WGHP

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WGHP
High Point / Greensboro / Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Branding	FOX8
Slogan	The News Leader
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Fox Television Stations Group
Founded	1963
Call letters meaning	Winston-Salem / Greensboro / High Point
Former affiliations	ABC (1963-1995)
Website	www.myfoxwghp.com

WGHP ("FOX8") is the FOX television station which serves the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, North Carolina DMA. It is licensed to High Point and owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The station is the only one in the Piedmont area market to be O&O by any major network. Its transmitter is located in Sophia, North Carolina.

FOX8 currently offers about 8 hours of local newscasts a day, along with a number of first-run syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms.

Contents 1 History 2 Station Names 3 Logos 4 External links

[edit] History

The station began operation in 1963, and it was owned by Southern Broadcast Company. It was originally the Piedmont Triad's ABC affiliate. The station didn't carry Dark Shadows during its network run on ABC and broadcast old movies instead, according to a February 1971 issue of the North Carolina edition of TV Guide magazine. Likewise, it did not carry The Edge of Night during its run on ABC from 1975 to 1984. Harte-Hanks Broadcasting's purchase of Landmark Television (successor to Southern) in 1977 resulted in the company owning both WGHP and WFMY-TV, and WGHP was consequently sold to Gulf Broadcasting in 1978.

WGHP was owned by Gulf Broadcasting until 1984, when it was acquired by Taft in a group deal. Great American Broadcasting purchased other Taft properties in 1987, but Taft would keep WGHP until 1992 when Great American bought the station as well.

In 1993 Great American Broadcasting filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That year they restructured and became known as Citicasters. They then put their stations up for sale.

In the winter of 1993-1994 it was agreed that New World (which acquired the SCI stations in a similar type of bankruptcy Citicasters had come out of) would buy Citicasters' WDAF-TV channel 4 in Kansas City, which was an NBC affiliate, and KSAZ-TV (formerly KTSP) channel 10 in Phoenix, which was a CBS affiliate. 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 and Cincinnati's WCPO.

Shortly after Fox agreed to affiliate with all the New World stations except for NBC affiliates KNSD channel 39 in San Diego and WVTM-TV channel 13 in Birmingham, as well as independent WSBK-TV channel 38 in Boston, which would be sold to Paramount/Viacom and become a UPN station.

But WGHP (along with WBRC) would be sold directly to Fox, who was able to close on WGHP and WBRC in the summer of 1995. On September 4, 1995, WGHP took the Fox affiliation and became an official Fox owned-and-operated station (O&O). It took all Fox programs, including Fox Kids which it showed from 1-4pm, where soap operas from ABC had previously run as well as Saturday mornings where a local newscast previously ran. The ABC affiliation went to WNRW channel 45 (now WXLV-TV). The station 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.

In 1996, Pappas approached WGHP about picking up Fox Kids and moving it to their newly acquired WBFX channel 20 (then a WB affiliate, later WTWB-TV and now CW affiliate WCWG). The move was inspired by Fox executives who, upon picking up new affiliates thru New World, decided to redo the on-air coverage policy of airing Fox Kids; the station can choose to keep airing it or choose not to, passing it down to another local counterpart. WGHP decided to let the station have the programming. This would be the first Fox owned and operated station to not run the kids block, and only one of 2 (with WBRC) until New World merged with Fox in 1997. WGHP added more talk and court shows in the afternoon. But they still have no Saturday morning newscast. 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 (now 4Kids TV), but WGHP did not pick that up. As a result, Fox's 4Kids TV does not air in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point.

[edit] Station Names

• WGHP had first been known as "Channel ei8ht" from 1963 until 1970. The name "ei8ht" has also been used by KOMU, WJW, KAIT, and a few others.

• Next, WGHP had been known as "WGHPiedmont" between 1987 and the early 1990s.

• In 1990, "WGHPiedmont" had changed to "The Piedmont Newschannel". That name would be kept until the sale to Fox in 1995, when it became FOX 8. However, FOX 8 continued to use the slogan "The Piedmont Newschannel" until October 2005, when it adopted the new slogan "The News Leader."

[edit] Logos

WGHP logo c. 1975. This past logo was also used by WJW-TV 8.

WGHP logo from 1996 to 2002

WGHP logo from 2002 to 2006

Future logo. This will also soon be used by sister station WJW-TV eventually.

[edit] External links

• FOX8 WGHP
• History of WGHP
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGHP

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of North Carolina
WGHP 8 (High Point) - WFXI 8 / WYDO 14 (Morehead City / Greenville) - WCCB 18 (Charlotte) - WSFX 26 (Wilmington) - WRAZ 50 (Raleigh)
See also: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, MNTV and Other stations in North Carolina