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Chronology data should be put on the appropriate chronology page ("Chronology of call letters WHNT") .
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Other material must be reorganized into appropriate categories of articles.
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[1] | |
Huntsville, Alabama | |
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Branding | WHNT News 19
WHNT 2 (on DT2) |
Slogan | Taking Action. Getting Results. |
Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) |
Subchannels | 19.1 CBS
19.2 RTV |
Owner | Local TV
(Local TV Alabama License, LLC) |
First air date | November 28, 1963 |
Call letters' meaning | HuNTsville [1] |
Former channel number(s) | 19 (UHF analog, 1963-2009)
59 (UHF digital) |
Transmitter power | 50 kW |
Height | 514 m |
Facility ID | 48693 |
Transmitter coordinates | 34°44′19.7″N 86°31′57.9″W / 34.738806°N 86.53275°W / 34.738806; -86.53275 |
Website | whnt.com |
Contents[][edit] Digital programming[]Its signal is multiplexed. On WHNT-DT2, Charter digital channel 148, Knology digital channel 199, and Comcast digital channel 211 is the Retro Television Network (RTV).
[3][4]WHNT-DT2 logo from 2007, when the subchannel was a 24-hour weather channel.WHNT turned-off its analog transmitter at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009. WHNT-DT then relocated from channel 59 to channel 19 as a result of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctioning channels 52-69. The station was originally going to move to channel 46 but received late permission from the FCC to move digital broadcasts to channel 19, following the closure and license cancellation earlier in the year of Florence station WYLE, which was to have broadcasted on digital channel 20. WHNT is now the only station in the market operating on its original channel. [edit] History[][5][6]WHNT logo from 1966.WHNT began operations on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1963 (the first new station to be launched after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated), and has always been an affiliate of CBS. The FCC originally licensed the frequency for WHNT to the city of Fort Payne some forty miles to the southeast. The station was founded by a local businessman, Charles Grisham, now deceased. In 1980, he sold WHNT to The New York Times Company which operated it for over a quarter century. In September 2006, The New York Times announced that the company would put its entire broadcast group up for sale with eight other stations affected in addition to WHNT. On May 7, 2007, WHNT became a property of Oak Hill Capital Partners which operates the station as part of Local TV. [7][8]WHNT logo from 1970.WHNT's facilities are in downtown Huntsville where the station moved in 1987 from their original location on Monte Sano Mountain. The move was prompted by a fire that destroyed rival WAFF-TV's studios, then on Governors Drive, five years earlier. For use during an emergency, backup broadcast capabilities for news remains at the Monte Sano site. The transmitter and tower remain on Monte Sano because the mountain provides the highest elevation in the immediate area. WHNT is the only station in Huntsville to operate from a facility actually constructed specifically for broadcasting purposes. WAAY-TV operates from a former gas station, WAFF from a former jewelry store, and WZDX from an office building. In 2003, WHNT allowed competing stations WAAY and WZDX to use space on its tower after both station's towers used on WAAY's property collapsed, killing three men. This station first used sixteen millimeter film for most of its commercial and news gathering. In 1979, it switched to the 3/4 inch video tape format. WHNT used this system until 1998 when new Panasonic DVC machines and cameras were purchased (DVC is still being used). However in Spring 2006, new cameras were purchased for the station's two bureaus. The cameras are Panasonic P2 cameras which record on 4gig cards. WHNT's archives, the most extensive in Huntsville television, go back to 1973 and include a mix of film and video. The film library had been stored at the University of North Alabama, but has recently been returned to Huntsville. For security reasons, parts of the archives are stored at one of its bureaus. In May 2002, WHNT became the first station in the Huntsville market to broadcast a digital signal and begin broadcasting in high definition on UHF channel 59. [9][10]WHNT logo from 1986.Until November 25, 2008 at 5 p.m., the station offered a 24-hour local weather channel on its second digital subchannel. It then switched to RTV. WHNT is the only station in the Hunstville market area that has never changed its network affiliation. WHNT clears the entire CBS schedule. However, the Saturday edition of The Early Show airs on WHNT-DT2. [edit] News operation[]WHNT has been noted for live coverage of breaking news such as the shooting death of a Huntsville police officer, the 2006 Huntsville Bus Accident [2], and the solving of a thirty year-old murder case in September 2007. Generally speaking, over the years, WHNT has always been competitive in terms of ratings with rivals WAAY and WAFF. In fact, this station is the only one among the three major network affiliates in Huntsville to have never finished in last place in the Nielsen ratings. Since Fall 2004, WHNT has used the ARMOR Doppler Weather Radar system in weather forecasting along with its own weather radar at its transmitter site. On August 18, 2008, WHNT became the first television station in Huntsville to begin broadcasting all of its news programs in digital 16:9 widescreen. On April 13, 2009 starting with the weeknight 5 o'clock show, the station stopped using the NewsChannel 19 name and became WHNT News 19. Beginning on February 1, 2010, WHNT added a weeknight prime time newscast at 9 on WHNT-DT2.[3] There is already an hour-long extension of their weekday morning news that airs on that channel. The prime time show competes with Fox affiliate WZDX that has news at that time produced out of state by the Independent News Network. Like all RTV affiliates in the Central Time Zone, WHNT-DT2 airs Daytime weekday mornings at 8 for an hour. In addition to its main studios, it operates bureaus covering The Shoals and Decatur (Northwestern Alabama), and Sand Mountain (Northeastern Alabama). [edit] Newscast titles[]
[edit] Station slogans[]
[edit] News team[]Anchors
Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
Photojournalists
[edit] Former on-air staff[]
[edit] References[]
[edit] External links[] |