WESH

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WESH
Daytona Beach-Orlando, Florida
Branding	WESH 2 (calls pronounced as a word, "Wesh")
Slogan	Where The News Comes First
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 11 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Owner	Hearst-Argyle Television
Founded	June 10, 1956
Call letters meaning	Wright EScH (original licensee for the station)
Former affiliations	None
Website	wesh.com

WESH is the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television along with the area's CW affiliate, WKCF. WESH's transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida. The tower is the tallest in Florida, at 1,740 feet. The station also serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Gainesville market, and can be seen on the fringes of the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville markets.

WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. The primary news anchors at WESH are Wendy Chioji, Martha Sugalski, and Jim Payne. The position of "Chief Meteorologist" was formerly held by Dave Marsh, who retired on July 31, 2006, after 37 years at WESH. Although not officially called Chief Meteorologist, the meteorologist currently giving forecasts on the main news shows is Tony Mainolfi.

NBC Weather Plus can also be seen on WESH's digital signal, on channel 2.2 / 11.2.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Previous logos 2 Newscasts 3 External links

[edit] History

WESH first went on the air on June 11, 1956. Businessman W. Wright Esch (for whom the station is named) won the license, but sold it to Perry Publications of Palm Beach just before the station went on the air. The original studio was located in Holly Hill, near Daytona Beach.

WESH has always been an NBC affiliate. However, WESH's original tower was only 300 feet high, which was tiny even by 1950s standards. This limited its coverage to Volusia County. As such, it shared the NBC affiliation in Central Florida with WDBO-TV (now WKMG-TV). It finally became the sole NBC affiliate for the Central Florida market on November 5, 1957. On that day, the station activated a new 1,000-foot tower in Orange City. WESH's tower is located farther north than the other major Orlando stations because of FCC rules requiring a station's tower to be within 15 miles of its city of license. Also, WESH is short-spaced to WPBT, the PBS member station in Miami.

Perry sold WESH to Cowles Communications of Des Moines, Iowa in 1965. Cowles later moved its headquarters to Daytona Beach, and built a satellite studio in Winter Park. The Cowleses got out of broadcasting in 1984 and sold WESH and KCCI to H&C Communications of Houston. Under H&C, WESH closed its original Holly Hill studio in 1989, replacing it with a new studio along US 1 and International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach. The station's primary operations also moved to a brand new studio in Winter Park in 1991.

In 1980, while still owned by Cowles, the station built its current tower on the same site as the 1,000-foot tower. The new tower allowed for WESH to expand its coverage into areas like Lakeland, Gainesville, and St. Augustine. The 1,000 foot tower was dismantled in the late 80's.

The Hobby family, owners of H&C, retired from broadcasting in 1995, selling off its stations to various owners. WESH and KCCI were sold to Pulitzer. Pulitzer sold its entire broadcasting division, including WESH and KCCI, to Hearst-Argyle in 1999. This gave WESH its third owner in 15 years.

On May 8, 2006, Hearst-Argyle announced its purchase of then-WB (now CW) affiliate WKCF from Emmis Communications. Emmis is also exiting broadcast television so it could concentrate on radio. This acquisition was completed on August 31, 2006; resulting in Orlando's third commercial duopoly operation. Orlando's other two duoplies are Cox-owned WFTV/WRDQ and Fox-owned WOFL/WRBW. WESH began producing a morning newscast for WKCF in January 2007. WESH also produces a nightly weathercast for its independent sister station serving the Tampa Bay market, WMOR-TV.

On the June 21, 2006 episode of The Tonight Show, Ross the Intern, a flamboyant personality, made an appearance as a guest meteorologist.

For most of the time since the 1980s, WESH fought it out with WFTV for number one in the Central Florida television market. However, in the February 2007 ratings period, WESH's newscasts finished a distant second in the mornings and at 5 pm, and third at 6 pm and 11 pm. The station's recently-launched 4pm news show was the highest-rated newscast, though it still trailed The Oprah Winfrey Show on WFTV by a wide margin at that timeslot. [1]

WESH called its news department "NewsCenter 2" for most of the 1980s, then switched to "Newschannel 2" in the 1990s before adopting the current "WESH 2 News" in 2005. Also in 2005, it began pronouncing the call letters as a word.

[edit] Previous logos

WESH logo from 1987. The 2 on this logo is known as the Sailboat 2 logo, and lasted from 1972 to 1992. This logo was also used by an unrelated NBC affiliate, KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1970s and 1980s.

Current WESH logo. The "2" is based on the one used by former sister station KPRC-TV in Houston from 1992 to 1995.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• WESH 2 News Early Sunrise - 5AM-7AM
  • Anchors: Tom Schaad and Sally Schulze
  • Weather: Jason Brewer
• WESH 2 News on CW18 WKCF - 7AM-9AM
  • Anchors Raoul Martinez and Eryka Washington
  • Weather: Jason Brewer
• WESH 2 News at Noon - NOON-12:30PM
  • Anchor: Gail Paschall-Brown
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
• WESH 2 News at 4:00 - 4PM-5PM
  • Anchors: Wendy Chioji and Martha Sugalski
  • Weather: Amy Sweezey
• WESH 2 News at 5 - 5PM--6PM
  • Anchors: Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski
  • Weather: Tony Mainolfi
• WESH 2 News at 6 - 6PM-6:30PM
  • Anchor: Wendy Chioji
  • Weather: Tony Mainolfi
  • Sports: Guy Rawlings
• WESH 2 News at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM
  • Anchors: Jim Payne and Martha Sugalski
  • Weather: Tony Mainolfi
  • Sports: Guy Rawlings

Weekends

• WESH 2 News Early Sunrise Weekend - 5AM-8AM
  • Anchor: Amanda Ober (Sat.) and Gail Paschall-Brown (Sun.)
  • Weather: Leslie Hudson
• WESH 2 News at 6 Weekend - 6PM-6:30PM
  • Anchor: Joe Oliver
  • Weather: Ivan Cabrerra
  • Sports: Pat Clarke
• WESH 2 News at 11 - 11PM-11:35PM (11:30 Saturdays)
  • Anchor: Joe Oliver
  • Weather: Ivan Cabrerra
  • Sports: Pat Clarke

[edit] External links

• WESH Official Website
• WESH Brings NBC to Central Florida - WESH History
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WESH

NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WESH 2 (Daytona Beach-Orlando) - WPTV 5 (West Palm Beach) - WTVJ 6 (Miami) - WJHG 7 (Panama City) - WFLA 8 (Tampa) - WTLV 12 (Jacksonville) - WBBH 20 (Fort Myers) - WTWC 40 (Tallahassee)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida