WTVD

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WTVD
station_
station_slogan = Breaking News. Breaking Stories.
station_branding = "ABC 11" (general)
"ABC 11 Eyewitness News" (newscasts)
analog = 11 (VHF)
digital = 52 (UHF)
subchannels = 11.1: WTVD HD
11.2: First Alert Doppler and Eyewitness News Update
11.2: AccuWeather/Eyewitness News NOW
affiliations = ABC (secondary, 1954-1962; sole affiliate 1985-present)
AccuWeather on 11.3
founded =
airdate = September 2, 1954
location = Durham - Raleigh - Fayetteville
North Carolina
callsign_meaning = TV Durham
owner = Disney/ABC
licensee = WTVD Television, LLC
former_affiliations = NBC (primary 1954-1956; secondary 1962-1971)
CBS (1956-1985)
effective_radiated_power = 312 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 615 m (analog)
599 m (digital)
facility_id = 8617
coordinates = coord|35|40|6.1|N|78|31|58.1|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.abc11.com/ www.abc11.com]

WTVD, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated station of the Walt Disney Company-owned ABC television network, licensed to Durham, North Carolina. The station serves the areas of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Fayetteville, known as the Triangle. WTVD's main studios, offices and newsroom are located in downtown Durham, along with additional studio facilities in both Raleigh and Fayetteville. The station's transmitter is located near Auburn, North Carolina.

History

In 1952, two rival companies each applied for a license to build a television station in Durham on the city's newly allotted VHF channel 11 - Herald-Sun Newspapers (publishers of the Durham Morning Herald and the Durham Sun as well as the owners of radio station WDNC) and Floyd Fletcher and Harmon Duncan, the then-owners of WTIK radio. In December 1953, the two sides agreed to join forces and operate the station under the joint banner Durham Broadcasting Enterprises. Eight months later, on September 2, 1954, WTVD began broadcasting with a black-and-white film of the Star Spangled Banner. It was originally a primary NBC affiliate, with a secondary ABC affiliation.

Their initial studios were located in a former tuberculosis sanitorium at 2410 Broad Street, with a transmitter located atop Signal Hill in northern Durham County. Channel 11 is the Triangle's oldest surviving television station, having signed on a few months after CBS affiliate WNAO-TV (channel 28). On May 22, 1957, Durham Broadcasting Enterprises merged with Albany, New York-based Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, owners of WCDA-TV (now WTEN) to form Capital Cities Television Corporation (predcessor of Capital Cities Communications). Around 1958, WTVD built a convert|1500|ft|m|sing=on tower at its present transmitter site in Garner to better serve the market. That same year, the station first began broadcasting in color, although it would be until 1966 before the same was true for local programming.

WRAL-TV (channel 5) signed on in 1956 and took over as the Triangle's NBC affiliate. CBS then dropped its affiliation with underperforming WNAO-TV and gave it to WTVD. When WNAO-TV signed off in 1959 due to financial difficulties, channel 11 began sharing ABC programming with WRAL-TV. After WRAL took the ABC affiliation full-time in 1962, WTVD was forced to shoehorn CBS and NBC onto its schedule. This was a very unusual arrangement for what was then a two-station market. NBC would not return to the Triangle full-time for another six years until 1968, when channel 28 returned to the airwaves as WRDU-TV (now WRDC); however, WTVD "cherry-picked" the most popular CBS and NBC programs, leaving WRDU with the lower-rated shows from both networks, until 1971. At that time the FCC ordered WTVD to select one network, and channel 11 decided to go with CBS full time, allowing WRDU to become an exclusive NBC station.

In 1978, WTVD attempted to expand its broadcast coverage to the Fayetteville area, which had been without a television station of its own for nearly two decades. Its studios were relocated to their current location on Liberty Street in downtown Durham on a parcel of land it shares with the Durham County Library; it also built its current convert|2000|ft|m|sing=on tower in Garner. A fire on March 4, 1979 caused extensive damage to the newly-built studio building, however the newsroom and a number of other key components had been rebuilt within a month. By that time, much of WTVD's operations had returned to normal, although it had resorted to temporary setups during the interim such as holding the newscasts in one of the meeting rooms that survived the aforementioned crisis unscathed.

On March 18, 1985, WTVD's owner, Capital Cities, announced it was purchasing ABC. Five months later, on August 4, 1985, WTVD swapped affiliations with WRAL-TV and became an ABC affiliate. At that time, WTVD and WRAL-TV joined the small list of stations that have held primary affiliations with all of the "Big Three" networks. The transaction was finalized on January 3, 1986, making WTVD an ABC-owned station, the first network-owned station in North Carolina. In 1996, the Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC.

On the night of December 6, 1991, a helicopter carrying a pilot and three WTVD employees from a high school football game in Wilmington, North Carolina crashed, killing three of the four members on board. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D71231F93BA35751C1A967958260|title=Three Die When Helicopter Crashes in North Carolina|publisher=NYTimes.com|date=1991-12-08|accessdate=2007-07-28] Sports reporter Tony Debo was the only survivor. [cite web|url=http://www.newsobserver.com/321/v-print/story/257497.html|title=A Visit to Honor Friends|publisher=newsobserver.com|date=2001-12-11|accessdate=2007-07-28] As of July 2007, Debo is the senior sports anchor at the station.

On April 30, 2000, a dispute between Disney and Time Warner Cable forced WTVD off cable systems within the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville market for over 24 hours during the May sweeps period. Other ABC stations in markets served by Time Warner Cable, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston, were also affected by the outage as well before the FCC forced TWC to restore service to those areas on May 2. [http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2000/da000987.pdf ]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

In 2009, WTVD will remain on channel 11 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf]

News operations

For most of the time since the 1970s, WTVD has been a distant, though solid, runner-up to WRAL-TV. However, it has made recent gains against WRAL-TV, particularly during the weekend mornings, where WTVD has claimed the number one position for the time period.

Principal anchor Larry Stogner has been with the station since 1976 and a weekday anchor continuously since 1982. His longtime co-anchor for much of the 1990s, Miriam Thomas, abruptly left WTVD after 19 years in November 2001.

From 1972 until 1985, WTVD used the "Eyewitness News" name for its newscasts though its format was very similar to the "Action News" format pioneered by sister station WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. The arrangement was similar to then-sister station WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, and the two stations had identical opening sequences and theme songs. WRAL-TV was using the "Action News" name during that time period. It was known simply as "WTVD 11 News" for a time after the affiliation switch. The station called itself "NewsChannel 11" from 1993 until 2000, when it changed back over to "Eyewitness News". It also subscribes to AccuWeather for the weather portion of the broadcast.

On June 26, 2006, WTVD debuted a new 10:00 p.m. newscast for WLFL-TV (channel 22), entitled "Eyewitness News at Ten on WB 22" after WLFL's owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, ended the controversial "News Central" format on its stations. This newscast runs directly against the WRAL-produced newscast on WRAZ (channel 50). No plans have been announced for a morning newscast.

On September 17, 2006, concurrent with WLFL's official affiliation switch, the newscast changed its name to "Eyewitness News at Ten on CW 22".

On April 21, 2008, WTVD became the third television station in the Triangle, behind WRAL-TV & WRAZ and the eighth ABC-owned station to produce its newscasts in High Definition.

Notable former members of WTVD's news staff include musicians John Tesh and John D. Loudermilk, ESPN personality Stuart Scott, as well as former "Good Morning America" co-host David Hartman.

Personalities

News

*Gilbert Baez - Fayetteville Bureau Reporter
*Greg Barnes - Fayetteville Bureau Reporter
*John Clark - Anchor (5 AM and Noon)
*Shae Crisson - Anchor/Reporter (Weekend News at 6, 10, and 11)
*Ed Crump - Reporter
*Rebecca Hall - Reporter/Fill-In Anchor
*Sabrina Zimring - Reporter
*Steve Daniels - Anchor (5:30, 10 and 11)
*Barbara Gibbs - Anchor (5 AM and Noon)
*Tamara Gibbs - Reporter
*Angela Hampton - Anchor (6 and 11)
*Tim Nelson - Traffic Reporter
*Tisha Powell - Anchor (5, 5:30 and 10)
*Sheyenne Rodriguez - Reporter
*Amber Rupinta - Anchor/Reporter/Health Reporter (Weekend News This Morning)
*Fred Shropshire- Anchor/Reporter (Weekend News at 6, 10, 11)
*Larry Stogner - Anchor (5 and 6)
*Ken Ward - Reporter
*Gerrick Brenner - Reporter
*Anthony Wilson - Anchor/Reporter
*Diane Wilson - "Troubleshooter" Reporter
*Amanda Fitzpatrick - Reporter

AccuWeather Storm Team

*Chris Hohmann - Chief Meteorologist (5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM, 10 PM, 11 PM)
*Glenn Willey - Meteorologist (Good Morning Carolina, Eyewitness News at Noon)
*Steve Stewart - Meteorologist (Weekend Morning News)
*Scott Dean - Meteorologist (Weekend Evening News)

ports

*Mark Armstrong - Sports Director/Anchor (6, 10, and 11)
*Tony Debo - Sports Reporter
*Joe Mazur - Sports Anchor/Reporter (Weekend News at 6, 10, and 11)

Past

*Betty Davis - weekend meteorologist (2000s), now at The Weather Channel
*Dan Ashley - anchor (1993-1995), now at KGO in San Francisco, CA
*Fred Blackman - anchor (1960s), later worked for WGHP
*Kate Bolduan - reporter (now at CNN in Washington, D.C.)
*Jason Brewer- meteorologist (2002-2006 later moved to KPRC-TV in Houston, TX now at WESH in Orlando, FL)
*Dave Boliek - reporter (1981-1997)- in private business; daughter is an assignment editor at WRAL-TV
*Mike Caplan - weather anchor (1988-1993, now at WLS-TV in Chicago)
*Clare Casademont - anchor/reporter (1985-1989)
*Kim Deaner - meteorologist (now at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C.)
*Mike Dunston - anchor/reporter (now anchor at WOFL-TV in Orlando, FL)
*Pati Darak - meteorologist (1999-2002)(now at News 14 Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.)
*Joanne Feldman - chief meteorologist (2002-2007, now at WAGA-TV in Atlanta)
*Steve Forgy - Sports (1998-2000) traffic reporter (2001-2007) Now in San Francisco, CA)
*Ervin Hester - anchor/reporter/host of "Reel Perspectives" and "Prime Time Sunday" (1971-1996)- owner of The Shoe Doctor in Durham
*Denise James - reporter/host of "Reflections" (1985-1987, now at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia)
*C.S. Keys - sports reporter (late 1980s)
*George Mallet - anchor/reporter (1987-1997, now at WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee)
*Gary McGrady - meteorologist (1999-2002, now at WTTG in Washington, D.C.)
*Katina Rankin- anchor/reporter (2003-2006, now owns a PR firm in North Carolina)
*Bill Reh - meteorologist (1983-1997, now at WNCN)
*Frances Scott - anchor/reporter (1999-2005, now at WSET in Lynchburg, VA)
**In 2006, she was featured on TV commercials for the CrossRoads Ford dealership located in Cary [http://www.newsobserver.com/707/story/464710.html] )
*Monica Shuman - anchor/reporter (1989-1997)
*Drew Smith - sports anchor (1991-2005)
*Miriam Thomas - anchor/host of "Reflections" (1982-2001)
*Keith Whitney - reporter (1983-1993, now at WXIA-TV in Atlanta)
*Steve Leeolou - anchor/reporter (1979-1982)
*Beverly Burke - anchor/reporter (late 1970s and early 80s, now on XM radio)
*Don Shea - sportscaster (1970s and 80s)
*Skip Carpenter - weathercaster (into the 1980s)
*Cheryl Toney - weathercaster (late 1970s)
*Dan Williams - troubleshooter reporter (late 1970s and early 80s)
*Stan Saunders - sports anchor/reporter (late 1970s and early 80s)
*Don Ross - reporter (1980-2006)
*Jim Sughrue - reporter (1979-1985) now PIO for Raleigh Police Department
*Carol Cookerly - reporter (1980-?, now runs Cookerly Public Relations in Atlanta
*Shauna Singletary - reporter (late 1970s)
*Matt Sinclair - reporter (late 1970s)
*Katherine Walters - reporter (late 1970s-late 80s)
*Kathleen DeLaski - reporter (early 1980s, later Deputy Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs)
*Bob Hughes - anchor (late 1970s)
*Deborah Long - reporter (late 1970s-early 80s)
*Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder - special sports correspondent (late 1970s-early 80s, deceased)
*Peggy Mann - midday show host (1954-1978, deceased)
*Russ Riesinger - anchor/reporter (1991-1995)

External links

* [http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/ WTVD website]
* [http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=stationinfo&id=3948073 WTVD Video Vault]
*TVQ|WTVD

References