WESH

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WESH
Daytona Beach-Orlando-Melbourne, Florida
Branding	WESH 2
Slogan	Where The News Comes First
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 11 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Hearst-Argyle
Founded	June 10, 1956
Call letters meaning	Wright EScH (original licensee for the station)
Former affiliations	None
Website	wesh.com

WESH is a television station serving the Orlando metropolitan area. It is affiliated with the NBC network. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. Its transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida.

WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. WESH also produces a nightly weathercast for its independent sister station serving the Tampa Bay market, WMOR.

The primary news anchors at WESH are Wendy Chioji, Martha Sugalski, Jim Payne and Raoul Martinez. The position of "Chief Meteorologist" was formerly held by Dave Marsh, who retired on July 31, 2006, after 37 years at WESH. Although not officially called Chief Meteorologist, the meteorologist currently giving forecasts on the main news shows is Amy Sweezey.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Previous logos 2 Newscasts 3 External links

[edit] History

WESH first went on the air on June 11, 1956. WESH was an NBC affiliate, as it still is today. However, WESH's broadcast tower was very short: it was only 300 feet high. Because of this, for its first year of operation, its coverage was limited to Volusia County. As such, it shared the NBC affiliation in Central Florida with WDBO-TV (now WKMG-TV). It finally became the sole NBC affiliate for the Central Florida market on November 5, 1957. On that day, a new 1,000-foot tower was built and opened, WESH would be the only station transmitting from there. WESH's tower location was farther from Orlando than the other stations because it was short-spaced to another channel two in Florida, public broadcaster WPBT in Miami.

The Cowles family, then owner of KRNT-TV (now KCCI) in Des Moines, Iowa, purchased the station in 1965. The Cowleses would serve as WESH's longest standing owner, owning the station for 19 years. The Cowleses got out of broadcasting in 1984. They would sell WESH and KCCI to Houston, Texas-based H&C Communications, owners of KPRC-TV, Houston's NBC affiliate that also broadcast on channel two. Under H&C, the Daytona Beach studio was moved to the corner of US 1 and US 92 in 1989. The station's primary operations also moved to a brand new studio in Winter Park in 1991.

In 1980, while still owned by the Cowleses, the station built a 1,700 ft tower on the same site as the 1,000 foot tower. The new tower allowed for WESH to expand its coverage into areas like Lakeland, Gainesville, and St. Augustine. The 1,000 foot tower was dismantled in the late 80's.

The Hobby family, owners of H&C, retired from broadcasting in 1995, selling off its stations to various owners. WESH and KCCI were sold to Pulitzer. Pulitzer then decided to exit broadcasting itself, selling all of its stations, including WESH and KCCI, to Hearst-Argyle, in 1999.

On May 8, 2006, Hearst-Argyle announced its purchase of then-WB (now CW) affiliate WKCF from Emmis Communications. Emmis is also exiting broadcast television so it could concentrate on radio. This acquisition was completed on August 31, 2006, resulting in Orlando's third commercial duopoly operation. Orlando's other two duoplies are Cox-owned WFTV/WRDQ and Fox-owned WOFL/WRBW.

The station is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On the June 21, 2006 episode of The Tonight Show, Ross the Intern, a flamboyant personality made an appearance as a guest meteorologist.

[edit] Previous logos

WESH logo from 1987. The 2 on this logo is known as the Sailboat 2 logo, and lasted from 1972 to 1992. This logo was also used by an unrelated NBC affiliate, KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1970s and 1980s.

Current WESH logo. The "2" is based on the one used by former sister station KPRC in Houston from 1992 to 1995.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• WESH 2 News Early Sunrise - 5AM-7AM
  • Anchors: Tom Schaad and Sally Schultze
  • Weather: Tony Mainolfi
• WESH 2 News at Noon - NOON-12:30PM
  • Anchor: Gail Paschall-Brown
  • Weather: Tony Mainolfi
• WESH 2 News at 4:00 - 4PM-5PM
  • Anchors: Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
• WESH 2 News at 5 - 5PM--6PM
  • Anchors: Wendy Chioji and Raoul Martinez
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
• WESH 2 News at 6 - 6PM-6:30PM
  • Anchors: Wendy Chioji and Jim Payne
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
  • Sports: Pat Clarke
• WESH 2 News at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM
  • Anchors: Wendy Chioji and Martha Sugalski
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
  • Sports: Pat Clarke

Weekends

• WESH 2 News Early Sunrise Weekend - 5AM-8AM
  • Anchor: Joe Oliver
  • Weather: Ivan Cabrera
• WESH 2 News at 6 Weekend - 6PM-6:30PM
  • Anchor: Eryka Washington
  • Weather: Leslie Hudson
• WESH 2 News at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM (11:30 Saturdays)
  • Anchor: Eryka Washington
  • Weather: Leslie Hudson
• Sunday Sports Extra - 11:35PM-12:05AM Sundays
  • hosted by Pat Clarke

[edit] External links

• WESH Official Website
• WESH Brings NBC to Central Florida - WESH History
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WESH

NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WESH 2 (Daytona Beach-Orlando) - WPTV 5 (West Palm Beach) - WTVJ 6 (Miami) - WJHG 7 (Panama City) - WFLA 8 (Tampa) - WTLV 12 (Jacksonville) - WBBH 20 (Fort Myers) - WTWC 40 (Tallahassee)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida