WHDH-TV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"WHDH" redirects here. For the history of WHDH-AM radio, see WEEI.

WHDH-TV
Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	7 NBC / 7 News
Slogan	The News Station
Channels	7 (VHF) analog, 42 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Sunbeam Television
Founded	June 21, 1948 (current license dates from May 22, 1982)
Call letters meaning	WHDH (former callsign of WCVB)
Former callsigns	WNAC-TV (1948-82) WNEV-TV (1982-90)
Former affiliations	CBS (1948-61 and 1972-95), ABC (secondary 1948-57, primary 1961-72), DuMont (secondary 1948-1955)
Transmitter Power	316 kW/306 m(analog) 948 kW/288 m (digital)
Website	whdh.com

WHDH-TV "7 NBC" is the NBC affiliate in the Boston, Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire television markets. The station's transmitter is located in Newton, Massachusetts, while its studios are located at 7 Bulfinch Place near Government Center in Downtown Boston. It is one of six local Boston TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu satellite provider.

The station is owned by Sunbeam Television and because of this, it is the largest NBC affiliate that is not a network owned and operated station. WHDH is co-owned with WLVI channel 56, Boston's CW affiliate. Sumbeam Television, which is based in Miami, Florida, also owns that market's FOX affiliate, WSVN. WHDH and WSVN share video, news stories, and reporters when covering each other's news.

As a result of the Boston and Providence, Rhode Island - New Bedford, Massachusetts television markets overlaping in coverage, WHDH shares its resources with Providence's NBC affiliate, WJAR, in news coverage of Southeastern Massachusetts.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts 2.1 Weekdays 2.2 Saturday 2.3 Sunday 3 News Team 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

Channel 7 first went on the air on June 21, 1948, as WNAC-TV, the second television station in Boston (twelve days after WBZ-TV). It was owned by General Tire along with WNAC-AM 680 (now WRKO), flagship of the Yankee Network, a New England regional radio network. General Tire had purchased the Yankee Network in 1943. WNAC first broadcasted from studios at 21 Brookline Avenue (which had also been home to WNAC radio and the Yankee Network) before moving to its current facilities at 7 Bullfinch Place near Government Center in 1968.

In 1950, General Tire bought the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System. Two years later, it bought the Bamberger Broadcasting Service (WOR-AM-FM-TV in New York City) and merged its broadcasting interests into a new division, General Teleradio. General Tire bought RKO Radio Pictures in 1955 after General Tire found RKO's film library would be a perfect programming source for WNAC and its other television stations. The studio was merged into General Teleradio to become RKO Teleradio; after the film studio was dissolved, the business was renamed RKO General in 1959.

WNAC-TV was originally a CBS affiliate, but shared ABC programming with WBZ until 1957 when (the original) WHDH-TV signed on channel 5. It switched affiliations with WHDH in 1961 and joined ABC. [1] It stayed with ABC until 1972, when channel 5 lost its license. The licensees of the station that replaced it, WCVB-TV, planned to air more local programming than any other station in the country, heavily preempting CBS programming in the process. This didn't sit very well with CBS, who immediately moved back to WNAC. However, WNAC utilized the version of the circle 7 logo it had adopted in 1973 until 1977, when ABC complained it was infringing on its trademark, and it began using a Times-Serif-Italic "7".

Two legendary Boston TV personalities had shows on WNAC: Louise Morgan, who hosted a talk show and was known as "New England's First Lady of Radio and Television", and Ed McDonnell, who as the costumed (as an astronaut) character "Major Mudd", hosted a popular children's show in the 1960s and early 1970s.

By 1965, RKO General faced numerous investigations into its business and financial practices. Though the FCC renewed the broadcast license for WNAC in 1969, RKO General lost the license in 1981 after General Tire admitted to a stunning litany of corporate misconduct as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Among other things, General Tire admitted that it had committed financial fraud over illegal political contributions and bribes. But in the FCC hearing, RKO General had denied these same practices. In light of RKO's dishonesty, the FCC stripped RKO of the Boston license and the licenses for WOR-TV in New York and KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. The FCC had previously conditioned renewal of the latter two stations' licenses on WNAC's renewal. An appeals court partially reversed the ruling, finding that the FCC had erred in tying the latter two stations' renewals to WNAC's license. It upheld the WNAC revocation and ordered a rehearing on the other stations.

RKO appealed this decision, but after almost two years of legal action agreed to a settlement in 1982. It agreed to sell WNAC's assets to New England Television, a merger of two of the original challengers to the station's license controlled by Boston businessman David Mugar. As part of the agreement, the FCC granted a full license to New England Television. The change took effect on May 22, 1982. At that time, the station's call letters were changed to WNEV and the old "7" logo was dropped in favor of a new SE7EN logo. This logo would change to one of a number 7 made up of seven dots in 1987.

In 1990, WNEV's owner bought WHDH (850 AM, now WEEI) and renamed the TV station WHDH-TV. Those call letters had previously been used by what is now WCVB from 1957 until 1972. In 1993, WHDH-TV was sold to Sunbeam Television of Miami (controlled by Ed Ansin), who still owns the station today. Shortly afterward, it adopted its present circle 7 logo, the same one also used by WSVN.

Over the years, channel 7 as WNAC preempted little programming. As WNEV, the station prempted programming in moderation. The preempted programs often aired on WHLL (now WUNI-TV). From 1989 to 1990, the station delayed CBS Morning News in favor of a children's show called Ready To Go. In late 1993, CBS News This Morning was dropped and picked up by WABU (now WBPX). WHDH then began an expanded morning local newscast. When the station became a NBC affiliate, WHDH ran the entire NBC lineup.

WHDH stayed with CBS until January 2, 1995, when WBZ took over the CBS affiliation as part of a group deal between CBS and WBZ's owner, Group W. Fox considered an affiliation deal with WHDH. However, WHDH opted to become the NBC affiliate.

Between 1996 and 1997, WHDH also produced a mid-morning weekday newsmagazine for the NBC network called Real Life. [2]

In May of 2006, WHDH introduced NBC Weather Plus, which is offered on the station's DT2 digital subchannel and Comcast digital cable channel 297.

On September 14, 2006, it was announced that Tribune Broadcasting would sell WLVI, Boston's CW affiliate, to Sunbeam Television, owners of WHDH and WSVN, for $117.3 million dollars, after much speculation that Sunbeam would buy WLVI. [3] The sale was approved by the FCC in late November and WLVI moved from its Dorchester studios to WHDH in Downtown Boston.

[edit] Newscasts

As WNAC-TV, the station had been among the first to use the music called "Move Closer to Your World" in 1970. Two years later, the station's news director moved to WPVI in Philadelphia and took the theme with him, where it became famous. In the 1970s, the station had begun to be fairly competitive with WCVB and WBZ, but the RKO fiasco caused a sharp drop in the ratings. WNEV/WHDH spent most of the 1980s in last place until Sunbeam Television bought the station in June of 1993. The station's previous owners attempted to boost the station's newscast by hiring many prominent journalists in the Boston market with little success.

That changed when Ansin brought Joel Cheatwood, the creator of WSVN's fast-paced news format, to Boston. Most of the station's prominent newscasters wanted nothing to do with Cheatwood and promptly resigned. Cheatwood introduced a considerably watered-down version of the WSVN format. However, it was still shocking by Boston standards.

The new format soon rejuvenated WHDH, especially after switching to NBC. For most of the last decade, WHDH has waged a spirited battle for first behind longtime leader WCVB. In 2002, WHDH was noted as having the best newscast in the U.S. in a study published by the Columbia Journalism Review. In previous studies, the station was deemed as having one of the worst newscasts.

The station operates a Bell LongRanger 206L news helicopter entitled Sky 7. The station's radar is presented on-air as "Storm Scan Doppler", with a signal coming from the radar at the NWS Local Forcast Office in Taunton.

As of August 2006, WHDH airs the Boston area's only weekday 4 and 4:30 PM newscasts. Before this point, WBZ-TV also broadcasted news at this time.

Effective on December 19, 2006, WHDH will begin producing WLVI's 10:00 p.m. newscast, under the name 7 News at 10 on Boston's CW. *

[edit] Weekdays

• 7 News Today in New England (5-7 a.m.)

Christa Delcamp & Jonathan Hall

• 7 News at Noon (12-1 p.m.)

Christa Delcamp & Jonathan Hall

• 7 News First at 4 (4-4:30 p.m.)

Matt Lorch

• 7 News at 4:30 (4:30-5 p.m.)

Matt Lorch

• 7 News at 5 (5-5:30 p.m.)

Randy Price & Frances Rivera

• 7 News at 5:30 (5:30-6 p.m.)

Matt Lorch

• 7 News at 6 (6-6:30 p.m.)

Randy Price & Frances Rivera

• 7 News at 10 on Boston's CW (10-11 p.m. on WLVI) *

Matt Lorch & Frances Rivera

• 7 News at 11 (11-11:35 p.m.)

Randy Price & Frances Rivera

[edit] Saturday

• 7 News Today in New England (9-11 a.m.)
• 7 News at 6 (6-6:30 p.m.)
• 7 News at 10 on Boston's CW (10-10:30 p.m. on WLVI) *
• 7 News at 11 (11-11:30 p.m.)

[edit] Sunday

• 7 News Today in New England (9-10:30 a.m.)
• Urban Update (11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., public affairs)
• 7 News at 6 (6-6:30 p.m.)
• 7 News at 10 on Boston's CW (10-11 p.m. on WLVI) *
• 7 News at 11 (11-11:25 p.m.)
• 7 Sports Xtra (11:25 p.m.-12 a.m.)

[edit] News Team

Anchors

• Jonathan Hall - Weekday Morning and Noon Co-Anchor
• Christa Delcamp - Weekday Morning and Noon Co-Anchor
• Matt Lorch - Weeknight Anchor at 4 PM, 4:30 PM, and 5:30 PM (also at 10 PM on WLVI *), and General Assignment Reporter
• Randy Price - Weeknight Anchor at 5 PM, 6 PM and 11 PM
• Frances Rivera - Weeknight Anchor at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM, and 11 PM (also at 10 PM on WLVI *)
• Lauren Przybyl - Weekend Morning Anchor and General Assignment Reporter
• Jeff Glor - Weekend Evening Anchor on WHDH and WLVI * and General Assignment Reporter
• Nichelle King - Weekend Evening Anchor on WHDH and WLVI * and General Assignment Reporter

Meteorologists

• Pete Bouchard - Chief seen Weeknights at 4 PM, 4:30 PM, 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM, and 11 PM (also at 10 PM on WLVI *)
• Jeremy Reiner - Weekday Morning and Noon Meteorologist
• Terry Casey - Weekend Meteorologist and Director of Weather Programming at Weather Services International
• Dylan Dreyer - coming January 2007, currently at WJAR

Sports

• Joe Amorosino - Sports Director seen Weeknights at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM, and 11 PM (also at 10 PM on WLVI *), and host of "7 Sports Xtra"
• Dave Briggs - Weekend Evening Sports Anchor on WHDH and WLVI *, Weekday Sports Reporter
• Duke Castiglione - Freelancer Sports Anchor, Sports Reporter

Reporters

• Sorboni Banerjee
• Byron Barnett - General Assignment Reporter and host of Urban Update
• Victoria Block
• Steve Cooper
• Linda Ergas
• Dan Hausle - General Assignment Reporter and Substitute Anchor
• Sean Hennessey
• Andy Hiller - Political Reporter
• Dr. Deanna Lites - Health Cast Reporter
• Mike Macklin
• Hank Phillippi Ryan - Investigative Reporter
• Ryan Schulteis
• Janet Wu - General Assignment Reporter and Substitute Anchor

[edit] See also

• Circle 7 logo
• RKO Pictures
• WSVN
• WLVI

[edit] References

• Gallant, Joseph. WNAC-TV/WNEV-TV/WHDH-TV: The Colorful History of Boston's Channel 7 (February 1998). TheProvidenceChannel.com.
• LaBrecque, Ron. Can Glitz be Good? - Shaking up news in Boston (July/August 1996). Columbia Journalism Review.
• WHDH-TV (3-27-2005). The Boston TV Dial.

[edit] External links

• WHDH website
• Photos of WHDH's news set
• WHDH on TV-Ark
• WHDH Technical glitch forces newscast to end early 8/16/06
• Boston Herald article from 8/18/06 -- Unlucky 7 rapped for scrapping newscast
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHDH