WEHT
FCC | |
Facility ID | 24215 |
---|---|
ERP | 14 kW |
HAAT | 314.7 m (1,032 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 37°51′57″N 87°34′4″W / 37.86583°N 87.56778°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WEHT (channel 25) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to CW outlet WTVW (channel 7) under a shared services agreement (SSA) with Mission Broadcasting. The two stations share studios on Marywood Drive in Henderson, Kentucky, where WEHT's transmitter is also located.
History
The station signed on September 27, 1953, as the first television station in the Tri-State area. It aired an
The Gilmore Broadcasting Corporation, owned by former
In mid-1995, WTVW was sold to Petracom Broadcasting, and as part of the deal, that station announced it was switching its affiliation from ABC to Fox. The result brought about a network scramble in Evansville with WEHT quickly joining ABC and WEVV-TV (channel 44, the original Fox affiliate) switching to CBS. The final switch for all three stations was made on December 3, 1995, although some programming was swapped between the stations prior to the date of the actual change.
WEHT was the last station owned by Gilmore Broadcasting, which has been in the hands of James Gilmore, Jr.'s family since his death in a 2000 auto accident. At its height, Gilmore owned five television stations, nine
On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America (owner of WEVV) announced the sale of its entire group to Nexstar. Since there are fewer than eight full-power stations in the Evansville market, Nexstar and its partner company Mission, cannot legally buy WEVV. So WEVV was to be sold to a female-controlled company called Rocky Creek Communications. Nexstar would have operated the station under a shared services agreement, forming a virtual triopoly with sister stations WEHT and WTVW.[6] However, on August 4, 2014, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would instead sell WEVV to Bayou City Broadcasting for $18.6 million.[7] The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.[8]
On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with
News operation
The station currently carries 24+1⁄2 hours of local newscasts per week (with 4+1⁄2 hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); unlike most ABC affiliates, WEHT does not broadcast an early evening newscast on Sundays, and it has also not aired a midday newscast during the week since dropping a half-hour 11:30 a.m. newscast in 2007. In addition to its main studios, WEHT also operates a news bureau in
In the early-2000s through a news share agreement, WEHT produced the
Originally, WEHT-DT2 simulcast live news from the main channel in addition to offering repeats of those shows as well as local weather. This programming was dropped with the addition of RTV. The service would bring back a prime time broadcast at 9 on June 10, 2009. Soon after in September, WFIE introduced its own newscast in the time slot (on its own second digital subchannel) offering a third alternative of late news an hour earlier. With the decision to switch WEHT-DT2 to a sports channel in July 2010, the 9 o'clock broadcast was canceled.
In April 2009, the station's weekday morning news anchors started voicing updates for several Townsquare Media-owned radio stations. The stations also air weather updates from Eyewitness News meteorologists as part of the "First Warning Doppler Radio Network" and will simulcast the television station's audio feed whenever severe weather necessitates wall-to-wall coverage. The Townsquare Media stations include WKDQ-FM, WGBF-FM, WJLT-FM, WDKS-FM, WGBF-AM, WBKR-FM, and WOMI-AM. In addition to the Townsquare stations, WRAY-FM and WBNL-AM, which are owned by local companies, are also part of the radio network.[11]
Pending approval of the sale to Nexstar, WEHT and WTVW would have their operations merged and be based in the WEHT facility in Henderson; all personnel of WEHT would then have to re-apply for their current positions starting in late September 2011. On November 7, 2011, Nexstar announced the layoff of 45 staffers effective November 30; news staffers laid off include weekday morning anchor Whitney Ray, sports director Mark McVicar, sports reporters Aaron Hancock and Sean Clark-Weis, and reporter Nick LaGrange.[12] In addition, WTVW no longer airs newscasts in timeslots in which WEHT offers newscasts (5–7 a.m. on weekday mornings and 6–6:30 p.m. Monday-Saturdays); on December 1, 2011, the two stations' combined news operation debuted as Eyewitness News, the title WTVW had used from 1974 until its 1995 switch from ABC to Fox.
As a result of the consolidation of WTVW and WEHT's news operations, this left the Evansville market with only two local news operations amongst three stations, the other belonging to NBC affiliate WFIE (CBS affiliate WEVV-TV, which began running newscasts starting in 1992, had shut down its news operation in 2001, only to relaunch it in 2015).[5][13][14][15][16] On August 13, 2012, WEHT began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, with a new news set, HD cameras and forecasting equipment. With the upgrade, the newscasts on WTVW are also broadcast in high definition.[17]
Notable former on-air staff
- Nischelle Turner (now NFL on Fox sideline reporter)
- Bill Weber (now with NBC Sports)
- Lloyd Winnecke (later became the 34th Mayor of Evansville)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
25.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WEHT-HD | Main WEHT programming / ABC |
25.2 | 480i | Laff | Laff | |
25.3 | Cozi | Cozi TV | ||
25.4 | 4:3 |
Rewind | Rewind TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WEHT began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 59 in 2002. The station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
On August 25, 2008, the station began airing programming from
References
- ^ ISBN 9781879688933. Archived(PDF) from the original on April 27, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WEHT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Rubino, Lindsay (August 8, 2011). "Nexstar Enters Agreement to Acquire WEHT-TV". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
- ^ "Quarterly Report (Nexstar Form 10-Q)". Yahoo! Finance. November 9, 2011. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
- ^ a b Newkirk, Jacob (November 29, 2011). "Nexstar announces anchors, expanded 'Local' news on WTVW, WEHT". Evansville Courier & Press. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
- ^ "System Maintenance | Federal Communications Commission". Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
- ^ "TV News Check". TV News Check. January 30, 2024. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
- ^ "Consummation Notice". licensing.fcc.gov. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
- ^ "Bounce TV, Grit, Escape, Laff Multicast Deal Covers 81 Stations, 54 Markets". Broadcasting & Cable. June 15, 2016. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
- ^ "Jake's DTV Blog: 14WFIE planning HD news launch on July 11, will add new 4PM newscast beginning Sept. 12". Archived from the original on October 8, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
- ^ "Jake's DTV Blog Covers Tri-State TV & Radio: NEWS25 begins providing news for Regent radio stations". Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ^ "Nexstar cuts several news jobs from local TV station WEHT-ABC25". Archived from the original on March 31, 2012.
- ^ "Nexstar beginning consolidation of NEWS 25 and WTVW operations and personnel". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
- ^ "Nexttv". NextTV. Archived from the original on June 8, 2008. Retrieved December 18, 2021.[dead link]
- ^ Newkirk, Jacob (November 22, 2011). "UPDATED: Is Eyewitness News making a comeback? Big changes coming to Local 7, NEWS 25 newscasts next week". Jake's DTV Blog. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
- ^ Newkirk, Jacob (November 22, 2011). "Big changes coming to News 25 and Local 7". Evansville Courier & Press. Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
- ^ "Home Page". tristatehomepage.com. Retrieved January 30, 2024.[dead link]
- ^ "RabbitEars.Info". rabbitears.info. Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/07/19/daily.12/ [dead link]
- ^ "Jake's DTV Blog: Nexstar purchase said to be end of the line for NEWS 25 Sports Channel". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2011.