WGHP

This article is about the television station in High Point, North Carolina. For the radio station in Detroit, Michigan that initially held the WGHP call letters until 1930, see WXYT (AM).

WGHP

High Point/Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Branding	Fox 8 (general) Fox 8 News (newscasts)
Slogan	The News Leader
Channels	Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP)
Subchannels	8.1 Fox 8.2 Antenna TV
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Local TV LLC (Community TV Of North Carolina License, LLC)
First air date	October 14, 1963
Call letters' meaning	Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 8 (1963-2009) Digital: 8 (2009-2010)
Former affiliations	ABC (1963-1995)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	365 m
Facility ID	72106
Transmitter coordinates	35°48′46.5″N 79°50′28.1″W / 35.812917°N 79.841139°W / 35.812917; -79.841139
Website	www.myfox8.com

WGHP, channel 8, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Piedmont Triad) designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, and its transmitter is located in Sophia, North Carolina.

History

As an ABC station

In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission assigned a third TV channel to the Piedmont Triad area. The channel 8 allocation was freed up, by the switch of WBTW-TV in Florence, South Carolina, to channel 13, and was short-spaced to WCHS-TV in Charleston, West Virginia and WXEX-TV (now WRIC-TV) in Petersburg, Virginia. Applicants for the High Point channel 8 allocation included Jefferson Standard Broadcasting, owner of TV stations in Charlotte, North Carolina and Florence, South Carolina. The owner of WTOB-TV (channel 26; channel now occupied by WUNL-TV) in Winston-Salem was also interested.^[1]

WGHP, then owned by Southern Broadcast Company, began operation on October 14, 1963. It was originally the Piedmont Triad's ABC affiliate. The station occasionally decided not to carry network programming; For example, it didn't carry Dark Shadows, a series which featured paranormal themes, during its network run on ABC and broadcast old movies instead.^[2] Likewise, it did not carry The Edge of Night, a soap opera run on ABC from 1975 to 1984. WGHP was subsequently sold to Gulf Broadcasting in 1978.

WGHP was owned by Gulf Broadcasting until 1984, when it was acquired by Taft Broadcasting in a group deal. Taft was restructured into Great American Broadcasting in 1987. Former Taft president Dudley Taft formed a new company that took the Taft Broadcasting name and bought WGHP from Great American. The new Taft held onto channel 8 until 1992, when Great American repurchased the station.

In 1993, Great American Broadcasting filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That year, it restructured and became known as Citicasters. It then put its stations up for sale.

As a Fox station

In the winter of 1993, New World Communications (which acquired stations from SCI in a similar type of business reorganization to the one Citicasters had come out of) agreed to buy WGHP and three other stations owned by Citicasters, ABC affiliate WBRC (channel 6) in Birmingham, NBC affiliate WDAF-TV (channel 4) in Kansas City and CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV (channel 10) in Phoenix. Citicasters would keep WTSP (channel 10) in Tampa Bay and WKRC-TV (channel 12) in Cincinnati — which were both ABC affiliates at the time. Both of those stations would later switch to CBS when Scripps-Howard contracted with ABC to air on Tampa Bay's WFTS (channel 28) and Cincinnati's WCPO (channel 9). However, around the same time New World also agreed to buy Argyle Television Holdings I's four television stations, including NBC affiliate WVTM-TV (channel 13) in Birmingham (the transfer applications of the Argyle stations to New World were not submitted to the FCC until after New World closed on the Citicasters purchase). The two purchases combined, plus New World's existing seven stations, left the company with 15 stations, which were three more than the FCC permitted at the time. The purchases also left New World with an ownership conflict in Birmingham.

Shortly after the Citicasters purchase Fox agreed to affiliate with all the New World stations, except for NBC affiliates KNSD (channel 39) in San Diego and WVTM-TV, as well as independent station WSBK-TV (channel 38) in Boston, which would be sold to the Paramount Stations Group subsidiary of Viacom and become a UPN station. New World consummated on its purchases of WDAF and KSAZ on September 9, 1994. But it was determined due to ownership conflicts and the fact New World would be over their ownership limit, that WGHP and WBRC would be sold to Fox Directly. At the same time Fox was under fire because of the fact Rupert Murdoch was not a US Citizen when buying initial stations back in 1986. Since Fox was not able to immediately acquire these two stations (along with WHBQ-TV Memphis), WGHP was placed in an outside trust the same day as WDAF and KSAZ was transferred to New World and WBRC was put in this trust on October 12 of 1994. But while WDAF switched to Fox and KSAZ became an interim independent station (in preparation for its switch to Fox that December) three days after the deal was consummated, WGHP's affiliation agreement with ABC still had one year remaining. (Likewise, WBRC's ABC affiliation agreement still had two years to go.) These factors also led to New World's decision to sell the two stations to Fox almost immediately.

WGHP logo through the mid-1980s

Fox then took over the operation of the two stations through local marketing agreements in the summer of 1995. On September 3, 1995, WGHP took the Fox affiliation. It carried all Fox programs, including Fox Kids which it showed weekday afternoons from 1-4 p.m., replacing ABC soap operas, as well as on Saturday mornings where a local newscast previously ran. The ABC affiliation went to former Fox affiliate WNRW (channel 45, now WXLV-TV). WGHP added a few more talk/reality shows as well as some off-network sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, Beverly Hillbillies, and others. The weekday newscasts expanded to occupy the Good Morning America timeslot. The evening newscasts remained in place. the 11 p.m. newscast was moved to 10 p.m. and expanded to an hour. On January 17, 1996, Fox completed the purchases of both WGHP and WBRC, with WGHP becoming an official Fox owned-and-operated station; WBRC had to wait another seven and one-half months, until September 1996, to switch from ABC to Fox. The move gave WGHP its fifth owner in a little over a decade. From 1996 to 2008, WGHP was the only Piedmont Triad area station to be owned and operated by any major network.

In February of 1996, Pappas approached WGHP about picking up Fox Kids and moving it to its newly acquired WBFX (channel 20; then a WB affiliate, later WTWB-TV and now CW affiliate WCWG). In between that time Fox executives, upon picking up new affiliates through New World, decided to redo the on-air coverage policy of airing Fox Kids; the station can choose to keep airing it or be granted the right to pass it down to another local counterpart. WGHP decided to let the other station have the programming. This took effect in March of 1996. This would be the first Fox owned-and-operated station to not run the kids block, and only one of two (with WBRC), until New World merged with Fox in 1997. WGHP added more talk and court shows in the afternoon. WTWB dropped Fox's children programming in late 2001 when Fox canceled the weekday block nationwide. In 2002, Fox began a Saturday morning block of cartoons to replace Fox Kids known as Fox Box (later 4Kids TV), but WGHP did not pick that up. As a result, Fox's 4Kids TV did not air in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point until then-UPN affiliate WUPN picked it up some time in 2003. . Fox discontinued children's programming on December 28, 2008 (it is unknown if Fox will resume children's programming in the future). Today, Fox offers a two-hour Saturday morning infomercial block (Weekend Marketplace), but WGHP still declined to pick it up; it currently airs on MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYV.

On September 10, 2007, WGHP debuted a new logo and graphics package similar to what is currently being rolled out to other Fox owned-and-operated stations across the country. The logo is similar to sister stations WJW-TV and WNYW-TV. On December 22, 2007, Fox announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell WGHP and seven other Fox owned-and-operated stations^[3] to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC, which currently owns nine stations acquired from The New York Times Company. The sale was closed on July 14, 2008.

Out-of-market cable and DirecTV coverage

In North Carolina, WGHP is available on Time Warner Cable in Carrboro, Charter Communications and Main Street Broadband in Siler City, and DirecTV in Chatham, Hoke, Lee, and Orange Counties, which are part of the Raleigh DMA. WGHP is also available on Time Warner Cable in Salisbury, SkyBest TV in Sugar Mountain, Ashe County Cable and Morris Broadband in West Jefferson, and Zito Media in Creston, which are part of the Charlotte DMA. The Fox affiliate for that DMA, WCCB, is not available in Creston. WGHP was previously available on cable in Boone as well, but was dropped shortly after switching to Fox.

In Virginia, WGHP is available on DirecTV in Carroll, Grayson, and Henry Counties, and in the Independent Cities of Danville and Martinsville, which are part of the Roanoke DMA.

CATV

During the 1970s and 1980s, WGHP was carried in areas much further south and east of High Point. It was once carried in Wadesboro, Albemarle, Rockingham, Laurinburg, Raeford, Rowland and Lumberton in North Carolina. In South Carolina, it was carried in Cheraw and Bennettsville.^[4]

Digital television

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
8.1	720p	16:9	Main WGHP programming / FOX
8.2	480i		Antenna TV "TV 8.2"

WGHP TV8.2 is a charter affiliate of Tribune Broadcasting's new digital multicast channel Antenna TV, which is carried on digital subchannel 8.2.^[5][6] The network, airing classic sitcoms from the 1950s to the 1980s during the afternoon and evening, and movies during the morning and late night hours, is carried on most LocalTV-owned stations in other markets as well as stations owned by the network's parent company Tribune Broadcasting. WGHP TV8.2 uses the branding "TV8.2" which is a throwback to longtime "TV8" branding of WGHP in the late 70's and early 80's.

The 8.2 subchannel is also carried over channel 126 on the Time Warner Cable digital tier, channel 175 over Charter Communications in North Wilkesboro and channel 510 on Windstream-Lexington. WGHP TV8.2 uses a modified logo of the station's previous logo used from the late 70s to early 80s.

Analog-to-digital transition

Until June 12, 2009, the station broadcast its analog signal on VHF channel 8 and its digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its analog assignment of channel 8 as its virtual digital channel via PSIP. The station is carried on cable channel 10 in most parts of the market. By law, WGHP ceased broadcasting on analog channel 8 and digital on channel 35 at approximately 11:05 PM on June 12, 2009 and began digital only broadcasting on channel 8. The signal was broadcast at full power from an auxiliary tower until the analog transmitter on the main tower could be converted two weeks after the transition.^[7]

Due to the number of complaints from those unable to pick up the signal on channel 8, WGHP received temporary authorization to return to broadcasting on channel 35 on the afternoon of Friday August 19, 2009. While technical issues with the channel 8 signal were being worked out, WGHP transmitted digitally on both 8 and 35 from August 19 , 2009 until the channel 8 transmitter shutdown on March 8, 2010. On October 14, WGHP requested the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) change its channel from 8 to 35.^[8] After the station lost "a sizeable number" of its viewers, the FCC agreed with WGHP's assessment that it would be "best served" by staying on channel 35.^[9] On December 15, 2009, the FCC issued a Report & Order, approving WGHP's move from channel 8 to channel 35.^[10] At 11:02 a.m.^[11] on March 8, 2010, WGHP terminated operations on channel 8, operating solely on channel 35 on a permanent basis.^[12]

Programming

WGHP clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly primetime, Saturday late night, and Fox Sports programming, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday; except for Fox's Saturday morning infomerical block, Weekend Marketplace, which airs on WMYV). WGHP, like most Fox stations, airs a mix of talk/court/reality shows in the daytime and sitcoms in the late evening. WGHP is one of numerous Fox stations that carry Divorce Court, Judge Alex, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy (which airs before the 5 p.m. newscast) and Seinfeld (which airs in late night). The station also airs Access Hollywood and TMZ on TV weeknights after the 6 p.m. newscast, and airs weekend telecasts of House, Monk, Grey's Anatomy and Bones.

The station currently carries the minimum amount of educational and informational children's programming, as the stations airs a three-hour block of syndicated children's shows consisting of Pets.TV, Dog Tales, Animal Rescue, Animal Atlas, Wild About Animals, Jack Hanna's Into the Wild, along with reruns of Saved by the Bell on Saturday mornings.

News operation

WGHP broadcasts a total of 44 hours of local news a week (eight hours on weekdays, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), more than any other television station in the state of North Carolina. Local news has been a stable product on WGHP since it went on the air in 1963. During the 1960s and 1970s, advertisements showed local newscasts airing variously sometimes at noon, 6 and 11 p.m., and sometimes at 7 p.m. During the late 1980s and early 1990s WGHP sporadically maintained a full 24-hour broadcast schedule so early morning hours 11 p.m. newscast rebroadcasts were only scheduled when ABC network programming extended long enough to warrant the scheduling of the rebroadcast; in 1994, the station began programming 24 hours a day.

During the 1980s, various local long-form morning news programming was carried, eventually settling in to 5-minute updates during ABC's Good Morning America with a noon newscast (dropped in the late 1980s). In the early 1990s, the morning newscast began as an hour-long 6 a.m. newscast, along with a 5 p.m. newscast that expanded to a full hour in 1994. In the last years as an ABC affiliate, ABC's Nightline was delayed by 30 minutes for more profitable syndicated programming, mostly M*A*S*H. At the time of the sale to Fox in 1995, WGHP aired three hours of news daily with the traditional 11 p.m. newscast moving to 10 p.m. and expanding to a full hour, with the daily news output overall expanding to 4½ hours daily immediately after the sale and that time has continuously expanded ever since to the current 8 hours daily with a five-hour morning newscast, a half-hour noon newscast, a 90-minute block of news from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and the primetime 10 p.m. newscast.

From the time that WGHP affiliated with Fox in 1995 and then became a Fox owned-and-operated station in 1996, the station has put more emphasis on its local newscasts; news was expanded to 3½ (later four) hours on weekday mornings, plus the addition of a 5:30 p.m. newscast. WGHP is of only two ex-New World station that Fox did not relaunch a 11 p.m. newscast on its schedule before the completion of the Local TV purchase, as Fox did with some of its other O&O stations (Cleveland's WJW (channel 8) is the other).

WGHP is one of only two ex-New World stations and former Fox O&Os (along with WJW-TV 8 in Cleveland) sold to Local TV without a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (former sister station WBRC in Birmingham—now owned by Raycom Media—along with WDAF in Kansas City and WITI in Milwaukee already had 10 p.m. newscasts along with its 9 p.m. newscast long before the Local TV purchase and KTVI in St. Louis added a 10 p.m. newscast after its 9 p.m. newscast in 2008, just before the sale closed). Other than WJW and WGHP, KTBC in Austin (which remains an Fox O&O) is the only other ex-New World station without a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot.

On September 13, 2009 starting with the 10 p.m. newscast, WGHP became the first station in the Piedmont Triad in true 16:9 widescreen format (not HD), not only in the studio but local remote live reports also. As of early 2010, WGHP would be joined by the other two major news stations—WFMY-TV and WXII-TV—in broadcasting local newscasts in upconverted widescreen SDTV (at least from the studio). On September 12, 2010 starting with the 10 p.m. newscast^[13], WGHP began broadcasting its local newscasts in 720p high definition, making WGHP the first station in the Piedmont Triad to broadcast its local news programming in high definition.^[14] It remained the only station in the Piedmont Triad with high-definition local newscasts for over a year until November 13, 2011 when WFMY-TV upgraded its newscasts from enhanced definition widescreen to full high definition.

On September 12, 2011, WGHP expanded its morning newscast by an hour, adding former employee Nicole Ferguson, and Kerry Charles and Katie Nordeen. It now runs from 5 A.M. to 10 A.M.^[15]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• WGHP-TV News (1963–1964)
• Channel 8 News (1964-1967)
• City Camera News (1967–1970)
• Television 8 News (1970-June 16, 1974)
• TV-8 Eyewitness News (June 17, 1974–1986)
• The Piedmont News (1986–1990)
• The Piedmont NewsChannel (1990–1994)
• NewsChannel 8 (1994-September 13, 1995)
• FOX8 News (September 14, 1995–present)

Station slogans

• Channel 8 & 8WGHP-TV(1963–1967)
• Channel ei₈ht (1967–1976; the name "ei₈ht" has also been used by KOMU, WJW, KAIT, and a few others)
• We're Still Having Fun, TV-8's The One (1977–1978; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• We're The One You Can Turn To, TV-8 (1978–1979; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• You and Me and TV-8 (1980–1981; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• Now Is The Time, TV-8 is The Place (1981–1982; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• Come on Along with TV-8 (1982–1983; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• That Special Feeling on TV-8 (1983–1984; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• The Piedmont's Favorite News Team (1984–1988)
• You'll Love It on TV-8 (1985–1986; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• Together on TV-8 (1986–1987; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• Something's Happening on Channel 8 (1987–1990; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
• WGHPiedmont (1987–1990; used with a triangle 8 logo also used by KSBW)
• Piedmont Triad's Watching WGHP (1990–1992; localized version of "America's Watching ABC" ad campaign)
• The Piedmont NewsChannel (1990–2005)
• If It's The Piedmont Triad, It Must Be Channel 8 (1992–1993; localized version of "It Must Be ABC" ad campaign)
• The News Leader (2005–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

On-air staff

Current on-air staff (as of Sept 2011)^[16]

Anchors

• Cindy Farmer - weekday mornings Fox 8 Morning News and noon
• Brad Jones - weekday mornings Fox 8 Morning News and noon
• Katie Nordeen - weekday mornings Fox 8 Morning News
• Kerry Charles - weekday mornings Fox 8 Morning News
• Julie Luck - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Neill McNeill - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Melissa Painter - weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.; also consumer reporter

Weather team

• Van Denton (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Emily Byrd - meteorologist; weekday mornings FOX8 Morning News and noon
• Charles Ewing (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.

Sports team

• Kevin Connolly - sports anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Danny Harnden - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.; also sports reporter

Reporters

• Roy Ackland - "Roy's Folks" feature reporter
• Tom Britt - weekday morning traffic reporter; also fill-in weather anchor
• Bob Buckley - general assignment reporter
• Brent Campbell - Winston-Salem bureau chief
• Brandon Jones - general assignment reporter
• Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington, D.C. correspondent
• Kristin Nelson - general assignment reporter
• Shannon Smith - weekday morning reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Sheeka Strickland - general assignment reporter
• Chad Tucker - general assignment reporter
• Lindsey Eaton - general assignment reporter

Former on-air staff

• Carol Andrews - anchor (1990-2002)
• Dr. Paul Bearer (Dick Bennick) - host of Shock Theatre (mid-to-late 1960s; deceased)
• Fred Blackman - anchor (1969-2001; retired)
• Rich Brenner - sports (1987-2008; retired)
• Sharon Crews - news and weather anchor (1977-1980)
• Frank Deal - meteorologist (1969-1996; deceased)
• Charlie Harville - sports (1963-1977; deceased)
• Jeff Varner - weekend evening anchor (former evening anchor with WWMT in Kalamazoo, Michigan)

References

1. ^ Jack Scism, "Remember When?" Greensboro News & Record, July 27, 2008.
2. ^ "Program listings". North Carolina edition of TV Guide. February 1971. 
3. ^ News Corporation
4. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/coals7/forms/search/cableSearchNf.cfm
5. ^ http://antennatv.tv/shows/antenna/affiliates/
6. ^ http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-tv82-101223,0,6060918.story
7. ^ "Having Problems Picking Up WGHP's Signal?". MyFox8.com. 2009-06-18. http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-story-dtv-problems-090615,0,7957442.story. Retrieved 2009-06-18. 
8. ^ "FCC Document". http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=7020142471. 
9. ^ Eggerton, John (2009-10-29). "FCC Allowing WGHP To Move Signal To Pre-DTV Transition Channel". Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/366814-FCC_Allowing_WGHP_To_Move_Signal_To_Pre_DTV_Transition_Channel.php?rssid=20065&q=digital+tv. Retrieved 2009-10-30. 
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=18271017&postcount=8203
12. ^ Clodfelter, Tim (2010-03-07). "Watch WGHP with an antenna? You may need to rescan". Winston-Salem Journal. http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/mar/07/watch-wghp-with-an-antenna-you-may-need-to-rescan/. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
13. ^ http://www.myfox8.com/about/wghp-story-fox8-high-def-100910,0,5826883.story
14. ^ Wirter, Staff (2011-09-08). "WGHP First To Broadcast Local News In High Definition". WGHP Webpage. http://www.myfox8.com/about/wghp-story-fox8-high-def-100910,0,5826883.story. Retrieved 2011-09-08. 
15. ^ Clotfelter, Tim (2010-09-10). "WGHP/FOX8 to expand morning news show". Winston-Salem Journal. http://http://http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/sep/07/wghpfox8-to-expand-morning-news-show-ar-1366554/. Retrieved 2010-09-10. 
16. ^ http://www.myfox8.com/about/station/newsteam/

External links

• WGHP website
• History of WGHP
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGHP
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WGHP-TV