WREG-TV

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WREG-TV

Memphis, Tennessee
Branding	NewsChannel3
Slogan	On Your Side
Channels	3 (VHF) analog, 28 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	New York Times Company (sale to Oak Hill Capital Partners pending)
Founded	January 1, 1956
Call letters meaning	Variation of original calls
Former callsigns	WREC-TV (1956-71)
Website	www.wreg.com

WREG-TV is Memphis, Tennessee's CBS television affiliate, operating on channel 3. The station is owned by the New York Times Company, although it was announced on September 12, 2006, that NYTC planned to sell all its stations, including WREG [1]. On January 4, 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners. Ownership will officially change on April 30, 2007. Its transmitter is located in Memphis.

WREG-TV first went to air on New Year's Day 1956 as WREC-TV. Owned by electrical engineer and radio dealer Hoyt Wooten along with WREC-AM 600, the station began regular broadcasts the next day. The calls stood for Wooten's radio store, the Wooten Radio-Electric Company. It took the CBS affiliation from WHBQ-TV because WREC-AM had been a CBS affiliate since 1929. Studios were located in the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. Wooten had actually applied for one of the first television licenses in the country, in 1928.

For its first six years, WREC-TV was the only locally-owned station in Memphis (WHBQ-TV was owned by General Tire and WMC-TV was owned by Scripps). However, Wooten sold WREC-AM-FM-TV in 1962 to Cowles Communications. In turn, Cowles sold WREC-TV to the New York Times in 1971 and the call letters changed to WREG-TV; it later sold the radio stations to other interests. Four years later in 1975, the Times built new facilities for WREG on one of the highest points on Chickasaw Bluff, overlooking the Mississippi River.

For the past two decades, WREG has been in a television ratings war with WMC-TV, steadily gaining in recent years and now leading the Nielsens with its morning and late evening newscasts.

The station's best-known personality, Jerry Tate, served as the station's main anchor from 1975 to 2005, interrupted by a stint at WHBQ-TV in the 1980s.

1 Newscasts
2 Trivia
3 External links

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Monday-Friday

News Channel 3 Daybreak (5:00am-8:00am)

News Channel 3 Live at 9am (9:00am-10:00am)

News Channel 3 at Noon (12:00pm-12:30pm)

News Channel 3 First at Four (4:00pm-4:30pm)

News Channel 3 at 4:30 (4:30pm-5:00pm)

News Channel 3 at 5 (5:00pm-5:30pm)

News Channel 3 at 6 (6:00pm-6:30pm)

News Channel 3 at 10 (10:00pm-10:35pm)

[edit] Saturday

News Channel 3 Daybreak (6:00am-8:00am)

News Channel 3 at 5 (5:00pm-5:30pm)

News Channel 3 at 6 (6:00pm-6:30pm)

News Channel 3 at 10 (10:00pm-10:35pm)

[edit] Sunday

News Channel 3 Daybreak (6:00am-8:00am)

News Channel 3 at 5 (5:00pm-6:00pm)

News Channel 3 at 10 (10:00pm-10:35pm)

[edit] Trivia

Throughout the early 1960s into the early 1980s, WREC/WREG claimed to possess the largest motion picture library of any TV station in the United States, which was evidenced in its daily (late afternoons and late nights) and weekend programming lineup at the time. The station used some of those features for theme weeks (e.g., "Godzilla Week", "John Wayne Week"), which proved to be very popular with viewers. However, like most major network affiliates, in the early 1980s channel 3 began cutting back on the heavy amount of movie airings that occupied much of its off-network schedule, a move prompted by the presence of cable, VCRs, and the emergence of then-independent competitors WPTY-TV in 1978 and WMKW (now WLMT) in 1983.

WREG is one of the few CBS stations that preempts the Saturday Early Show in favor of a Saturday morning newscast.

[edit] External links

Broadcast television in the Memphis market (Nielsen DMA #44)
WREG 3 (CBS) - WMC 5 (NBC) (The Tube on DT3) - WKNO 10 (PBS) - WMAE 12 / WMAV 18 (PBS/MPB) - WPRQ-LP 12 (A1) - WHBQ 13 (Fox) - W18BL 18 (UBN) - WBII 20 (A1) - WPTY 24 (ABC) - WLMT 30 (The CW) - WBUY 40 (TBN) - W42BY 42 (3ABN) - WPXX 50 (MyNetworkTV/ION) - W57CG 57 (Ind.) - WJRJ 59 (Daystar)
See also broadcast television in Jonesboro, Jackson TN, Greenwood / Greenville and Columbus/Tupelo/West Point markets

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Tennessee

WREG 3 (Memphis) - WTVF 5 (Nashville) - WVLT 8 (Knoxville) - WJHL 11 (Kingsport) - WDEF 12 (Chattanooga)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, ION, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in Tennessee

The New York Times Company

v • d • e

Radio stations: WQEW¹ | WQXR

Television stations:⁴ ABC: WNEP • WQAD | CBS: KFSM • WHNT • WREG • WTKR | NBC: KFOR • WHO | MyNetworkTV: KAUT

Cable assets: New England Sports Network² | SNN News 6³

Interactive assets: About.com | The New York Times Syndicate & News Service

Other assets:² Boston Red Sox | Donohue Malbaie Inc. | Fenway Park | Madison Paper Industries | Metro Boston

¹Sale to Disney/ABC is awaiting FCC approval. Radio Disney operates the station via a local marketing agreement while the sale is being finalized.

²The New York Times hold some ownership interests in these companies through joint ventures.

³Owned by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which in turn The Times owns and operates.

⁴Sale to Oak Hill Capital Partners has been granted FCC approval and should be finalized shortly. [2]

Annual revenue: $831.8 million USD (First Quarter 2006) | Employees: 11,965 | Stock symbol: NYSE: NYT | Website: www.nytco.com

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/r/e/WREG-TV_695b.html"

Categories: Television stations in Memphis | Television stations in Tennessee | CBS network affiliates | Television channels and stations established in 1956 | Channel 3 TV stations in the United States

WREG-TV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Monday-Friday

[edit] Saturday

[edit] Sunday

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links

Views

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