WTVF
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| WTVF | |
|---|---|
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| Nashville, Tennessee | |
| Branding | NewsChannel5 Network |
| Slogan | Your News and Information Leader / Tennessee's First and Only Local News in High Definition |
| Channels | 5 (VHF) analog, 56 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | Landmark Communications |
| Founded | August 6, 1954 |
| Call letters meaning | W Television Five |
| Former callsigns | WLAC-TV (1954-75) |
| Website | www.newschannel5.com |
WTVF, also known as "NewsChannel5", is the CBS television network affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee. The station is owned by Landmark Communications. Its transmitter is located in Nashville.
WTVF also owns and operates NewsChannel5+, a spinoff cable channel, viewable on Channel 50 on most of Middle Tennessee's cable systems. NewsChannel5+ airs replays of the mother station's news broadcasts, as well as original and exclusive call-in and interview shows. NC5+ has also carried live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of high-profile criminal trials in the Nashville area, such as those of Paul Dennis Reid and Perry March. NC5+ regularly goes live during severe weather, and will sometimes air local news live if CBS programming pre-empts WTVF's regular local news time slot, such as during the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Along with their market leading website, newschannel5.com, the stations promote themselves under the umbrella branding NewsChannel5 Network.
As of February 4, 2007, WTVF became the first and only station in Tennessee to broadcast local news in HDTV. Its sister station, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, also broadcasts in this format.
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[edit] History
WTVF signed on the air on August 6, 1954 as WLAC-TV, owned by the Life and Casualty Insurance Company and Nashville businessman Guilford Dudley. Channel 5 was part of a triopoly along with WLAC-AM 1510, and later WLAC-FM (now WNRQ-FM). The call letters, of course, reflected those of the insurance company. It has always been a CBS affilate and WLAC-AM had been Nashville's CBS affiliate since 1928. Nashville became the smallest city in the U.S. to have three network-affiliated commercial television stations. American General Corporation, a Houston-based insurer, bought L&C and WLAC-AM-FM-TV in the 1960s.
WLAC-TV was sold to the Hobby family of Houston in 1975, who changed the station's callsign to WTVF; American General/L&C eventually sold WLAC-AM-FM to other interests. Landmark bought WTVF in 1994.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the station used the "Eyewitness News" moniker; it has used the branding "NewsChannel5" since 1989.
During its years as WLAC-TV, the station helped launch the career of a young African-American reporter and native Nashvillian named Oprah Winfrey by making her a regular news anchor in the early 1970s. The station's Studio A, which was built in 1967 near the Tennessee State Capitol building, was also the home of the hit show Hee Haw for most of its 1968–1993 run (its last few years were recorded at The Nashville Network's studios adjacent to the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park). Channel 5's relation to WLAC-AM, which was known for many years for its nighttime soul music programming, led it to air a groundbreaking show on Friday and Saturday nights during the mid- and late-1960s called "Night Train," which featured R&B performances and dancing, similar to "American Bandstand." Rumor has it that Don Cornelius, then a Chicago TV host, may have used it as a model for his successful "Soul Train" years later.
WTVF has long battled with WSMV--which itself started as WSM-TV, the television arm of another Nashville heritage radio station, WSM-AM--for the top spot in the Nashville ratings. Generally speaking, Channel 5 is more popular in the city of Nashville itself than in the more conservative suburbs (e.g., Williamson and Sumner counties) because of its emphasis on hard news and investigative reports, as opposed to WSMV's emphasis on softer stories. Amazingly, the reverse was true some 15 to 20 years ago, as WSMV earned numerous awards for hard-hitting coverage, while WTVF did not make many waves, relying mainly on newscast staples like crime coverage.
For years, the station aired an hour-long local talk-variety show, "Talk of the Town," at 12:30 p.m. weekdays, delaying the CBS soap "The Bold and the Beautiful" until 1:30 p.m., with "As the World Turns" airing at 3 p.m. "B&B" and "ATWT" now air in their CBS network timeslots of 12:30 and 1 p.m., respectively, with the syndicated "Rachael" taking over at 3 p.m. "Talk of the Town" now airs for 30 minutes at 11 a.m.; it replaced the mid-day newscast.
On February 2, 2007, WTVF rolled out its new on-air look, complete with a new state-of-the-art news set, weather center, and graphics in tandem with NewsChannel5's official HD debut. The new set was completely built in a separate studio from its existing set, keeping disruptions of news operations to a minimum. As of February 4, 2007, WTVF is the 25th television station in the U.S. to air local news in High Definition, and one of only four television stations currently with an HD weather center and system.
[edit] Newscasts
[edit] Weekdays
NewsChannel 5 broadcasts live newscasts for approximately six hours Monday through Friday.
- NewsChannel 5 This Morning - 4:24 AM - 8 AM
- Anchors: Steve Hayslip and Amy Watson
- Meteorologist: Lelan Statom
- Traffic Reporter: Kristin Calpino
- Sky 5 Reporter: Phil Jones
- NewsChannel 5 at 4:00 - 4 PM - 4:30 PM
- Anchor: Vicki Yates
- Meteorologist: Ron Howes
- NewsChannel 5 at 5:00 - 5 PM - 5:30 PM
- Anchors: Rhori Johnston and Kristin Priesol
- Meteorologist: Ron Howes
- NewsChannel 5 at 6:00 - 6 PM - 7 PM
- Anchors: Chris Clark and Vicki Yates
- Meteorologist: Ron Howes
- Sports Reporter: Hope Hines
- NewsChannel 5 at 10:00 - 10 PM - 10:35 PM
- Anchors: Rhori Johnston and Kristin Priesol
- Meteorologist: Ron Howes
- Sports Reporter: Hope Hines
[edit] Weekends
NewsChannel 5 airs live newscasts for approximately four and a half hours on Saturday.
- NewsChannel 5 This Morning - 6 AM - 9 AM
- Anchor: Jennifer Kraus
- Meteorologist: Kelly Cox
- Sports Reporter: Eric Yutzy
- NewsChannel 5 at 5:00 - 5 PM - 5:30 PM
- Anchor: Scott Arnold and LaCheryl Tucker
- Meteorologist: Charlie Neese
- NewsChannel 5 at 6:00 - 6 PM - 6:30 PM
- Anchor: Scott Arnold
- Meteorologist: Charlie Neese
- Sports Reporter: Eric Yutzy
- NewsChannel 5 at 10:00 - 10 PM - 10:35 PM
- Anchors: Scott Arnold and LaCheryl Tucker
- Meteorologist: Charlie Neese
- Sports Reporter: Eric Yutzy
NewsChannel 5 airs live newscasts for approximately four hours on Sunday, and a live sports show for approximately 20 minutes.
- NewsChannel 5 This Morning - 6 AM - 9 AM
- Anchor: Jennifer Kraus
- Meteorologist: Kelly Cox
- Sports reporter: Eric Yutzy
- NewsChannel 5 at 5:30 - 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM
- Anchors: Scott Arnold
- Meteorologist: Charlie Neese
- Sports Reporter: Eric Yutzy
- NewsChannel 5 at 10:00 - 10 PM - 10:25 PM
- Anchors: Scott Arnold
- Meteorologist: Charlie Neese
- Sports Reporter: Eric Yutzy
- Chevy Sports Central - 10:25 PM - 10:45 PM
- Anchors/Reporters: Hope Hines, Eric Yutzy, and Kami Carmann. Neil O'Donnell sometimes provides Titans insight.
[edit] In Spanish
WTVF also produces daily 90-second news updates for local Telefutura affiliate, WLLC-LP, anchored by Susana Pae. This newscast is the only Spanish-language newscast in Nashville, a market consisting of about 4% Spanish-speaking viewers, a fast-growing audience in the middle Tennessee area. [1]
[edit] Notable Station Alumni
- Oprah Winfrey, Anchor/Reporter (now worldwide entertainment icon)
- Harry Chapman, Anchor & Host of "Talk of the Town" (retired; now works for Belmont University)
- Jamie Reese, Anchor/Reporter (now at ?, Minneapolis)
- Amy Marsalis, Anchor/Medical Reporter (retired)
- Lyra Manning, Reporter (left in March, 2007 to pursue other interests in Miami)
[edit] Station trivia
- Middle Tennessee's first and only live news helicopter, SKY 5, a Bell 206 B3 JetRanger, was introduced to the NewsChannel 5 Network on May 15, 2006. NewsChannel 5 reporter Phil Jones reports stories from the chopper for most newscasts. SKY 5's pilot is Ray Martin.
- Behind Winfrey, the station's second-most notable anchor is perhaps Chris Clark. He has been the station's main anchor since 1966--longer than anyone in Nashville television history (and, in fact, the longest-tenured in the entire U.S.). Clark, whose real name is Chris Botsaris, recently announced that he will retire in 2007.
- NewsChannel 5 midday anchor and "Talk of the Town" co-host Harry Chapman, also a longtime WTVF personality, retired on September 15, 2006.
- Former NFL quarterback Neil O'Donnell worked for the station as a Tennessee Titans analyst from 2005 to 2007.
- The station's chief investigative reporter, Phil Williams, is considered to be one of the best in the country. In 2002, Williams began a series called Friends in High Places, which launched an investigation into insider state contracts secured during the administration of Don Sundquist, who was governor of Tennessee from 1995 to 2003. A state and federal investigation from the story led to contract reform on the state's Capitol Hill and resulted in indictments and/or jail sentences for several top Sundquist Administration officials. The story earned Williams his second Peabody Award and a duPont-Columbia Award, the station's fifth. One Nashville political strategist said about Williams:
- "If the press calls, call your PR person. If Phil Williams calls, call your lawyer because you're in trouble."
- Though WTVF's parent company also owns The Weather Channel, WTVF has never been involved in any type of cross-promotion with the cable network, and very seldom utilizes any of its news packages (usually only during major hurricanes). This is quite unusual in a time of highly visible corporate media conglomerations.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Broadcast television in the Nashville market (Nielsen DMA #30) |
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WKRN 2 (ABC) - WSMV 4 (NBC) - WTVF 5 (CBS) - WNPT 8 (PBS) - WETV-LP 11 (Ind) - WIIW-LP 14 (Religious / DS) - WZTV 17 (Fox) - WCTE 22 (PBS) - |
