WHAG-TV
Encyclopedia
WHAG-TV is the NBC
-affiliated television station
for Hagerstown, Maryland
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on Fairview Mountain west of Clear Spring
. Owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
, the station has studios in the Alexander House Hotel on National Pike
(U.S. 40
eastbound) in Downtown Hagerstown (although the address says East Washington Street). Syndicated
programming on WHAG includes: We The People, The Insider
, Storm Stories
, The 700 Club
, Inside Edition
, and AgDay
.
Despite being designated a part of the Washington, D.C.
market
(with its own O&O affiliate WRC-TV
), WHAG operates like a small market station focusing on areas west of Frederick County
. Reporters are often hired directly out of college and serve as "one man band" personnel that shoot, write, and edit their own stories. There is a high turnover rate with most personalities staying at the station for a year or two before moving on to a larger market.
-AM 1410 and WQCM
-FM 96.7 (now on 94.3). WHAG-TV's original analog transmitter was to be on top of the Hagerstown Motor Inn (now the Alexander House) but was rejected due to structural incompatibility. A site on Fairview Mountain would become the location of the analog signal on UHF channel 25. Regional Broadcasting Company wanted the station to affiliate with ABC
(which was the number one network at the time) but had to join NBC, which was the number three network. In 1973, Regional Broadcasting Company sold WHAG-TV to the Magazine Brothers of Washington D.C. who in-turn sold it to local aviation pioneer Richard Henson in 1977. It added the -TV suffix to its callsign in 1979. The station was then sold in 1981 to Great Trails Broadcasting and then to Quorum Broadcasting in 1998.
Beyond NBC programming, WHAG's line-up has been stable and consistent. It does not carry the network's Early Today
. Long blocks of infomercials have been shown on weekends since the early-1990s. In September 2006 following the lead of other Nexstar-owned stations, WHAG switched its website's URL from "nbc25.com" to "your4state.com". Around this time, infomercials began appearing on weekdays during the daytime. Recently, it has been added to the Dish Network
lineup of local offerings and is available to subscribers that currently receive the Washington D.C. market locals. On June 12, 2009, WHAG moved to UHF channel 26 when the analog to digital conversion was completed. As of June 28, 2009, the channel is available in high definition format on Verizon FiOS
in the Washington D.C. area.
) in Frederick
.
On August 30, 2010, WHAG added a half hour to its weekday noon and 5 p.m. newscasts. Until this point unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
, the station had not aired a broadcast weeknights at 5:30. It still does not offer a full two hour weekday morning show. There is now a half hour broadcast seen Monday through Saturday nights at 7. On weekends, an hour long morning show at 6 as well as a half hour Sunday morning broadcast at 9 were added. In addition, a Northern Virginia
Bureau covering Leesburg
, Berryville
, and Winchester
was opened. Although not a full news department, this is now the second local news operation established in those areas after TV3 Winchester
launched back on March 5, 2007. All of the preceding changes required the expansion of WHAG's personnel.
Weather team
Sports team
Reporters
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on Fairview Mountain west of Clear Spring
Clear Spring, Maryland
Clear Spring is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 461 as of the 2008 United States Census Bureau estimates.-Geography:Clear Spring is located at ....
. Owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...
, the station has studios in the Alexander House Hotel on National Pike
National Road
The National Road or Cumberland Road was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the federal government. Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching...
(U.S. 40
U.S. Route 40 in Maryland
U.S. Route 40 in the U.S. state of Maryland runs from western Maryland to Cecil County in the state's northeastern corner. With a total length of over , it is the longest numbered highway in Maryland. Almost half of the road overlaps with Interstate 68 or Interstate 70, while the old alignment...
eastbound) in Downtown Hagerstown (although the address says East Washington Street). Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WHAG includes: We The People, The Insider
The Insider (TV series)
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information...
, Storm Stories
Storm Stories
Storm Stories is a non-fiction television series aired on The Weather Channel and Zone Reality hosted and narrated by meteorologist and Storm-Tracker Jim Cantore. Storm Stories showcases various types of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Each episode features a famous...
, The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
, Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
, and AgDay
AgDay
AgDay is a syndicated daily half-hour television program presented in magazine format focusing on agriculture news, agribusiness, and country living. It generally airs in early morning timeslots on stations throughout the country and also airs weekday mornings on the digital cable and satellite...
.
Despite being designated a part of the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
(with its own O&O affiliate WRC-TV
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
), WHAG operates like a small market station focusing on areas west of Frederick County
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland, bordering the southern border of Pennsylvania and the northeastern border of Virginia. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 233,385....
. Reporters are often hired directly out of college and serve as "one man band" personnel that shoot, write, and edit their own stories. There is a high turnover rate with most personalities staying at the station for a year or two before moving on to a larger market.
History
The station signed-on January 3, 1970. It was owned by Warren Adler and the Regional Broadcasting Company along with WHAGWHAG (AM)
WHAG is an Oldies and Classic Hits formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Halfway, Maryland, serving Hagerstown, Maryland and Washington County, Maryland. WHAG is owned and operated by Main Line Broadcasting. WHAG simulcasts sister AM station WCHA, which also simulcasts on low-power 96.3...
-AM 1410 and WQCM
WQCM
WQCM-FM in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, is "94.3 WQCM, THE Rock Station" playing rock music for the Hagerstown, Maryland, area. WQCM used to be located on 96.7 FM, which is now sister-station, urban WDLD.-External links:*...
-FM 96.7 (now on 94.3). WHAG-TV's original analog transmitter was to be on top of the Hagerstown Motor Inn (now the Alexander House) but was rejected due to structural incompatibility. A site on Fairview Mountain would become the location of the analog signal on UHF channel 25. Regional Broadcasting Company wanted the station to affiliate with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(which was the number one network at the time) but had to join NBC, which was the number three network. In 1973, Regional Broadcasting Company sold WHAG-TV to the Magazine Brothers of Washington D.C. who in-turn sold it to local aviation pioneer Richard Henson in 1977. It added the -TV suffix to its callsign in 1979. The station was then sold in 1981 to Great Trails Broadcasting and then to Quorum Broadcasting in 1998.
Beyond NBC programming, WHAG's line-up has been stable and consistent. It does not carry the network's Early Today
Early Today
Early Today is an American morning news programme airing on the NBC television network. The program goes out live at 4:00am Eastern Time Zone for those few stations which start their local news at 4:30am, and is transmitted in a continuous half-hour tape delay loop until 10:00am ET, when Today...
. Long blocks of infomercials have been shown on weekends since the early-1990s. In September 2006 following the lead of other Nexstar-owned stations, WHAG switched its website's URL from "nbc25.com" to "your4state.com". Around this time, infomercials began appearing on weekdays during the daytime. Recently, it has been added to the Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
lineup of local offerings and is available to subscribers that currently receive the Washington D.C. market locals. On June 12, 2009, WHAG moved to UHF channel 26 when the analog to digital conversion was completed. As of June 28, 2009, the channel is available in high definition format on Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...
in the Washington D.C. area.
News operation
Right from the start, WHAG began offering local newscasts with The Valley News which aired weeknights at 6, 7, and 11. The original anchors were Bob Witt with news, Glenn Presgraves with sports, and Bill Wolfinger forecasting the weather. Bill Wolfinger also did a Saturday night horror movie show where he would be in costume similar to Lon Chaney. The news department expanded in 1972 to include weekend evening broadcasts at 11 that totaled six hours of local news per week. By the year 2000, news content increased to over 22 hours of broadcasts per week. In 1997, WHAG added a microwave truck allowing the transmitting of live breaking news from the viewing area. On February 12, 2010, WHAG dropped the "NBC 25" branding for "WHAG" and switched its news branding from "NBC 25 News" to "WHAG News". This also happened at the same time a new set, music, and graphics package was launched. At one point, the station operated a bureau on East Patrick Street (MD 144Maryland Route 144
Maryland Route 144 is a collection of state highways in the U.S. state of Maryland. These highways are sections of old alignment of U.S. Route 40 between Cumberland and Baltimore...
) in Frederick
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
.
On August 30, 2010, WHAG added a half hour to its weekday noon and 5 p.m. newscasts. Until this point unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, the station had not aired a broadcast weeknights at 5:30. It still does not offer a full two hour weekday morning show. There is now a half hour broadcast seen Monday through Saturday nights at 7. On weekends, an hour long morning show at 6 as well as a half hour Sunday morning broadcast at 9 were added. In addition, a Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
Bureau covering Leesburg
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a historic town in, and county seat of, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America. Leesburg is located west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River. Its population according the 2010 Census is 42,616...
, Berryville
Berryville, Virginia
Berryville is an incorporated town in and the county seat of Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,963 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, and Winchester
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
was opened. Although not a full news department, this is now the second local news operation established in those areas after TV3 Winchester
TV3 Winchester
TV3 Winchester is an ABC and This TV affiliate serving the Winchester, Virginia, area. The station is owned by Gray Television, which also owns WHSV-TV, TV3 Winchester's parent station; the station is also available over-the-air on WHSV's DT3 subchannel out of Harrisonburg...
launched back on March 5, 2007. All of the preceding changes required the expansion of WHAG's personnel.
News team (as of September 2011)
Anchors- Mark Kraham - news director; weekday mornings at 9:56 a.m.
- Pieter Bickford - assistant news director; weeknights at 6 and 7 p.m.
- Patricia Martellotti - weekdays at noon and 5 p.m.
Weather team
- Lou Scally - chief weather anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and 7 p.m.; also heard on WJEJWJEJWJEJ is a Full Service formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, serving the Four-State Area. WJEJ is owned and operated by Hagerstown Broadcasting Co., Inc.-Programming:...
-AM 1240 - Alan Auglis - meteorologist; weekend mornings, and weekend evenings at 11 p.m.
- Tim Pandajis (member, AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
; member, NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
) - meteorologist; weeknights at 11 p.m. - Bryan Tolle (member, NWA) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
Sports team
- Karen Loftus - sports director; weeknights at 6, 7, and 11 p.m., also WHAG Sports Connection host
- Harold Kuntz - sports anchor; weekends at 11 p.m., also sports reporter and WHAG Sports Connection host
- Kevin Reitmeyer - sports reporter; also "Athlete of the Month" segment producer
Reporters
- Ava-Joye Burnett
- Kristen Freethy
- Alex Hoff - Northern Virginia Bureau reporter
- Sujata Kandelwal
- Lynn Lawson
- Patricia Martellotti
- Bailey Michael
- Ashley Monfort - website producer
- Ananda Rochita
- Erin Wolfe - website producer
- Dawn White