WCHS-TV

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WCHS-TV
Charleston-Huntington, West Virginia
Branding	WCHS TV8
Slogan	Eyewitness News 8 is On Your Side!
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 41 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC (1958-62 and since 1986) The Tube (2006-present) (Secondary digital subchannel)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	1954
Call letters meaning	CHarleSton
Former affiliations	CBS (1954-58, 1962-86)
Transmitter Power	49.6 kW
Website	www.wchstv.com

WCHS-TV is the ABC affiliate for Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia, the second-largest market (in terms of area) east of the Mississippi River. It is licensed to Charleston and serves 61 counties in central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio. Its transmitter is located in St. Albans, West Virginia.

The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and shares its news operations with FOX affiliate WVAH, which has an hour long 10pm newscast seen everyday, which WCHS produces.

One of the first televised presidential debates featuring John F. Kennedy took place at WCHS' studios in Charleston. The nationally syndicated Produce Corner segments were taped at WCHS as well.

Contents 1 History 2 The Tube 3 Suddenlink and Sinclair dispute 4 Past personalities 5 Address 6 External links

[edit] History

WCHS was founded by the Tierney Company in 1954, co-owned with WCHS-AM 580 (which is now owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation). It was actually the second television station in Charleston. WKNA-TV had signed on UHF channel 49 as an ABC affiliate in 1953, but went dark in 1955 due to lack of viewership.

Originally affiliated with CBS, WCHS-TV joined ABC in 1958, swapping affiliations with WHTN-TV, channel 13 in Huntington. The WCHS stations were sold to Rollins Telecasting in 1960. WCHS-TV reversed the swap and went back to CBS in 1962.

In 1986, WCHS swapped affiliations once again with channel 13, now known as WOWK-TV. The following year, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. Heritage sold off WCHS-AM in 1991. Heritage sold all of its remaining broadcasting properties — four television stations, LMAs for two other television stations, and 24 radio stations — to Sinclair in 1997, just as Heritage itself was being swallowed up by NewsCorp. As such, the former Heritage stations retained their current network affiliations instead of becoming Fox O&Os.

The Sinclair purchase of WCHS forced the company to sell WVAH (which it had acquired three years before when it merged with Abry Communications) to Glencairn, Ltd. as the FCC did not permit duopolies at the time. However, Glencairn's stock was almost entirely controlled by the Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair. In effect, Sinclair now owned both stations. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by entering into an LMA with WVAH, which allowed Sinclair to continue operating the station. WVAH, however, retained its own studio, although most of its operations were merged with those of WCHS. Sinclair tried to merge with Glencairn in 2001 after the FCC decided to allow duopolies, but could not repurchase WVAH because the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting, and the LMA with WCHS continues to this day. There is overwhelming evidence that Glencairn/Cunningham is merely a shell corporation used by Sinclair to circumvent FCC ownership rules.

For most of its history, WCHS has been a distant runner-up to long-dominant WSAZ-TV.

[edit] The Tube

WCHS DT 8.2 is the home of The Tube in the Huntington-Charleston area. This channel is carried by Adelphia on digital ch. 145.

[edit] Suddenlink and Sinclair dispute

In the summer of 2006, Charter Communications streamlined its operations, which included selling off portions of its cable system which were "geographically non-strategic." Charter accounts in WCHS's market area were purchased by Suddenlink Communications (formerly known as Cebridge). Sinclair Broadcast Group, the parent company of both WCHS and WVAH, requested a $40 million one time fee and a $1 per sub per month fee from Suddenlink for retransmission rights of these stations on the Suddenlink cable system.[1] This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies, and Sinclair pulled the two stations off the air in the Beckley market.

After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement which allowed WCHS and WVAH to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public.[2]

As of November 16, 2006 another local broadcaster, WSAZ-TV is in a carrage dispute with Time Warner Cable.

[edit] Past personalities

• Tom McGee, evening anchor (1984-1993 and 2000-2003)
• Jack Kane, anchor/reporter (1980-1999)
• Bill Robertson, evening anchor (late 1990's-2002)
• Kelly Crawford, evening anchor (until 2001)
• Russ Reisinger, evening anchor (1995-1998)
• Dave Weekly, sports (1986-2001)
• Marysue Jackson, anchor (1983-?)
• Tony Mainolfi, Meteorologist (1996-2005)

[edit] Address

1301 Piedmont Road
Charleston, WV 25301

[edit] External links

• WCHS Website
• Produce Corner website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WCHS