WGGB-TV

Digital programming
It operates the area's primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as Fox 6, this can also be seen on Comcast channel 6 (hence the branding) and Charter channel 10. There is a high definition signal of WGGB-DT2 on Comcast digital channel 861. Syndicated programming on this channel includes: How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and America's Funniest Home Videos.

History
It was the second television station in the market when it commenced broadcasting as WHYN-TV on April 9, 1953. Its launch was only a month behind rival NBC affiliate WWLP. The station was co-owned with WHYN radio (AM 560 and FM 93.1) and was a primary CBS station with secondary DuMont affiliation. During the late-1950s, it was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. [1] The station became an ABC affiliate in 1958 after DuMont folded in 1956 and WTIC-TV in Hartford, Connecticut (now WFSB) previously an Independent, moved to CBS and became that network's affiliate of record in Springfield.

Originally airing an analog signal on UHF channel 55, WHYN moved to channel 40 in 1959. Guy Gannett Broadcasting bought the station in 1979 and changed the call sign to the current WGGB-TV effective at the start of the following year. In 1994, WGGB's cameras rolled as Temple University head basketball coach John Chaney confronted University of Massachusetts head coach John Calipari at a press conference. At one point, Chaney threatened Calipari with death. The footage (watermarked with the station's logo and call letters) was picked up by ESPN and has since been shown thousands of times. In 2006, Fox Sports Net's The Best Damn Sports Show Period ranked the incident the fifth-biggest outburst in sports history.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased most of Guy Gannett's television stations, including WGGB, in 1998. The station has wanted to move back to CBS on several occasions but was blocked each time by WFSB. CBS did not return over-the-air on a Springfield-based station until 2003 when WFSB started low-powered semi-satellite WSHM-LP (now WSHM-LD). On October 15, 2004, WGGB upgraded its over-the-air digital signal to offer ABC programming in high definition. On digital cable, this can also be seen on Charter channel 784 and Comcast channel 840. On May 5, 2007, the station redesigned its website and added news video.

In late-July 2007, Sinclair announced the sale of WGGB to Gormally Broadcasting, LLC for $21.2 million. The sale closed on November 2 making WGGB the only station in the market to be locally owned-and-operated. On December 1, 2008, the channel shut down its analog signal and became digital exclusive. This appears to have occurred as early as November 29 due to transmitter failure. [2] [3] On June 12, 2009, the digital signal relocated to the previous analog channel location. [4] Channel 55's spectrum was reassigned for use by Qualcomm's MediaFLO system.

WGGB-DT2 "Fox 6"
Until March 31, 2008, the area did not have a Fox affiliate of its own. It was the largest DMA to be in that situation. WTIC-TV in Hartford (no relation to the earlier Independent channel with the same calls) served as the default affiliate on cable. At one point, Class A station WFXQ-CA had been rumored as becoming affiliated with the network. That channel is owned by LIN TV Corporation along with WWLP. On the 31st, WGGB launched a Fox affiliate on its second digital subchannel. WTIC had its cable channel location on Comcast systems taken by WGGB-DT2, and as a result, moved to the digital tier on channel 292. Charter followed suit as well placing WTIC on digital channel 261. At one point under Sinclair ownership, WGGB's second digital channel had been broadcasting The Tube, a 24-hour digital music channel, but this was dropped at the end of 2006. When the station was relaunched on March 31, it also started to show MyNetworkTV programming as a secondary affiliate. On weeknights, MyNetworkTV shows air from 11:30 until 1:30 in the morning.

News operation
News open seen every night at 6.In terms of ratings, WGGB has historically been in second place behind WWLP. There have been some brief periods when it was on top and there have also been extended periods in which the stations were basically neck-and-neck with WWLP having a slight edge. Originally, its newscasts were known as NewsWatch 40. The station cut back financially under Sinclair ownership, and during that period, rumors of the cancellation of ABC 40 News or conversion to the now-defunct controversial News Central format sometimes spread.

Although WSHM established its own news department in October 2005, it initially did not compete on the same level as WGGB and WWLP. However, its ratings grew substantially across the board during the May 2009 sweeps period to within decimal points of WGGB in several key demographics.

The channel did air Sinclair's "The Point", a one-minute conservative political commentary, that was also controversial and a requirement of all company stations with newscasts until the series was discontinued in December 2006. In Fall 2006, WGGB rehired Ed Carroll to be Chief Meteorologist. He had previously been at the station from 1989 to 1993 before moving to WBZ-TV in Boston. Until April 2007, it did not carry ABC News World News Now in the early weekday morning hours choosing to air programming from the Home Shopping Network (HSN) instead.

After becoming locally owned, WGGB's news department underwent significant changes and several prominent on-air personnel resigned or were laid-off. The station debuted a brand new set, graphics, and news music package on April 24, 2008. On August 18, WSHM launched the market's first prime time broadcast that aired every night for twenty minutes at 10 on its 24-hour local weather channel. That was eventually dropped for unknown reasons. WGGB-DT2 followed suit on September 8 and has expanded it to weekends. On April 6, 2009, WGGB's weekday morning show became a full two-hour broadcast. WGGB-DT2 simulcasts this program then replays it at 7 in the morning. The main station has become the first in Springfield to offer a weekday morning newscast beginning at 4:30. [5] WGGB-DT2 does not simulcast the first half-hour.

It shares news resources with WCVB-TV, NECN, and WFXT for news from Eastern Massachusetts. In return, WGGB does the same for western areas of the state. It does not operate a weather radar of its own choosing instead to use live NOAA National Weather Service radar data that originates from the Local Forecast Office in Taunton. Although an exact on-air date has yet to be determined, the station has begun transitioning to high definition newscasts. [6] All weekday newscasts except the prime time show on WGGB-DT2 are streamed live online.

Newscast titles

 * NewsWatch 40 (1980s-1990)
 * News 40 (1990-2006)
 * ABC 40 News (2006-present)

Station slogans

 * "Your Home for Live Local News" (1994-2001)
 * "Coverage You Can Count On" (2001-2008)
 * "People You Know News You Can Trust" (2008-present)

News team
Anchors ABC 40 StormTrack Meteorologists Sports Reporters Videographers
 * Paul Mueller - weekday mornings and reporter
 * Julia Dunn - weekday mornings and noon
 * medical reporter
 * Shannon Hegy - weeknights at 5, 6, 10, and 11
 * Dave Madsen - Managing Editor seen weeknights at 5:30, 6, 10, and 11
 * "Making A Difference" segment producer
 * Thalia Patillo - weekends
 * Ed Carroll - Chief seen weeknights
 * Mike Masco (NWA Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings and noon
 * Dan Brown - weekends and "Student of Character" segment producer
 * news reporter and heard on WARE-AM 1250
 * Dan Amarante - fill-in
 * Scott Coen - Director seen weeknights at 5:30, 6, 10, and 11
 * Friday Football Fever and Above the Rim host
 * heard on WRSI-FM 95.3, WHLL-AM 1450, and WHMP-AM 1400/WHNP-AM 1600/WHMQ-AM 1240
 * Mike Leslie - weekends and sports reporter
 * "Athlete of the Week" segment producer
 * Ray Hershel - Chief Political and fill-in news anchor
 * Stacy Johnson - "Money Talks" segment producer
 * Carrie Taylor - "Living Well Eating Smart" segment producer
 * Mike Lacrosse - weekends and producer
 * Tricia Taskey - weeknights at 10 and 11
 * "Crime Files" segment producer
 * Marci Izard - weekly healthy cooking
 * Brian Lees - political analyst
 * Brendon Monahan
 * Jenna Hagist
 * Jeff Valin
 * Bob Hastings - Chief
 * Kevin Culverhouse
 * John O'Donoghue
 * Alan Rosko
 * Luke Charles
 * Jeff Kurowski
 * Casey Leydon
 * Bobby Souza
 * Jared Dobiecki
 * Randy Hendricks

Former on-air staff
Anchors Meteorologists Sports Reporters
 * Elizabeth Corridan - weekday mornings and noon
 * producer and reporter
 * went to CNN
 * Kathy Tobin - weeknights at 5:30, 6, and 11
 * left station for job outside of industry
 * Faye Hoffman - weekday mornings and noon
 * education reporter
 * moved to Cayman Islands
 * Jenn Lesmerises - weekday mornings and noon
 * Colleen Manning - weekday mornings and noon
 * weekday sports reporter
 * Lori Shamroth - weekday mornings and 5 p.m.
 * reporter
 * Beth Ward - weeknights at 5 and health reporter
 * Beth Carroll - weeknights at 5:30, 6, and 11
 * Lisa Daniels - weeknights at 6 and 11
 * weeknight 5, 5:30, and 6 o'clock reporter
 * now reporter for NBC News
 * Leigh Frillici - Sunday through Friday nights and reporter
 * now at KHOU-TV
 * Michele Labbee - weekends and reporter
 * Michelle Brown - weekends
 * now at WJAR
 * Eileen Curran - now reporter at WBZ-TV
 * Cora-Ann Mihalik - now anchor at WWOR-TV
 * Lynda Martin - now weekday morning anchor at XETV
 * Joan Goodman - retired
 * Sabrina Rodriguez - weekends and reporter
 * now at KBAK in Bakersfield, CA
 * Dave Scott (Lorenzatti) - retired
 * John Deegan - deceased
 * Sid Starks - now at WTNH
 * Pete Dragon
 * Steve Danehy - weekend anchor and reporter
 * Tom Bevacqua - Chief seen weeknights
 * Paul Sutton - weekdays at noon and weekends
 * weather reporter
 * deceased
 * Eric Fisher - weekday mornings and noon meteorologist
 * environmental reporter and weekend fill-in at WFXT
 * now at The Weather Channel
 * Frank Knight - retired
 * Roger Laplante - retired
 * Jerry Loughman - retired
 * Rich Hoffman - now at News 12 Long Island
 * Mike Ratté - Director
 * now weekend sports anchor at WVIT
 * Neille Giffune - weekend anchor and reporter
 * now anchor and reporter at WFMZ
 * Duke Castiglione - reporter
 * now sports anchor at WNYW
 * Dave Guthro - weekend anchor and weeknight reporter
 * now morning news anchor/reporter at WMTW
 * Dave Mitchell - reporter
 * Dominick Aielli - producer
 * Leah Secondo - weekend anchor and reporter
 * now at WWSB
 * Jack O'Neill - deceased
 * Don Earle - deceased
 * Hub Burton - Associate Vice President for Alumni and College Relations at Marietta College
 * Jay Kidwell - weekend anchor and reporter
 * now weeknight sports anchor at WHBF-TV
 * Kristin Mastroianni - weekend anchor and weeknight reporter
 * Milt Fitzwater
 * Jim Hummel - Wednesday nights
 * was at WLNE-TV
 * Tom Parnell - weekday morning reporter
 * Jim Polito - investigative
 * now morning show host at WTAG-AM
 * Andrea Stassou - fill-in anchor
 * Priscilla Ress - consumer
 * Jim Vinick - financial
 * Jerry Gretzinger - fill-in anchor
 * now at WRGB
 * Al Gag - features and "Let's Go Fishing" segment producer
 * Alison Maloni - producer
 * Delia Goncalves - health
 * Sylvia Gomes - health
 * Kori Chambers - weekends at 6 - now at WFLD
 * Jade McCarthy - weeknights - now at NESN
 * Durham Caldwell - News Director
 * Stan Gayda - retired
 * Bruce Frosch - retired
 * Norm Goyer - retired
 * Gary Garrison - retired
 * Steven Cooper -
 * Shayna Seymour - now at WCVB-TV
 * Nathan O'Leary - producer and "Student of Character" segment producer
 * now at Independent News Network
 * Carolee Salerno (McGrath)
 * Pete Dragon
 * Crystal Haynes
 * Kathryn Shepardson
 * Janette Mandell
 * Marcus McIntosh
 * Astrid Roy
 * Lacey Girard
 * Liz Gray
 * Samia Khan
 * Alex Boyer
 * Susan Goodman
 * David Ham
 * Audrey Sommers