WHBQ-TV
Encyclopedia
WHBQ-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated
television station of the News Corporation
-owned Fox Broadcasting Company
, located in Memphis, Tennessee
. Its studios and transmitter are located in Memphis.
and 105.9 FM, now WGKX
). WHBQ-TV was originally a CBS
affiliate, sharing ABC
programming with WMCT (channel 5, now WMC-TV
). Channel 13 lost CBS when WREC-TV (channel 3, now WREG-TV
) signed on and took that affiliation due to CBS' long affiliation with WREC radio
; WHBQ-TV then took the ABC affiliation full-time. It is Memphis' second-oldest television station, and the only one that has never changed its call letters or channel location.
General Teleradio, the broadcasting arm of the General Tire and Rubber Company
, purchased the WHBQ stations in 1954. In 1955, General Tire purchased RKO Radio Pictures in order to give its television stations a programming source. RKO was merged into General Teleradio, and in 1957 General Tire's broadcasting and film divisions were renamed RKO General
.
Despite being one of ABC's stronger affiliates in the 1960s and 1970s (and as pointed out in a sales video that was made in 1964, was billed as the third most watched ABC affiliate in the United States), WHBQ-TV was known for not airing some ABC programming in pattern, particularly during the day. Many of these programs were pre-empted outright or delayed until late-night hours. In some cases, these programming decisions occurred because station management was skeptical of airing subject matter deemed even mildly controversial (presumably to keep from offending viewers in Memphis' more conservative suburbs and the surrounding rural areas). For example, it was one of several ABC affiliates that didn't clear Hot l Baltimore
, a show which featured one of the first openly homosexual
couples featured on American television. In September 1977, WHBQ-TV was one of eight ABC affiliates that refused to carry the controversial situation comedy Soap
, opting to run repeats of My Three Sons
instead. When Soap proved to be a runaway hit for the network, channel 13 acquiesced and allowed the series to be seen in late-night summer reruns. The following fall, the station carried Soap in its regular pattern.
In many other cases, however, channel 13 opted to pre-empt network shows in favor of local shows in hopes of getting more local advertising dollars. For instance, in 1972, WHBQ-TV (whose AM sister was a Top 40 powerhouse at the time) stunned Mid-South viewers by dropping American Bandstand
for 90 minutes of live professional wrestling
. The wrestling program was a late Saturday afternoon fixure starting when it first began airing in 1958, until its move to the Saturday morning 11 am-12:30 pm slot. WHBQ lost the show to WMC-TV in 1977. But even after losing that program, channel 13 continued to pre-empt Bandstand until 1984, just three years before ABC canceled the long-running show. The pre-emption kept Memphians from seeing homegrown talent perform on the show, such as The Sylvers
, Al Green
, Isaac Hayes
, Anita Ward
, and Rick Dees
, who was hired by WHBQ radio as its new morning host during his "Disco Duck
" days in late 1976. At the time Dees appeared on Bandstand, "Disco Duck" was never played on any of the radio stations in Memphis, including WHBQ-AM, because Dees was still employed at rival WMPS at the time.
Channel 13 made up for the preemption by airing Bandstands syndicated rival, Soul Train
, on Saturday nights until independent station
WPTY-TV
(channel 24) purchased the rights to that program from channel 13 in 1983.
It was one of the largest ABC affiliates to pass on Good Morning America
when it debuted in 1975, not picking it up until 1977. Other popular shows that WHBQ-TV held out until later (when they became major out-of-the-box hits on ABC) included Dark Shadows
(the program featured actor Don Briscoe
, who would later reside and died in Memphis), The Bionic Woman
and S.W.A.T.
.
In 1980, the station was criticized for carrying paid religious programming instead of ABC's coverage of the United States' Olympic men's hockey team's gold medal victory over Finland
in the 1980 Winter Olympics
.
Locally, the station had a rivalry with WREC/WREG-TV over bragging rights for the largest movie library in the market. Through its ownership by RKO General, channel 13 had the entire RKO Pictures
catalog at its disposal. The station's reliance on classic and public-domain films in the 1960s and 1970s was evidenced in its daily 12 Noon-to-2 p.m. airing of the "Million Dollar Movie" (and later, the 9-to-11 a.m. airing of Dialing for Dollars
), which the station ran instead of popular daytime soap operas All My Children
and Ryan's Hope
, or in some cases, reruns of ABC prime-time sitcoms that aired in the mornings. In September 1978 channel 13 finally began clearing the full ABC daytime lineup, though its noon newscast forced All My Children into a morning timeslot, where it aired on a one-day delay for many years.
RKO General was under nearly continuous investigation from the 1960s onward due to a long history of lying to advertisers and regulators. For example, it was nearly forced out of broadcasting in 1980 after misleading the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) about corporate misconduct at parent General Tire. Under longtime general manager Alex Bonner
, however, WHBQ-AM-FM-TV was never accused of any wrongdoing.
In 1987, an FCC administrative law judge ruled RKO General unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to a widespread pattern of dishonesty. After the FCC advised RKO that appealing the decision wasn't worth the effort, RKO began unwinding its broadcast operations. The WHBQ stations were the next-to-last to be sold, shortly after Bonner retired in 1990. The new owner, Adams Communications, sold off WHBQ-AM (105.9 FM had been sold off several years earlier).
n-styled vampire
named Sivad, played by Watson Davis. The show's opening sequence, which included film footage of Sivad riding through a misty forest in a horse-drawn hearse (filmed at Overton Park), proved so unsettling to some children that the series was moved from its original 6:00 p.m. timeslot on Saturday evenings to the later time of 10:30 p.m. At the height of its popularity, Fantastic Features aired on both Friday and Saturday nights. The program concluded its run on February 5, 1972, after 623 episodes (although the final two years were rerunning older films because the station was getting more raunchier horror films that Davis did not feel comfortable with and wanted the show to be family friendly), though Sivad has remained a well-remembered local personality. There were several attempts to resurrect the character, though a retired Watson Davis refused all offers, the sole exception being promos for the syndicated run of Dark Shadows, acquired by WHBQ in April 1982. Mr. Davis died on May 23, 2005 and is buried in Monroe County, Arkansas.
In the 1960s and 1970s, WHBQ produced several local programs featuring Memphis personalities. Disc jockey George Klein hosted Talent Party
, an afternoon rock-and-roll series aimed at Memphis' teenage audience. Talent Party was hugely successful, giving many garage bands their first television appearances, and the ratings were so high that it regularly beat The Edge of Night
, a nationally top-rated soap opera on CBS.
Another staple of WHBQ's programming was Happy Hal's Funhouse and Cartoon Time, hosted by Hal Miller. While he hosted both shows twice daily and on Saturday morings, it also provided Miller with the opportunity to sell toy products from his local toy store during his telecasts. Miller continued to host both show from 1957 to 1974. Another childrens' program that aired on WHBQ from 1955 to 1957, Mars Patrol, featured a young Wink Martindale
as the titular character before he would go to be a game show host.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, news anchor Marge Thrasher also hosted a local talk show titled Straight Talk (a title used on other RKO General stations), aired at 8:00 a.m. on weekdays. WHBQ was also the Memphis station for the local/syndicated program PM Magazine
featuring Byron Day and Lynn Sitler.
, a sale which closed on July 5, 1995. The new owners made channel 13 the third station in Memphis to carry Fox programming when the station's affiliation agreement with ABC ran out in November 1995. WMKW-TV (channel 30, now WLMT
) had been the area's original Fox affiliate from 1987 to 1990, when Fox moved to WPTY-TV until the WHBQ-TV purchase. WPTY took channel 13's old ABC affiliation. Upon the network switch, channel 13 replaced the daytime ABC soap opera lineup with Fox Kids
(now 4Kids TV
) children's shows, unlike most of the other stations that switched to Fox during the Fox affiliate switches of 1994
. WHBQ is the only Memphis television station owned and operated by any major network.
In 2006, WHBQ premiered a new graphic scheme similar to the one in current use on the Fox News Channel
. This new look gradually became the standard for the other Fox-owned stations. WHBQ also adopted a new logo, which was borrowed from Tampa
sister station WTVT
. It shortly afterward switched to a slightly-modified version of the current logo.
On June 13, 2007, Fox's parent company, News Corporation
, put WHBQ-TV and eight other stations up for sale. Local TV
, a broadcast holding company controlled by the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, purchased the other eight stations on December 22. WHBQ-TV could not go to Local TV or any other affiliate of Oak Hill Capital Partners because Local TV already owned CBS affiliate WREG-TV. The FCC does not allow duopolies
between two of the four largest stations in a single market; this is clearly the case with the CBS and Fox affiliates in Memphis. On January 16, 2009, Fox Television Stations withdrew WHBQ-TV from the market because the only interested buyers (other than Local TV LLC) that were willing to pay anywhere close to the asking price were Newport Television
(who already owns WPTY and WLMT) and Raycom Media
(the owner of WMC-TV). None of the other bids for the station were deemed high enough for NewsCorp to sell it. By then, Fox had retired from cartoons due to the cancellation of 4Kids TV; Weekend Marketplace
now occupies the final two hours of 4KidsTVs time slot.
WHBQ's newscasts, for many years, had been called Eyewitness News
and stayed true to the Eyewitness News "Happy Talk
" format, along with using the "Cool Hand Luke
" music package the ABC O&Os used. WHBQ had a number of high-visibility anchors and reporters in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ed Craig, Tom Bearden, Marge Thrasher, Fran Fawcett, Jim Jaggers and Charlie B. Watson. After Fox acquired the station in 1995, the newscasts were briefly called Fox 13 Eyewitness News. In the late 1990s, WHBQ renamed its newscasts Fox 13 News. But despite this change (and even rivals WPTY-TV and WLMT picking up the name Eyewitness News in 2002), WHBQ has remained Memphis' "Happy Talk" station.
WHBQ is one of four Fox O&Os with a 5 p.m. newscast, but no 6 p.m. newscast (along with KTBC
in Austin
, KRIV in Houston
and KMSP-TV
in Minneapolis). WFXT
in Boston
was included in this until September 2009, when the reverse became true after the station "moved" its 5 p.m. newscast to 6 p.m.
WHBQ-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition
on June 23, 2009, making it the second television station in Memphis (behind WMC-TV
) to do so. On September 7, 2009, Good Morning Memphis was expanded to five hours, running from 5-10 a.m. On April 26, 2010 an additional half-hour was added to the morning newscast, expanding it to 4:30-10 a.m.
WHBQ started a new 10 p.m. newscast on August 16, 2010, hosted by Ernie Freeman. This marks the first time since November 1, 1995 (when WHBQ became a Fox affiliate) that they are in direct competition with WREG-TV, WMC-TV, and WPTY-TV in the all-important late night news spot. The new newscast follows a similar format to what is already in use at some of its sister Fox stations including WTVT-TV (see NewsEdge at 11
article).
FOX13 Weather Team
Sports team
Reporters
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
television station of the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, located in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. Its studios and transmitter are located in Memphis.
Under RKO General
WHBQ-TV began operations on September 27, 1953. The station was owned by Harding College along with WHBQ radio (560 AMWHBQ (AM)
WHBQ is an AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States of America. Its frequency is 560 kHz. Although today it broadcasts sports news exclusively, the station became famous in the 1950s for playing rhythm and blues....
and 105.9 FM, now WGKX
WGKX
WGKX is a Country music formatted radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. It is owned by Cumulus Media.-History:The station began as WHBQ-FM, sister to WHBQ 560 AM and WHBQ-TV, Channel 13...
). WHBQ-TV was originally a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate, sharing ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
programming with WMCT (channel 5, now WMC-TV
WMC-TV
WMC-TV is the NBC affiliate television station for the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area. The station serves roughly the western third of Tennessee, northwestern Mississippi, northeastern Arkansas and the southeastern corner of Missouri over the air on satellite and on various cable systems. Its...
). Channel 13 lost CBS when WREC-TV (channel 3, now WREG-TV
WREG-TV
WREG-TV is Memphis, Tennessee's CBS television affiliate, operating on digital channel 28, and uses PSIP 3 as its virtual channel. The station is owned by Local TV, which took over all of the television stations formerly owned by The New York Times Company on May 7, 2007. Its transmitter is...
) signed on and took that affiliation due to CBS' long affiliation with WREC radio
WREC
WREC is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Memphis, Tennessee, USA, the station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station is also broadcast on HD radio....
; WHBQ-TV then took the ABC affiliation full-time. It is Memphis' second-oldest television station, and the only one that has never changed its call letters or channel location.
General Teleradio, the broadcasting arm of the General Tire and Rubber Company
General Tire
The General Tire and Rubber Company is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles.General Tire was founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio by William F. O'Neil. Products included the low-pressure "General Balloon Jumbo" and the "Dual 90" tire...
, purchased the WHBQ stations in 1954. In 1955, General Tire purchased RKO Radio Pictures in order to give its television stations a programming source. RKO was merged into General Teleradio, and in 1957 General Tire's broadcasting and film divisions were renamed RKO General
RKO General
RKO General was the main holding company through 1991 for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The business was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, dating to 1943, and...
.
Despite being one of ABC's stronger affiliates in the 1960s and 1970s (and as pointed out in a sales video that was made in 1964, was billed as the third most watched ABC affiliate in the United States), WHBQ-TV was known for not airing some ABC programming in pattern, particularly during the day. Many of these programs were pre-empted outright or delayed until late-night hours. In some cases, these programming decisions occurred because station management was skeptical of airing subject matter deemed even mildly controversial (presumably to keep from offending viewers in Memphis' more conservative suburbs and the surrounding rural areas). For example, it was one of several ABC affiliates that didn't clear Hot l Baltimore
Hot l Baltimore
Hot l Baltimore was a short-lived 1975 television situation comedy series adapted from the hit off-Broadway play by Lanford Wilson.-Premise and run:...
, a show which featured one of the first openly homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
couples featured on American television. In September 1977, WHBQ-TV was one of eight ABC affiliates that refused to carry the controversial situation comedy Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...
, opting to run repeats of My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
instead. When Soap proved to be a runaway hit for the network, channel 13 acquiesced and allowed the series to be seen in late-night summer reruns. The following fall, the station carried Soap in its regular pattern.
In many other cases, however, channel 13 opted to pre-empt network shows in favor of local shows in hopes of getting more local advertising dollars. For instance, in 1972, WHBQ-TV (whose AM sister was a Top 40 powerhouse at the time) stunned Mid-South viewers by dropping American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
for 90 minutes of live professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
. The wrestling program was a late Saturday afternoon fixure starting when it first began airing in 1958, until its move to the Saturday morning 11 am-12:30 pm slot. WHBQ lost the show to WMC-TV in 1977. But even after losing that program, channel 13 continued to pre-empt Bandstand until 1984, just three years before ABC canceled the long-running show. The pre-emption kept Memphians from seeing homegrown talent perform on the show, such as The Sylvers
The Sylvers
The Sylvers were a popular R&B/soul and disco family group during the 1970s. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, the family would later relocate to Watts, California.- Beginnings :...
, Al Green
Al Green
Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
, Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, Anita Ward
Anita Ward
Anita Ward is an American singer and musician. She is best known for her 1979 million selling chart-topper, "Ring My Bell".-Career:Before signing a recording contract, Ward obtained a degree in psychology from Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and had become a schoolteacher...
, and Rick Dees
Rick Dees
Rigdon Osmond "Rick" Dees III is an American comedic performer, entertainer, and radio personality, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the novelty song "Disco Duck." He is a People's Choice Award recipient, a Grammy-nominated...
, who was hired by WHBQ radio as its new morning host during his "Disco Duck
Disco Duck
"Disco Duck" is a satirical disco novelty song performed by Memphis disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. It became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in October 1976 . It also made the top 20 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart, peaking at number 15...
" days in late 1976. At the time Dees appeared on Bandstand, "Disco Duck" was never played on any of the radio stations in Memphis, including WHBQ-AM, because Dees was still employed at rival WMPS at the time.
Channel 13 made up for the preemption by airing Bandstands syndicated rival, Soul Train
Soul Train
Soul Train is an American musical variety show that aired in syndication from October 1971 to March 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared.As a nod to Soul Trains...
, on Saturday nights until independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
WPTY-TV
WPTY-TV
WPTY-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for west Tennessee that is licensed to Memphis. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 25 from a transmitter in the Brunswick section of Arlington. Owned by Newport Television, the station is sister to CW affiliate WLMT and Fox...
(channel 24) purchased the rights to that program from channel 13 in 1983.
It was one of the largest ABC affiliates to pass on Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
when it debuted in 1975, not picking it up until 1977. Other popular shows that WHBQ-TV held out until later (when they became major out-of-the-box hits on ABC) included Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...
(the program featured actor Don Briscoe
Don Briscoe
Cecil Donald "Don" Briscoe was an American soap opera actor, most notable for playing Tony Meritt on Days of Our Lives, and, from 1968–1970, for playing Chris Jennings, Tom Jennings, Timothy Shaw, and Chris Collins on Dark Shadows.Briscoe left Dark Shadows abruptly in 1970...
, who would later reside and died in Memphis), The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman is an American television series starring Lindsay Wagner that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1978 as a spin off from The Six Million Dollar Man. Wagner stars as tennis pro Jaime Sommers who is nearly killed in a skydiving accident. Sommers' life is saved by Oscar Goldman ...
and S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. (TV series)
----S.W.A.T. is a 1970s American television series about the adventures of the WCPD's Olympic Division Special Weapons And Tactics team operating in an unidentified California city....
.
In 1980, the station was criticized for carrying paid religious programming instead of ABC's coverage of the United States' Olympic men's hockey team's gold medal victory over Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
in the 1980 Winter Olympics
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
.
Locally, the station had a rivalry with WREC/WREG-TV over bragging rights for the largest movie library in the market. Through its ownership by RKO General, channel 13 had the entire RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
catalog at its disposal. The station's reliance on classic and public-domain films in the 1960s and 1970s was evidenced in its daily 12 Noon-to-2 p.m. airing of the "Million Dollar Movie" (and later, the 9-to-11 a.m. airing of Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.-Format:...
), which the station ran instead of popular daytime soap operas All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
and Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope is an American soap opera, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American family in the Riverside district of New York City. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC...
, or in some cases, reruns of ABC prime-time sitcoms that aired in the mornings. In September 1978 channel 13 finally began clearing the full ABC daytime lineup, though its noon newscast forced All My Children into a morning timeslot, where it aired on a one-day delay for many years.
RKO General was under nearly continuous investigation from the 1960s onward due to a long history of lying to advertisers and regulators. For example, it was nearly forced out of broadcasting in 1980 after misleading the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) about corporate misconduct at parent General Tire. Under longtime general manager Alex Bonner
Alex Bonner
Odie Alex Bonner was a radio and television and broadcast media executive. His career spanned over 40 years at RKO and its Memphis ABC affiliate stations WHBQ-AM-FM and WHBQ-TV....
, however, WHBQ-AM-FM-TV was never accused of any wrongdoing.
In 1987, an FCC administrative law judge ruled RKO General unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to a widespread pattern of dishonesty. After the FCC advised RKO that appealing the decision wasn't worth the effort, RKO began unwinding its broadcast operations. The WHBQ stations were the next-to-last to be sold, shortly after Bonner retired in 1990. The new owner, Adams Communications, sold off WHBQ-AM (105.9 FM had been sold off several years earlier).
Local programming
On September 29, 1962, WHBQ-TV premiered Fantastic Features, a collection of classic horror films from the RKO Pictures library. The series was hosted by a TransylvaniaTransylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n-styled vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
named Sivad, played by Watson Davis. The show's opening sequence, which included film footage of Sivad riding through a misty forest in a horse-drawn hearse (filmed at Overton Park), proved so unsettling to some children that the series was moved from its original 6:00 p.m. timeslot on Saturday evenings to the later time of 10:30 p.m. At the height of its popularity, Fantastic Features aired on both Friday and Saturday nights. The program concluded its run on February 5, 1972, after 623 episodes (although the final two years were rerunning older films because the station was getting more raunchier horror films that Davis did not feel comfortable with and wanted the show to be family friendly), though Sivad has remained a well-remembered local personality. There were several attempts to resurrect the character, though a retired Watson Davis refused all offers, the sole exception being promos for the syndicated run of Dark Shadows, acquired by WHBQ in April 1982. Mr. Davis died on May 23, 2005 and is buried in Monroe County, Arkansas.
In the 1960s and 1970s, WHBQ produced several local programs featuring Memphis personalities. Disc jockey George Klein hosted Talent Party
Talent Party
Talent Party was a Southern teen dance TV program that aired between 1964 and 1973 featuring many of the popular artists in Rhythm and blues, rock and pop music of the day. The off-shoot of Dance Party, it began airing on WHBQ-TV which had already produced several local programs featuring Memphis...
, an afternoon rock-and-roll series aimed at Memphis' teenage audience. Talent Party was hugely successful, giving many garage bands their first television appearances, and the ratings were so high that it regularly beat The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, a nationally top-rated soap opera on CBS.
Another staple of WHBQ's programming was Happy Hal's Funhouse and Cartoon Time, hosted by Hal Miller. While he hosted both shows twice daily and on Saturday morings, it also provided Miller with the opportunity to sell toy products from his local toy store during his telecasts. Miller continued to host both show from 1957 to 1974. Another childrens' program that aired on WHBQ from 1955 to 1957, Mars Patrol, featured a young Wink Martindale
Wink Martindale
Winston Conrad Martindale , known professionally as Wink Martindale, is an American disc jockey and television game show host.-Radio:...
as the titular character before he would go to be a game show host.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, news anchor Marge Thrasher also hosted a local talk show titled Straight Talk (a title used on other RKO General stations), aired at 8:00 a.m. on weekdays. WHBQ was also the Memphis station for the local/syndicated program PM Magazine
PM Magazine
PM/Evening Magazine was a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States...
featuring Byron Day and Lynn Sitler.
Transition to Fox
Adams was in severe financial straits by 1994, and sold the station to ComCorp. Only a short time later, ComCorp announced that it would sell WHBQ-TV to the News CorporationNews Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, a sale which closed on July 5, 1995. The new owners made channel 13 the third station in Memphis to carry Fox programming when the station's affiliation agreement with ABC ran out in November 1995. WMKW-TV (channel 30, now WLMT
WLMT
WLMT is the CW-affiliated television station for Western Tennessee licensed to Memphis. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter in Arlington's Brunswick section. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 9 and in high definition on digital channel...
) had been the area's original Fox affiliate from 1987 to 1990, when Fox moved to WPTY-TV until the WHBQ-TV purchase. WPTY took channel 13's old ABC affiliation. Upon the network switch, channel 13 replaced the daytime ABC soap opera lineup with Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
(now 4Kids TV
4Kids TV
4Kids TV was a Saturday morning television programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The block was part of the Fox Network schedule...
) children's shows, unlike most of the other stations that switched to Fox during the Fox affiliate switches of 1994
Fox affiliate switches of 1994
The United States television network affiliate switches of 1994 were a series of events resulting from a multi-million dollar deal between Fox Broadcasting Company, known commonly as Fox, and New World Communications, an owner of several VHF television stations affiliated with major networks,...
. WHBQ is the only Memphis television station owned and operated by any major network.
In 2006, WHBQ premiered a new graphic scheme similar to the one in current use on the Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
. This new look gradually became the standard for the other Fox-owned stations. WHBQ also adopted a new logo, which was borrowed from Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
sister station WTVT
WTVT
WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the News Corporation...
. It shortly afterward switched to a slightly-modified version of the current logo.
On June 13, 2007, Fox's parent company, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, put WHBQ-TV and eight other stations up for sale. Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, a broadcast holding company controlled by the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, purchased the other eight stations on December 22. WHBQ-TV could not go to Local TV or any other affiliate of Oak Hill Capital Partners because Local TV already owned CBS affiliate WREG-TV. The FCC does not allow duopolies
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
between two of the four largest stations in a single market; this is clearly the case with the CBS and Fox affiliates in Memphis. On January 16, 2009, Fox Television Stations withdrew WHBQ-TV from the market because the only interested buyers (other than Local TV LLC) that were willing to pay anywhere close to the asking price were Newport Television
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
(who already owns WPTY and WLMT) and Raycom Media
Raycom Media
- History :Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations....
(the owner of WMC-TV). None of the other bids for the station were deemed high enough for NewsCorp to sell it. By then, Fox had retired from cartoons due to the cancellation of 4Kids TV; Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
now occupies the final two hours of 4KidsTVs time slot.
Digital television
On June 12, 2009, WHBQ-TV remained on channel 13 when the analog to digital conversion completed.News operation
WHBQ broadcasts a total of 46.5 hours of local news a week (eight and a half hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and Sundays), more than any other television station in Memphis and the state of Tennessee; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, WHBQ's Saturday and Sunday 5 pm newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage.WHBQ's newscasts, for many years, had been called Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
and stayed true to the Eyewitness News "Happy Talk
Happy talk
Happy talk, also called banter, is the additional and often meaningless commentary interspersed into news programs by news anchors and others on set. It may consist of simple jokes or simply a modified wording in asking a question of another reporter...
" format, along with using the "Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman. The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. The film features George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D...
" music package the ABC O&Os used. WHBQ had a number of high-visibility anchors and reporters in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ed Craig, Tom Bearden, Marge Thrasher, Fran Fawcett, Jim Jaggers and Charlie B. Watson. After Fox acquired the station in 1995, the newscasts were briefly called Fox 13 Eyewitness News. In the late 1990s, WHBQ renamed its newscasts Fox 13 News. But despite this change (and even rivals WPTY-TV and WLMT picking up the name Eyewitness News in 2002), WHBQ has remained Memphis' "Happy Talk" station.
WHBQ is one of four Fox O&Os with a 5 p.m. newscast, but no 6 p.m. newscast (along with KTBC
KTBC
KTBC, channel 7, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in Austin, Texas. Studios are located in downtown Austin at the corner of 10th and Brazos Streets , and its transmitter is located in the city....
in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, KRIV in Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
and KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
in Minneapolis). WFXT
WFXT
WFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
was included in this until September 2009, when the reverse became true after the station "moved" its 5 p.m. newscast to 6 p.m.
WHBQ-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
on June 23, 2009, making it the second television station in Memphis (behind WMC-TV
WMC-TV
WMC-TV is the NBC affiliate television station for the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area. The station serves roughly the western third of Tennessee, northwestern Mississippi, northeastern Arkansas and the southeastern corner of Missouri over the air on satellite and on various cable systems. Its...
) to do so. On September 7, 2009, Good Morning Memphis was expanded to five hours, running from 5-10 a.m. On April 26, 2010 an additional half-hour was added to the morning newscast, expanding it to 4:30-10 a.m.
WHBQ started a new 10 p.m. newscast on August 16, 2010, hosted by Ernie Freeman. This marks the first time since November 1, 1995 (when WHBQ became a Fox affiliate) that they are in direct competition with WREG-TV, WMC-TV, and WPTY-TV in the all-important late night news spot. The new newscast follows a similar format to what is already in use at some of its sister Fox stations including WTVT-TV (see NewsEdge at 11
NewsEdge at 11
NewsEdge at 11:00 is an 11:00–11:35 p.m. newscast on WTVT hosted by Mark Wilson...
article).
Newscast titles
- Eyewitness News (1970-1982 and 1989-1995)
- 13 Eyewitness News (1982-1989)
- FOX 13 Eyewitness News (1995-1997)
- FOX 13 News (1997-present)
Station slogans
- The Best is Seen on Channel 13 (1950s-1960s)
- The Full Color Station (1960s)
- The Spirit of the Mid-South (1989-2005)
- Where Local News Comes First (2005-2007; also formerly used as a slogan for KPRC-TVKPRC-TVKPRC-TV is the NBC affiliated television station based in Houston, Texas, and serving the Greater Houston television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City...
in Houston) - The Most Powerful Name In Local News! (2007-present)
Current on-air staff (as of July 10, 2011)
Anchors- Valerie Calhoun - weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" (6-10 a.m.)
- Greg Coy - weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" (6-10 a.m.)
- Ernie Freeman - weeknights at 10 p.m.
- Darrell Greene - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
- Lauren Johnson - weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" (4:30-6 a.m.)
- Jill Monier - weekends
- Mearl Purvis - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
- Melissa Scheffler - weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" (4:30-6 a.m.)also weeknight reporter
- Darcy Thomas - weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" and 11 a.m.
FOX13 Weather Team
- Joey Sulipeck (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 9 and 10 p.m. - Brian Basham (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Good Morning Memphis" (4:30-9 a.m.)
- Ed Echols (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; Sundays at 5 and weekends at 9 p.m.
- Holly Hancock (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekdays at 11 a.m.
Sports team
- Matt Stark - Sports Director; weeknights at 5, 9 and 10 p.m.
- Marcus Hunter - Sports Anchor; Sundays at 5 and weekends at 9 p.m.
Reporters
- Tom Dees - traffic reporter
- Tealy Devereaux - general assignment reporter
- Lauren Johnson - general assignment reporter
- Lynn Lampkin - general assignment reporter
- Lauren Lee - general assignment reporter
- Scott Madaus - general assignment reporter
- Jill Monier - general assignment reporter
- Earle Farrell - morning assignment reporter
- Les Smith - general assignment reporter
- Bofta Yimam - general assignment reporter
- Heather York - traffic reporter