WLBZ

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WLBZ
Bangor, Maine
Branding	WLBZ 2 (normal) WLBZ News Center 2 (newscasts)
Slogan	People You Know, News You Trust
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 25 (UHF) digital
Translators	4 WGCI-LP Skowhegan 57 W57AQ Calais
Affiliations	NBC WX+ (on DT2)
Owner	Gannett
Founded	September 12, 1954
Call letters meaning	taken from sister station WLBZ-AM
Former callsigns	WTWO (1954-1963)
Former affiliations	CBS (1954-1962) ABC (secondary, 1954-1965)
Website	wlbz2.com

WLBZ is the callsign of the NBC television affiliate in Bangor, Maine. Licensed to Bangor, the station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on UHF channel 25. WLBZ's transmitter on Hog Hill in Holden serves the central and easthern sections of the state of Maine. In addition to their main transmitter, WLBZ operates two outlying translators. One of them, WGCI-LP channel 4 on Bigelow Hill in Skowhegan, is part of the Portland market. The other, W57AQ channel 57 is located in Calais (WLBZ has filed an application with the FCC to broadcast a digital signal of W57AQ on channel 8 with the same call letters). WLBZ's studios are located on Mount Hope Ave in Bangor. Owned by Gannett, WLBZ is sister station to Portland's NBC affiliate WCSH. WLBZ is known on-air as "WLBZ 2". The station serves as the default NBC television affiliate for the Presque Isle market via cable.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operation 2.1 Newscasts 2.2 News Team 3 Notable WLBZ Alumni 4 External Links

[edit] History

The station began broadcasting on September 12, 1954 as WTWO and was owned by Murray Carpenter. Shortly after signing on, the station gained an affiliation with CBS and also shared a secondary ABC affiliation with WABI-TV until WEMT (now WVII-TV) signed on in 1965. In 1963, the station was sold to the Rines family's Maine Broadcasting System, owners of WCSH in Portland. The Rines family also owned WLBZ-AM 620, and changed WTWO's calls to the current WLBZ-TV to match its new radio sister. Also, the affiliation was switched to NBC to match WCSH. Beginning in the 1980s, WLBZ started simulcasting many WCSH newscasts. This process has continued to the point where today, only the weekday 5 and 6 PM newscasts are done entirely from Bangor. On holidays and weekends, all newscasts originate from Portland. Also in the 1980s, WLBZ-AM was sold off and renamed WZON.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the station was perhaps best known as the home of Eddie Driscoll. Driscoll hosted many programs on the station, and was known for his improvisation skills and sense of humor. Driscoll died September 24, 2006 after suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Also in the 1970s, WLBZ added a UHF transmitter, W57AQ, in the border town of Calais, allowing cable systems in Atlantic Canada to distribute the station by a microwave link from the border. This immediately doubled or even tripled its coverage area and viewership. Most Canadian cable systems dropped WLBZ after 1996, with the last ones doing so in 2004. The Maine Broadcasting System sold both WLBZ and WCSH to Gannett in 1997.

In October of 2005, WLBZ began airing NBC Weather Plus. The weather service includes local forecasts from WLBZ meteorologist Steve McKay as well as the weather team at WCSH in Portland. National weather is provided by NBC meteorologists. Known as News Center Weather Plus, the channel is simlucasted on both of WCSH and WLBZ's DT2 digital channels as well as Time Warner digital cable channel 166.

[edit] News Operation

Like WCSH, WLBZ also uses the popular News Center title, but simulcasts most of WCSH's newscasts. However, WLBZ does airs its own weekday newscasts at 5 and 6 PM that originate from their own studios in Bangor. For the WLBZ newscasts that simulcast WCSH including weather, they tend to take on a regional feel with news coverage from Portland and Bangor. All weekend newscasts simulcast WCSH including weather. Unlike most NBC affiliates, WCSH and WLBZ air a weekend Noon newscast.

The station co-produces with WCSH a daily 10 PM newscast called News Center at 10 on The CW Portland on WPXT, Portland's CW affiliate. During the weekdays, the newscast is hosted by WCSH anchor Shannon Moss and WLBZ chief meteorologist Steve McKay. The newscast is aired from the WCSH studios in Portland with weather originating from WLBZ in Bangor. On the weekends, Jennifer Rooks anchors and meteorologist Todd Gutner provides weather forcasts. The program is broadcasted entirely from Portland. The look of the newscasts on WPXT is similar to the regular News Center programs on WCSH and WLBZ, except that transitions are flashier. The newscasts take on a regional feel with news coverage from Portland and Bangor. The WPXT newscast does not register in the Bangor area because its CW affiliate, WABI DT2 / cable-only "WBAN" airs its own weekday 10 PM newscast.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• WLBZ News Center 2 Morning Report (5 to 7 AM) ³
• WLBZ News Center 2 at Noon (12 to 12:30 PM) ³
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 5 (5 to 5:30 PM) ¹
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 5:30 (5:30 to 6 PM) ²
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM) ¹
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 11 (11 to 11:35 pm) ²

Notes:

¹ originates from Bangor

² simulcasts WCSH except for weather

³ simulcasts WCSH

Weekends

• WLBZ News Center 2 Morning Report (6 to 7 AM Saturdays, 7 to 8 AM Sundays)
• WLBZ News Center 2 at Noon (12 to 12:30 PM)
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 6 (6 to 6:30 PM)
• WLBZ News Center 2 at 11 (11 to 11:35 PM)

[edit] News Team

This news team is seen on the weekdays at 5 and 6 PM.

Anchors

• Matt Friedman
• Donna Gormley

Weather

• Steve McKay - Chief (is also seen weekdays at 10 PM on WPXT in Portland)

Sports

• Lee Goldberg - Director
• John Smist

Reporter

• Don Carrigan - also a Midcoast reporter for WCSH

Photojournalists

• Paul Salisbury
• Dan Frye
• Pete Farrar
• Paul Chadwick

see the main WCSH article for a complete listing of WLBZ and WCSH news personnel

[edit] Notable WLBZ Alumni

• Eloise Daniels, Anchor (out of business)
• Pete Churney, Weather Anchor (now ??)
• Jill McDonald, Medical Reporter (now works at Eastern Maine Healthcare, Brewer, ME)
• Tim Gaier, Reporter (now ??)
• Mark Finneran, Reporter (out of business)
• Jan Smith, Anchor/Reporter (now Assistant News Director, WTOC-TV, Savannah, GA)
• Dale Duff, Sports Director (now Program Director & Morning Host at WZON 620am Radio, Bangor, ME)
• Jeff Solari, Sports Reporter & Promotions Director (now Afternoon Host at WZON 620am Radio, Bangor, ME)
• Jennifer McNeil, Anchor (out of business; married to Pete Bouchard, Chief Meteorologist at WHDH-TV in Boston)
• Rory (Rhori) Johnston, Anchor (now at WTVF-TV, Nashville, TN)
• Dave Ahlers, Producer, Anchor & Reporter (now the voice of hockey's Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knightsin Nebraska)
• Christina Hager, Reporter (now at WBZ-TV, Boston; daughter of retired NBC News Correspondent Robert Hager)
• Deborah Feldman, Reporter (now at KING-TV, Seattle)
• Kevin Kelley, Reporter (now works for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine)
• Sharon Rose, Anchor (now at WLBZ sister station WCSH-TV, Portland, ME)
• Kimberly Brown, Anchor (recently left WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, WI)
• Dan Harris, Anchor/Reporter (now at ABC News)
• Julia Bovey, Reporter
• Jennifer Knight, Reporter
• Ken Barlowe, Meteorologist (now at WBZ-TV, in Boston)
• Jeanne Meserve, Anchor/Reporter (now at CNN)
• Matt Fine, Reporter & Sports Director (now teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia)
• Vince Bevacqua, Anchor/Reporter (now at WYTV in Youngstown, OH)
• Dave Finger, Feature Reporter (now ??)
• Mike Beaudet, Reporter (now Investigative Reporter at WFXT-TV Fox25 in Boston)
• Neil Orne, Weather Anchor (now at WKRN-TV in Nashville, TN)

[edit] External Links

• Station Website
• WLBZ Wireless

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLBZ
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGCI-LP
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W57AQ