WHBQ-TV

Encyclopedia : W : WH : WHB : WHBQ-TV

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WHBQ-TV, channel 13, is a Fox owned and operated station in Memphis, Tennessee. The station has been owned and operated by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation since December 1, 1995. Its studios and transmitter are located in Memphis.

History

WHBQ-TV began operations on August 11, 1953. The station was founded by the General Tire and Rubber Company (who later renamed its broadcast division RKO General), along with WHBQ radio (560 kHz.) and WHBQ-FM (107.5 MHz.). WHBQ-AM had originally been owned by Harding Brothers College, now Harding University. It is Memphis's second-oldest television station, and the only one that has never changed its call letters or channel location.

Channel 13 was originally a CBS affiliate, sharing ABC programming with WMCT (channel 5, now WMC-TV). WHBQ lost CBS when WREC-TV (channel 3, now WREG-TV) signed on and took that affiliation due to CBS' long affiliation with WREC-AM. WHBQ then took the ABC affiliation full-time. In the 1960s and 1970s WHBQ-TV, bolstered by a strong ABC lineup, was Memphis' leader in television ratings, although since the mid-1990s, the station's news has often been rated second-to-last.

WHBQ-TV also had a reputation for avoiding any programming perceived controversial when it was a ABC affiliate, presumably to please viewers in Memphis' very conservative suburbs and adjacent rural areas. An example of this occurred in 1972, when the station stunned Mid-South viewers (particularly teenaged ones) by dropping American Bandstand for 90 minutes of live professional wrestling, which it lost to WMC-TV in 1976. But even after losing that program, channel 13 continued to pre-empt Bandstand until 1984, just three years before ABC cancelled the long-running show. Ironically, the pre-emption kept Memphians from seeing homegrown talent like Rick Dees, the Sylvers, Rita Coolidge and Anita Ward perform on the show, especially Dees, who had just been hired by WHBQ radio as its new morning host, during his "Disco Duck" days in late 1976.

On the other hand, channel 13 made up for the preemption by airing Bandstand's syndicated rival, Soul Train, on Saturday nights until WPTY-TV (channel 24) purchased the rights to that program from channel 13 in 1983 (it was the station's most popular show at the time).

WHBQ-TV also pre-empted or delayed until late-night hours several ABC prime time shows because of controversial subject matter (for example, Soap and Hot L Baltimore). It was one of the largest ABC affiliates not to carry Good Morning America when it initially went on the air, not picking it up until 1977. Other shows that WHBQ held out until later (when they became major out-of-the-box hits on ABC) included All My Children, The Bionic Woman and S.W.A.T..

In 1980, the station received national criticism for carrying paid religious programming instead of the US/Soviet Miracle on Ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in which the underdog Americans defeated the Red Army team. In all likelihood, however, WHBQ made the decision due to area residents' lack of knowledge, let alone enthusiasm, for hockey and winter sports.

Locally, it also had a rivalry with WREC/WREG over bragging rights for the largest movie library in the market. Through its ownership, channel 13 had the entire RKO Pictures catalog at its disposal, and the station's reliance on classic and public-domain films in the 1960s and 1970s was evidenced in its daily 9-to-11 a.m. airing of Dialing for Dollars; in the station's regular pre-emption of low-rated or controversial prime time shows in favor of movies; and its use of these films to fill open time slots on weekends.

In 1990, after the retirement of longtime general manager Alex Bonner, RKO sold WHBQ-AM-FM-TV to Adams Communications. Adams subsequently sold the radio stations, as per then-Federal Communications Commission rules. While the WHBQ stations were never accused of wrongdoing, RKO General had been under nearly continuous investigation since the 1960s due to a long history of lying to advertisers and regulators. The sale ended RKO's involvement in broadcasting.

The transition to \"FOX13\"

In 1994, Adams sold the station to ComCorp. Only a short time later, ComCorp announced that it would sell WHBQ-TV to the News Corporation. The new owners then moved Fox programming to channel 13, ending WHBQ-TV's 42-year relationship with ABC. WPTY-TV, which lost its Fox affiliation, picked up ABC. Upon the network switch, channel 13 replaced the daytime ABC soap opera lineup with Fox Kids (now 4Kids TV) children's shows, unlike other stations acquired by Fox from the New World Communications affiliation deal and purchase.

In 2006, WHBQ premiered a new logo in current use inspired by Fox News Channel, soon to be gradually adopted by many other Fox O&Os. Tampa sister station WTVT, which shares its channel number with WHBQ, was the first to adopt this new logo design. In the case of WHBQ, which also brands itself "Fox 13," it "technically" borrowed the logo from WTVT as its own because the font type for the number 13 was used by that station.

Newscasts

WHBQ's newscasts, for many years, had been called Eyewitness News and stayed true to the Eyewitness News "Happy Talk" format. WHBQ had a number of high-visibility anchors and reporters in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ed Craig, Marge Thrasher, Fran Fawcett, Jim Jaggers and Charlie B. Watson. In the 1980s, WHBQ carried the popular local/syndicated program PM Magazine featuring Byron Day and Lynn Sitler. After Fox's acquired the station in 1995, the newscasts were briefly called FOX13 Eyewitness News (with the word "Fox" in all caps; unlike the other networks, the word Fox is not an acronym that stands for anything, just a shortened form of its corporate cousin, 20th Century Fox. In the late 90's, WHBQ renamed its newscasts FOX13 News. But despite this change (and even rivals WPTY-TV and WLMT picking up the name Eyewitness News in 2002), WHBQ has remained Memphis' "Happy Talk" station.

Monday-Friday

• Good Morning Memphis 5-9AM with Valerie Calhoun, Ernie Freeman, Leon Griffin (weather), and Heather York (traffic)
• Fox 13 News Midday 11-11:30AM with Darcy Thomas and Holly Hancock (weather)
• Fox 13 News at 5:00 5-6:00PM with Mearl Purvis, Steve Dawson, Joey Sulipeck (weather) and Matt Stark (Sports)
• Fox 13 News at 9:00 9-10:00PM with Mearl Purvis, Steve Dawson, Joey Sulipeck (weather) and Matt Stark (sports)

Weekends

• Saturday Fox 13 News at 5:00 5-5:30PM with Melissa Scheffler, Bernard Watson, Ed Echols (weather) and Kevin Barbee (sports)
• Sat. and Sun. Fox 13 News at 9:00 9-10PM with Melissa Scheffler, Bernard Watson, Ed Echols (weather) and Kevin Barbee (sports)

Previous logos

Image:whbq1388.jpg|This logo came from when WHBQ was an ABC afiliate, and sports the network's "Something's Happening" slogan from 1987-1990 written next to the logo. Image:Whbq13 memphis.jpg|WHBQ's previous logo, used through January 2006, when it adopted WTVT's FOX13 logo.

See also

• RKO Pictures

External links

• [FOX 13 WHBQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WHBQ-TV]

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Tennessee
WHBQ 13 ([[Template:Memphis TV|Memphis]]) - WZTV 17 ([[Template:Nashville TV|Nashville]]) - WEMT 39 ([[Template:Tri-Cities TV|Greeneville]]) - WTNZ 43 ([[Template:Knoxville TV|Knoxville]]) - WDSI 61 ([[Template:Chattanooga TV|Chattanooga]])
'''See also: [[Template:ABC Tennessee|ABC]], [[Template:CBS Tennessee|CBS]], [[Template:NBC Tennessee|NBC]], [[Template:PBS Tennessee|PBS]], [[Template:UPN Tennessee|UPN]], [[Template:WB Tennessee|WB]] and [[Template:Other Tennessee Stations|Other]] stations in Tennessee

 

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