WEHT

WEHT ("NEWS 25") is the ABC-affiliated television station for Tri-State area of Southwestern Indiana, Northwestern Kentucky and Southeastern Illinois that's licensed to Evansville, Indiana. The station broadcasts digitally on VHF channel 7 (the former analog era frequency of Fox affiliate WTVW), but maps to Channel 25 via PSIP virtual channel mapping.

WEHT

Evansville, Indiana/Henderson, Kentucky
City of license	Evansville, Indiana
Branding	NEWS 25 NEWS 25 Sports Channel(on DT2)
Slogan	NEWS 25','Start here. Always Tracking. Always Watching. Always Alerting.(newscasts)
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 25 (PSIP)
Affiliations	25.1 ABC(primary since 1995; secondary 1953-1956) 25.2 Wazoo
Owner	Gilmore Broadcasting Corporation
First air date	September 27, 1953
Call letters' meaning	WatchEvansville/HendersonTelevision
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 50 (1953-1964) 25 (1964-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953-1995) RTV (digital subchannel, 2008-2010)
Transmitter power	8.73 kW
Height	298.7 m
Facility ID	24215
Transmitter coordinates	37°51′56″N 87°34′4″W
Website	www.news25.us/

Channel 25 broadcasts from a transmitter at its studios on Marywood Drive in Henderson, Kentucky. Syndicated programming on WEHT includes: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Rachael Ray and Live with Regis and Kelly. Since August 1, 2010, the station has aired sports programming on a second digital subchannel.

History

As the Tri-State area's first television station, WEHT went on-the-air on UHF channel 50 on September 27, 1953 as a CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. It was owned by the Malco Theater Corporation of Memphis, Tennessee (minority interest was held by several Henderson businessmen for the first year).

Hilberg Packing of Cincinnati bought the station in 1957 and Gilmore bought it in 1964. WEHT dropped ABC in 1956 after WTVW signed-on. With Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, the station switched to UHF channel 25 in 1964 soon after Gilmore bought the station.

In mid-1995, the Evansville market's ABC affiliate, WTVW was sold to Petracom Broadcasting and as part of the deal, that station announced that it was switching its affiliation from ABC to Fox. The result brought about a scramble: WEHT signed on with ABC, and WEVV, Evansville's original Fox affiliate, agreed to switch to CBS. The final switch for all three stations was made on December 3, 1995. This is the last station owned by Gilmore as KODE-TV in Joplin, Missouri sold to another company.

[edit] Digital television

WEHT began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 59 (displayed as channel 25.1 and 25.2 through the use of PSIP) in 2002. Following the DTV transition, the station moved to channel 7.

Originally, WEHT's second digital subchannel carried weather, but on August 25, 2008, the station began airing RTV programming. This lasted until July 31, 2010.

[edit] NEWS 25 Sports Channel

On August 1, 2010, WEHT became the third affiliate of the regional sports network Wazoo Sports Network, which launched in late 2009 on WHAS-TV in Louisville and WLEX in Lexington. Wazoo replaced WEHT's former Retro Television Network digital subchannel on WEHT-DT2 at that time. Channel 25 brands it as the NEWS 25 Sports Channel and it has cable carriage on WOW! digital channel 111, Insight digital channel 189 and in Kentucky on Time Warner digital channel 311.

The regional sports television network is dedicated to carrying live coverage of sporting events, as well as classic coverage of past high school and college events. There are also locally-produced shows, the first being "After Further Review," a sports talk show which airs each weeknight at 9:00 PM Central time (10:00 PM Eastern). It is hosted by Mark McVicar and reporter Sean Clark-Weis. This is similar to the arrangement Wazoo Sports has with NBC affiliate WLEX-TV.

[edit] News operation

At one point in the early 2000s, WEHT produced a 9 p.m. newscast for then-WB (now CW) affiliate WAZE-TV. The program was canceled due to low ratings. In 2007, this station discontinued its midday (11:30 a.m.) show in favor of paid programming leaving the station without a competitor against WFIE's hour-long Midday with Mike and WTVW's Fox 7 News at Noon. However, there continues to be a midday broadcast on Fridays. WEHT began airing a newscast weekdays at 4:30 on September 10, 2007. Until August 25, 2008, its news programs were simulcast in their normal time-slots on WEHT-DT2 along with a repeat of the 6 o'clock news at 7. However when RTV programming debuted, the newscasts and weather radar loop were eliminated.

Beginning June 10, 2009, WEHT introduced another 9 o'clock newscast, this time on RTV25. It competed head-to-head against WTVW's Fox 7 News at 9 and, beginning in September 2009, WFIE's 14 News at 9 on "14Xtra." However, with the decision to terminate RTV programming in July 2010, this newscast was canceled.

On September 13, 2010, NEWS 25 will begin airing a 4:00 PM newscast, replacing Deal or No Deal, which is going out of syndication.

[edit] Radio partnership

In April 2009, NEWS 25's weekday morning anchors started voicing radio news updates for Townsquare Media-owned stations WKDQ, WGBF (AM) and WGBF-FM, WJLT, WDKS, and WBKR.

The Townsquare stations also air weather updates from NEWS 25's meteorologists, and are part of the station's "First Warning Doppler Radio Network," which simulcasts the TV station's audio feed whenever severe weather necessitates wall-to-wall coverage.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Your Esso Reporter (1953-1960)
• Channel 50 News (1960-1964)
• Channel 25 News (1964-1974)
• NewsCenter 25 (1974-1979)
• 25 Alive News (1979-1984)
• NewsFirst 25 (1984-1994)
• News 25 (1994-2011)
• Eyewitness News (2011-present)

Station slogans

• "First at Home" (1990-1994)
• "This is CBS, on 25" (1992-1994, local version of CBS ad campaign)
• "Where News Comes First" (1994-2001)
• "I am 25 People" (1994-1995, local version of CBS ad campaign)
• "You're on 25" (September-December 1995, last local version of CBS ad campaign before switching to ABC)
• "Watched by More Evansville, 25, ABC" (1995-1996; first local version of ABC ad campaign)
• "Always Tracking. Always Watching. Always Alerting." (2001-2011, primary slogan)
• "News 25 Gets Answers" (2009-2011, secondary slogan)

News team

Anchors

• Whitney Ray - weekdays at 4 and weeknights at 5, 6 & 10pm
• Lindsay Merwin- weekend evenings also weeknight reporter
• Juile Dolan- weekday mornings Eyewitness News Daybreak (5-7am)
• Shalah Sasse- weekend evenings also weeknight reporter
• Randy Moore- weekday mornings Eyewitness News Daybreak (5-7am) also reporter
• Brad Byrd - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10pm

Eyewitness News First Warning Doppler Weather

• Wayne Hart (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - Chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4 & weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 & 10pm
• Ron Rhodes (NWA seal of approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings Eyewitness News Daybreak (5-7am)
• David Heckard (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of approval) - meteorologist; weekends and also Wednesday-Friday morning reporter
• Drew Gardner- weather anchor; fill-in, also weekday morning reporter and fill-in news anchor

Sports

• Drew Amman- sports anchor; weeknights at 6 & 10 p.m.
• Randall Parmley- sports anchor; fill-in, also sports reporter

Reporters

• Corey Allan - Owensboro Newsroom photographer
• Matt Barbour - weekday mornings
• Sean Clark-Weis - also co-host of "After Further Review" on NEWS 25 Sports Channel
• Kimberly Barbour
• Kelley Ashford

Notable former staff

• Bill Riales - former WKRG anchor/investigative reporter
• Jacqui Jeras - CNN meteorologist
• Allison Hatcher - spokesperson for Allstate Insurance
• Bruce Kopp - weekday morning anchor at WTHR
• Mike Maguire - Chief Meteorologist from the 1980s until 1993
• Peggy Mitchell - The Peggy Mitchell Show host from 1961 to 1986; died on April 28, 2009 after suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.
• Jonathan Weaver - Vanderburgh County, Indiana Assessor
• Bill Weber - NBC Sports
• Nischelle Turner - Fox Sports NFL sideline reporter
• Paul Emmick - The Weather Channel, WRTV, WDRB
• Michelle Boss - fill-in meteorologist for KREM-TV

References

1. ^ http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturday-special-great-affiliation.html
2. ^ http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/07/19/daily.12/
3. ^ <http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/news25-begins-providing-news-for-regent.html>

External links

• WEHT "News 25"
• ABC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WEHT