p.m. broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to "Dr. Phil" at 5:00 (the syndication contracts for both shows disallow them from airing against each other).

During "Dr. Phil", WKYC did heavy promotion of its 6 p.m. newscast, which began to experience sharp ratings increases. This also helped the 7 p.m. newscast. In early 2004, viewers began turning away from WJW-TV and WEWS's hard-hitting newscasts to the more traditional WKYC. This helped WKYC rise to first place in the news ratings for the first time in decades. All of its newscasts won their timeslots. WKYC even managed to push WJW's popular morning newscast into second place.

This continued until May 2005, when WKYC made two major changes in their newscasts. First, they had reporters lengthen the time of their stories, hoping to provide more detail. Second, in attempt to combat the common viewer complaint that "all news is bad", WKYC started inserting more "happy" stories into their newscasts. The combination of the two resulted in less "real" news, and viewers began turning away.

Over the summer of 2005, while "Dr. Phil" was airing repeats, WKYC lost the top spot at 6 to WEWS. However, channel 3 retook the top spot at 6 p.m. during the November 2005 sweeps period. Additionally, despite fears due to a weak NBC prime time schedule, WKYC retained its top spot at 11 p.m. which it has held for 17 straight ratings periods. In the February 2006 ratings period, WKYC continued its first place streak by placing first at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Its morning newscast was second only to WJW's.

In the November 2006 ratings period, WKYC's airing of "Dr. Phil" continued to lead at 5 p.m., and its 11 p.m. newscast held on to first place (though by a very slim margin over WOIO), although it slipped from first to third at 6 p.m. It came in last place at noon (it was the only "Big Four" affiliate station in Cleveland not to air a newscast at that time slot). Channel 3's late-afternoon and early-evening slump continued since that time, reaching its nadir to date in the February 2008 ratings period, when both "Dr. Phil" and the 6 p.m. newscast finished third behind WJW's and WEWS's newscasts. [cite news |first=Julie E |last=Washington |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Channel 8's morning shows win big in February sweeps |url=http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/julie_washington/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1206779560229150.xml&coll=2 |work=The Plain Dealer |publisher= |date=2008-03-30 |accessdate=2008-05-12 ]

On May 22, 2006, WKYC-TV began broadcasting all of their local newscasts in high-definition, becoming the second station in the Cleveland market to do so. Channel 3 also debuted a new graphics package at this time.

Local programming

Good Company

WKYC's "Good Company" program is one of two locally produced mid-morning television shows airing at 10am in the Cleveland television market. The other show being "That's Life" airing on WJW. Good Company is a general interest show which features interviews, cooking, health topics, movie reviews, fashion shows, and other features that resemble WEWS's former "The Morning Exchange". This may be partially due to the fact that former "Morning Exchange" host Fred Griffith is a co-host of "Good Company".

The premise for "Good Company" was actually formed over five years before the program’s debut. After "The Morning Exchange" went off the air in September 1999, Griffith left WEWS despite the fact that he was offered a new position at the station. In May 2000, Griffith resurfaced at WKYC to host "Fifteen Minutes with Fred", a daily segment that took up the second half of the noon newscast. For the most part, the segment featured Griffith interviewing an expert in a certain field.

In May 2002, WKYC briefly expanded "Fifteen Minutes with Fred" into a 30-minute show airing in the afternoon. The show included the expert interviews, but also added cooking and crafting segments.

At the end of September 2003, WKYC eliminated their noon newscast replacing it with an 11 a.m. newscast called "The Midday Report". Along with the new newscast came the premiere of "Studio 3," which replaced "Fifteen Minutes with Fred" and starred Fred Griffith and morning meteorologist Hollie Strano. "Studio 3", which aired at 11:30 a.m., featured topics similar to that of the former "Morning Exchange". However, ratings for the show were low throughout its entire run.

At the start of the new TV season in September 2005, WKYC needed to fill the hour gap left by the syndicated "Life and Style" which went out of production. WKYC decided to expand "Studio 3" into the one-hour "Good Company" which airs at 10 a.m. The show is hosted by Griffith, Eileen McShea (the former weekend morning forecaster), Andrea Vecchio (who did the entertainment reports on "Studio 3"), and Michael Cardamone (a local who appeared on NBC’s "Average Joe".)

Many people wondered why WKYC decided to expand the show to one hour despite "Studio 3’s" low ratings. The truth is that unlike "The Morning Exchange", most of the "Good Company’s" guests are from companies that advertise on WKYC. As part of the contract between the company and WKYC, the company gets commercial air time plus a segment on "Good Company" in which they essentially promote their product(s). As a result, WKYC profits off of the show regardless of the ratings.

In 2007, WKYC announced that "Good Company" will remain in the 10 a.m. timeslot with respect to the expansion of the "Today" show to four hours.

Cleveland Indians

WKYC-TV signed a ten year deal to become the "free TV" home of the Cleveland Indians starting in the 2006 baseball season. During the course of the contract, channel 3 will air 20 Indians games per year, mostly on weekends. This deal brought the Indians back to over-the-air TV after four years of the team being exclusively on cable.

However, the bulk of the Indians' games will still be on cable, airing on SportsTime Ohio, a regional sports network which is owned by the team itself. WKYC will be handling the entire production process for SportsTime Ohio from their Lakeside Ave. studios, and as such will share the same graphics and production elements. All games will be broadcast in high definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Channel 3 sports director Jim Donovan and former Indian Rick Manning handle play-by-play duties. WKYC-TV also airs a weekly half hour Indians themed program, "Indians Tonight", Sundays at 11:35 p.m.

Cleveland Browns

On August 3, 2006, WKYC-TV and the Cleveland Browns announced a deal for the station to be the "official" TV home of the team. WKYC airs all non-nationally televised pre-season games, with Jim Donovan and former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar announcing. Channel 3 also airs 90 minutes of Browns-related programming during the pre-season and regular season as well: "Browns Pregame Huddle", "Browns Tonight", and "The Point After".

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital transition

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WKYC-TV will move its digital broadcasts to channel 17. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101233490&formid=387&fac_num=73195 CDBS Print ] ] http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=618132] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WKYC's virtual channel as 3.

Current personalities

;Anchors
* Lydia Esparra - weekend evening co-anchor
* Abby Ham - weekday morning co-anchor
* Jeff Maynor - weekend mornings and Noon
* Mark Nolan - weekday morning co-anchor
* Romona Robinson - weeknight co-anchor
* Chris Tye - weekend evening co-anchor (also reporter)
* Kim Wheeler - weekend morning co-anchor (also education reporter)
* Tim White - weeknight co-anchor

;Weather
* A.J. Colby - weekend evenings
* Bruce Kalinowski - weekend mornings and Noon
* Betsy Kling - chief meteorologist/weeknights
* Elisa Robin Malinovitz - substitute
* Hollie Strano - weekday mornings and Noon Weekdays

;Sports
* Dave Chudowsky - sports reporter/weekend anchor
* Doug Dieken - Browns analyst
* Jim Donovan - sports director/weeknight sports anchor/Indians and Browns play-by-play
* Tony Grossi - Browns analyst
* Al Palowski - fill-in anchor
* Sam Ratigliano - Browns analyst

;Reporters
* Tom Beres (politics)
* Pat Butler (traffic)
* Del Donahoo (senior issues)
* Vic Gideon
* Maureen Kyle
* Eric Mansfield (Akron/Canton bureau chief)
* Tom Meyer (investigative)
* Mike O'Mara
* Jennifer Murphy
* Monica Robins (health)
* Bill Safos
* Obie Shelton
* Carole Sullivan
* Dave Summers (investigative)
* Paul Thomas

Notable alumni

Historical newscast titles

*"The Esso Reporter" (1948–1959)
*"Today's News" (1953–1959)
*"Eyewitness" (1959–1961)
*"Eyewitness News" (1961–1965, first station to use this branding)
*"Channel 3 News" (1965–1973, generic branding)
*"The Sixth/Eleventh Hour Report" (1965–1973)
*"Action News" (1973–1976)
*"Action 3 News" (1976–1984)
*"Channel 3 News" (1984–present)

Past slogans

:"Cleveland's most respected television news organization" (1970–1973, slogan for "Channel 3 News"):"We're Friends on 3" (spring 1979):"Channel 3, Proud as a Peacock" (local version of the NBC ad campaign, which lasted from fall 1979 to summer 1981):"Channel 3, Our Pride is Showing" (local version of the NBC ad campaign, which lasted from summer 1981 to summer 1982):"Channel 3, Just Watch Us Now" (local version of the NBC ad campaign, 1982–1983):"Channel 3, WOW, Be There!" (local version of the NBC ad campaign, which lasted from summer 1983 to early 1984):"Turn to 3" (starting in early 1984 through the end of the decade and had an accompanying upscale musical jingle by Frank Gari):"We're Building Our Station Around You" (from the mid-1990s):"News That's More Local" (from the early 2000s):"Report the Facts. Respect the Truth." (the most recent slogan)

Previous logos

Cable coverage in Canada

When atmospheric conditions allow, WKYC's signal can be picked up as far away as Detroit and Windsor. The station is readily available over-the-air to Kingsville, Leamington, and Pelee Island, and was once one of the three stations from Cleveland carried on local cable in those three locations; WEWS and WJW-TV were the others available until 2000, when Cogeco displaced Shaw Cable as the cable provider for Essex County.

WKYC was also carried on cable in London, Ontario prior to 1974, on cable channel 3. WKYC was bumped to make room for the newly launched Global Television Network.

References

External links

* [http://www.wkyc.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.setstudio.com/pages/wkyc/ Photos of WKYC's news set]
*TVQ|WKYC-TV