WSIL-TV 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 Southern Illinois, Southeastern Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, and the Purchase

Jackson Purchase

The Jackson Purchase is a region in the state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and Tennessee River to the east. Although technically part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until 1818, when...

 area of Western Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 that is licensed to Harrisburg, Illinois

Harrisburg, Illinois

Harrisburg is a city and township in Saline County, Illinois, United States. It is located about southwest of Evansville, Indiana, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The 2010 population was 9,017, with a township population of 10,790. It is the county seat of Saline County...

. 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 34 from a transmitter in Creal Springs, Illinois

Creal Springs, Illinois

Creal Springs is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 702 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Creal Springs is located at ....

. Locally owned, the station has studios on Country Aire Drive in Carterville, Illinois

Carterville, Illinois

Carterville is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, in the United States, and is geographically situated between Carbondale, Illinois and Marion, Illinois. The city is located next to Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge's of land and water contain a wide diversity of flora and...

 along IL 13

Illinois Route 13

Illinois Route 13 is a major east–west state route in southern Illinois. Illinois 13 has its western terminus at Centreville at Illinois Route 157 and its eastern terminus at the Kentucky state line and the Ohio River, at Kentucky Route 56. This is a distance of .- Route description :Illinois...

. 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 WSIL 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...

, 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...

, The Nate Berkus Show

The Nate Berkus Show

The Nate Berkus Show, commonly referred to as The Nate Show, is a syndicated talk show hosted by interior designer Nate Berkus, which premiered on September 13, 2010....

, and Don't Forget the Lyrics!

Don't Forget the Lyrics!

Don't Forget the Lyrics! is a game show that originally aired on Fox from July 11, 2007 to June 19, 2009, hosted by Wayne Brady and produced by RDF USA, part of RDF Media. The launch of this show prompted NBC to move up the launch of their similar game show The Singing Bee...

. The station operates a full-time satellite, KPOB-TV in Poplar Bluff, Missouri

Poplar Bluff, Missouri

Poplar Bluff is a city in Butler County located in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is the county seat of Butler County and is known as "The Gateway to the Ozarks" among other names. As of the 2000 U.S...

. This station airs a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter in the city along US 60

U.S. Route 60

U.S. Route 60 is an east–west United States highway, running from the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast in Virginia to western Arizona. Despite the final "0" in its number, indicating a transcontinental designation, the 1926 route formerly ended in Springfield, Missouri, at its intersection...

/US 67

U.S. Route 67

U.S. Route 67 is a 1,560 mile long north–south U.S. highway in the Central United States. The southern terminus of the route is at the United States-Mexico border in Presidio, Texas, where it continues south as Mexican Federal Highway 16 upon crossing the Rio Grande. The northern...

. WSIL does not maintain any offices in Poplar Bluff. WSIL can also be seen on digital translator K10KM-D channel 10 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Cape Girardeau is a city located in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is located approximately southeast of St. Louis and north of Memphis. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 37,941. A college town, it is the home of Southeast Missouri...

.

History

WSIL signed-on for the first time December 1, 1953. It originally broadcast an analog signal on UHF channel 22 but moved to VHF channel 3 in March 1959 as did numerous stations originally assigned to UHF allocations before the Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC) mandated that television-set manufacturers include UHF tuning capability in their products in 1964. The original UHF transmitter had been built in Harrisburg before Paducah

Paducah, Kentucky

Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...

, Harrisburg, and Cape Girardeau had been collapsed into one large 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...

.

However, some parts of Southeastern Missouri could not receive channel 3's signal clearly, presumably because WSIL had to conform it to protect WREC-TV (now WREG-TV

WREG-TV

WREG-TV is Memphis, Tennessee's CBS television affiliate, operating on digital channel 28, and uses PSIP 3 as its virtual channel. The station is owned by Local TV, which took over all of the television stations formerly owned by The New York Times Company on May 7, 2007. Its transmitter is...

) in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 in the next market to the south. As a result, KPOB signed-on September 15, 1967 to provide service to those counties, although Jonesboro, Arkansas

Jonesboro, Arkansas

Jonesboro is a city in and one of the two county seats of Craighead County, Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 US Census, the population of the city was 67,263. A college town, Jonesboro is the largest city in northeastern Arkansas and the fifth most populous city in the state...

' KAIT

KAIT

KAIT in Jonesboro, Arkansas is the ABC affiliated television station for Northeastern Arkansas and Southeastern Missouri, offering a mix of news and syndicated programming and local broadcasts. Its transmitter is located in Egypt, Arkansas.-History:...

 (another ABC station) may have been visible in much of the area.

For many years, WSIL did not air the weeknight broadcasts of ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

, broadcasting instead a children's show featuring cartoons and Three Stooges

Three Stooges

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

shorts in the 5:30 to 6:30 time slot. It was not until sometime in the late-1970s it became the last ABC affiliate in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to abandon the practice of preempting the network news. However, in ABC's earlier years, quite a number of local stations did not carry the newscasts because their ratings trailed competitors 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...

 and 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...

 by a large margin. This changed when ABC initiated the World News Tonight (now ABC World News) format in 1978, finally establishing the network as a significant news operation.

WSIL had the unique distinction of being the first station in the market to broadcast a digital signal at a full 1 megawatt of power (equivalent to 5 megawatts in analog) on October 22, 2002. It will soon also be the first to air a mobile digital signal. The station was one of the ABC affiliates that refused to air NYPD Blue during its first season in 1993-1994. Station Manager Steve Wheeler appeared on 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...

to explain his decision. During the interview with Charlie Gibson, Wheeler announced that if the program was successful, WSIL would reconsider. During this first season, Fox affiliate KBSI

KBSI

KBSI is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Missouri Bootheel, Southern Illinois, and Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase. Licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in rural Cape Girardeau County north of the...

 aired the program during the assigned network slot Tuesdays nights at 9 Central Time

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...

.

News operation

WSIL's newscasts focus almost exclusively on Southern Illinois unlike the other big three stations

Big Three Television Networks

The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...

 in the area. This is despite the presence of KPOB, which is a straight simulcast of WSIL. In fact, channel 3 does not even mention the market's other two main cities (Paducah and Cape Girardeau) in its on-air identifications, choosing to identify as "Harrisburg/Marion

Marion, Illinois

The city of Marion is the county seat of Williamson County, Illinois. The 2010 census counted 17,193 residents, making Marion the 25th most populated city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, in Illinois, and the second most populous city in Southern Illinois, outside of the Metro-East, behind...

/Carbondale

Carbondale, Illinois

Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, in the state of Illinois, within the Southern Illinois region. It is located at the junction of Illinois Route 13 and U.S. Route 51, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Shawnee National Forest...

". CBS affiliate KFVS-TV

KFVS-TV

KFVS-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Southeastern Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky, and Southern Illinois that is licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter north of the city in rural Cape...

 provides some coverage of Southern Illinois from a nearby bureau on East Plaza Drive in Carterville.

Traditionally, KFVS has covered Southeastern Missouri more while NBC affiliate WPSD-TV

WPSD-TV

WPSD-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase, Southern Illinois, and the Missouri Bootheel. Licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky...

 offers the most coverage of Western Kentucky since it is based in Paducah. Its newscasts are known as News 3 even though program listings online and on satellite services can refer to them as News 3 News. Unlike most ABC affiliates, WSIL does not air a full two-hour morning or midday newscast during the week. On October 6, 2010, WSIL became the first station in the region to offer news in high definition.

Station slogans

• "Your Local News Source" (late 1980s-early 1990s)
• "Your Southern Illinois News Leader" (2004-present)

News team

Anchors

• Emily Eddington - weekday mornings (5:30am-7am) and multimedia journalist
• Kevin Hunsperger - weekday mornings (5:30am-7am) and multimedia journalist
  • "To Your Health" segment producer
• Mark Kiesling - weeknights at 5
  • news promotion and special projects
• Edan Schultz - Managing Editor seen weeknights at 6 and 10
• Emily Finnegan - weekends and multimedia journalist

Meteorologists

• Jim Rasor - Chief Meteorologist
• Clint Misselhorn
• Nick Hausen
• Matt Rudkin

Sports (both seen on Sports Extra)

• Darren Kinnard - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 10
• Kelly Burke - weekends and sports reporter
• Bret Beherns

Reporters/Multimedia Journalists

• Christen Craig
  Christen Craig
  Christen Renee Craig is a News Reporter, television producer, Assignment Editor and anchor for the ABC affiliate WSIL channel 3 in Carterville, Illinois. Craig earned her bachelors degree in radio relevision mass communication from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in only three years while...
  
  
• Andy Waterman
• Stephanie Tyrpak
• Fanna Haile-Selassie

External links

• WSIL-TV/KPOB-TV