WVIR-TV
Encyclopedia
WVIR-TV is the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 for Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

 and Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia in the United States. Its population as of 2010 is 48,914, and at the 2000 census, 40,468. Harrisonburg is the county seat of Rockingham County and the core city of the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical...

. It broadcasts a 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...

 digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter on Carters Mountain south of Charlottesville. The station can also be seen on Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

 channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 211. Owned by the Waterman Broadcasting Corporation
Waterman Broadcasting Corporation
Waterman Broadcasting Corporation is a company based in Fort Myers, Florida,it was founded in 1978 in Ft. Myers FL when it purchased WBBH.It is owned by Bernard Waterman.-Stations owned by Waterman:...

, WVIR has studios on East Market Street (US 250 Bus
U.S. Route 250
U.S. Route 250 is a route of the United States Numbered Highway System, and is a spur of U.S. Route 50. It currently runs for from Sandusky, Ohio to Richmond, Virginia. It passes through the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. It goes through the cities of Richmond, Virginia,...

) in Downtown Charlottesville. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 programming on the station includes: Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...

, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...

, Oprah
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....

, and Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...

.

Repeaters

In addition to the main signal, WVIR can be seen on two translators. Analog W28BF Channel 28 and W31CE channel 31, is still listed with 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...

.
Call letters Channel City of license Transmitter location
W30CT-D 30 Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia in the United States. Its population as of 2010 is 48,914, and at the 2000 census, 40,468. Harrisonburg is the county seat of Rockingham County and the core city of the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical...

 
Massanutten Peak
Massanutten Mountain (Peak)
Massanutten Peak lies at the southwestern end of Massanutten Mountain in Rockingham County, Virginia. The upper end of ski slopes of Massanutten Ski Resort begins at the peak....

W41DT-D 41 Bridgewater
Bridgewater, Virginia
Bridgewater is an incorporated town in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States. The population was 5,644 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bridgewater is home to the Reds of the Rockingham County Baseball League...

 
Elliott Knob
Elliott Knob
Elliott Knob is one of the highest mountains in the northern portions of the U.S. state of Virginia. At 4,463 feet , the peak is located on the ridge known as Great North Mountain. A small, naturally growing stand of spruce trees are on the summit, indicating that the altitude is just high enough...


Digital programming

On WVIR-DT2, Comcast digital channel 208, and live streaming video on its website is a 24-hour local weather channel. On WVIR-DT3
WVIR-DT3
WVIR-DT3 is the CW-affiliated television station for Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, Virginia. The station is part of The CW Plus, a special national CW feed broadcasting on cable and/or over-the-air on a digital signal. It is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WVIR-TV owned by the...

 and Comcast channel 12 is the area's CW affiliate which gets all of its programming from The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....

. Repeater W41DT-D also offers WVIR's two subchannels.
Channels Video Aspect
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

Programming
29.1 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

 
16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...

 
Main WVIR programming / NBC
29.2 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...

 
4:3  WVIR-DT2 "NBC 29 Weather Plus"
29.3 WVIR-DT3 "CW 29"

History

It signed-on March 11, 1973 as the first television station based in Charlottesville and second outlet (after WHSV-TV
WHSV-TV
WHSV-TV, channel 3 , is an ABC affiliate television station for the Harrisonburg, Virginia, market. WHSV News 3, as it is known on-air, is owned by Gray Television and has its transmitter located west of the town of Stanley on Massanutten Mountain...

) between Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

 and Roanoke
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...

. In 1986, Waterman Broadcasting purchased the station. Until August 15, 2004, it was the only outlet in the Charlottesville market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...

 affiliated with a major network with outside stations being seen on cable and over-the-air. On that date, WCAV
WCAV
WCAV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Charlottesville, Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Carters Mountain. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 212...

 signed-on becoming the area's first 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 and first station to mount a challenge against WVIR. On September 18, 2006, this channel launched a new second digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...

 to be the area's CW affiliate. On September 13, 2007, WVIR began offering NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus
NBC Weather Plus was a 24-hour, commercially sponsored, weather-oriented broadcast/cable television network jointly owned by NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC network. It debuted on November 15, 2004 and shut down on December 31, 2008...

 on that digital subchannel resulting in The CW moving to a new third subchannel.

In December 2008, the national Weather Plus feed was shut down and a local weather channel programmed by WVIR was added in its place. The WVIR Dateline News set with former News Director
News Director
A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, photographers, copy writers, television producers,...

/weeknight anchor Dave Cupp and meteorologist Robert Van Winkle were featured in the Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...

 video "Everyday" released in 2001. Its call letters were featured in an episode of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

on October 7, 2006. The station is featured in the 2007 film Evan Almighty
Evan Almighty
Evan Almighty is a 2007 American religious comedy film and the stand-alone sequel to Bruce Almighty . The film was directed by Tom Shadyac, written by Steve Oedekerk, and starring Steve Carell as the title character. Morgan Freeman also reprised his role as God from the original film. Production of...

. WVIR's broadcasts became digital-only effective at 12:30 in the afternoon on February 17, 2009.

As part of the analog nightlight
Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act
The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, is a U.S. law to require the Federal Communications Commission to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmissions in 2009 for 30 more days, for the purpose of broadcasting public service announcements regarding the...

 service, the station was required by the FCC to leave its analog signal on-air for two months after the end of digital transition at an estimated cost to the station of $20,000 to broadcast an endless loop of instructional video on digital converter box installation. This was interrupted daily to carry local newscasts. Every year, WVIR holds an annual telethon to help raise money for University of Virginia Health System
University of Virginia Health System
The University of Virginia Health System is a nationally renowned healthcare provider based in Charlottesville, Virginia and associated with the University of Virginia. The health system includes a medical center, school of medicine and health sciences library...

's Children's Hospital. The telethon, as part of the Children's Miracle Network
Children's Miracle Network
The Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is an international non-profit organization that raises funds for children's hospitals, medical research and community awareness of children's health issues. The organization, founded in 1982 by the Osmond family and John Schneider, is headquartered in...

, is held at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 in Charlottesville. The broadcast consists of current and former WVIR on-air staff answering phones and talking to patients at the hospital.

WVIR-DT3 often pre-empts programming from The CW Plus in order to air local shows. This includes local news and Cristina's Court instead of Family Court With Judge Penny
Family Court With Judge Penny
Family Court with Judge Penny is a syndicated judicial show hosted by former judge and lawyer Penny Brown Reynolds. The half-hour program premiered September 8, 2008. It is produced by 44 Blue Productions and distributed by Program Partners in the United States and Canada and being shown on Pick TV...

. During the week, Sex and The City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...

normally shown at 10 on The CW Plus airs at 1:30 the next morning after all programs on The CW have ended for the day. On weekends, the same happens for Punk'd
Punk'd
Punk'd is an American hidden camera/practical joke reality television series that first aired on MTV in 2003 and was created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher. It bore a resemblance to both the classic hidden camera show Candid Camera and to TV's Bloopers...

. In addition to WVIR, Comcast systems offer WWBT
WWBT
WWBT is the NBC-affiliated television station for Richmond, Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter at its studios on Midlothian Turnpike in the city. Owned by Raycom Media, the station operates CW affiliate WUPV through a shared services...

 from Richmond on digital channel 194. It is sister station to fellow NBC affiliate WBBH-TV
WBBH-TV
WBBH-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida licensed to Fort Myers. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter in Southeastern Punta Gorda along SR 31. Owned by the Waterman Broadcasting Corporation, WBBH operates ABC affiliate...

 (company flagship) and 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...

 affiliate WZVN-TV
WZVN-TV
WZVN-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida licensed to Naples. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter in Southeastern Punta Gorda along SR 31. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 7 and in high definition on...

 (operated by Waterman through LMA
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...

). Both serve the Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida is a region of Florida , United States located along its gulf coast, south of the Tampa Bay area, west of Lake Okeechobee and mostly north of the Everglades...

 area and are based in Fort Myers
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....

.

News operation

WCAV and its sister stations employ the largest news team dedicated exclusively to the Charlottesville market. While WVIR dedicates some staff to adjacent areas such as Harrisonburg and Staunton
Staunton, Virginia
Staunton is an independent city within the confines of Augusta County in the commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 23,746 as of 2010. It is the county seat of Augusta County....

 (both technically part of a separate market), WCAV focuses its coverage solely on counties comprising the Charlottesville viewing area. On September 18, 2006 alongside the launch of The CW, a new nightly prime time newscast began airing on WVIR-DT3. Competing with a show on Class A Fox affiliate WAHU-CD (produced by WCAV), this was originally known as CW 29 News at 10 and featured a separate graphics package and news music theme.

Eventually, the broadcast was renamed NBC 29 News at 10 and began to mirror programs seen on the main channel. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

, WVIR-DT3 offers the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...

on weekday mornings from 6 until 9. On April 19, 2008, WVIR began airing newscasts in high definition becoming the first in the market to do so. The prime time shows on WVIR-DT3
WVIR-DT3
WVIR-DT3 is the CW-affiliated television station for Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, Virginia. The station is part of The CW Plus, a special national CW feed broadcasting on cable and/or over-the-air on a digital signal. It is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WVIR-TV owned by the...

 were not included in the upgrade because the digital subchannel airs in standard definition.

In addition to its main studios, WVIR operates an Augusta County
Augusta County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 65,615 people, 24,818 households, and 18,911 families residing in the county. The population density was 68 people per square mile . There were 26,738 housing units at an average density of 28 per square mile...

 Bureau in The News Virginian
The News Virginian
The News Virginian is a newspaper owned by Media General. The paper serves residents in the cities of Waynesboro and Staunton, Virginia, as well as Augusta and Nelson Counties.- External links :*...

newsroom (owned by Media General
Media General
Media General, Inc. is a media company based in the Southeastern United States. Its major properties include newspapers such as The Tampa Tribune, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as numerous television stations, such as flagship station WFLA-TV.The company was...

) on West Main Street/US 340 Bus
U.S. Route 340 in Virginia
In the U.S. state of Virginia, U.S. Route 340 runs north–south, parallel and east of U.S. Route 11, from US 11 north of Greenville via Waynesboro, Grottoes, Elkton, Luray, Front Royal, and Berryville to the West Virginia state line...

 in Waynesboro
Waynesboro, Virginia
Waynesboro, deriving its name from General Anthony Wayne, is an independent city surrounded by Augusta County in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 21,006 in 2010.....

. There is also a sales office (serving the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...

) at Orchard Hills Square in Staunton along Lee Jackson Highway/US 11
U.S. Route 11 in Virginia
U.S. Route 11 in Virginia runs north–south through the western part of the state, parallel to Interstate 81.-History:What is now US 11 was added to the state highway system in 1918 as portions of State Route 10 and State Route 3 . SR 3 became State Route 33 in 1923, and US 11 was applied to...

. Although the station does not operate a weather radar
Weather radar
Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, estimate its type . Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the...

 of its own, WVIR features live NOAA National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...

 radar data from several regional sites. This is presented in a forecasting system on-air known as "Storm Team 29 Live Triple Doppler". It also offers local weather to computer users via the WeatherBug
WeatherBug
WeatherBug is a brand owned by Earth Networks, Ask.com and IAC/InterActiveCorp based in Germantown, Maryland, that provides live weather data and maintains continuously monitored weather stations throughout the United States, mainly located at public and private schools, educational institutions...

 service. All weekday broadcasts except the prime time news at 10 are streamed live on WVIR's website. In September 2011 NBC29 News at Sunrise was extended which now airs from 430am - 7am.

News team

Anchors
  • Ken Jefferson - NBC29 News @ Sunrise, NBC29 News @ Noon
  • Stacia Harris - NBC29 News @ Sunrise
  • Sharon Gregory - NBC29 News @ Noon, 5, 5:30
  • Steve Rappaport - NBC29 News @ 5, 5:30, 6, and 11
  • Libby Allison - NBC29 News @ 6, 10, and 11
  • Kasey Hott - NBC29 News @ Sunrise Weekend Edidtion
  • Matt Talhelm - NBC29 News @ 6, 10, 11


Storm Team 29
  • Eric Pritchett (NWA
    National Weather Association
    The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...

     Seal of Approval) - weeknights
  • Norm Sprouse - weekday mornings
  • David Rogers (NWA Seal of Approval) - Monday through Wednesday at noon and weekend mornings
  • Clayton Stiver (AMS
    American Meteorological Society
    The 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...

     and NWA Seals of Approval) - Thursday through Friday at noon and weekend evenings


Sports
  • Marty Hudtloff - Director
    Sports Director
    A sports director is an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. In local news, the sports director is typically the station's primary sportscaster, and often anchors the primetime newscasts on weekdays. They are in charge of sports programming and...

    seen weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
  • Mike Shiers - weekend evenings
  • Jesse Boeckermann - sports reporter and photographer (also sports producer)


Reporters
  • Julie Bercik
  • Jennifer Von Reuter - weekday mornings
  • Ken Slack - Augusta County Bureau
  • Stacia Harris
  • Matt Talhelm
  • Kasey Hott
  • Ed Sykes
  • Dannika Lewis
  • Derick Waller
  • Henry Graff

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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