WBRZ-TV

WBRZ, digital channel 13, is an ABC affiliate television station serving Baton Rouge, Louisiana, south-central and southeastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi. It is owned by the Manship family, who also publishes the Baton Rouge daily newspaper, The Advocate. Its transmitter is located in Sunshine, Louisiana. The station is seen via satellite through DirecTV and Dish Network and on cable Cox Communications and AT&T U-verse.

[edit] History
WBRZ signed on the air on April 14, 1955 as a primary NBC affiliate, sharing ABC with WAFB.

At first, the Manships wanted to call the station WBRA-TV, for Baton Rouge Advocate. However, they concluded that the call letters would cause confusion and controversy, as the letters "B-R-A" spelled "bra". Station founder Douglas L. Manship, Sr. still wanted "BR" in the station's calls, and decided to go to the other end of the alphabet for the fourth letter, picking "Z." He explained, "It was a good choice. 'Z' is a phonetically good sound on the air. It's distinctive." The "Z" was later expanded to mean "2" (similar to WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York), and the "W" was expanded to mean "We're". However, the WBRA call letters are currently used on the PBS affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia.

It dropped ABC in 1971 after WRBT-TV (now WVLA) signed on. This made WBRZ a sole NBC affiliate. Because ABC was seeking out new affiliates with stronger signal coverage at the time, WBRZ swapped affiliations with WRBT and became an ABC affiliate again on September 5, 1977. In that same timeframe NBC sunk to third and last place while ABC moved up to first place in the ratings.

In July 1987, the station started broadcasting 24 hours a day, except on Sundays.

In 1991, Manship's son Richard took over the station as its new president, and would later be named "Broadcaster of the Year" by the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters.

WBRZ began broadcasting in high definition on channel 13 on April 22, 2002.

In 2004, the station dropped its twenty year slogan of "On Your Side" and started describing their news as "Balanced. Fair. Accurate," which was inspired by Fox News's "Fair and Balanced" slogan. In that same year, WBRZ, along with many other ABC affiliates in the country, opted not to air Saving Private Ryan when the network broadcast it uncut on Veterans Day.

During Hurricane Katrina, the station worked with New Orleans ABC affiliate WGNO (ABC26) to provide coverage of the storm and its aftermath.

In late Summer 2007, the Manships acquired a low-powered, independent television station, KBTR-CA, from Veritas Broadcasting Company.

As of July 29, 2008, WBRZ morning show 2une In and its noon, 4, 5, 6 and 10 newscasts can now be viewed in high-definition. WBRZ is the second station in the Baton Rouge area and the 4th in Louisiana to broadcast their news in high definition.

WBRZ launched its own Web site, WBRZ.com, on the week of September 14, 2009. Prior to that, WBRZ and The Advocate shared a website, 2TheAdvocate.com.

The station is a funding partner in The Cinderella Project of Baton Rouge, a charity that provides free prom dresses to public high school students who cannot otherwise afford them. The charity held its third annual prom dress giveaway in 2010.

Dish Network
As of midnight, April 30, 2008, WBRZ was removed from DISH Network's local channel lineup for Baton Rouge.[1]

The relationship between WBRZ and the Dish Network began to deteriorate in the fall of 2007, when WBRZ realized that fees collected from Baton Rouge subscribers had not been paid to the station since the inception of Dish Network’s local-into-local service in May 2006, in violation of the carriage agreement.

WBRZ asked for a raise of compensation to under five percent of what Dish charges for local channels - it had been previously two percent. This amount, less than a penny per subscriber per day, is significantly smaller than the 20 cents/subscriber/day rate WBRZ charges local cable companies.

In July 2009, after more than a year, Dish Network and WBRZ reached a new agreement, and WBRZ once again became part of Dish Network's Local Channels package for Baton Rouge area customers.[2]

Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Analog-to-digital conversion
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion on June 12, 2009 [3], WBRZ-TV remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 13. [4] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WBRZ-TV's virtual channel as 2.

HD programming
WBRZ currently airs all of ABC network programming in high definition and most of its syndicated programming such as Live with Regis & Kelly, Dr. Phil, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, The Insider and Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen in HD.

Current
Anchors Forecasters/Meteorologists Sports Reporters
 * Michael Marsh - 5, 6 and 10 pm weekdays
 * John Pastorek - "2une In" and at noon
 * Sarah Rosario - 4 pm weekdays and reporter
 * Whitney Vann - "2une In"
 * Sylvia Weatherspoon - 5, 6 and 10 pm weekdays
 * Chris Nakamoto - weekends and reporter
 * Dave Nussbaum - weekday mornings and noon
 * Pat Shingleton - chief forecaster; weekday evenings
 * Ryan Davidson - weekends
 * Keller Watts - fill-in
 * Michael Cauble - sports director; weekdays
 * Chad Sabadie - sports; weekends/reporter
 * Michael Kelly - sports reporter
 * Kristy Davis
 * Ashley Rodrigue
 * Louis Miller - gardening expert
 * Mike Steele - Capitol Correspondent
 * Lori Steele - special projects
 * Michael Shingleton
 * Rob Krieger
 * Rachel Frost
 * Stephanie Ryan

Former

 * Tammi Arender - now at WVLA
 * Chip Barrere
 * Jeanne Burns - now at WAFB in Baton Rouge
 * Ed Buggs - died of an apparent heart attack on May 4, 2010
 * Andrea Clesi - former weekday anchor (retired)
 * Glen Duncan - meteorologist/environmental specialist; now Director of Communications at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and author of "Goodbye Green - How extremists stole the environmental movement from middle America and killed it."
 * Jim Egan - sports
 * Claire Hatty - now a public relations manager in Texas
 * Leo Honeycutt - now a writer
 * Chelby Kosto - now at WDTN Dayton, OH
 * Summer Jackson - now at WSB in Atlanta
 * Tony Jones - now doing media relations for U.S. Census Bureau in Charlotte, NC
 * Bruce Katz - meteorologist; now at WGNO-TV New Orleans
 * Margaret Lawhon - anchor; now an actor and freelance writer
 * Kurt Lee - Weather and news
 * Ben Lemoine - now at KTVK-TV Phoenix
 * Darrel Richter
 * Mary Lynch - weather (2000s)
 * John Mahaffey (retired)
 * Marvin McGraw - now does PR for Louisiana State University
 * Avery Miller - now a producer at World News with Charles Gibson
 * Dale Moon
 * Veronica Mosgrove
 * Cynthia Nickerson
 * Margaret Orr - now at WDSU-TV New Orleans
 * Ken Pastorick - now does PR for LA Department Health and Hospitals
 * Andy Pepper - sports
 * Rebecca Rainer - Owner/President of Chase Rainer Media San Antonio, TX
 * Mike Rhodes - Retired, still living in Baton Rouge
 * Mike Ross - later at WBRZ (1983-86), WWL AM & TV (1986-2006), now anchor at KTUU-TV Anchorage, Alaska
 * Todd Ross
 * George Ryan - now does PR for Exxon Mobil
 * Scott Satchfield - now at WWL-TV
 * Jennifer Sheffield (Freel) - now an attorney in Austin, Texas
 * Jake Skellett - pharmaceutical sales with sanofi-aventis
 * Michael Trufant - News Photographer
 * Bruce Webber - sports
 * Melba Williams
 * Bo Willisons
 * Mike Woolfolk - now news anchor/managing editor for WACH-TV Columbia, SC
 * Jay Young - news anchor; (died of apparent heart attack on August 23, 2006)
 * Lee Zurik - now at WVUE-TV
 * Marvin Hurst- now at KENS-TV, San Antonio
 * '"Michael Fugler"' - legal expert - now at EURO Financial Network, Investment Banker

Newscast titles

 * Your Esso Reporter (1955-1961)
 * The Bob Richards Report (1961-1964)
 * Night Desk (1964-1971)
 * WBRZ-TV News Service (1971-1974)
 * TV-2 News (1974-1979)
 * Eyewitness News (1979-1994)
 * WBRZ Channel 2 News (1994-2000)
 * News 2 Louisiana (2000-present)

Station slogans
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.==Awards== WBRZ has been the recipient of numerous awards from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters, a National Edward R. Murrow Award in 2000, plus other local awards. 1990, 1991, 1994 and 1997 1996, 2002, 2005 1999 George Ryan won the award for "Silent Trust," a series that exposed student-on-student sexual misconduct at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge, La. 2000 - "Buckle Up for Tony" 2000 2001 2001
 * The Best in View is on TV-2 (early 1970s)
 * A Part of Your Life (mid 1970s)
 * Still the One--WBRZ-TV 2 (1977, first slogan as an ABC affiliate)
 * Count on us, When it Counts (early 1980s)
 * The One to Watch (mid 1980s)
 * The News Leader (mid 1980s-early 1990s)
 * Your 24-hour news source (early 1990s)
 * On Your Side (1984-2004)
 * Balanced. Fair. Accurate. (2004-present)
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters "Television Station of the Year" Award
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters - Baton Rouge Branch "Community Station of the Year" Award
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters "Television Station of the Year" Prestige Award
 * 1999 Sigma Delta Chi Awards
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters "Promotion of the Year" Award
 * National Edward R. Murrow Award
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters "Community Service" Award
 * Outstanding Philanthropist Award

Other awards won: Won by Pat Cheramie, who retired after serving 39 years as General Manager of WBRZ-TV on January 31, 2005. Won by news anchor and reporter Andrea Clesi.
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters Lifetime of Distinction Awards (2005)
 * Ad Fed's Pete Goldsby Award (2005)
 * YWCA's Women of Achievement Award (2005)
 * American Women in Radio and Television's Broadcaster of the Year Award (2005)
 * Baton Rouge Business Report's 25 Most Influential Women in Baton Rouge (2005)
 * SME's Marketer of the Year Award (2005)
 * Louisiana Association of Broadcasters Lifetime Achievement Award (2005)