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WKRC-TV, channel 12, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Cincinnati, Ohio. WKRC-TV is owned by Newport Television, and broadcasts from a combined studio/transmitter facility on Highland Avenue in the Mount Auburn section of Cincinnati.

History

WKRC-TV is Cincinnati's second-oldest television station, having commenced operations on April 4, 1949 as a CBS affiliate on VHF channel 11. The station was owned by the Ohio-based Taft family, who were active in both politics and in media. The Tafts published the Cincinnati Times-Star, and also owned WKRC radio (AM 550 and FM 101.9, now WKRQ) under their broadcasting subsidiary, Radio Cincinnati. In 1958, the Tafts sold the Times-Star to the locally-based rival E. W. Scripps Company, owner of the The Cincinnati Post and WCPO-AM-FM-TV. The Tafts' broadcasting interests were then reorganized as Taft Broadcasting, with WKRC-AM-FM-TV as the flagship stations. The WKRC stations' call letters were derived from the original owner of WKRC radio, Clarence Ogden of the Kodel Radio Company ("Ko" for Clarence and "dell" for Della his wife).

Following the release of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Sixth Report and Order, WKRC-TV moved to channel 12 on October 12, 1952. Nine years later, in 1961, the station became an ABC affiliate, switching networks with WCPO-TV. This came after that network's founder Leonard Goldenson persuaded Taft's president, a longtime friend, to switch several of the company's stations to ABC. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. WKRC's nickname in the 1960s was "Tall 12", a reference to the station's transmitter tower which was the tallest in Cincinnati at the time. Like WCPO-TV, channel 12 used a distinctive jingle ID at the top of the hour in the 1960s. The upbeat, orchestrated "Channel 12" jingle was followed by children's show host Glenn Ryle announcing: "This is WKRC-TV Cincinnati". In 1975, it began airing movies on late night Saturdays in a program called The Past Prime Playhouse. Hosted live by local personality Bob Shreve, the show would air until 1988.

Over the years, as an ABC affiliate, WKRC-TV preempted moderate amounts of weekday programming and the Sunday morning cartoon reruns from ABC. When ABC offered late night programming from 11:30 pm to about 2:00 am, WKRC, like many other affiliates chose not to air it. It did air Nightline once that began in 1979. Occasionally, WKRC preempted a lower rated prime time program or movie from ABC to air either a stronger movie or a locally based special. Most programs not shown on WKRC were widely preempted by many affiliates. Also, most every show not shown on WKRC-TV was aired on the ABC station in nearby Dayton, WKEF until 1980 and WDTN after 1980. WKEF provided grade B coverage to most of the market, while WDTN provided city-grade coverage to nearly the entire market. Locally, WKRC aired news, talk shows, movies, and a few off network sitcoms at some points. Beginning in 1992, WKRC-TV began preempting portions of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons in favor of a local Saturday morning newscast.

In 1987, Taft was dissolved in a hostile takeover of its board and all of its stations (except WTVN-TV in Columbus and WGHP-TV in High Point, North Carolina) were absorbed into Great American Broadcasting, which became Citicasters in 1993. WKRC was subsequently acquired by Jacor in September 1996 after most of Citicasters' other television stations were sold to New World Communications and Fox. The Jacor deal reunited channel 12 with its AM sister, which had been bought by Jacor in 1993 during Great American Broadcasting's bankruptcy reorganization. Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications in 1998.

The station switched affiliations with WCPO on June 3, 1996 after WCPO's owner, Scripps, demanded that ABC switch its Cincinnati affiliation there as a condition of keeping ABC programming on its two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. ABC actually agreed to Scripps' demands in 1994, but WKRC's contract with ABC still had two years to go. As a CBS affiliate, WKRC-TV ran the entire schedule except for several hours of the CBS Saturday morning cartoon lineup which would soon be pulled back to only a few hours anyway. Once that was pulled back, WKRC-TV was then running the entire CBS schedule with an occasional exception. Although owned by Clear Channel at the time, the station changed its branding to "Local 12" in 2003. This was inspired by the "Local Mandate", a station standardization branding adopted by Post-Newsweek for its own television stations. There are at least six other known non Post-Newsweek stations to have used the "Local" branding. KFMB-TV in San Diego, California used "Local 8" from 2001 to 2005). KPSP in Palm Springs, California, KOIN in Portland, Oregon, and WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky have used "KPSP Local 2", "KOIN Local 6" and "WPSD Local 6" respectively, since 2008. WPMI in Mobile, Alabama has recently re-branded as "Local 15" as of August 2009 while KDBC in El Paso, Texas rebraded their newscasts as "Local 4 News" the following year.

In 2006, Clear Channel ranked WKRC as the top CBS affiliate in the United States. On November 16 of that year, Clear Channel announced that it would sell its entire television division, including WKRC, after being bought by private equity firms. On April 20, 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to Providence Equity Partners. Providence Equity teamed up with Sandy DiPasquale to form a new holding company, Newport Television, for the station group. Concurrently, Clear Channel applied to place WKRC and several other stations to the Aloha Station Trust just in case Newport Television failed to close on the group. However as a result of Newport Television closing on the purchase of WKRC and the other stations on March 14, 2008, Aloha Station Trust and the would-be new owners of Clear Channel opted not to consummate on the acquisition of this station. As a result, Newport Television became WKRC's fourth owner in just over twenty years. As a result of the sale, the Citicasters name disappeared from WKRC's license, dissolving channel 12's last link to Taft Broadcasting; the Citicasters name is still alive as a holding company within the Clear Channel structure.

On June 18, 2008, the company announced that it was eliminating 7.5% of the jobs at its 56 stations. It attributed the firings to a weak economy. As a result, WKRC fired eighteen staff members. WKRC-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station then moved back to channel 12 for its post-transition operations.

On July 19, 2012, Newport Television reached a deal to sell 22 of its 27 stations to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Cox Media Group. WKRC-TV is among the six that would be sold to Sinclair. WSTR-TV will be transferred to Deerfield Media (who will also be receiving San Antonio's CW affiliate KMYS in the same deal) because the Cincinnati market, despite being the 35th-largest market, has only five full-power commercial stations, which are not enough to legally permit a duopoly. However, Sinclair will retain control of WSTR through a shared services agreement. The deal would also reunite WKRC-TV with WSYX (the former WTVN-TV), another station formerly owned by Taft.

Digital Television

With WCPO-TV's channel change to a UHF frequency, which occurred on December 8, 2010, WKRC is the only television station in the Cincinnati area that's operating on the VHF dial.

WKRC-DT2 "The CW Cincinnati"

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WKRC picked up affiliation with the new network on a new second digital subchannel resulting in UPN affiliate WBQC-CA going independent. Meanwhile, WB affiliate WSTR-TV joined the other new network, News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV which launched on September 5.

Cincinnati cable viewers feared that WKRC-DT2 would face the same problems as WBQC. For years, Time Warner Cable had refused to carry that station full-time eventually airing its prime time programming on a low-profile channel. However, Time Warner Cable was a division of Time Warner at the time (who would be half-owner of The CW) so it was in the company's best interest to air WKRC-DT2 over its systems. By late in the day on September 17, Time Warner Cable agreed to carry the new station only hours before the network's launch on September 18. The new station launched on Time Warner channel 2 in prime time only to start out with and 24/7 on digital cable channel 913 before earning a full-time broadcast basic berth on channel 20 as of October 18 displacing WBQC and a commercial access channel. The station also debuted on Insight Communications and DirecTV under WBQC's former channel slots.

As a result, the channel can be viewed by 66% of the local population due to carriage by Time Warner Cable in Ohio, Insight in Northern Kentucky, and DirecTV. While now branded as simply "The CW Cincinnati", the subchannel originally branded as "The CinCW", a portmanteau with "Cincy", a common nickname for the city. It currently airs the entire CW schedule in-pattern while outside of network hours airs classic sitcoms, dramas, films, and second runs of WKRC's syndicated programming along with regional wrestling programming on Saturday afternoons and evenings. Repeats of WKRC's local DIY show Homeworx can also be seen.

News operation

From 1977 to 1992, its news division was branded Eyewitness 12 News, a moniker that WLWT-TV would reuse in 1998. Afterwords, the station was usually announced as 12 News. With the arrival of chief meteorologist Tim Hedrick in 1988, WKRC began using the top of the Chiquita Center as its Weather Beacon. In 1994, WKRC began displaying "Texta" (an on-screen banner) consisting of the current story's headline for the duration of the station's newscasts. A couple years later, as news tickers became common on weekday morning shows, WKRC added theirs below the Texta headline. For a few years, the station aired its weekday Good Morning Cincinnati broadcast live from the ground floor of Fifth Third Bank's headquarters in downtown with Fountain Square as the backdrop. In 1996, WKRC began airing 12 News First at 4, a half-hour newscast on weekday afternoons.

From March 2004 to 2008, WKRC aired Nuestro Rincón, a twice-weekly Spanish-language news program hosted by Sasha Rionda.

On April 26, 2006, the station announced a news share agreement with WSTR to produce a nightly prime time show known as Local 12 News at 10 on My 64 which began airing on August 21. This resulted, once MyNetworkTV began, in a CBS affiliate's newscast being carried on a station affiliated with a Fox sister network. On January 7, 2008, WKRC began simulcasting Good Morning Cincinnati on WKRC-DT2. It had been aired on the main channel from 5 to 8 in the morning but the third hour was dropped when CBS reclaimed the 7 o'clock hour for The Early Show. The network now requires all of its affiliates to air the show in its entirety after receiving a makeover hoping to better compete against its rivals, NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. The 7-8 a.m. hour of Good Morning Cincinnati can now be only seen on WKRC-DT2. WKRC announced its intent to move the prime time newscast on WSTR to WKRC-DT2 in August 2008. On August 4, it began a brief simulcast of this program on WKRC-DT2 with it eventually being dropped from WSTR on August 22. The program then became known as CW News at 10.

Newport released a statement in October 2008 saying that WKRC would eventually begin broadcasting its newscasts in 1080i high definition. The company used the channel as a pilot station before investing in HD equipment for its other television stations. On October 30, it debuted a new set on its First at 4 broadcast in preparation for the HD debut. After nearly a year of delay, the station launched its high definition newscasts along with new logo and graphics on September 27, 2009 during its 11 o'clock show. It became the third in the Cincinnati area after WCPO and WXIX-TV and the second in the Newport group after WOAI-TV to make the upgrade. WKRC currently use JVC ProHD 250 Series cameras in its studios. The shows on The CW Cincinnati were included in the upgrade; however, it is seen in downscaled 4:3 on WKRC-DT2 (which serves as The CW Cincinnati's over-the-air signal).

For most of its history, WKRC has been a solid runner-up to WCPO in the local newscast ratings. However, in the past decade or so it has exchanged first and second place with WCPO. WKRC usually wins on weekday mornings and at 11 p.m. while WCPO leads in the 5 to 7 p.m. block. However since the May 2010 Nielsen ratings period, WKRC dominated its competition in all newscast time slots with WCPO slipping to second. The May 2011 sweeps period marked the one-year anniversary of WKRC's news dominance.

At one point all three of Cincinnati's "Big Three" network affiliates were locally-owned (and WCPO is now the only one of the three to remain under locally-based ownership). However, WLWT began falling behind in the ratings after it became the first of the three to be sold to outside interests.

WKRC's newscasts and reports can be seen on the Ohio News Network cable channel. During weather segments, it uses regional weather radar data in a system called "Precision Doppler 12 Network".

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Tall 12 News (1960s-mid 1970s)
• EDGE (mid 1970s-1977)
• Eyewitness 12 News (1977–1992)
• 12 News (1992–2004)
• Local 12 News (2004–present)

Station slogans

• "Tall 12" (mid-late 1960s, used when WKRC upgraded its transmitter tower)
• "The Edge" (late 1970s)
• "Your Local News Source" (1992–1994)
• "A New Generation of News" (1994–2004)
• "Live. Local. Latebreaking." (2000–2004, secondary)
• "So Committed to Local Coverage, We've Made It Part of our Name." (2004, secondary)
• "Coverage Where You Live" (2004–2007, secondary 2007–present)
• "Get it Right Now" (2007–present)
• "The Weather Authority" (secondary for news, 1988–present)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Kit Andrews - weekdays at noon, 4:00, 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.
• Liz Bonis - weekday mornings on Good Morning Cincinnati (4:30-7:00 on WKRC and 7:00-8:00 a.m. on WKRC-DT 12.2); also weeknight reporter
• Rob Braun - weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Curtis Jackson - weeknights at 5:30 and 10:00 p.m. (on WKRC-DT2)
• Cammy Dierking - weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Bob Herzog - weekday mornings on Good Morning Cincinnati (7:00-8:00 on WKRC-DT2); also weekday morning traffic reporter (4:30-8:00 a.m.), Bengals Nation host and "The Cooler" segment producer
• John Lomax - weekday mornings on Good Morning Cincinnati (4:30-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
• Paula Toti - Saturdays at 6:00, Sundays at 6:30 and weekends at 10:00 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Tiffany Wilson - Saturday mornings on Good Morning Cincinnati (6:00-8:00 a.m.); also reporter

Weather Authority

• Tim Hedrick (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Michelle Boutilette (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekdays at 4:00, 4:30 and weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (on WKRC-DT2)
• John Gumm (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Good Morning Cincinnati (4:30-7:00 on WKRC and 7:00-8:00 a.m. on WKRC-DT2) and weekdays at noon
• Scott Dimmich (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturday morning 6:00-8:00 a.m., Saturdays at 6:00, Sundays at 6:30 and weekends at 10:00 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00 p.m.
• Erin Sebree - fill in meteorologist

Sports team

• Brad Johansen - sports director; weeknights at 6:00, 10:00 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00 p.m.; also Sports Authority host
• Zach Wells - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6:00, Sundays at 6:30 and weekends at 10:00 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00 p.m.

Reporters

• Howard Ain - investigative reporter
• Jen Dalton - general assignment reporter
• Larry Davis - general assignment reporter
• Deborah Dixon - "Crimestoppers" segment producer
• Jeff Hirsh - general assignment reporter
• Dan Hurley - 12 Newsmakers host
• Angela Ingram - general assignment reporter
• Rich Jaffe - general assignment reporter
• Angenette Levy - general assignment reporter
• Perry Schiable - general assignment reporter
• Dan Spehler - general assignment reporter
• Joe Webb - general assignment reporter

Newscast Times

• Weekdays: 4:30-7:00, 7:00-8:00 a.m. (on WKRC-DT2), 12:00-12:30, 4:00-4:30, 4:30-5:00, 5:00-5:30, 5:30-6:00, 6:00-6:30, 10:00-10:30 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00-11:35 p.m.
• Saturdays: 6:00-8:00 a.m., 6:00-6:30, 10:00-10:30 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00-11:35 p.m.
• Sundays: 6:30-7:00, 10:00-10:30 (on WKRC-DT2) and 11:00-11:35 p.m.

Notable former staff

• Nick Clooney, father of George Clooney, hosted his own talk show on WKRC in the early-mid 1970s, and later became a news anchor from 1975 to 1984.
• Ira Joe Fisher, weather reporter from 1981 to 1990 and known for writing backwards on plexiglass and now he's was the weather reporter for The Saturday Early Show on CBS.
• Sasha Rionda - reporter/host Nuestro Rincón. Currently works for CNN International
• Glenn Ryle, a staff announcer from 1954 through the late 80s, was also a children's show host, taking the on-air name "Skipper Ryle" until 1973. His program was second only to WCPO's "Uncle Al" show in popularity.
• Rod Serling worked for WKRC-TV between 1948 and 1953, writing a regular weekly series of live dramas for the anthology show The Storm.
• Bob Shreve hosted The Past Prime Playhouse, a show that aired movies on late night Saturdays from 1975 to 1985.
• Linda Vester - station intern. Went on to work as reporter/anchor for Fox News Channel, NBC News & MSNBC

References

1. Nelson, Bob (2004-04-17). "Origins of many Call Signs". Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation. Retrieved 2007-04-12. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
2. "Taft stations switch to ABC-TV." Broadcasting, February 27, 1961, pp. 36.
3. "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films". Boxoffice: 13. November 10, 1956.
4. "Ch. 12 a prime draw in sale". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Gannett Company. 2006-11-17. p. 15A. Retrieved 2006-11-17.
5. "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners" (Press release). Clear Channel Communications. 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
6. http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Local-12-Agrees-To-Delay-DTV-Switch/lZJy0yk5DE-9F-gsWArNqA.cspx
7. CDBS Print
8. Newport Sells 22 Stations For $1 Billion, TVNewsCheck, July 19, 2012.
9. Kiesewetter, John (2006-09-18). "Digital channel debuts". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Gannett Company. p. 1D. Retrieved 2007-10-12. {{cite news}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
10. Kiesewetter, John (2006-09-17). "A Time Warner-CW Deal!". Cincinnati.Com Blogs. Gannett Company. Retrieved 2007-04-12. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
11. "Old TV Newscast Titles". 2007-04-10. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
12. "Tim Hedrick". WKRC-TV. 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
13. Lisa Miller (producer) (1988). WKRC-TV Gets Weather Beacon (Television advertisement). WKRC-TV. ♪ If you wanna know / what the weather will be / just look up to the top / of the Chiquita Building. ... If the beacon's white then / there's no change in sight. ♪
14. Bells, Karen (2004-08-13). "Habla español?" (PDF). Cincinnati Business Courier. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2011-08-28. {{cite news}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
15. "WSTR & WKRC Enter Into 10PM News Share In Cincinnati" (Press release). Sinclair Broadcast Group. 2006-04-24. Retrieved 2006-05-20.
16. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6604460.html

External links

• WKRC-DT "Local 12"
• WKRC-DT mobile
• WKRC-DT2 "The CW Cincinnati"
• Template:TVQ

Template:Newport Television

• CBS affiliates
• Television stations in Ohio
• CBS network affiliates
• Channel 12 digital TV stations in the United States
• Newport television stations
• Television channels and stations established in 1949
• Television stations in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Major League Baseball over-the-air television broadcasters