Jump to content

WANE-TV

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WANE-TV
Channels
BrandingWANE 15 (pronounced "Wayne" )
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
September 26, 1954
(69 years ago)(1954-09-26)
Former call signs
WINT (1954–1956)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:15 (UHF, 1954–2009)
  • Digital:4 (VHF, 2001–2002), 31 (UHF, 2002–2019)
  • ABC(secondary, 1954–1957)
  • NTA(secondary, 1956–1961)
  • UPN(DT2, 2003–2006)
Call signmeaning
Fort Wayne
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID39270
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT244.6 m (802 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°5′38″N85°10′48″W/ 41.09389°N 85.18000°W/41.09389; -85.18000
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.wane

WANE-TV(channel 15) is atelevision stationinFort Wayne, Indiana,United States, affiliated withCBSand owned byNexstar Media Group.The station's studios and transmitter are located on West State Boulevard in theTower Heightssection of the city.

History[edit]

The stationsigned onthe air on September 26, 1954, as WINT, originally broadcasting its signal from a transmitter inAuburn.While it was the Fort Wayne area's second television station, it was originally licensed to, and had studios in,Waterloo,north of the city. The station's original owner, Tri-State Television (not to be confused withTri-State Christian Television,owner ofWINMchannel 12), took advantage of peculiarities inFederal Communications Commission(FCC) rules to direct the signal to Fort Wayne, identifying as "Waterloo/Fort Wayne." Although the city was big enough to support three full network affiliates, the FCC had originally allocated only a single station, WKJG-TV (nowWISE-TV) onUHFchannel 33, to the city. This circumstance attracted the attention ofCongressand led to changes in how broadcast licenses were assigned.

The Indiana Broadcasting Company, owner ofWISH-TVinIndianapolisand WANE radio (1450 AM, nowWIOE), purchased WINT in 1956. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WANE-TV, reflecting its co-owned radio station, and moved all of channel 15's operations, as well as the license, to Fort Wayne. The analog transmitter remained at its rural Auburn location until 1957. Indiana Broadcasting became known as the Corinthian Broadcasting Company in 1957. From that point until 2019, WANE-TV and WISH-TV have become closesister stations;from 1997 until 2012, the two stations used the same news themes. The stations shared resources, which allowed WANE to use WISH-TV's resources for breaking news, live events and sports coverage. As of September 2019, WANE-TV is a sister operation with Indianapolis stationsWTTV/WXINunder Nexstar ownership.

The station has always been a CBS affiliate, but also maintained a secondary affiliation withABCuntilWPTA(channel 21) signed on in September 1957. During the late-1950s, WANE-TV was also briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network.[2]The station produced local programming shows such asThe Ann Colone Show,a mid-afternoontalkandvariety program.WANE radio was sold off in 1966.

Corinthian was purchased byDun & Bradstreetin 1970 which in turn sold the station to theBelo Corporationin 1983. However, WANE left Belo with two stations over the FCC's television station ownership limit at the time, so the company sold WANE and WISH toLIN Broadcasting.In September 1999, WANE-TV acquired the local rights toJeopardy!andWheel of FortunefromNBCaffiliate WKJG-TV, which had run both programs starting in September 1990.

After the launch ofUPNon January 16, 1995,FoxaffiliateWFFT(channel 55) began a secondary affiliation with the fledgling network. The network's programming eventually moved to WANE-TV full-time in 2003 after it launched a newdigital subchannel.[3]WANE-DT2 also featured repeats of newscasts seen on the main channel as well asIndiana University-Purdue University Fort Waynebasketball games. In September 2006, UPN programming was dropped after the network merged withThe WB(seen locally on WPTA-operatedcable-onlyoutlet "WBFW" ) to formThe CW.

On September 15, 2008, WANE announced LIN TV,Time Warner CableandBright House Networkshad not been able to reach an agreement to renew carriage of WANE and other LIN-owned stations on the twocableproviders due to a dispute over compensation for the stations' carriage. The company reached agreements with all television service providers in the Fort Wayne area, except for TWC and Bright House. The contract with those providers expired on October 2, 2008. At 12:35 a.m. on October 3, the LIN-owned stations were removed from TWC and Bright House systems nationwide. It would not be until October 29 when WANE-TV was restored to Time Warner Cable inNorthwest Ohio.However, it did not reappear on Bright House Networks systems inGrant County, Indiana.[4]Bright House viewers in Grant County now only have WTTV from Indianapolis as their CBS affiliate.

On March 21, 2014,Media Generalannounced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WANE-TV, in a $1.6 billion merger.[5]The merger was completed on December 19.[6]

Shortly thereafter, after an aborted merger plan withMeredith Corporation,Media General announced on January 27, 2016, that it was being acquired byNexstar Broadcasting Groupwith the new company named "Nexstar Media Group". As Nexstar already owned WFFT, FCC regulations required the combined company to sell one of the stations to another company.[7][8]Nexstar announced on June 13, 2016, that it would keep WANE and sell WFFT-TV as well as four other stations (including now-former sister stationsWLFI-TVin Lafayette andWTHI-TVin Terre Haute) toHeartland Media,through its USA Television MidAmerica Holdingsjoint venturewith MSouth Equity Partners, for $115 million.[9]

On or around October 4, 2018, WANE-TV incorporated the CBS eye with the "15" and updated the logo. In addition, the station also retired the "NewsChannel 15" moniker after 26 years (during its LIN Media and Media General ownership) and rebranded to "WANE 15".

News operation[edit]

WANE-TV presently broadcasts 24 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with four hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces the sports highlight programThe Highlight Zone,which airs Friday nights at 11:10 p.m. The station's weekend morning news runs for an hour beginning at 8 a.m. on Sundays with an earlier start at 7 a.m. on Saturdays. The reason for an inconsistent start time is due to CBS and children's programming obligations.

Unlike most CBS affiliates in theEastern Time Zone,the station does not air local newscasts in the weeknight 5:30 p.m. timeslot due to the syndicated programInside Edition.Additionally, WANE's weekend morning newscasts used to be the market's only one until WPTA debuted a competing weekend morning news in early November 2016.

After having its operations taken over by theGranite Broadcasting Corporation,WISE-TV's news department was combined with ABC affiliate WPTA. There was a decrease in ratings for the newIndiana's NewsCenternewscasts, which resulted in WANE-TV becoming the market's dominant news station (according toNielsen Media Research) since it was the only other news-producing station in the area prior toWFFT-TVbeginning a nightly newscast in 2009. This was most easily attributed to continued viewer resentment towards WPTA and Granite for the elimination of WISE-TV's news department and arguably its identity and history. WPTA management said the changes were part of a longer-term plan that would need up to five years to take hold with viewers.

On May 18, 2009, WPTA and WISE-TV became the first two television stations in the Fort Wayne market to upgrade their newscasts to 16:9widescreenenhanced definition.Although not truly high definition, the aspect ratio matched those of HD television screens. Broadcasts on WANE-TV were previously inpillarboxed4:3standard definition,though by July 2012, the station began the process of transitioning its newscasts tohigh definition.The upgrade to HD occurred, along with the debut of a new set and graphics on September 10, 2012, making it the second station (and first network-affiliated station) in the Fort Wayne market to have made the upgrade (WFFT-TV, a former Fox affiliate that has since rejoined the network, was the first but did not make the upgrade until after the station had lost its Fox affiliation in 2011).

Notable former on-air staff[edit]

Technical information[edit]

Subchannels[edit]

The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WANE-TV[13]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
15.1 1080i 16:9 WANE-HD CBS
15.2 480i 4:3 ION Ion Television
15.3 16:9 LAFF Laff
15.4 Escape Ion Mystery

On August 7, 2009, WANE began offeringMobile TVusingBlackBerry.[14]

On December 2, 2011, WANE-TV announced that it had signed an affiliation agreement withAntenna TV,when it began airing on its previously-vacant 15.2 digital subchannel on December 26.[15][16]The Antenna TV affiliation has since moved to WFFT-DT3 as of March 2018.

Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]

WANE-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 15, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 31,[17]usingvirtual channel15.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for WANE-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^"Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films",Boxoffice:13, November 10, 1956
  3. ^Eggerton, John (December 7, 2003). "Suddenly It's Hip To Spectrum-Split".Broadcasting & Cable.
  4. ^WISH-TV and WNDY returns (but not WANE) to Bright HouseMarion Chronicle-Tribune
  5. ^"Media General to buy WANE parent in $1.6 billion deal".The Journal Gazette.Associated Press.March 21, 2014.RetrievedMarch 22,2014.
  6. ^Media General Completes Merger With LIN MediaArchivedDecember 19, 2014, at theWayback Machine,Press Release,Media General,Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  7. ^"Nexstar-Media General: It's A Done Deal".TVNewsCheck.RetrievedJanuary 27,2016.
  8. ^Picker, Leslie (January 27, 2016)."Nexstar Clinches Deal to Acquire Media General".The New York Times.RetrievedJanuary 27,2016.
  9. ^"Prather Buys 5 TVs From Nexstar-Media Gen".TVNewsCheck.June 13, 2016.RetrievedJune 13,2016.
  10. ^Mack, Justin L. (January 30, 2019)."Hasnie to leave Fox59 for Fox News".The Indianapolis Star.Indianapolis, Indiana. p. 5A.Archivedfrom the original on April 14, 2024.RetrievedApril 14,2024– via Newspapers.
  11. ^"Nicole Briscoe bip".ESPN.RetrievedMarch 12,2013.
  12. ^"About Rolland G. Smith".RetrievedMarch 12,2013.
  13. ^RabbitEars TV Query for WANE
  14. ^Eggerton, John (August 7, 2009)."LIN TV Develops Blackberry App For Mobile TV Service".Broadcasting & Cable.RetrievedAugust 11,2009.
  15. ^Verbatim: WANE announces launch of retro channel,The Journal Gazette,December 2, 2011.
  16. ^"Antenna TV coming to WANE-DT 15.2 on December 26".RetrievedDecember 3,2011.
  17. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WANE-TV&oldid=1232688338"