WSYX

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WSYX
Columbus, Ohio
Branding	ABC 6, NewsCenter
Slogan	On Your Side, Your Weather Authority
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 13 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC (since 1953, secondary until 1956) (Digital subchannel carries My Network TV)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	August 30, 1949
Call letters meaning	W SYX (sounds like six, station's channel number)
Former callsigns	WTVN-TV (1949-1987)
Former affiliations	DuMont (1949-1956) [1]
Website	http://www.wsyx6.com

WSYX, channel six, is the ABC television affiliate in Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and is the sister station to Fox affiliate WTTE (channel 28). The two stations share a studio in suburban Grandview Heights, which shares a post office with Columbus.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operation 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Newscast Titles 4 Personalities 5 External links

[edit] History

The station began operations on August 30, 1949 as WTVN-TV, Columbus' second television station. It was owned initially by Picture Waves, Inc., a local firm that also operated WTVN radio (610 kHz.). During 1950, Picture Waves sold the WTVN stations to the Taft Television and Radio Company, which was based in Cincinnati. Taft signed-on WTVN-FM (96.3 MHz., now WLVQ) in 1959.

WTVN-TV was an affiliate of the DuMont network at its inception, and in 1953 took on a secondary affiliation with ABC. Channel six became an exclusive ABC station when DuMont closed down operations in 1956. In the early 1970s, Taft's common ownership of WTVN-TV and WKRC-TV in Cincinnati was awarded "grandfather status" by the Federal Communications Commission which, under its newly-enacted "one-to-a-market" rule, prohibited television stations with overlapping signals to share common ownership while protecting existing instances. (One of channel six's competitors, Crosley/Avco-owned WLWC [channel 4, now WCMH-TV], was also given grandfathered protection through a similar situation.)

In 1987 Taft Broadcasting underwent a corporate restructuring, which saw Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner acquire a majority of Taft's shares, renaming the company Great American Broadcasting. However, as the FCC considered the restructuring as an ownership change, WTVN-TV lost its grandfathered protection and could not be retained by Great American. A group of former Taft Broadcasting shareholders, led by the Bass brothers, purchased WTVN-TV in October 1987 for their new company, called Anchor Media. In January 1988, after assuming control of channel six, the new owners renamed the station WSYX. WTVN radio and WLVQ-FM remained owned by Great American Broadcasting for the next several years.

Anchor Media, which also purchased fellow ABC affiliates WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina (earlier in 1987) and KOVR in Stockton, California (during 1988), was purchased by River City Broadcasting in 1993. River City was merged into the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. Sinclair owned Columbus' Fox affiliate, WTTE, but could not keep both stations since the FCC did not allow common ownership of two stations in a single market. Sinclair kept the longer-established WSYX and sold WTTE to Glencairn, Ltd., owned by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards. However, the Smith family (Sinclair's founding owners) controlled nearly all of Glencairn's stock. In effect, Sinclair now had a duopoly in Columbus in violation of FCC rules. Sinclair and Glenciarn further circumvented the rules by merging WTTE's operations with those of WSYX under a local marketing agreement, with WSYX as the senior partner.

In 2001, after the FCC allowed duopolies, Sinclair tried to acquire Glencairn outright. However, the FCC would not allow Sinclair to repurchase WTTE for two major reasons. First, the FCC does not allow duopolies between two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. Also, the Columbus market has only seven full-power stations--too few to legally permit a duopoly. Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting, but is still effectively owned by Sinclair because nearly all of its stock is owned by trusts controlled by the Smith family. This situation is one of many that has led to allegations that Cunningham is simply a shell corporation used by Sinclair to circumvent FCC ownership rules.

In August 2006, WSYX launched a digital subchannel to carry programming from My Network TV, a new programming service from News Corporation, the parent company of Fox. The digital subchannel is known as My TV Columbus.

[edit] News Operation

Channel six was generally in last place in the local news ratings, except for two periods when the station was intensely competitive (from 1977 to 1983, and from 1988 to 1992), at times coming in second to market leader WBNS-TV.. Over the years, the station has featured high profile Columbus anchors including Tom Ryan, Pat Lalama, I.J. Hudson, Lou Forrest (known as Louis de la Foret on CNN Headline News), and Deborah Countiss. Liz Claman, now an anchor on CNBC, and Carol Costello, now an anchor on CNN, were also one time anchors on WSYX. The station currently wages a fierce battle with WCMH for the runner-up position behind WBNS-TV.

Currently, WSYX's combined news operation with sister station WTTE is called "Columbus' NewsCenter", producing five hours of news a day on channel six. Prior to at least the late 1990's, WSYX's newscasts were long known as "Action 6 News". The stations place a prime focus on their weather operation, which subscribes to AccuWeather, by placing the forecast near the beginning of each newscast and by providing weather updates every eight minutes during morning newscasts. WSYX and WTTE did not participate in the wider implementation of Sinclair's News Central format for its newscasts, but it has continued to air "The Point", a one-minute political commentary that is a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts.

Because the audio component of television channel six is located at 87.7 MHz, WSYX emphasizes the fact that many FM radios can also receive the station when a television set is not nearby.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• ABC 6 NewsCenter Mornings - 5:00-7:00 a.m.
• ABC 6 NewsCenter at Noon - Noon-1:00 p.m.
• ABC 6 NewsCenter at 5 - 5:00-6:00 p.m.
• ABC 6 NewsCenter at 6 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
• ABC 6 NewsCenter NightTeam - 11:00-11:35 p.m.

[edit] Newscast Titles

WSYX's newscasts have been known by the following names:

Action 6 News (1977-1987)

Channel 6 News (1987-1992)

6 On Your Side News (1992-1994)

WSYX 6 News (1994-1996)

6 News (1996-1999)

NewsCenter on ABC 6 (1999-2006)

ABC 6 NewsCenter (2006-Present)

[edit] Personalities

Current personalities

• Anne Allred, Reporter
• Susan Burton, Health Reporter
• Lisa Colbert, Morning Weather Anchor
• Sean Cuellar, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Crystal Davis, Reporter/Weekend Meteorologist
• Johnny DiLoretto, Entertainment Reporter
• Maria Durant, Reporter
• Clay Hall, Sports Director/Anchor
• Yolanda Harris, Evening Anchor
• Kent Justice, On Your Side Reporter
• Carol Luper, Senior reporter
• Jerry Martz, Chief Meteorologist
• Shannon McCormick, Reporter
• Megan Pringle, Morning/Noon anchor
• Anthony Rothman, Weekend Sports Anchor
• Mike Rowe, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Dr. Marivi Soto, Checkup
• Gabe Spiegel, Evening Anchor at at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Terri Sullivan, Morning/Noon Anchor
• Dana Turtle, Reporter/Meteorologist
• Simone Wilkinson, Reporter

Past personalities

• Donna Hanover, anchor. (Actress and ex-wife of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani)
• Bob Alan, weather. (1977-1980)
• Mike Bettes, meteorologist. Now at The Weather Channel.
• Terre Blair, anchor. (Married songwriter Marvin Hamlisch.)
• Kimberly Boles, anchor/reporter.
• Mike Bowersock, reporter (1986-1989)
• Chris Bradley, chief meteorologist. (1998-2005) Now the Chief Meterorologist on WBNS-TV as of July 2006.
• Charlene Brown, 5,6,11 anchor (1990-2002)
• Tom Burris, anchor.
• Calvin Sneed, Six On Your Side consumer reporter (1986-1989), now news anchor at WTVC-TV, Chattanooga
• Don Carson, chief meteorologist (1980-1986)
• Liz Claman (1989-1991) Now at CNBC
• Kirstin Cole, anchor.
• Larry Cosgrove, chief meteorologist. (1986-1989)
• Carol Costello, anchor. (1988-1990) Now at CNN
• Chad Myers, chief meteorologist. (1989-1994) Now at CNN
• Deborah Countiss, anchor. (1991-1998)
• Wendi Craver, anchor.
• Jim Finnerty, anchor (1987-1988)
• Michele Gailiun, anchor.(1982-1991)
• Keisha Grant, anchor/reporter.
• Earl Green, anchor (1974-1980)
• Jon Greiner, anchor.
• Lou Forrest, anchor. (1988-1992)
• Ted Hart, investigative reporter (1980's)
• Lonnie Haskins, sports director.
• Bob Hetherington, anchor. (1992-2002)
• I.J. Hudson, anchor. (-1980)
• Mike Jackson, anchor/reporter (-1994)
• Bud Kaatz, sports director (-1982)
• Bruce Kirk, 6:00 anchor/reporter (1970s-1980s)
• Pat Lalama, anchor.
• Dwight Lauderdale, early 1970's, now at WPLG
• Tom Lawrence, main anchor (1992-1994)
• Tom Layson, reporter/anchor. (1996-2001)
• Rick Lord, reporter
• Tram Mai, anchor/reporter.
• Karen Massie, anchor/reporter
• Jim Miller, anchor
• Steve Minich, sports anchor (1980's)
• Meredith Paul, anchor.
• Liz Ogletree, reporter
• Mariza Reyes, reporter
• Ralph Robinson
• Tom Ryan, anchor. (1979-1987)
• Lorene Wagner, anchor. (1995-2002)
• Shelley Walcott, reporter
• Ben Woods, chief meteorologist. (1994-1998)

[edit] External links

• WSYX Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSYX

Broadcast television in the Columbus market  (Nielsen DMA #32)
WCMH 4 (NBC) - WSYX 6 (ABC - MNTV on DT2) - WGCT 8 (IND) - WBNS 10 (CBS) - WDEM-LP 17 (AS) - WCLL-CA 19 (Daystar) - WOUB 20 / WOUC 44 (PBS) - WBKA-CA 22 (A1) - W23BZ 23 (TBN) - WTTE 28 (Fox - The Tube on DT2) - WCSN-LP 32 (i) - WOSU 34 (PBS) - WXCB-CA 42 (TBN) - WSFJ 51 (i) - WWHO 53 (The CW)