WOOD-TV

Encyclopedia : W : WO : WOO : WOOD-TV

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WOOD-TV is the NBC affiliate for West Michigan (the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan television market). It is licensed to Grand Rapids and broadcasts on channel 8. WOOD's transmitter is located in western Barry County near the town of Middleville, Michigan. WOOD-TV8 transmits its signal from an antenna 991 feet (302 m) in height, and its signal reaches as far as Lansing, Big Rapids, and South Bend, Indiana.

History

The station first went on the air on August 15, 1949, as WLAV-TV on channel 7. It was the fourth television station in Michigan, and the first outside of Detroit. The original owner was Leonard Adrian Verslius, who had signed on WLAV-AM, Grand Rapids' second radio station, in 1940.

In 1951, Versalius sold the station to Grandwood Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Bitner Group, owners of Grand Rapids' first radio station, WOOD-AM 1300, for $1.37 million. WOOD-AM had applied for a television license in 1948, but it came just after the FCC imposed a freeze on new television construction permits. In fact, WLAV had been one of the last construction permits issued before the freeze. Grandwood eventually tired of waiting and cut a deal with Verslius to buy his station. On October 19, WLAV-TV became WOOD-TV, broadcasting from a new site in northeast Grand Rapids.

On December 8, 1953, WOOD-TV moved from channel 7 to channel 8 and also increased its power from 28,000 to 100,000 watts. The channel change was promoted as "Mark the date: We move to Channel Eight on December Eight." The move was to alleviate interference with WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1955, the station moved to its current facility in the Heritage Hill area of Grand Rapids. Time-Life, Inc. bought WOOD-AM and WOOD-TV in 1957. The call letters became WOTV in 1972 when WOOD-AM was sold.

Channel 8 has been an NBC affiliate from the very beginning, though it had a secondary CBS affiliation until WKZO-TV (now WWMT) in Kalamazoo expanded its signal to cover Grand Rapids. It also had a secondary ABC affiliation until 1962, when WZZM-TV signed on.

In an area first, the station purchased electronic news equipment in 1975. Five years later, the station became the first to broadcast live news from outside the studio. When LIN TV bought WOTV in 1983, the station introduced West Michigan's first news helicopter.

In 1992, the station reclaimed its old call letters with WOOD radio's permission, donating the WOTV calls to WUHQ (channel 41), with whom it had a local marketing agreement. LIN would purchase WOTV outright in 2001.

The weekday noon newscasts and weekend 6:00 p.m. newscasts were expanded to one-hour formats in 1995, with the first 30 minutes are shown on sister station WOTV.

But as NBC decreased some of its programming during the 1990s, preemptions on WOOD-TV were noticeably reduced. Today, while clearing all other NBC programs, WOOD-TV still pre-empts the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News in favor of hour-long news coverage at 6 p.m.

WOOD-TV recently activated translators in Muskegon and Holland, because the digital television signal of WMVS in Milwaukee, also on channel 8, knocks WOOD-TV off the air in those areas under certain conditions.

Carol Duvall of HGTV's Carol Duvall Show started her career at WOOD-TV.

News

Newscasts

• Monday-Friday: 5:00-7:00 a.m. during network morning program, 12:00-1:00 p.m., 5:00-5:30 p.m., 5:30-6:00 p.m., 6:00-6:30 p.m., and 11:00-11:35 p.m.. The 6:00 p.m. newscast is repeated on WXSP at 7:00 p.m.. All WOOD-TV newscasts are shown on its sister station WOTV.
• Saturday: 7:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m..
• Sunday: 7:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m.. To the Point airs from 10:00-10:30 a.m..
• WOOD-TV's morning updates on shown during The Today Show on WOOD and during Good Morning America on WOTV.

To The Point is a weekly Sunday morning political talk show hosted by Rick Albin, which airs at 10 a.m..

Partners

• WOTV
• WXSP
• The Grand Rapids Press
• Holland Sentinel
• NBC
• CNN
• MSNBC
• Provides weather content to Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle

Slogans

• "West Michigan's News Leader" (current)
• "First. Best. Live." (1999)
• "Come on home to TV-8" (1988)

Sports

Sports Overtime is a weekly half-hour sports broadcast, airing Sundays after the 11:00 p.m. newscast.

Football Frenzy is a weekly program covering the Friday night high school football games, as well as other sports news of the day. The 11:00 p.m. newscast is shortened to allow the Frenzy to air during the regular newscast timeslot.

Major personalities

• Rick Albin is the Political Reporter. He currently hosts To The Point, a political interview show airing on Sunday mornings.
• Jack Doles is Sports Director, and often anchors the 11:00 p.m. sports telecast.
• Suzanne Geha is the co-anchor of the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. news. She is a niece of former UPI correspondent Helen Thomas.
• Craig James is the chief meterologist, usually appearing on the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. newscasts.
• Larry Nienhaus is the co-anchor for the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. newscasts, having replaced longtime anchor Tom Van Howe who retired in November 2005.
• Brad Edwards is the weekend anchor.
• Jennifer Moss is the Daybreak Anchor.

Ownership

The station was founded by Leonard Verslius. Over the years, the station was bought and sold five times:

• Sold in 1951 to Grandwood Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Bitner Group.
• Sold in 1957 to Time-Life Broadcast Inc..
• Sold in 1983 to LIN Broadcasting (the predecessor to today's LIN Television).
• Sold in 1990 to LCH Communications (however, LIN continued to control the station under LCH ownership).
• Sold in 1999 to LIN Television.

LIN Television is the current owner of WOOD, as well as two other West Michigan stations, WOTV and WXSP, and numerous television stations across the United States.

Past Logos

Image:Wotv8.jpg|This 8 on this WOTV logo was used until the station became WOOD-TV again in 1992. This particular logo came from ca. 1978.

References

• [WOOD TV Channel 8 (June 13, 2005). Michigan's Radio and TV Broadcast Guide].
• [About WOOD. WOODTV.com].

External links

• [WOOD homepage]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WOOD-TV]

Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo-Battle Creek/Muskegon area  [(Nielsen DMA #39)]
WWMT 3 (CBS - The CW on DT2 September 2006) - WOOD 8 (NBC) - WZZM 13 (ABC) - WXSP 15 (UPN - to be MNTV 09/06) - WXMI 17 (Fox) - WUHQ 29 (A1/MMA) - WGVU 35 / WGVK 52 (PBS) - WUHO 36 (Ind.) - WMKG 38 (FamilyNet / UATV) - WOTV 41 (ABC) - WZPX 43 (i / The WB - to be i only September 2006) - W48CL 48 (3ABN) - WTLJ 54 (TBN) - WLLA 64 (FamilyNet)

NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Michigan

WDIV 4 () - WLUC 6 () - WPBN 7 / WTOM 4 () - WOOD 8 () - WILX 10 () - WEYI 25 ()

See also: , , , , , and stations in Michigan and , , , and stations in Ontario

 

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