WHOI (TV)
Encyclopedia
WHOI is the 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...

-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 West Central Illinois
Central Illinois
Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central section of the state, divided in thirds from north to south. It is an area of mostly flat prairie. The western section was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the distinctive western...

 licensed to Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...

. 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 19 from a transmitter on North Stewart Street in Creve Coeur
Creve Coeur, Illinois
Creve Coeur is a village in Groveland Township, Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 5,448...

. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting
Barrington Broadcasting
Barrington Broadcasting Company, LLC , headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois is an entity wholly focused on broadcast television. The company's assets mainly consist of television stations in middle and small sized markets...

, the station is operated by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Granite Broadcasting Corporation, founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988 , is a broadcasting holding company which owns or operates 14 television stations in the United States, largely centered in the midwest with a cluster in New York state...

 through joint sales
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...

 and shared services
Shared services
Shared services refers to the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the providing department effectively becomes an...

 agreements. This makes it sister to NBC
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...

 affiliate WEEK-TV
WEEK-TV
WEEK-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for West-Central Illinois licensed to Peoria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 25 from a transmitter at studios on Springfield Road in East Peoria. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 10 and in high definition...

.

Both share studios on Springfield Road in East Peoria
East Peoria, Illinois
East Peoria is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,402 at the 2010 census. East Peoria is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area, located across the Illinois River from downtown Peoria. It is home to many Caterpillar Inc. facilities...

 along with Four Seasons Broadcasting-owned MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...

 affiliates WAOE
WAOE
WAOE is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for West-Central Illinois licensed to Peoria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter at studios on Springfield Road in East Peoria. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 11...

 and low-powered WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of Eastern Iowa and West-Central Illinois that is licensed to Davenport, Iowa. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on 70th Street next to Black Hawk College near the Poplar...

. The latter has master control and some internal operations based at the Springfield Road facilities but technically serves the Quad Cities
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...

 area of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 and Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

. 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 WHOI includes: Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

, Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...

, Ellen
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...

, and The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...

.

Digital programming

It operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. This can also be seen on Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

 channel 4 (hence the CW 4 branding). WHOI-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....

.
Channel Video
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...

Aspect
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

Programming
19.1 720p
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...

 
16:9  Main WHOI programming / ABC
19.2 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...

 
4:3  "CW 4"

History

It was Peoria's second television station signing-on as WTVH-TV on October 20, 1953. The station was owned-and-operated by Hilltop Broadcasting which was co-owned by the Peoria Journal Star
Peoria Journal Star
The Journal Star is the major daily newspaper for Peoria, Illinois and surrounding area. First owned locally, then employee-owned, it became a Copley-owned entity in 1996. In 2007, the paper was sold to Fairport, New York-based GateHouse Media.-History:...

. Its first studios were on North Madison Street in Downtown Peoria. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on VHF channel 8 , it was a primary CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate but also carried shows from ABC and DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...

. The latter ceased operations in 1955 and WTVH lost CBS when WMBD-TV
WMBD-TV
WMBD-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Central Illinois licensed to Peoria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 from a transmitter on Pinecrest Drive in Groveland Township's East Peoria section. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 7 and in...

 began broadcasting.

The Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, later known as Metromedia
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...

, purchased the station in 1959. Four years later, WTVH was bumped down to UHF channel 19 so that a third commercial VHF station could sign-on in the Quad Cities
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...

 using that channel (the new station, WQAD-TV
WQAD-TV
WQAD-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of West-Central Illinois and Eastern Iowa that is licensed to Moline, Illinois...

, is also an ABC affiliate). In 1965, it was sold to the owners of WIRL-AM 1290 who changed the call sign to WIRL-TV. It became WRAU-TV in 1973 and adopted its present calls of WHOI in 1985. The call sign WTVH
WTVH
WTVH is the CBS-affiliated television station for Central New York State licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in LaFayette. The station can also be seen on Time Warner and Verizon FiOS channel 5. There is a high definition feed...

 was picked up by a channel in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...

 around 1976.

In 1987, WHOI came under the ownership of Adams Communications following a merger with its previous owner, Forward Communications. The station was sold to Brissette Broadcasting in 1991 then to Benedek Broadcasting
Benedek Broadcasting
Benedek Broadcasting is a former television broadcaster, who owned and operated 22 network-affiliated television stations throughout the United States, all affiliated with major television networks, serving mainly small and medium-size markets. The company was founded in the late 1970s by A...

 in 1996. When Benedek merged with Gray Television
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is a communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with administrative offices in Albany, Georgia.Established in 1946 by James H...

 in 2002 following a Chapter 11
Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...

 bankruptcy, WHOI was spun off to Chelsey Broadcasting.

Starting in 1998, it began to run a cable-only
The WB 100+ Station Group
The WB 100+ Station Group was a group of primarily non-broadcast local cable television outlets for The WB Television Network, for markets below the top 100 television media markets in the United States. Dayparts with no WB programming were programmed by the network...

 WB affiliate. Known by the fictional call sign "WBPE", it was on channel 4 on most cable systems in the area. In April 2004, WHOI and KHQA-TV
KHQA-TV
KHQA-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tri-States area of Western Illinois, Northeastern Missouri, and extreme Southeastern Iowa. It is licensed to Hannibal, Missouri. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter northeast of Quincy, Illinois...

 in the Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...

/Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...

 media 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...

 became two of the founding stations of current owner Barrington Broadcasting. On September 18, 2006, when The WB and UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 merged to create The CW, "WBPE" became part of The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....

 which is a similar operation to The WB 100+. WHOI's digital signal added a new second digital subchannel to simulcast this programming to offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. The channel then began to use WHOI-DT2 as its official calls.

On March 2, 2009, it was announced that the operations of WHOI and its CW subchannel would be taken over by WEEK-TV through joint sales and shared services agreements. Sixteen employees were transferred to WEEK-TV but as many as thirty were laid-off immediately while WHOI moved to that channel's studios. This left the five full-power commercial stations in the market operated by two entities. The WHOI and CW subchannel websites were immediately changed to redirects to WEEK-TV's web address. As part of the agreement, Granite-owned CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate WTVH (which is the oldest television station in Syracuse) was folded into Barrington's NBC affiliate WSTM-TV
WSTM-TV
WSTM-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Central New York State licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter on Sentinel Heights Road in LaFayette. The station can also be seen on Verizon FiOS channel 3 and Time Warner channel 4...

 and low-powered CW affiliate WSTQ-LP
WSTQ-LP
WSTQ-LP is the low-powered CW-affiliated television station for Central New York State licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter on West Kirkpatrick Street alongside WOLF-FM's tower in the city's Lakefront section. Due to the low-powered status, the...

 in a similar way on the same day.

On June 12, WHOI remained on channel 19 when the analog to digital conversion was completed with the "WHOI" calls being transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 19 to the new digital channel 19 and the "WHOI-DT" call sign from the pre-transition digital channel 40 being permanently discontinued. However, the PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...

 identifier still identifies the station's main channel on 19.1 as "WHOI-DT".

News operation

During the 1980s and early-1990s, WHOI aired a nightly 5:30 o'clock newscast and showed ABC World News Tonight weeknights at 6 and weekends at 5. This provided viewers with a local broadcast seven nights a week while other stations aired national news. By 2009, before being consolidated with WEEK-TV, WHOI produced local newscasts weeknights at 5, 6, and 10. Weekend broadcasts were Saturday nights at 6 and 10 and Sunday nights at 5:30 and 10. The weekday morning show, HOI 19 News Daybreak, continues to air from 5 to 7 after America This Morning and before Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

.

After the merger, four on-air staff were consolidated with WEEK-TV's news department and continue to be seen on-air. Otherwise, this station uses other staff from that station for all other content. WHOI's weeknight 5 and 6 o'clock broadcasts were replaced with one at 5:30. ABC World News was then moved to 6. That channel still airs a separate broadcast weeknights at 10. On weekends, the station simulcasts WEEK-TV although this may be pre-empted by ABC programming. The weekday local broadcasts on WHOI air from a new secondary set at WEEK-TV's studios.

On September 13, 2010, WHOI began airing a talk and lifestyle magazine show called Good Company. It airs weeknights at 5 from another secondary set. WEEK-TV does not air early evening news at 6 on Sundays but WHOI does. Both stations currently offer the area's only local newscasts in 16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...

 widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

 enhanced definition. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the ratio of HD television screens. Like all CW Plus stations in the Central Time Zone
Central Time zone
In North America, the Central Time Zone refers to national time zones which observe standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC , and daylight saving, or summer time by subtracting five hours...

, WHOI-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...

on weekdays from 5 to 8.

Newscast titles

  • News Scene 19 (1970s)
  • 19 News (1980s-1988)
  • 19 Eyewitness News (1988–1995)
  • HOI (19) News (2001–present)
  • News 25 (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows)

Station slogans

  • "Count on a Friend, Turn to 19" (1989–1992, used during period station used Frank Gari
    Frank Gari
    Frank Gari is a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a performer are "Utopia" , "Lullaby of Love" and "Princess" , all of which hit the U.S. Top 40 in 1961. He co-wrote with Roger McGuinn the song Beach Ball for Bobby Darin...

    's "Turn To News")
  • "The Heart of Illinois" (1992–2008, general)
  • "Your News Source" (1992–1995)
  • "Where Every Second Counts" (2002–2008, news)
  • "Accurate. Balanced. To the Point." (2008–present)
  • "Your Home Team" (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows)

News team

+ denotes personnel not seen on WEEK-TV

Anchors
  • + Mark Welp - weekday mornings and Good Company host
  • + Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings and Good Company host
    • weekday morning weather
  • + Jen Christensen - weeknights and "News Anchor Mom" segment producer
  • Denise Jackson - weekends and reporter


Storm Team 19 Meteorologists
  • Chuck Collins (AMS
    American Meteorological Society
    The 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...

     and NWA
    National Weather Association
    The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...

    Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 10
  • Lee Ranson - weeknights at 5:30
  • Ashley McNamee - weekends and news reporter
    • fill-in news anchor


Sports
  • Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights
    • Pep Rally and Sports Final host
  • Marc Strauss - weekends and news reporter
  • Josh Simon - sports reporter
  • Lee Hall - Pep Rally and Sports Final host


Reporters
  • Eric Shangraw - "You Gotta Eat" segment producer
  • Joy Miller - "Ask Dr. Joy" segment producer
  • Art Ginsburg - "Mr. Food" segment producer
  • Leigh Ann - "Fresh Ideas" segment producer
  • Maggie Vespa
  • Gina Ford

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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