WLOS

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WLOS
city = Asheville, North Carolina
station_
station_slogan = Western North Carolina's
News Leader
station_branding = ABC 13
News 13
analog = 13 (VHF)
digital = 56 (UHF)
other_chs = W12AU 12 Burnsville, NC
affiliations = ABC
MNTV (on DT2)
network =
founded =
airdate = September 18, 1954
location = Asheville, North Carolina -
Greenville / Spartanburg /
Anderson, South Carolina
callsign_meaning = Wonderful Land Of Sky
former_callsigns = WLOS-TV (1954-1984)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Sinclair Broadcast Group
licensee = WLOS Licensee, LLC
sister_stations = WMYA-TV
former_affiliations =
effective_radiated_power = 178 kW (analog)
1,000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 853 m (analog)
834.7 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 56537
coordinates = coord|35|25|33.2|N|82|45|23.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wlos.com/ wlos.com]

WLOS, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for western North and South Carolina that is licensed to Asheville, North Carolina. Its transmitter is located on Mount Pisgah. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA-TV. The two stations share studios on Technology Drive in Asheville near I-26. Sydicated programming on WLOS includes: "Wheel of Fortune", "Jeopardy!", "Maury", and "Martha Stewart". The station offers a simulcast of WMYA on its second digital subchannel. It operates a repeater, W12AU on channel 12, that is licensed to Burnsville, North Carolina with a transmitter located north of the town on Phillips Knob.

History

The station began broadcasting on September 18, 1954. It was owned by the Skyway Broadcasting Company along with WLOS radio (1380 AM, now WKJV). It has always been an ABC affiliate, and is the second-longest tenured primary ABC affiliate south of Washington, D.C. (behind Lynchburg's WSET-TV, ironically also on channel 13).

Shortly after channel 13 signed on, most of western North Carolina, including Asheville, was collapsed into the Greenville / Spartanburg market. This was due to the station's wide coverage area in South Carolina. WLOS boasted, then as now, the highest transmitter location east of the Mississippi River, giving it one of the largest coverage areas in the nation. In addition to its primary coverage area of the western Carolinas, the station also had significant viewership in the Charlotte area, especially the western portion. It appeared in the Charlotte television listings for many years, and advertised its programs in Charlotte-area newspapers well into the 1970s. It is still available on many cable systems in the western portion of the Charlotte market. WLOS also enjoyed secondary coverage in portions of Tennessee and Virginia (including Knoxville and the Tri-Cities). It could also be seen in portions of Georgia and Kentucky under the right conditions. Before the mid to late-1960s, no other ABC affiliate put a clear signal into much of this area. WLOS' only ABC competition came from WAIM-TV in Anderson which also carried a few CBS programs. Unfortunately, the channel 40 signal covered only the immediate Anderson area. Channel 13 pressured ABC to drop its programming from channel 40 from the 1960s onward, finally succeeding in 1979.

Wometco Enterprises bought WLOS in the 1960s and owned it until 1984 when the company was sold to the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). The station was later sold to Anchor Media which in turn was later sold to River City Broadcasting. That company merged with the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. Channel 40 in Anderson, now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA, is also now operated and effectively owned by Sinclair. On January 5, 2007, Mediacom dropped all Sinclair stations (including WLOS) from its systems because of a dispute over compensation. [http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=45a406de0d166546&ei=JXGkRaTANZHwowLInbm7DA&url=http%3A//www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D200770106002&cid=1112411522 Asheville Citizen Times] Mediacom is the cable provider for much of western North Carolina (though not Asheville itself), leaving much of WLOS' viewing area without ABC until the dispute was resolved a month later. Additionally, Charter briefly dropped WLOS-DT because of compensation disputes. [ [http://www.sinclairwatch.net/ Sinclair Media Watch ] ] .WLOS broadcasts its digital signal at 834.7 kW on UHF channel 56. This channel is currently on a band of UHF (channels 52 to 69) which will be no longer in use after the February 17, 2009 cutoff date for analog broadcasting. Therefore, it seems likely that WLOS will remain on channel 13 after the final conversion to all-digital broadcasting.

Programming

Despite being an ABC affiliate, WLOS has pre-empted a fair amount of network programming over the years. The station has been the home of popular syndicated game shows "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" since 1985. Prior to that, WYFF aired both programs. The station also produced a local children's show called "Mr. Bill and Bumbo" starring now retired weathermen Bill Norwood and Bob Caldwell (who celebrated his 40th anniversary on the air at WLOS in June of 2006). WLOS began broadcasting 24 hours a day / 7 days a week in late-2005 / early-2006, having previously signed off on early Saturday mornings from 5 to 6 A.M. after the late movie. It may still put up color bars for a few minutes if the movie ends early but otherwise airs paid programming.

WLOS also signed off every weeknight until 1992 with the introduction of ABC News overnight "World News Now". Later on, the station signed off late Friday night / early Saturday morning and late Saturday night / early Sunday morning until the early-2000s. According to a particular sign-off clip from 1988, the sign offs back then included the national anthem played by the Madison County High School Band while the color bars afterwards said "Good Morning, 13 WLOS-TV, Asheville, NC". After that, the sign-offs included Sandi Patty's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a video of different people saluting the flag followed by shots of newspaper presses and people voting with ballots. These years used a color version of the Indian-head test pattern and in the center said "13 WLOS Asheville-Greenville-Spartanburg". Non-network programming that has aired on WLOS includes:

*"The Edge of Night"
*"Fudge"
*"One Life to Live" (early years, replaced with reruns of "The Flintstones")
*"Ryan's Hope" (during the later years of the show)
*"ABC Evening News" (around the late-1960s to early-1970s, replaced with "I Love Lucy" reruns)
*"All American Girl"
*"Thunder Alley"
*"Mike and Maty" (replaced by "The Jerry Springer Show")
*"Full House" (some episodes)
*"America's Funniest Home Videos" (some episodes)
*"Dinosaurs" (some episodes)
*"The Critic" (some episodes, replaced with syndicated reruns of "Murphy Brown" or local programs)
*the first season of "The Drew Carey Show" (replaced with reruns of "Murphy Brown")
*first three seasons of "The View" (replaced with syndicated talk show "Jerry Springer")
*a 2004 airing of "Nightline" which paid tribute to the soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq (pre-empted on orders from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, seen instead on WHNS)
*a 2004 airing of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" (also pre-empted on orders from the Sinclair Broadcast Group)

News operation

WLOS is one of only a few stations owned by Sinclair that airs a nightly newscast. Most of the others were abandoned in 2005 when the company shut down "News Central". In addition to their main studios in Asheville, the station operates three news bureaus. One is located on Verdae Boulevard in Greenville, South Carolina. There are also two bureaus in North Carolina located in Rutherford and Haywood Counties. On weeknights, WLOS produces two half-hour newscasts on WMYA at 6:30 and 10 P.M. At the 2008 Southeast Regional Emmy Awards on June 21, WLOS received seven awards. As of September 17, the WLOS and WMYA newscasts are broadcasted in high definition. They were the second pair of stations in the market to do so after CBS affiliate WSPA-TV and CW affiliate WYCW.

Newscast history

WLOS's newscasts have been known by the following names. WLOS used the slogan "Count on 13" from 1988 to 1993 and from 1984 to 1988 the "Turn to 13 Together" slogan along with Frank Gari's "Turn To News" theme.

*"Your Esso Reporter" (1953-1957)
*"The Night Report" (1957-late 1960s)
*"NewsScope" (late 1960s-1970s)
*"Your World Today / Tonight" (1970s)
*"The Carolina's Today / News 75 (or 76)" (1975-1976)
*"Dateline 13 News" (1970s-1980s)
*"News 13" (1980s-current)

News team

"Anchors"
* Larry Blunt - Anchor, "News13 at 6" and "11"
* Russ Bowen - Anchor, "News 13 at 10 on My40" / Reporter
* Victoria Dunkle - Morning/Noon anchor
* Frank Fraboni - Anchor, "News 13 at 5", "5:30", and "6:30" / Reporter
* Darcel Grimes - Anchor, "News13 at 6" and "11"
* Holly Headrick - Ancor, "News13 at 10 on My40" / Reporter
* Leigh Ann Long - Weekend Anchor/Reporter
* Jay Siltzer - Morning Anchor/Health Reporter/Fill-in meteorologist
* Tammy Watford - Anchor, "News13 at 5", "5:30", and "6:30" / "Never Stop Learning" segment producer

"News 13 Sky Watch Meteorologists"
* Mike Cuevas (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist
* Julie Wunder (AMS Seal of Approval) - Weekday Mornings and Noon / Weather Reporter
* Karen Wynne (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Weekend Meteorologist/environmental reporter

"Sports"
* Stan Pamfilis - Sports Director seen on weeknights 6, 6:30, 10, and 11
* Edward McDonald - Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
* Adam Kohler - Sports Reporter

"Reporters"
* Sherrill Barber - General Assignment Reporter
* Courtney Brennan - General Assignment Reporter
* Craig Demchak - Washington D.C. correspondent
* Terrie Foster - General Assignment Reporter/Fill-in anchor
* Heather Graf - General Assignment Reporter
* Charu Kumarhia - General Assignment Reporter
* John Le - General Assignment Reporter
* Meghan McCorkell - Washington D.C. correspondent
* Morris Jones - Washington D.C. correspondent
* George Sheldon - Traffic Reporter
* Kassandra Pride - General Assignment Reporter
* Courtney Ward - General Assignment Reporter

Past personalities

*Mike Bettes, Chief Meteorologist (now at The Weather Channel)
*Brenda Burch, AM Anchor
*Ken Bostic, Evening Weather Anchor
*Michelle Boudin, Reporter (2001-2006) (now at WCNC-TV in Charlotte, NC)
*Jason Boyer, Weekend Meteorologist (now at KWGN-TV in Denver, CO)
*Jeremy Butterfield, Reporter
*Bob Caldwell, Meteorologist (1966-2007) (now retired)
*Bob Child, Meteorologist (now at News 14 Carolina)
*Heather Childers, Weekend Anchor (now at News 14 Carolina)
*Karen Coulon, left in 1991 after being indicted on arson charges (later acquitted). [http://www.mountainx.com/news/2000/0517motive.php Mountain Xpress: Trial by Fire - March 17, 2000.]
*Amy Davis, Reporter (now at KPRC-TV in Houston, TX)
*Jenny Dunn, Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter (most recently at WFTV in Orlando, FL)
*Monty DuPuy, Meteorologist (came from rival WFBC-TV in the late 1970s, now retired from television)
*Donna Foreman, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
*Jon Greiner, Anchor/Reporter (now at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, PA}
*Hoyt Harris, Co-Anchor (now Anchor at KATC-TV in Lafayette, LA)
*Larry Hawley, Sports Anchor/Reporter
*Charlie Hicks, Sports Anchor/Reporter (1967-68)
*Suzanne Hudson, Anchor/Reporter
*Mike Hydeck, Anchor/Reporter (now with WFSB-TV in Hartford, CT)
*Sherrie Johnson, Reporter (now with WMAR-TV in Baltimore, MD)
*Frank Kracher, Anchor (now at WTVH-TV in Syracuse, NY)
*Candice Little, Weekend Anchor/Reporter (most recently at WCCB in Charlotte, NC)
*Bill Norwood, Metorologist/Host (now retired)
*Mimi Paige, Morning Anchor (deceased - killed in automobile collision while on her way to host the morning news show)
*Mark Pompilio, Anchor (now at WKEF-TV in Dayton, OH)
*Deborah Potter, Anchor/Reporter (most recently served as press secretary to former U.S. Congressman Charles H. Taylor)
*Carolyn Ryan, News Repoter/fill-in anchor
*Pat Simon, Anchor/Reporter (now at KSLA 12 in Shreveport, LA)
*Gary Stephenson, Chief Meteorologist/Weekend Meteorologist (now at News 14 Carolina)
*Scott Wickersham, Anchor/Reporter (now at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, NC)

Logos

References

External links

* [http://www.wlos.com/ WLOS "ABC 13"]
* [http://www.my40.tv WMYA-TV/DT "My 40"]
*TVQ|WLOS
*TVQ|W12AU