WVIT

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WVIT
New Britain-Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut
Branding	NBC 30
Slogan	Connecticut's News Leader
Channels	30 (UHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	NBC Universal
Founded	February 15, 1953
Call letters meaning	W Viacom International Television (former owner)
Former callsigns	WKNB-TV (1953-57) WNBC-TV (1957-60) WHNB-TV (1960-78)
Former affiliations	None
Website	www.nbc30.com

WVIT, channel 30, is the NBC owned-and-operated station for the state of Connecticut. It is licensed to New Britain, with studios in West Hartford and transmitter in Farmington.

Contents 1 History 2 Trivia 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Weekends 4 On-Air Staff 4.1 News Anchors 4.2 Weather 4.3 Sports 4.4 Reporters 5 Administration 6 External links

[edit] History

WVIT signed-on for the first time on February 15, 1953 as WKNB-TV, a sister station to WKNB radio (840 kHz., now WRYM). The calls stood for Kensington-New Britain. It is Connecticut's second-oldest television station, and the first on the UHF band. It is the only Hartford station to never change its primary affiliation.

In 1954, only a year after channel 30 signed on, Hartford and New Haven were collapsed into a single television market. However, WKNB's signal was not strong enough to cover southern Connecticut at the time -- a problem that would hamper channel 30 for almost a quarter-century.

NBC itself purchased the station in 1957 and renamed it WNBC-TV (for New Britain, Connecticut). It planned to boost the station's signal to cover all of the market, but these plans never materialized. In its first stint as an NBC-owned station, channel 30 failed to gain much headway in the ratings, largely because television manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability until 1964. Viewers had to buy an expensive converter to watch WNBC-TV, and even with one the picture was barely viewable. Nonetheless, NBC bought channel 30 as part of an experiment to determine whether UHF could be competitive with VHF.

In September 1957, the Travelers Insurance Company signed on independent WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB), Hartford's first and only VHF station. Within a year after its debut WTIC became Hartford-New Haven's CBS affiliate, replacing its owned-and-operated station, WHCT-TV (channel 18, now WUVN). NBC then realized its UHF experiment would end up as a lost cause and sold WNBC-TV to Transcontinental Properties in 1959. In 1960, the calls changed again -- this time to WHNB-TV (for Hartford-New Britain); NBC reclaimed the previous calls for its flagship radio and television combination in New York City.

In 1966 WHNB became, once again, one of two NBC affiliates in Connecticut: the network signed with WATR-TV (channel 20) in Waterbury in order to get its programming into New Haven. Channel 30 itself made up for the shortfall in its market coverage by operating two low-power translators (starting in 1971) in Torrington on channel 79 [1], and later in the 1980s, on channel 59 in New Haven. Although WATR-TV's signal decently covered the entire market, NBC did not drop its affiliation with WHNB for reasons that are unknown to this day.

WHNB was sold to Viacom in 1978, and changed its call letters to WVIT (for "Viacom International Television") to reflect its new ownership. Viacom immediately announced plans to boost WVIT's signal, and in 1980 channel 30 signed on with a clear signal to New Haven for the first time. Viacom also beefed up WVIT's news operation, which had long been an also-ran behind WFSB and ABC affiliate WTNH-TV (channel 8) due to its weak signal in New Haven. After the signal boost, however, it became a factor in the ratings for the first time. WVIT became the market's exculsive provider of NBC programming in March 1982, when WATR-TV's affiliation contract with NBC ended and the station became independent WTXX. The Torrington translator was turned off in 1987, and the New Haven repeater was shut down in the middle 1990s to allow full-powered WTVU (now WCTX) to begin operations.

Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994. Within the next year, following the launch of the United Paramount Network venture it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries, Paramount/Viacom began to sell off its non-UPN affiliated stations. WVIT, which was Viacom's first station purchase in 1978, ended up being the last non-UPN outlet sold in 1997. As part of a three-way deal, WVIT was sold to former owner NBC, while Paramount/Viacom ended up with WLWC in Providence, Rhode Island and WWHO in Columbus, Ohio, two stations owned by Fant Broadcasting which NBC operated by way of local marketing agreements. With NBC's second acquisition of the station came a greater investment into and expansion of the news department, and by the start of the new millennium WVIT was regularly trading the number-two position in the market with WTNH.

[edit] Trivia

• WVIT is one of NBC Universal's 10 owned-and-operated television stations, and (because of its location on channel 30) is one of two that are on the UHF dial, along with KNSD/39 in San Diego, California. A third UHF O&O station, WNCN/17 in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, was recently sold to Media General.
• WVIT is the only Connecticut TV station to have been owned by two major media conglomerates: Viacom and NBC Universal.
• Unlike most NBC affiliates, WVIT does not air a weekday noon newscast, but it does air a 10 AM edition of its morning newscast.
• WVIT airs NBC Weather Plus on its digital subchannel, channel 30.2 / 35.2. On weekday mornings from 4 to 4:30 AM, the main channel of WVIT simulcasts the weather channel.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• NBC 30 News Today (5-7 and 10-11 AM)

Brian Shactman & Keisha Grant

• NBC 30 News Live at Five (5-5:30 PM)

Logan Byrnes & Janet Peckinpaugh

• NBC 30 News at 5:30 (5:30-6 PM)

Logan Byrnes & Janet Peckinpaugh

• NBC 30 News at 6 (6-6:30 PM)

Gerry Brooks & Lisa Carberg

• NBC 30 News at 11 (11-11:35 PM)

Gerry Brooks & Lisa Carberg

[edit] Weekends

• NBC 30 News Today Saturday (6-7 and 9-10 AM)

Mindi Ramsey & Brad Drazen

• NBC 30 News Today Sunday (7-8 and 9-10 AM)

Mindi Ramsey & Brad Drazen

• NBC 30 News at 6 (6-6:30 PM)
• NBC 30 News at 11 (11-11:30 PM Saturdays and 11-11:20 PM Sundays)
• Sunday Sports Replay (11:20-11:45 PM)

[edit] On-Air Staff

[edit] News Anchors

• Gerry Brooks, weekdays 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
• Logan Byrnes, weekdays 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. (son of Edd Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip fame)
• Lisa Carberg, weekdays 6 p.m. [and 11 p.m. (effective 12/23)]
• Brad Drazen, weekend mornings
• Joanne Nesti, weekdays 11 p.m. (until December 22nd)
• Janet Peckinpaugh, weekdays 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
• Mindi Ramsey, weekend mornings
• Brian Shactman, weekday mornings
• Keisha Grant, weekday mornings

[edit] Weather

• Garett Argianas, weekend evenings
• Brad Field, Chief Meteorologist seen Weekday evenings
• Ryan Hanrahan, weekend mornings
• Bob Maxon, weekday mornings

[edit] Sports

• Persefone Contos, weekends
• Kevin Nathan, Sports Director seen weekdays

[edit] Reporters

• Debra Bogstie, Investigative Reporter
• Susan Goodman
• Doug Greene
• Tom Lewis
• Tom Monahan, Chief Political Correspondent
• Andrew Pergam
• Lauren Petty
• Sean Phillips
• Brandon Rudat
• Erika Tarantal

[edit] Administration

• David Doebler, President and General Manager
• Michael St. Peter, Vice President of News
• Steve Smith, Vice President of Sales
• Steve J. Smith, Director of Creative Services
• Tom Sequin, Director of Finance
• David Bondanza, Director of Engineering and Operations
• Philip Speliopolis, Production Supervisor
• Ronni Attenello, Director of Programming
• Mary Anderson, Manager of Human Resources
• Emma Asante, Community Projects Manager
• James Craven, NBC30.com Managing Editor

[edit] External links

• Official website
• WVIT Wireless
• WVIT Tower
• UHF Morgue: W79AI, former WVIT translator
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVIT