WTVD

Encyclopedia : W : WT : WTV : WTVD

Veterans of WTVD's staff include musicians John Tesh and John Loudermilk, and ESPN sports anchor Stuart Scott, as well as former Good Morning America co-host David Hartman.

History

When WRAL-TV signed on and took the NBC affilation in 1956, WTVD switched its primary affiliation to ABC. When WNAO signed off in 1959 due to financial difficulties, WTVD took on a primary affiliation with CBS and a secondary affiliation with ABC. After WRAL took the ABC affiliation full-time in 1962, WTVD broadcast a limited amount of NBC programming since the area only had two commercial stations at the time. NBC would not return to the Triangle full-time for another six years until 1968, when channel 28 returned to the airwaves as WRDU-TV (now WRDC-TV); however, WTVD carried the most popular CBS and NBC programs, leaving WRDU with the lower-rated shows from both networks, until 1971, when WTVD became an exclusive CBS affiliate. While its capacity to broadcast in color was achieved as early as 1958, its first regular color local programming began in 1966.

In 1978, WTVD attempted to expand its broadcast coverage to the Fayetteville area, which had been without a broadcast TV station for nearly two decades. Its studios were relocated to 411 Liberty Street in Downtown Durham on a parcel of land it shares with the Durham County Library, while a new 2,000 foot tower was built at the Garner, North Carolina transmitter site. A fire on March 4, 1979 caused extensive damage to the newly-built studio building, however the newsroom and a number of other key components had been rebuilt within a month. By that time, much of WTVD's operations had returned to normal, although it had resorted to temporary setups during the interim such as holding the newscasts in one of the meeting rooms that survived the aforementioned crisis unscathed.

On August 4, 1985, the station switched affiliations with WRAL and became an ABC station when its parent company, Capital Cities Communications, purchased the ABC network. In 1996, WTVD became a Disney entity with Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities. The station was the first O&O of any major network in the Triangle area market, and was also the only one until NBC bought WNCN in the mid-90s. When WNCN was sold to Media General on June 26 2006, WTVD became the only network O&O again.

Newscasts

WTVD has waged a high-spirited battle with WRAL in the Triangle area for decades; currently it continues to run second in the news ratings behind its Raleigh rival. Its principal anchor, Larry Stogner, has been with the station since 1976 and a weekday anchor since 1983. His longtime co-anchor for much of the 1990s, Miriam Thomas, abruptly left WTVD after 19 years in November of 2001.

• Eyewitness News at 5 a.m./6 a.m.(4:55-7am)

News: Barbara Gibbs, John Clark

Weather: Chris Hohmann

Traffic: Steve Forgy

• Eyewitness News at Noon

• Eyewitness News at 5 p.m.

• Eyewitness News at 5:30 p.m.

• Eyewitness News at 6 p.m.

• Eyewitness News at 11 p.m.

• Weekends

News: Anthony Wilson and Amber Rupinta

Weather: Jason Brewer

News: Mike Dunston and Shae Crisson

Weather: Glenn Willey

Sports: Joe Mazur

WB22 News Operation

On June 26, 2006, WTVD debuted a new ten o'clock newscast for WLFL, entitled Eyewitness News at Ten on WB22. This newscast runs directly against the WRAL-produced newscast on WRAZ-TV. No plans have been announced for a morning newscast.

Syndicated Programming

• Live with Regis and Kelly, weekdays, 9-10 a.m.
• The Tony Danza Show, weekdays, 10-11 a.m.
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, weekdays, 12:30-1 p.m.
• The Oprah Winfrey Show weekdays, 4-5 p.m. and 1:05-2:05 a.m.
• Jeopardy! weeknights, 7-7:30 p.m.
• ''Wheel of Fortune, weeknights, 7:30-8 p.m.
• ''Entertainment Studios.com, weeknights, 2:05-2:35 a.m.

Syndicated Shows Formerly Run on WTVD

• Alice (1982-1983)
• Carter Country (1980-1982)
• Charlie's Angels (1981-?)
• Diff'rent Strokes (1984-1988?)
• Donahue
• Entertainment Tonight (1981-?)
• Gunsmoke (1970s)
• The Jeffersons (1981-?)
• M*A*S*H (early 1980s)
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1978-1983)
• The People's Court (1981-1993)
• The Rockford Files (1979-1983?)
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996-2002)
• Sally Jesse Raphael (1985-95)
• Three's Company (1980s)

External links

• [WTVD Website]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVD]

.8 billion USD (2004) | Employees: 129,000 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [DIS] | Website: [disney.go.com]

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