WTOV-TV
Encyclopedia
WTOV-TV is the NBC
-affiliated television station
for the Ohio Valley
that is licensed to Steubenville
& Wheeling
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter in Mingo Junction, Ohio
. Owned by Cox Enterprises
, the station has studios in Steubenville. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, Dr. Phil
, Oprah
, Jeopardy!
, Wheel of Fortune
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
.
and FM 103.5, now WOGH). When the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) opened bidding for the channel 9 license, Rust Craft and CBS
emerged as the favorites. CBS planned to move the station's license to Pittsburgh in order to get its own station in what was then the sixth-largest market. However, the FCC turned CBS' bid down. The major cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band, and the FCC had opted not to issue any more VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give Wheeling/Steubenville and the other smaller markets in the area a chance to get on the air.
Channel 9 was originally a CBS affiliate, but also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC
, sharing that network's programming with NBC affiliate WTRF-TV
. It changed its call letters to WTOV (standing for "We're Television for the Ohio Valley") in 1978 after Rust Craft merged with Ziff Davis
. On January 7, 1980, WTOV swapped affiliations with WTRF and became an NBC affiliate. The station began phasing out ABC in the 1970s, but continued to carry a few ABC programs in off-hours for many years. Channel 9 had little need to air many ABC shows, however, as Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV
was widely available on cable.
In 1983, Ziff Davis sold WTOV, along with then-sister stations WEYI-TV
in Saginaw, Michigan
, WRDW-TV
in Augusta, Georgia
and WROC-TV
in Rochester, New York
, to Television Station Partners, L.P. WTOV, along with WEYI and WROC, were sold to Smith Broadcast Group
in 1996. In 2000, Cox Enterprises acquired WTOV, along with fellow NBC affiliate WJAC-TV
in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
on the other side of the Pittsburgh market, from Sunrise/STC Broadcasting (one of several subsidiaries of Smith Broadcasting). The station dropped the remaining ABC shows from its schedule soon after Cox took over. It also updated its logo to resemble that of sister station WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, and along with WJAC, the three were occasionally marketed together as a result until WPXI revamped its news graphics and music package.
The station airs tape-delayed high school football games of the week including numerous playoff games of local teams. WTOV aired many college football/basketball games from ABC and ESPN Plus
. One of the station's slogan
s is WTOV9 Is Everywhere.
in April 2009, and is running almost all syndicated programming in HD format.
(Pittsburgh), WJAC
(Johnstown
) and other Cox-owned stations. The station's former graphics were launched in 2000, when Cox TV bought WTOV and WJAC. When WTOV launched the HD format on their newscast in April 2009, the graphics and set got a slight upgrade to match the 16x9 ratio, though the weather graphics were not upgraded until the summer of 2010.
With the new set and graphics, the station flipped to 615 Music's "The Tower" as its theme music, which ended a 9-year run of using "Total Coverage" by 615 Music. As of October 25, 2011 sister station WJAC stopped using "Total Coverage, and switched to Tower V2 by 615 Music." WJAC later switched to new on-air graphics and music as well.
As part of its upgrade, the station launched "Early Warning Live Doppler 9" using National Weather Service 5 Live Radar sites. The station does use HD overlay to allow for weather warnings and news crawls without down-converting the main signal 16x9 to 4x3 format.
On March 21, 2011 WTOV expanded to a 90 minute newscast from 5-6:30 p.m. The extra half hour replaced the syndicated TV show "Seinfeld," which aired on the station for 15 years (the show moved to cable-only WBWO).
as of Tuesday November 23, 2010.
, which broadcasts shows from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s on its second digital subchannel. WTOV's signal can be reached as far north as Sharon, Pennsylvania
, as far west as Coshocton
, as far east as Greensburg, Pennsylvania
and as far south as Sistersville, West Virginia
. Although the area is much better served by sister station WPXI
, WTOV's signal can easily be picked up in higher-elevated areas of the city of Pittsburgh
with only a "rabbit-ear" antenna. WTOV is also carried on many cable systems that fall outside of its broadcast signal in Northern and North Central
West Virginia
as well as Western Pennsylvania
.
Reporters
Weather
Sports
Washington, D.C. Newsroom
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 the Ohio Valley
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
that is licensed to Steubenville
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville is a city located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio on the Ohio-West Virginia border in the United States. It is the political county seat of Jefferson County. It is also a principal city of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area...
& Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. 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 VHF channel 9 from a transmitter in Mingo Junction, Ohio
Mingo Junction, Ohio
Mingo Junction is a village in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 3,631 at the 2000 census. In 1900, its only manufacturing plant was a steel mill owned by Carnegie Steel Company...
. Owned by Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises is the successor to the publishing company founded in Dayton, Ohio, United States, by James Middleton Cox, who began with the Dayton Daily News. He was the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States in the election of 1920...
, the station has studios in Steubenville. 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 the station includes: The Ellen DeGeneres Show
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...
, Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
, Oprah
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
.
History
The station went on air as WSTV-TV (for STeubenVille) on December 24, 1953. It was owned by Rust Craft Broadcasting along with WSTV radio (AM 1340WSTV (AM)
WSTV is a radio station broadcasting a sports radio format in Steubenville, Ohio. WSTV, although providing a rimshot signal to the Pittsburgh area and within that radio market, provides ESPN Radio programming and local news and weather updates to Steubenville, Wheeling, West Virginia and...
and FM 103.5, now WOGH). When 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) opened bidding for the channel 9 license, Rust Craft and 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...
emerged as the favorites. CBS planned to move the station's license to Pittsburgh in order to get its own station in what was then the sixth-largest market. However, the FCC turned CBS' bid down. The major cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band, and the FCC had opted not to issue any more VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give Wheeling/Steubenville and the other smaller markets in the area a chance to get on the air.
Channel 9 was originally a CBS affiliate, but also carried a secondary affiliation 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...
, sharing that network's programming with NBC affiliate WTRF-TV
WTRF-TV
WTRF-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia and the Allegheny Plateau of Eastern Ohio that is licensed to Wheeling, West Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter in Bridgeport, Ohio. Owned by West...
. It changed its call letters to WTOV (standing for "We're Television for the Ohio Valley") in 1978 after Rust Craft merged with Ziff Davis
Ziff Davis
Ziff Davis Inc. is an American publisher and Internet company. It was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. Throughout most of its history, it was a publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich hobbies such as cars,...
. On January 7, 1980, WTOV swapped affiliations with WTRF and became an NBC affiliate. The station began phasing out ABC in the 1970s, but continued to carry a few ABC programs in off-hours for many years. Channel 9 had little need to air many ABC shows, however, as Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV
WTAE-TV
WTAE-TV is the ABC affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh, broadcasting on UHF channel 51 and identifying via PSIP as channel 4 . It also serves as an ABC affiliate for the Wheeling/Steubenville and Clarksburg/Weston, West Virginia market areas...
was widely available on cable.
In 1983, Ziff Davis sold WTOV, along with then-sister stations WEYI-TV
WEYI-TV
WEYI-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Flint/Tri-Cities market that is licensed to Saginaw. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 from a 193 kilowatt, high transmitter at its studios on West Willard Road in Vienna Township along the Genesee and...
in Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
, WRDW-TV
WRDW-TV
WRDW-TV, channel 12, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Augusta, Georgia, USA. WRDW-TV is owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television, and also provides digital subchannels for MyNetworkTV on channel 12.2 and The Country Network on channel 12.3...
in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
and WROC-TV
WROC-TV
WROC-TV, virtual channel 8, is a CBS affiliate based in Rochester, New York, USA, owned and operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. WROC-TV operates Fox affiliate WUHF through a shared services agreement. The two share studios on Humboldt Street in Rochester...
in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, to Television Station Partners, L.P. WTOV, along with WEYI and WROC, were sold to Smith Broadcast Group
Smith Media, LLC
Smith Media, LLC, successor to Smith Television, is a broadcasting group co-based in Los Angeles, California and St. Petersburg, Florida, that owns and operates seven television stations across the United States....
in 1996. In 2000, Cox Enterprises acquired WTOV, along with fellow NBC affiliate WJAC-TV
WJAC-TV
WJAC-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Allegheny area of Pennsylvania that is licensed to Johnstown. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter northwest of the city in Laurel Ridge State Park along the Cambria and Westmoreland County line....
in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...
on the other side of the Pittsburgh market, from Sunrise/STC Broadcasting (one of several subsidiaries of Smith Broadcasting). The station dropped the remaining ABC shows from its schedule soon after Cox took over. It also updated its logo to resemble that of sister station WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, and along with WJAC, the three were occasionally marketed together as a result until WPXI revamped its news graphics and music package.
The station airs tape-delayed high school football games of the week including numerous playoff games of local teams. WTOV aired many college football/basketball games from ABC and ESPN Plus
ESPN Plus
ESPN Plus, the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based along with sister network ESPNU in Charlotte, North Carolina...
. One of the station's slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
s is WTOV9 Is Everywhere.
Local HD
WTOV was the first station in the Ohio Valley to broadcast its news in high definitionHigh-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...
in April 2009, and is running almost all syndicated programming in HD format.
New Set & Graphics
On October 27, 2010, the station launched a new 16x9 set during the Noon newscast. This set is similar to that used by sister stations WPXIWPXI
WPXI, channel 11, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter located on the north side of Pittsburgh. Owned by Cox Enterprises, the station has studios in the...
(Pittsburgh), WJAC
WJAC-TV
WJAC-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Allegheny area of Pennsylvania that is licensed to Johnstown. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter northwest of the city in Laurel Ridge State Park along the Cambria and Westmoreland County line....
(Johnstown
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...
) and other Cox-owned stations. The station's former graphics were launched in 2000, when Cox TV bought WTOV and WJAC. When WTOV launched the HD format on their newscast in April 2009, the graphics and set got a slight upgrade to match the 16x9 ratio, though the weather graphics were not upgraded until the summer of 2010.
With the new set and graphics, the station flipped to 615 Music's "The Tower" as its theme music, which ended a 9-year run of using "Total Coverage" by 615 Music. As of October 25, 2011 sister station WJAC stopped using "Total Coverage, and switched to Tower V2 by 615 Music." WJAC later switched to new on-air graphics and music as well.
As part of its upgrade, the station launched "Early Warning Live Doppler 9" using National Weather Service 5 Live Radar sites. The station does use HD overlay to allow for weather warnings and news crawls without down-converting the main signal 16x9 to 4x3 format.
Expanded Newscasts
On January 8, 2011 WTOV launched "NEWS9 Saturday Morning," a one hour long newscast.On March 21, 2011 WTOV expanded to a 90 minute newscast from 5-6:30 p.m. The extra half hour replaced the syndicated TV show "Seinfeld," which aired on the station for 15 years (the show moved to cable-only WBWO).
Satellite availability
As of June 3, 2010 WTOV is available on Dish Network along with WOUC and WTRF (as well as WTRF's digital subchannels). WTOV along with the other Steubenville/Wheeling stations is now available on DirecTVDirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
as of Tuesday November 23, 2010.
Digital programming
The station's digital signal is multiplexed. WTOV carries the Retro Television NetworkRetro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
, which broadcasts shows from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s on its second digital subchannel. WTOV's signal can be reached as far north as Sharon, Pennsylvania
Sharon, Pennsylvania
Sharon is a city in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in the United States, northwest of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
, as far west as Coshocton
Coshocton, Ohio
Coshocton is a city in and the county seat of Coshocton County, Ohio, United States. The population of the city was 11,682 at the 2000 census. The Walhonding River and the Tuscarawas River meet in Coshocton to form the Muskingum River....
, as far east as Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city is named after Nathanael Greene, a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War...
and as far south as Sistersville, West Virginia
Sistersville, West Virginia
Sistersville is a city in Tyler County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,588 at the 2000 census. The Sistersville Ferry crosses the Ohio River to the unincorporated community of Fly in Monroe County, Ohio.-Geography:...
. Although the area is much better served by sister station WPXI
WPXI
WPXI, channel 11, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter located on the north side of Pittsburgh. Owned by Cox Enterprises, the station has studios in the...
, WTOV's signal can easily be picked up in higher-elevated areas of the city of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
with only a "rabbit-ear" antenna. WTOV is also carried on many cable systems that fall outside of its broadcast signal in Northern and North Central
North-Central West Virginia
North-Central West Virginia is a region of the U.S. State of West Virginia. The region's largest city is Morgantown.- Counties :*Monongalia County*Marion County*Harrison County*Taylor County*Doddridge County...
West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
as well as Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania consists of the western third of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. Pittsburgh is the largest city in the region, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic and cultural center. Erie, Altoona, and Johnstown are its...
.
| Digital Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 9.1 | main WTOV-TV programming / NBC HD |
| 9.2 | Retro Television Network Retro Television Network The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs... |
Current on-air staff
Anchors- Eric Minor - 5, 6 & 11 p.m. anchor/Managing Editor (1996–present)
- Natalie Herbick - 5, 6 & 11 p.m. anchor/reporter (2007–present)
- Jeff Bowers- Morning & Noon anchor (2009–present)
- Ali Myers - Morning Co-Anchor/reporter (2010–present)
Reporters
- Kelly Camarote - Steubenville Newsroom Reporter (2009–present)
- Ron Ferguson - Reporter/Sports Fill-in (2010–present)
- Philip Stahl - Wheeling Newsroom Reporter (2010–present)
- Kate Davison - Belmont County Newsroom Reporter (2011–present)
- Briona Arradando - Stuebenville Newsroom Reporter (2011–present)
Weather
- Kevin Carter - Chief Meteorologist (5, 6 and 11) (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist)(1991–present)
- Jeff Oechslein - Morning/Noon Meteorologist (1998–present)
- Josh Eachus - Weekend Meteorologist/weekday reporter (2010–present)
- Adam Del Rosso - Saturday Morning Meteorologist/weekday reporter (2011–present)
Sports
- Don Sloan - Sports Director (1994–present)
- Rob Metzger - Sports Anchor (2007–present)
Washington, D.C. Newsroom
- Alison Burns (1999–present)
- Carol Han (2006–present)
- Scott MacFarlane (2005–present)
Notable former on-air staff
- Charles "Red" DonleyCharles "Red" DonleyCharles "Red" Donley , was a long-time sports and news anchor in the Ohio Valley.A 1941 graduate of Wellsburgh High, Red served as a Corporal in the US Marines Corps from 2/1942-9/1945 before joining the WSTV-AM radio team as a sports commentator in 1947...
- Longtime News/Sports Reporter and later director until his retirement in 1988. The station's location is named after him in his honor. - Cindy HsuCindy HsuCindy Hsu is an Emmy award-winning Chinese American local television news reporter and anchor at WCBS-TV. She previously served as the morning & noon news anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City for almost ten years....
- Reporter 1989-1991, now at WCBS-TV in New York City