WISE-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WISE-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = A New Generation of News
station_branding = NBC 33
Indiana's News Center
My TV Fort Wayne (on DT2)
analog = 33 (UHF)
digital = 19 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = NBC
MNTV (on DT2)
NBC WX+ (on DT3)
network =
founded =
airdate = November 21, 1953
location = Fort Wayne, Indiana
callsign_meaning = WISE or "wisdom"
former_callsigns = WKJG-TV (1953-2003)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Granite Broadcasting Corporation
licensee = WISE-TV License, LLC
sister_stations = WPTA
former_affiliations =
effective_radiated_power = 589 kW (analog)
285 kW (digital)
HAAT = 235 m (analog)
239.3 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 13960
coordinates = coord|41|5|39.4|N|85|10|35.5|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/ www.indianasnewscenter.com]

WISE-TV, channel 33, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its transmitter is located north of the University of Saint Francis. Owned by Granite Broadcasting, the station is sister to ABC affiliate WPTA. That station is owned by the Malara Broadcast Group but operated by Granite through a local marketing agreement (LMA). WISE-TV and WPTA share studios on Butler Road in Fort Wayne.

WISE-TV operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on its second digital subchannel. That station is also offered on Verizon FiOS channel 9 and Comcast channel 232.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed. "Indiana's News Center Weather Plus" is also offered on Verizon FiOS digital cable channel 860 and Comcast digital cable channel 249.

Because of the WPTA/WISE news sharing agreement, most NBC branding is stripped from INC Weather Plus, and beyond national segments, the NBC Peacock logo is not seen in the L-bar at all. Besides the expected NBC programming promotional advertising, WPTA promos for ABC programming also air on INC Weather Plus, along with the "abc-21 Alive" logo in INC promotional advertising in the top left corner.

History

The station was founded on November 21, 1953 with the call letters WKJG-TV. It was the first television station in Fort Wayne and affiliated with NBC. The station was owned by William Kunkle who operated "The Journal Gazette" (with both entities forming the call letters), WKJG radio, and other television stations. On September 30, 1971, the radio stations were sold. Their call letters became WMEE-AM and WMEF-FM respectively. Today, the FM station has the calls WMEE. The AM station went through a variety of call signs including WQHK, WHWD, and WONO. It went back to the original WKJG on November 3, 2003 and to this day, is Fort Wayne's ESPN Radio affiliate. However, both radio stations are owned by a different company and have no connection with the television station.

For a time, WKJG-TV was owned by Thirty Three Inc, a Tony Hulman company. That broadcaster also owned two other television stations in Indiana: WTHI-TV in Terre Haute and WNDY-TV in Indianapolis. When Hulman died in 1977, WKJG became owned by Joseph R. Cloutier who had been a Terre Haute-based long time employee of Hulman's company. After Cloutier's death, a trust fund (called the Corporation for General Trade), was formed that made his son, Joseph A. Cloutier, the majority share holder with 51%. That company continued to own WKJG until it was sold in 2003. The daily management of WKJG was performed by Hilliard Gates, who doubled as a sportscaster for the station, until his retirement in 1993. John Siemers, a broadcasting engineer at the station, was known at that time as "Engineer John" who introduced cartoons.

On January 13, 2003, the Corporation for General Trade was sold for $20 million dollars to New Vision Television. The station changed its call letters to the current WISE-TV on May 26, 2003 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. A new transmitter with a stronger signal and new high definition options was installed on the tower. The station was sold again in March of 2005 to Granite Broadcasting Corporation for $44.2 million. Granite sold ABC station WPTA, to Malara Broadcasting for $45.3 million. A local marketing agreement was established that called for Granite to provide operation services to WPTA as well as for Malara's other new station, KDLH in Duluth, Minnesota.

As a result of Granite acquiring WISE-TV, it moved the station to WPTA's facilities (even though WISE-TV is the senior partner in the agreement). Also, 57 employees of WISE-TV, including both on-air personalities and production staff, were fired. Granite kept longtime weeknight anchor Linda Jackson to help smooth over the transition. Viewers did not react favorably and much of the negative feedback was given in "The Rant" section of "The News-Sentinel" where readers voiced their opinions. Many people were upset about the breakup of the news team especially the firing of meteorologist Greg Shoup. Shoup was quickly hired by the market's current news leader CBS affiliate WANE-TV where he is currently the weekday morning and Noon meteorologist. Malara files its SEC reports jointly with Granite which lead to allegations that Granite uses Malara as a shell corporation to evade the FCC's rules on duopolies. The FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four largest stations in a single market. Fort Wayne has only six full-power stations, which is too few to allow duopolies in any case.

After emerging from bankruptcy in the Summer of 2007, Granite stock was taken over by Silver Point Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut which is a privately owned hedge fund. Silver Point Capital now controls Granite broadcasting according to a Buffalo, New York news article printed on September 16, 2007. According to the same article, Granite will be sold to other parties and many of its stations have been laying off employees or cutting salaries up to 20%. On September 5, 2006, WISE-TV signed on its second digital subchannel to be the area's affiliate of MyNetworkTV. WANE-TV has dominated the last eight ratings periods according to Nielsen Media Research. In the latest ratings period, which took place in February of 2007, WANE-TV won each newscast in every time slot. These ratings are the best in 25 years for that station.

News operation

WISE-TV produces five newscasts using three different "news teams". These newscasts are co-produced with sister-station WPTA and are essentially the same newscast with different anchors. The newscasts on WISE-TV and WPTA are branded as "Indiana's NewsCenter". When Granite acquired WISE-TV in 2005, the station began airing a weeknight newscast at 7 which was the first and only one in the state of Indiana. On September 11, 2006, the newscast was replaced with an extra episode of "Dr. Phil" due to low ratings.

Starting on July 24, 2006, WISE-TV began airing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast on its second digital subchannel that was an affiliate of NBC Weather Plus. With the addition of "My TV Fort Wayne" on its second digital subchannel and "Fort Wayne's CW" on WPTA's second digital subchannel, the newscast moved over to those stations. It is no longer offered on WISE-TV's Weather Plus channel (which moved to WISE-DT3 with the addition of "My TV Fort Wayne" on WISE-DT2). WPTA rebroadcasts its weekday morning newscast on "My TV Fort Wayne" from 7 to 9 A.M. In addition, there is a rebroadcast of WPTA's weekday Noon news on from 12 to 12:30 P.M.

The two stations co-produce a webcast entitled "Indiana's NewsCenter exPRESS" that is shown online every weekday at 1 P.M. The program is five minutes long and includes news updates from Corinne Rose and weather from weather presenter Chris Daniels. WISE-TV does not air newscasts on the weekdays at Noon, 5, or 6 P.M. On the weekends, WISE-TV airs newscasts simulcasted from WPTA. Also, there are local news and weather updates provided during the weekend editions of "The Today Show".

News team

Anchors
*Jennifer Blomquist - weekday mornings
**monthly specials
*Linda Jackson - weeknights at 5:30, 10 and 11
*Eric Olson - weekends

Meteorologists
*Curtis Smith (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights
*Chris Daniels - weekday mornings
*Jason Meyers - weekends
**fill-in and weather reporter

Sports (all are seen on "The Score")
*Dean Pantazi - Director seen on weeknights at 10 and 11
**co-host of "The Score"
*Tommy Schoegler - weekends
**fill-in and sports reporter
*Kent Hormann - fill-in

Reporters
*Jane Hersha - part time
**fill-in anchor
*Carl Smith - multimedia journalist
*Chris Erick - multimedia journalist
*Jeff Neumeyer
*Corinne Rose

Notable alumni

Most were part of WISE-TV's news team (highlighted in bold) before the station merged with WPTA in March of 2005.

*Susan Alderman - anchor (now Media Director at IPFW)
*Rich Apuzzo - Meteorologist in 1986-87 (now owner/operator/meteorologist at http://www.skyeyeweather.com in Cincinnati, OH)
*Jim Bailey - anchor from 1995 until the late-1990's (now main anchor at WJHL-TV in Johnson City, Tennessee)
*Amy Bradley - former morning co-anchor (now at WBRE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
*Dalia Dangerfield - reporter in the early 2000s (now Bay News 9 in Tampa)
*Dick DeFay - former sports director (died on February 21, 2007)
*Jim Flink - anchor in the early 1990s (now at KMBC-TV in Kansas City)
*Dick Florea - former news director in the 1980s and editor's desk anchor (retired in 2000 after 35 years)
*Eric Franke - former producer/sports anchor (now main news anchor at WISC-TV in Madison, WI)
*Angela Holdsworth - weekend anchor (-2001??), went to KPSP-TV in Palm Springs, CA
*Heather Herron - weekend anchor/producer (??-1995) (now main anchor at competitor WANE)
*Kent Hormann - sports
*Marni Hughes - former weekend anchor (now at KMSP in Minneapolis)
*Betsy Kling - weekend meteorologist (now at WKYC in Cleveland; married to former reporter Paul Thomas)
*Kelly Koh - reporter (Briefly worked at WANE - currently freelancing via Koh Reports)
*Dan Krauth - former anchor, until 2005 (now at WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan)
*Janette Luu - former anchor and reporter from 1998-2003 (now on CKXT-TV (SUN TV) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
*Alexis Means - reporter in the late 1990s (now at WTVG in Toledo, Ohio)
*Zach Myers - morning anchor, from 1998 to 2005 (now reporter at WXIN in Indianapolis)
*Jake Miller - former main anchor, until 2005 (now at WGEM in Quincy, Illinois)
*Tonya Mosley - reporter and anchor, until 2004 (now at KING in Seattle)
*Jim O'Brien - weekend meteorologist (now morning meteorologist at WXIN in Indianapolis)
* Nicole Pence - former reporter (until 8/2008) (now at WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky)
*Kristen Pflum - former reporter (now at WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky)
*Audrey Port - left for WFLD in Chicago and WBBM also in Chicago
*Steve Rappaport - former sports director in 2000 (now at WVIR in Charolettesville, Virginia)
*Susan Samples - reporter (??-1995) (now at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan)
*Sarah Simmons - reporter/fill-in anchor
*Greg Shoup - chief meteorologist, until 2005 (now meteorologist at competitor WANE)
*Roxanna Smith - reporter (now at Carter Communications in San Rafael, CA)
*Robert Tabern - morning news producer (now at WDJT-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
*Paul Thomas - reporter in mid-1990s (now reporter and anchor at WKYC in Cleveland; married to former WISE meteorologist Betsy Kling)
* Jessica Toumani- former reporter (until 8/2008) (now at KABB in San Antonio, Texas)
*John Thornert - weekend meteorologist in early 2000s (now at Fort Wayne International Airport)
*Susan Ware - weekend meteorologist in the mid/late 1990s (now meteorologist at WTVG in Toledo, Ohio)
*Jesse Wells - investigative reporter from 2002-2005 (now at KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

External links

* [http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/ WISE-TV/DT "NBC 33"]
* [http://www.nbc.com/ NBC]
*TVQ|WISE-TV
*BIA|WISE|TV|TV