WTKR

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WTKR
Norfolk, Virginia
Branding	YOUR NewsChannel 3
Slogan	Your 3/Your NewsChannel 3
Channels	3 (VHF) analog, 40 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS (secondary until 1952)
Owner	The New York Times Company (sale pending [1] to Oak Hill Capital Partners [2])
Founded	1950
Call letters meaning	Television Knight-Ridder (for former owner, also sounds like original calls)
Former callsigns	WTAR-TV (1949-81)
Former affiliations	NBC (1950-53, secondary from 1952), ABC (secondary, 1950–1953)
Website	www.wtkr.com

WTKR is the CBS affiliate serving the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, officially known as the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News DMA. The station is licensed to Norfolk and broadcasts on channel 3. Its transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia. WTKR is owned by the New York Times Company.

WTKR served as the ratings leader in Hampton Roads for many years. However, the station's newscasts currently rank last in all timeslots, except for noon, where it finished a close second to WVEC in November 2006.

In recent years, WTKR only finished #1 at 12 noon. During the May and November 2005 sweeps periods, WVEC won the noon slot in close races. After the May 2006 period, WTKR reclaimed its first place position at noon, after another close race with WVEC, but lost it in the November 2006 ratings period as WVEC became first at noon again.

WTKR does not run the Saturday Early Show; instead there are news and kids programs on Saturday Mornings.

WTKR-DT provides live color weather radar on its sub-channel of 3-2. Other sub-channels are used for special event coverage such as the NCAA Tournament or a continuous rotation of the stations several "SkyCams" including a feed from VDOT of area highways.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Newscast Titles 1.2 Weather Titles 1.3 Slogans 2 Newscasts 2.1 Weekday Newscasts 2.2 Weekend Newscasts 2.3 Reporters and Other Current Personalities 2.4 Past Personalities 3 Tower 4 External links

[edit] History

The station began operation on channel 4 in April 1950 as WTAR-TV, Virginia's second television station. It was a primary NBC affiliate, with secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC, and DuMont. It was owned by the Virginian-Pilot along with WTAR-AM, Virginia's first radio station.

It moved to channel 3 in 1952 and became a primary CBS affliliate. When WVEC-TV signed on a year later as an NBC affiliate, WTAR shared ABC programming with WVEC until 1957, when WAVY-TV signed on as the NBC affiliate and WVEC became solely an ABC station. When the Virginian-Pilot reorganized its various holdings as Landmark Communications in 1969, WTAR-AM-FM-TV became the flagship stations.

Over the years, the station expanded its news operation to include about 30 hours of local news production per week. It also produced PM Magazine from the late 1970s to mid-1980s.

After the FCC tightened its ownership restrictions, Landmark sold its Hampton Roads radio and television holdings. WTAR-TV went to Knight-Ridder in 1981. The WTAR radio stations had been sold to different owners, so Knight-Ridder changed the station's calls to WTKR. The new calls reflected the new ownership and also sounded similar to the old ones. WTKR was then purchased by Narragansett Broadcasting in 1989. The New York Times Company, WTKR's current owner, acquired the station in 1995.

[edit] Newscast Titles

• WTAR-TV News (1950s)
• Your Esso Reporter (1950s)
• (WTAR-TV/WTKR-TV) News 3 (1970s-1992)
• Live at Five (5:00 p.m. broadcast, late 1980s)
• Channel 3 Eyewitness News (1992-1994)
• TV-3 News (1994-1995)
• (Your) NewsChannel 3 (1995-present)

[edit] Weather Titles

• TV-3 Forecast Center (1994-1995)
• TV-3 WeatherVision (1994-1995)
• Live Neighborhood Radar (1995-199?)
• Triple Doppler Radar (late 1990s-Present)

[edit] Slogans

• Part of Your Life (1970s)
• Discover the Land of the 3 (late 1980s)
• Discover the Difference (late 80s-early90s)
• Hampton Roads' #1 News Source (1992-1994)
• It's Time for TV-3 News (1994-1995)
• Where Local News Comes First (1995-late 90s)
• News. It's Our First Name. (late 90s)
• Coverage You Can Count On. (1999-2002)
• Your NewsChannel 3 (2003-Present)

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekday Newscasts

• Your NewsChannel 3 This Morning, 5:00am-7:00am with cut-ins during The Early Show.

Anchors: Matt Keller and Bianca Martinez

Weather: Patrick Rockey

Traffic: Ricardo Major

• Your NewsChannel 3 at Noon, 12:00pm-12:30pm

Anchor: Kurt Williams (anchors from Virginia Beach newsroom)

Weather: Patrick Rockey

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 5:00, 5:00pm-5:30pm

Anchors: Bianca Martinez and Pat McReynolds

Weather: Mike Harvey

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 5:30, 5:30pm-6:00pm

Anchors: Kurt Williams (anchors from Virginia Beach newsroom) and Barbara Ciara

Weather: Mike Harvey

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 6:00, 6:00pm-6:30pm

Anchors: Pat McReynolds and Barbara Ciara

Weather: Mike Harvey

Sports: Cory Curtis

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 11:00, 11:00pm-11:35pm

Anchors: Pat McReynolds and Barbara Ciara

Weather: Mike Harvey

Sports: Cory Curtis

[edit] Weekend Newscasts

• Your NewsChannel 3 This Morning, 6:00am-8:30am Saturday, 6:00am-9:00am Sunday

Anchor: Domonique Benn

Weather: Priscilla Monti

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 6:30, 6:00pm-7:00pm

Anchors: Stacy Davis and Bob Matthews

Weather: Vanessa Murdock

Sports: Jason Barr

• Your NewsChannel 3 at 11:00, 11:00pm-11:35pm

Anchors: Stacy Davis and Bob Matthews

Weather: Vanessa Murdock

Sports: Jason Barr

[edit] Reporters and Other Current Personalities

• Giovanna Bechard
• Domonique Benn
• Lisa Godley
• Kurt Hogan
• Rick Holmes
• Mike Mather
• Bob Matthews
• Priscilla Monti
• Blaine Stewart

[edit] Past Personalities

• Ted Alexander, weekend sports anchor from 1996 until 1998 and sports director from 1998 until 2005. Now a local radio personality.
• Cynthia Brooks, morning co-anchor from 2002 until 2005.
• Nate Custer, longtime reporter from 1966 until 2005.
• Kelli Durand, weekend meteorologist from 2003 until 2006.
• Joe Flanagan, host of WTKR's PM Magazine in early 1980s, now at WVEC.
• Betty Francis, main co-anchor during the 1980s.
• Jane Gardner, main co-anchor in the late 1980s/early-mid 1990s. Also co-hosted WTKR's "Live at 9" program in the mid-late 90s.
• Dr. Duane Harding, chief weathercaster from the early 90s until 1996; when he was fired.^[3]
• Chris Hopkins, morning and noon co-anchor from 2002 until 2005.
• Ed Hughes, often called the Walter Cronkite of Hampton Roads, from 1967 (as WTAR) to his death from cancer in 2004.
• George Johnson, weekend sports anchor until 2001.
• Gene Kapp, co-anchor during the 1980's and early 1990's, later a spokesman for CBN.
• Sandra Kelly, anchor in the 1980s.
• Ann Keffer, anchor in the 1980s-1990s(?). Now hosts ExploreHealth with Sentara, a 30-minute health show shown on WTKR Saturdays at 7:00pm ^[4] (the program is not produced by WTKR)
• Beverly Kidd, joined station in 1993 and was morning/noon anchor until 2001. Now at KTVK in Phoenix.
• Becky Livas, newscaster and talk show hostess/producer "People Places & Things", "3 In The Morning", 1971-1980 (then WTAR-TV). Now middle school teacher in Suffolk and cabaret/jazz singer at venues throughout Hampton Roads. Mother of WAVY & WVBT anchor Nicole Livas.
• Lee Mahaffey, morning anchor from 2000 until 2002. Now anchor at WTVR-TV in Richmond.
• Karen May, weekend anchor from 2002 until 2006.
• Paula Miller, reporter from 1984 until 1999. Now representative in the Virginia House of Delegates.^[5]
• Gerald Owens, political reporter and anchor from 1995 until 1998. Now at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.
• Dave Parker, chief meteorologist from 1997 until 2006. Now at WNIS Radio.
• Jeffrey Prier, meteorologist from 2001 until 2003.
• LeAnne Rains, main co-anchor in the 1990s. Now known as LeAnne Rains-Benedetto.
• Tom Randles, main co-anchor from the early 1990s until 2005. Now weekend anchor at WSMV-TV in Nashville.
• Bob Rathbun, sports anchor in late 1980s and early 1990s. Now play-by-play announcer for Atlanta Hawks.
• Andy Roberts, chief weathercaster for over 35 years until retirement in 1992.
• Mike Simon, morning meteorologist until 2003. Known as Mike Cuevas as chief meteorologist at WLOS in Asheville.
• Brian Sinkoff, weekend sports anchor until 2005. Now sports director at WTEN in Albany, NY.
• Stephanie Sy, military reporter until 2003. Now reporter for ABC News.
• Lyn Vaughn, evening co-anchor from July 1999 until 2001 after 14 years with CNN Headline News.
• Stacy Wiggins, reporter until 2006.

[edit] Tower

WTKR-TV/DT's transmission tower is located in northwest part of Suffolk, Virginia. WTKR (analog ch. 3) transmits with 100 kilowatts of power from an antenna located at a height of 981 feet. WTKR-DT (digital ch. 40) transmits with 725 kilowatts of power at a height of 1250 feet. It is the tallest antenna in southeastern Virginia.

[edit] External links

• WTKR Homepage
• WTKR MySpace Page
• 3onthego.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTKR

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Virginia
WTKR 3 (Norfolk) - WTVR 6 (Richmond) - WDBJ 7 (Roanoke) - WCAV 19 (Charlottesville)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Virginia