WCPO-TV:

WCPO-TV is a broadcast television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts digitally on channel 10, but uses its former analog assignment of channel 9 as its virtual channel via PSIP. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.

The station's currently owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, which had previously owned the now-defunct Cincinnati Post (which ceased publication at the end of 2007) and its Kentucky edition (which became an online-only publication simultaneously with the closure of the Cincinnati Post).

History

The station first signed on the air on July 26, 1949 as Cincinnati's third television station. The call letters came from the Post, who also owned WCPO radio, Cincinnati's original Top 40/Rock station (AM 1230, now WDBZ and FM 105.1, now WUBE). Originally on channel 7, it moved to channel 9 in 1952.

The station was originally a primary ABC affiliate, and also carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network. With DuMont's demise in 1956, WCPO was left with just ABC until it swapped affiliations with WKRC-TV in 1961, becoming a CBS affiliate. This deal came because WKRC-TV's owner, Taft Broadcasting, had very good relations with ABC.

In 1994, Scripps and ABC announced a long-term affiliation deal, which called for four Scripps-owned stations switching to ABC. WCPO was included in the deal, which ABC agreed to as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS in Cleveland. Both of those stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox. However, while three other Scripps-owned stations included in the same deal switched to ABC in December 1994 and January 1995, Scripps had to maintain CBS affiliation on WCPO for an additional one and a half years because WKRC's affiliation contract with ABC did not run out until June 6, 1996. On that day the two stations finally reversed the 1961 affiliation swap, with WCPO rejoining ABC and WKRC reuniting with CBS.

In December 2009, WCPO reached an agreement with local Fox affiliate WXIX-TV to pool videographers at press conferences.^[1]

Hostage situation

On the early morning of October 15, 1980, WCPO and most of its news staff became part of a major news story when a terrorist seized control of WCPO's newsroom.^[2]

James Hoskins, a radical, held reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman at gunpoint in the parking lot of WCPO's studios. Then after barging his way into the newsroom, took seven more hostages. An admitted terrorist, Hoskins stated in a videotaped interview with Green that he had, among other things, murdered his girlfriend before arriving at the studios. After voicing his displeasure with local government, Hoskins ended by saying that he would let his hostages go, but only after they helped him to barricade himself in their newsroom in anticipation of a bloody shootout with police. Green and the others pleaded with Hoskins to get help, but to no avail.

WCPO's news staff ran special newscasts from the parking lot most of that morning. True to his word, Hoskins eventually let all the hostages go, and the standoff ended later that morning when Hoskins shot himself dead while on the phone with SWAT negotiators.

Green was awarded a Peabody Award for her handling of this situation. She later married anchor and then-news director Al Schottelkotte. The two remained married until his death in 1996.

Digital television

Subchannel 9.2 carries the same 24-hour local weather programming as the Weather Tracker channel on many local cable systems.^[3]

Post-analog shutdown

After the analog television shutdown occurred on June 12, 2009 ^[4], WCPO-DT remained on its pre-transition channel number, 10. ^[5] However, since many viewers are having reception issues since the digital transition, even an increase of power just weeks after the transition, the station has filed a Petition for Rulemaking to abandon VHF Channel 10 and move to UHF Channel 22.^[6] On October 7, 2009, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for WCPO-TV, which gives the public 25 days to comment on the proposed channel change.^[7] On December 10, 2009, the FCC issued a Report & Order, approving WCPO's move from Channel 10 to 22.^[8] On January 19, 2010, WCPO filed a minor change application for a construction permit for their new allotment. ^[9]

Programming

All Scripps-Howard owned ABC affiliates, including WCPO, preempted Saving Private Ryan in 2004. WCPO produced The Uncle Al Show, a children's show that ran from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s. Beginning in the early 60s, WCPO was the undisputed leader in local newscasts, led by anchor and news director Al Schottelkotte, and remained Cincinnati's news leader for over 20 years.

News Operation

In recent years, WCPO and WKRC have been battling each other for first place in the local television viewership ratings, while NBC affiliate WLWT has been lagging behind in third or fourth place. Typically, WCPO leads the evening news race while WKRC-TV leads in mornings and late nights. Consumer reporter John Matarese's reports have been syndicated to nine other stations, five of which are Scripps-owned, since 2003.

High-definition newscast

WCPO launched its high-definition newscast on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 6:00 PM ET. Improvements around the station include upgraded weather graphics that match WHIO-TV's upgrade (see above), new panel displays on set (to replace rear-projection CRT monitors on set and old plasma displays with obvious burn-in) and Scripps purchasing JVC HDPro equipment for WCPO.^[10] Currently the studio cameras are HD, while live field reports are SD widescreen. WCPO broadcasts local news in 720p HDTV, which is the same HD format as ABC programming.

2007 Controversy

On March 7, 2007 at 5:45 AM, morning anchor David Rose was pulled off the air for slurring his words. He was let go three weeks later. ^[11]

Weather

WCPO's forecasters are chief meteorologist, Steve Raleigh and meteorologists Larry Handley, Steve Norris and Cyndee O'Quinn. Cincinnati has always been a battleground for weather coverage, especially since the Montgomery / Blue Ash tornado of 1999. WCPO bills their radar as Ultimate Doppler 9, VIPIR 9, and TrueView. Their main radar in Batavia is one of the fastest radars in the nation, with an update usually every ten seconds.

On July 1, 2003, WCPO began to operate a second Doppler weather radar out of the Clermont County Airport in Batavia. In combination with the radar located at WCPO's transmission tower site, both radars were named Ultimate Doppler Radar. The new radar operates at a height of 100 ft. with its base 834 ft. above sea level. Currently, only the Batavia radar is used, even when attenuation at the site leaves a radius around the radar blank. The old radar at the transmission site is no longer used.

In July 2007, WCPO showed its new capability of placing actual satellite images (such as those from Google Earth) on the ground rather than just the green topo map. This helps the meteorologists at the station by showing them exactly where it's raining in relation to streets, buildings, ballfields, etc.

Newscasts

Weekdays

Weekends

News Staff

Current personalities

News Staff

Notable alumni

News/Station Presentation

Newscast titles

Station slogans

External links

References

^ Kiesewetter, John (2009-12-11). "What Does The Ch 9-19 Pool Video Agreement Mean?". http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2009/12/11/what-does-the-ch-9-19-pool-video-agreement-mean/. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
^ McKee, Tom (2005-10-14). "October 15, 1980: Gunman Takes Control Of WCPO-TV". WCPO.com (Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company). http://old.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/10/14/hostage.html. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
^ Matarese, John (2009-01-13). "Some Cable Customers Losing Weather Radar Channel". WCPO-TV (Scripps TV Station Group). http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Some-Cable-Customers-Losing-Weather-Radar-Channel/AUWPIwFu4k-zxSR9aysPaQ.cspx. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
^ CDBS Print
^ Petition for Rulemaking by WCPO-TV
^ "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by WCPO-TV"
^ [http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-2580A1.pdf "Report & Order by WCPO-TV"
^ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1353352&Service=DT&Form_id=301&Facility_id=59438
^ JVC (2007-06-04). "Scripps Speeds Conversion to HD News with Adoption of JVC ProHD". Press release. http://pro.jvc.com/pro/pr/2007/releases/scripps.html. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
^ Television: What's Up With David Rose?
^ Kiesewetter, John (2007-02-02). "Ch 9 in & Randy Little out at B105". Cincinnati.com. http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2007/02/ch-9-in-randy-little-out-at-b105.asp. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
^ ^a ^b Bird, Rick (2002-01-18). "Ch. 9 'On Your Side'". The Cincinnati Post (E. W. Scripps Company). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-81972101.html. Retrieved 2009-12-03. "...Channel 9 has subtly dropped its 'hometown' moniker, used in promos and news features since 1998. ... Now the station's new positioning statement is '9 On Your Side.'"

WCPO-TV

Contents

History

Hostage situation

Digital television

Post-analog shutdown

Programming

News Operation

High-definition newscast

2007 Controversy

Weather

Newscasts

Weekdays

Weekends

News Staff

Current personalities

News Staff

Notable alumni

News/Station Presentation

Newscast titles

Station slogans

External links

References