WHNT-TV

Information about WHNT-TV

WHNT-TV
Huntsville/Decatur, Alabama
BrandingNews Channel 19
SloganTaking Action. Getting Results.
ChannelsAnalog: 19 (UHF)
Digital: 59 (UHF)
AffiliationsCBS
OwnerLocal TV
FoundedNovember 28, 1963
Call letters meaningW HuNTsville
Transmitter Power1290 kW (analog)
1400 kW (digital)
Height531 m (analog)
514 m (digital)
Facility ID48693
Transmitter Coordinates
Websitewww.whnt.com


WHNT-TV is the CBS television affiliate in northern Alabama, airing on UHF Channel 19. The signal also reaches counties in southern middle Tennessee. WHNT is also the only station in Huntsville that has never changed its affiliation.

History

WHNT began operations on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1963 and has always been an affiliate of CBS. The FCC originally licensed the frequency for WHNT to the city of Fort Payne, Ala, some 40 miles (65 kilometers) to the southeast. The station was founded by a local businessman, Charles Grisham, now deceased. In 1980, he sold WHNT to The New York Times Company, which operated it for over a quarter century. In September 2006, The Times announced that it would put its entire broadcast group up for sale, with eight other stations affected in addition to WHNT. In January 2007, the announcement was made that an agreement in principle had been reached to sell the stations to Oak Hill Capital. The station officially changed hands at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, May 7, 2007. Oak Hill Capital operates WHNT as part of Local TV LLC.

WHNT's studios are located in downtown Huntsville, where the station moved in 1987 from its original location on Monte Sano Mountain, a move prompted by a fire that destroyed rival WAFF-TV's studios, then located on Governors Drive, five years earlier. (For use during an emergency, a backup broadcast capability for news remains at the Monte Sano site.) WHNT is the only station in Huntsville to operate from a facility actually constructed specifically for broadcasting purposes. WAAY-TV operates out of a former gas station; WAFF-TV, out of an old jewelry store; and WZDX-TV, out of an office building. The transmitter and tower remain on Monte Sano, however, because the mountain provides the highest elevation in the immediate area. In 2003, WHNT allowed competing stations WAAY and WZDX to use space on its tower after a tower both stations used on WAAY's property collapsed, killing three men.

WHNT first used 16 mm film for most of its commercial and news gathering. In 1979, the station switched to the 3/4 inch video tape format. The station used this system until 1998, when new Panasonic DVC machines and cameras were purchased; DVC is still being used. However, in spring 2006, new cameras were purchased for the station's Shoals Bureau (northwestern Alabama) and Sand Mountain Bureau (northeastern Alabama). The cameras are Panasonic P2 cameras which record on 4gig cards. WHNT's video archives go back to 1980. For security reasons, parts of the archives are stored at the station's news bureau in Albertville (Sand Mountain).

Generally speaking, over the years, WHNT has always been competitive in terms of ratings with rivals WAAY-TV and WAFF-TV. In fact, WHNT is the only station among the three Huntsville television stations that broadcast regular newscasts to have never finished in last place in the Nielsen ratings. It brands its newscasts presently as "News Channel 19." Denise Vickers serves as news director.

In May 2002, WHNT became the first station in the Huntsville market to begin broadcasting in high definition, on digital channel 59. WHNT's digital signal is broadcast with a power of more than one million watts. Giving the station, by far, the most powerful HD signal in the market. The station will revert to channel 19 for its digital broadcasts once analog signals are turned off; channel 59 will no longer be available for television broadcasts after the digital conversion.

On February 1, 2004, WHNT broadcast the Super Bowl in High Defintion, becoming the first station in the Huntsville market to do so. Super Bowl XXXVIII became famous for Janet Jackson exposing her breast during the halftime show.

Since fall 2004, WHNT-TV has used the ARMOR Doppler Radar system in weather forecasting.

WHNT-TV has been noted for live coverage of breaking news, such as the shooting death of a Huntsville police officer, the 2006 Huntsville Bus Accident [1], and the solving of a 30-year-old murder case in September 2007.

Anchors

News Anchors

  • Jerry Hayes - 6pm & 10pm
  • Elise Morgan - 6pm & 10pm
  • Greg Screws - mornings & 5pm anchor
  • Lisa Washington - mornings
  • Steve Johnson - mornings
  • Robert Reeves - mornings

Weather Anchors

Sports

Other Reporters

  • Greg Privett - Chief Investigative Reporter/Weekend Anchor
  • Carson Clark - Sand Mountain Bureau chief
  • Nate Adams - First Alert Traffic Reporter
  • Ellis Eskew -
  • Amber Stuart -
  • Barry Hiett -
  • Tiffany Golden -

Former Reporters/Anchors

  • Amy George - Now heads development for a prenatal care fund named in memory of her late daughter. That fund is located at Huntsville Hospital Foundation. She retains a connection with WHNT through her photo on the station's website, under the section "Working Wonders"; George also hosts a monthly webchat arranged by the station, where she was named special correspondent with features of the same name, "Working Wonders"[1]
  • Sherea Harris - now at WBRC-TV, Birmingham.
  • LaTonya Norton - now at WDSU-TV, New Orleans.
  • Kym Richardson-Thurman - now at WPMI-TV, Mobile.

Notes

The Huntsville-Decatur television market is only one of two in the Southeastern U.S. to have only UHF channel allocations; Lexington, Ky. is the only other. No full-power VHF stations exist at all in the state of Alabama north of Birmingham; thus, none of the North Alabama-based channels have ever suffered a disadvantage from competing against established VHF stations in the same area, a problem that particularly affected UHF broadcasters elsewhere, well into the early 1980s.

References

External links

  •  • [ e] Broadcast television in the Huntsville / Decatur market  (Nielsen DMA #83)
WBCF 3 (A1) - WXFL 5 (Ind) - WTZT 11 (A1) - WHDF 15 (The CW) - W18BL 18 (Ind) - WHNT 19 (CBS) - WHIQ 25 / WFIQ 36 (PBS / APT) -
WYLE 26 (S@H) - WAAY 31 (ABC) - WMJN 43 (FamilyNet) - W46CF 46 / W59CF 59 (UBN) - WAFF 48 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) (The Tube on DT3) -
WZDX 54 (FOX) (MNTV on DT2 via "WAMY") - WYAM 56 (Ind) - W64BJ 64 (TBN)
Significantly Viewed Out-of-Market Broadcast Stations
Reception may vary by geographical location
WMAE 12 (PBS / MPB) - WCLP 18 (PBS / GPB)
Cable television stations
"WAMY" (MNTV)
 •  • [ e]
CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Alabama
WTVY 4 () - WKRG 5 () - WAKA 8 () - WHNT 19 () - WIAT 42 ()
See also: , , , , , , and stations in Alabama


Local TV LLC
 •  • [ e]
Corporate officers: Randy Michaels (Chairman and CEO) | Robert Lawrence ABC: WNEP • WQAD | CBS: KFSM • WHNT • WREG • WTKR | NBC: KFOR • WHO | MyNetworkTV: KAUT | Local Weather Channel: WQAD WX Channel Annual Revenue: Unknown at this time | Employees: Unknown at this time | Stock Symbol: None, privately held | Website: www.localtvllc.com
Huntsville, Alabama

Nickname: "Rocket City"

Coordinates:
Country United States
State Alabama
Counties Madison, Limestone

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Decatur, Alabama

Nickname: D-Rock
Location in Morgan County and the state of Alabama
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Alabama
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In broadcasting, a channel is a range of frequencies (or, equivalently, wavelengths) assigned by a government for the operation of a particular television station or radio station.
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Analog television (or analogue television) encodes television and transports the picture and sound information as an analog signal, that is, by varying the amplitude and/or frequencies of the broadcast signal.
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Cycles per second: 300 MHz to 3 GHz
Wavelength: 1 m to 100 mm Ultra high frequency (UHF) designates a range (band) of electromagnetic waves whose frequency is between 300 MHz and 3 GHz, which is 300 MHz to 3,000 MHz.
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Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV or DTT) is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture and sound using aerial broadcasts to a conventional antenna (or aerial) instead of a satellite dish or
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Cycles per second: 300 MHz to 3 GHz
Wavelength: 1 m to 100 mm Ultra high frequency (UHF) designates a range (band) of electromagnetic waves whose frequency is between 300 MHz and 3 GHz, which is 300 MHz to 3,000 MHz.
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Broadcast networks

In a radio network or Television network, an affiliate is a radio station or TV station that agrees to carry the broadcasts of, but is not owned by, the network.
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CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country  United States
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Local TV LLC

Private
Founded 2007
Headquarters Fort Wright, Kentucky, USA

Key people Randy Michaels, CEO
Industry Broadcast television
Parent Oak Hill Capital Partners
Website www.localtvllc.
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For the town in Argentina, see 28 de Noviembre.
November 28 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1960 1961 1962 - 1963 - 1964 1965 1966

Year 1963 (MCMLXIII
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In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a callsign or call letters, or abbreviated as a call) is a unique designation for a transmitting station.
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In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power (ERP) is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains to the actual electrical power output of a transmitter.
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1 metre =
SI units
1000 mm 0 cm
US customary / Imperial units
0 ft 0 in
The metre or meter[1](symbol: m) is the fundamental unit of length in the International System of Units (SI).
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CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country  United States
Availability    National; also available in  Canada,  Mexico, and the Caribbean
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State of Alabama

Flag of Alabama Seal
Nickname(s): Yellowhammer State, Heart of Dixie
Motto(s): Audemus jura nostra defendere

Official language(s) English
Spoken language(s) English 96.
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State of Tennessee

Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Volunteer State
Motto(s): Agriculture and commerce

Official language(s) English

Capital Nashville
Largest city Memphis

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Huntsville, Alabama

Nickname: "Rocket City"

Coordinates:
Country United States
State Alabama
Counties Madison, Limestone

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Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks to the Judeo-Christian God at the conclusion of the harvest season. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1960 1961 1962 - 1963 - 1964 1965 1966

Year 1963 (MCMLXIII
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Federal Communications Commission

Logo

The FCC's official seal
Agency overview
Formed June 19, 1934
Preceding Agencies Federal Radio Commission
 

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Fort Payne, Alabama
Location in DeKalb County and the state of Alabama
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Alabama
County DeKalb
Area
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983

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The New York Times Company

Public (NYSE:  NYT )
Founded September 18, 1851
Headquarters New York, NY

Key people Henry Jarvis Raymond, founder
Industry Newspapers, radio broadcasting
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