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WCHS-TV
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WCHS-TV, channel 8, is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Charleston / Huntington, West Virginia market, the second-largest market (in terms of area) east of the Mississippi River. The station is licensed to Charleston and serves 61 counties in Central West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio. In addition to its analog VHF broadcast, WCHS also broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 41. Its transmitter is located west of St. Albans, West Virginia.
The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of a duopoly with the area's Fox affiliate WVAH.
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Encyclopedia
WCHS-TV, channel 8, is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Charleston / Huntington, West Virginia market, the second-largest market (in terms of area) east of the Mississippi River. The station is licensed to Charleston and serves 61 counties in Central West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio. In addition to its analog VHF broadcast, WCHS also broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 41. Its transmitter is located west of St. Albans, West Virginia.
The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of a duopoly with the area's Fox affiliate WVAH. The two stations share studio facilities on Piedmont Road in Charleston.
One of the first televised presidential debates featuring John F. Kennedy took place at WCHS' studios. The nationally syndicated Produce Corner segments were taped at WCHS as well.
Digital television
WCHS-TV will broadcast only digitally, effective February 17, 2009.
WCHS-TV will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 41. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WCHS-TV's virtual channel as 8.1
History
WCHS-TV signed for the first time on August 15, 1954. It was owned by the Tierney Company along with WCHS-AM 580 (which is now owned by the West Virginia Radio Corporation). It was actually the second television station in Charleston after WKNA-TV. That station had signed on UHF channel 49 as an ABC affiliate in 1953, but went dark in 1955 due to lack of viewership.
Originally a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation,, WCHS-TV became a full CBS affiliate when WHTN-TV, channel 13 in Huntington, signed on in 1955. In 1958, WCHS-TV swapped affiliations with WHTN and became an ABC affiliate. The WCHS stations were sold to Rollins Telecasting in 1960. WCHS-TV reversed the swap and went back to CBS in 1962.
In 1986, WCHS-TV swapped affiliations once again with channel 13, now known as WOWK-TV. The following year, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. Heritage sold off WCHS-AM in 1991. Heritage sold all of its remaining broadcasting properties: four television stations, LMAs for two other television stations, and 24 radio stations to Sinclair in 1997, just as Heritage itself was being swallowed up by News Corporation. As such, the former Heritage stations retained their current network affiliations instead of becoming FOX O&Os.
The Sinclair purchase of WCHS forced the company to sell WVAH (which it had acquired three years before when it merged with Abry Communications) to Glencairn, Ltd. as the FCC did not permit duopolies at the time. However, Glencairn's stock was almost entirely controlled by the Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair. In effect, Sinclair now owned both stations. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by entering into a local media agreement with WVAH, which allowed Sinclair to continue operating WCHS. WVAH, however, retained its own studio, although most of its operations were merged with those of WCHS. Sinclair tried to merge with Glencairn in 2001 after the FCC decided to allow duopolies, but could not repurchase WVAH because the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting, and the local media agreement with WCHS continues to this day. There is overwhelming evidence that Glencairn / Cunningham is merely a shell corporation used by Sinclair to circumvent FCC ownership rules.
For most of its history, WCHS-TV's newscasts have been a distant runner-up to long-dominant WSAZ-TV, especially in the Huntington/Ashland/Southern Ohio portion of the market.
In December 2006, WCHS introduced a new logo along with new theme music.
In 2007, WCHS-TV and sister station WVAH began construction on a branch studio in Huntington. Thus for the first time, all four major broadcasting channels in the Huntington/Charleston market will have studios in both the cities of Huntington and Charleston.
News/Station Presentation
Newscast Titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1954-1962)
- The West Virginia Report (1962-1966)
- Eyewitness News (1966-1973)
- Channel 8 News (1973-1977)
- Channel 8 Eyewitness News (1977-1985)
- News 8 (1985-1995)
- Eyewitness News 8 (1995-present)
Station Slogans
- Eyewitness News 8 is On Your Side! (2007-present)
Carriage Controversies
Dish Network
Sinclair and Dish Network were both in a brief dispute over retransmission fees on May 17, 2005 . This dispute was resolved on May 20, 2005 and the notice was taken down.
Suddenlink
In the summer of 2006, Charter Communications streamlined its operations, which included selling off portions of its cable system which were "geographically non-strategic". Charter accounts in WCHS's market area were purchased by Suddenlink Communications (formerly known as Cebridge). Sinclair requested a $40 million one time fee and a $1 per sub per month fee from Suddenlink for retransmission rights of WCHS and WVAH on the Suddenlink cable system . This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies, and Sinclair pulled the two stations off the air in the Beckley market.
After several weeks of negotiations, the two companies reached an agreement which allowed WCHS and WVAH to continue transmission over the Suddenlink cable system. The terms of the agreement were not released to the public .
Time Warner
It was announced on December 20, 2006, that Time Warner cable systems in the Charleston / Huntington market would lose WCHS and WVAH starting on December 31, 2006. It only applied to cable subscribers that were previously owned by Adelphia . An extension agreement was made until January 12, 2007 for negotiations .
External links
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