WHIO-TV

WHIO-TV is a television station in Dayton, Ohio. It broadcasts on channel 7 (digital 41) and is an affiliate of CBS. In 2009, WHIO-TV ranked as the #1 CBS affiliate in the United States. and in May 2009 The Nielsen Company named WHIO-TV’s News Center 7 as the number one rated newscast in the country.

WHIO-TV

Dayton, Ohio
Branding	WHIO-TV Channel 7(general) NewsCenter 7(newscasts)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Digital: 41 (UHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Affiliations	CBS (Secondary to 1952) 7 Weather Now (DT2)
Owner	Cox Enterprises, Inc. (Miami Valley Broadcasting Corporation)
First air date	February 23, 1949
Call letters' meaning	OHIO
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 13 (1949-1952) 7 (1952-2009)
Former affiliations	Secondary: DuMont (1949-1952)
Transmitter power	1000 kW (digital)
Height	290 m (digital)
Facility ID	41458
Transmitter coordinates	39°44′2″N84°14′53″W
Website	www.whiotv.com

Syndicated shows on WHIO-TV include Live! With Regis and Kelly and Wheel of Fortune.

Station history

WHIO was started on channel 13 on February 23, 1949 and moved to channel 7 in 1952. It is Dayton's first television station to start broadcasting, although WDTN was first to have its license granted. WHIO is the only station in Dayton to have never changed its primary affiliation, although it aired some programming from the long-defunct DuMont Television Network during its first three years on the air. WHIO has been owned by Cox Enterprises since its inception; Cox also publishes the Dayton Daily News, the first newspaper ever purchased by Cox Enterprises founder James M. Cox. WHIO's transmitter is located on Germantown Street in western Dayton. WHIO began broadcasting all their newscasts in a 16:9 widescreen format on April 1, 2007, becoming the first Ohio station outside of Cleveland at the time to switch to the new format. On December 12, 2010, WHIO's News Center 7 changed to a full high definition 16:9 format for local news. Its news department NewsCenter 7 has been in first place in the Nielsen Ratings for many years and that trend continues to this day.^{[citation needed]}The news team is led by Cheryl McHenry, James Brown & Letitia Perry in the evening and Natasha Williams & John Paul in the morning.

WHIO also has served as the default CBS affiliate for most of the Lima (Ohio) DMA. (The station reaches most of the Lima DMA with a Grade B signal). This was especially the case before a low-powered CBS affiliate, WLMO-LP, went on the air in Lima. WHIO also remains on Time Warner's Lima cable systems, along with Columbus CBS affiliate WBNS-TV.

On December 15, 2009, Cox Media Group announced that they would move WHIO-TV (as well as Cox Radio stations WHIO, WHKO and WZLR) from its home since the 1950s, on Wilmington Avenue in Kettering -- to the Cox Media Center building (also the current home of the Daily News), on South Main Street in Dayton, Ohio, by December, 2010. The goal is not just achieving operating efficiencies, but investing in the local Cox media operations, according to Alex Taylor, Cox Media Group Vice President. WHIO-TV began broadcasting from the new facility at 2:35 a.m. on December 12th, 2010.

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel	Programming
7.1	main WHIO-TV programming / CBS HD
7.2	7 Weather Now

Pre-DTV transition

WHIO-DT began transmitting its digital signal on channel 41-1 in October 2001.

Post-DTV transition

WHIO-TV ended its analog broadcast on VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. It remained on its digital channel, 41, using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 7.

News/Station presentation

Newscast titles

• The Big News
• Total Information News (1970s)
• Total News (1970s–1976)
• NewsCenter 7 (1976–present)

Station slogans

• All Eyes are on 7 (late 1960s-1970)
• The Leader (1976–1990)
• The Miami Valley News Leader (1990–1993)
• The Miami Valley's 24-Hour News Source (1990–1993; secondary slogan)
• Coverage You Can Count On (1993–present)
• Live. Local. Latebreaking. (1995–present; used alongside "Coverage You Can Count On")

Logo

The logo for the station is their version of the "Circle 7" logo—an orange 7 against a blue background, encompassed by a thin orange circle, and juxtaposed by "WHIO-TV" written in blue on a white background, underlined in red. Both the logo and the slogan ("Coverage you can count on") identify WHIO-TV as the sister station of other Cox stations; particularly WSB-TVin Atlanta, which has a similar logo and identical slogan. Its sister station in Seattle, KIRO-TV, also has a similar logo, but a different version of the "Circle 7".

Until early 2007, the "7" in the logo was "broken" -- it had a diagonal line running where the two lines in the "7" meet. This logo had been used by WHIO-TV since the early-1970s at the latest. In early 2007, at the latest, the logo underwent a slight revision, removing this "break" from the "7". The anchor desk, however, continued to show the "7" in the logo to be "broken", until the move to the Cox Media Center building in December, 2010, with a new news set.

Weather

Storm Center 7

WHIO's team of meteorologists currently by the name of the Storm Center 7 weather team is led by Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson and also features Meteorologists Rich Wirdzek and Erica Collura. WHIO bills their radar as 'New Live Doppler 7' powered by Baron Services.

WHIO did not switch to professional meteorologists until 1993 with the hiring of Heidi Sonen. WHIO then dropped the Accu-Weather service and hired other meteorologists to fill out the staff including former Weather Channel meteorologist Fred Barnhill. Air Force meteorologist Warren Madden was hired from the nearby Wright Patterson Air Force Base and he later went to The Weather Channel in December 1996.

After Sonen's retirement in 1997, the station hired more Penn State meteorology graduates for the role of Chief Meteorologist including Brian Orzel and Jamie Simpson.

In December 2004 they introduced StormCenter 7, which is a weather center that doubles as a set created by FX Group where weather reports can be done.

New Live Doppler 7

On June 29, 2007, WHIO debuted their new doppler weather radar, billed as New Live Doppler 7. The radar is available anytime on the stations website.

7 Weather Now

On December 15, 2006, WHIO-TV launched 7 Weather Now, programmed 24 hours a day and frequently updated forecasts. Live coverage of developing severe weather can be found on 7 Weather Now, as well as the latest watches and warnings. Weekday mornings from 7am to 8am, a third hour of News Center 7 Daybreak airs exclusively on the channel. 7 Weather Now can be found on digital channel 7.2, channel 23 on Time Warner cable, and on the digitial tier at channel 372. A live stream of 7 Weather Now can be accessed on the WHIO-TV website at http://www.whiotv.com.

Widescreen and high-definition news

WHIO began broadcast of all their newscasts in a 16:9 widescreen standard definition format on April 1, 2007. It remained the only station in the Dayton market which broadcast its newscasts in widescreen standard definition until its move to the Cox Media Center on December 12, 2010. On that day, beginning with the late-night newscast (which was delayed one-half hour to 11:26 p.m. due to the overrun of CBS network programming), WHIO-TV began broadcasting all locally-shot portions of its newscasts — studio segments and live field reports — in high definition. All of WHIO's cameras, graphics and equipment were replaced with full high-definition equipment in the move. As such, it remains the only station in the Dayton area that broadcasts local newscasts in high definition or 16:9 widescreen as both of its rivals (WDTN and WKEF) continue to broadcast their local newscasts in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. Local commercials, however, continue to be stretched from their original 4:3 standard definition to widescreen dimensions.

News Staff

NEWSCENTER 7 ANCHORS:

• Cheryl McHenry (1981–present) Weekdays @ 5pm, 5:30pm & 6pm
• James Brown (2002–present) Weeknights @ 5pm, 5:30pm, 6 & 11pm
• Letitia Perry (2001–present) Weeknights @ 11pm
• Natasha Williams (1993–present) Weekday Mornings
• John Paul (2008–present) Weekday Mornings & Noon
• Brittny McGraw (2007–present) Weekends at 6pm & 11pm (leaving spring 2011 for WPXI-TV)
• Gabrielle Enright (1997–present) Saturday Mornings and Weekends Noon

NEWSCENTER 7 REPORTERS:

• Steve Baker (1980–present)
• Kate Bartley (2010–present)
• Mark Bruce (2008–present)
• Kathryn Burcham (2007–present) Leaving for WSOC-TV
• Mike Campbell (1986–present)
• Jenna Deery (2011-present)
• Jill Del Greco (2006–present)
• Caryn Golden (1997–present)
• Becky Grimes (1978–present)
• Jim Otte (1988–present)

STORMCENTER 7 TEAM:

• Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson (1999–present) Weeknights @ 5pm, 5:30pm, 6 & 11pm
• Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek (2006–present) Weekday Mornings and Noon
• Meteorologist Erica Collura (2010-present) Weekends-holidays
• Weather Specialist Traci Hale Brown (2004–2006, 2009–Present) fill-in

7 SPORTS ANCHORS:

• Sports Director - Mike Hartsock (1979–present)
• Don Brown (part-time)

ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER:

• Bryan Erdy (2008–present)

Notable WHIO former employees

• Kimberly Thomson, Meteorologist, 2007-2010
• Danielle Elias, Reporter 2007-10 now at WBNS-TV 10TV , CBS -Columbus, Ohio
• Dave Harmon, meteorologist
• Randy McIlwain, education reporter, 1994-97(Now at KXAS-TV 5, an NBC affiliate in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX. area)
• Dick Bieser, Reporter/News Director, retired
• Jim Baldridge lead anchor 1972-2009, retired
• Lyle Stieg (sports)
• Patt Garwood, weather reporter 1980s, former wife of Sports Director Mike Hartsock
• Cathy Stelzer
• Anton Day
• Margaret Brosko (2005-2008)
• Phil Donahue
• Gil Whitney, reporter, anchor and weather specialist (died in 1982)
• Don Wayne, long time 6, 7 and 11pm lead news anchor (retired in 1988, died in 1997)
• Tom Hamlin, sports director in 1960s, retired
• Ted Ryan (weather specialist, staff announcer) (1954–1992, died November 14, 2014)
• Donna Jordan (1995–2006)
• Rebecca Combs (2000–2005), anchor/reporter
• Andrew Douglas (now at WMC-TV in Memphis, TN)
• Mike Dunston, reporter, (now anchor at WOFL-TV in Orlando, FL)
• Jim Blue (now news director and anchor at WFFT-TV in Fort Wayne, IN)
• Cathy Ballou (weather specialist 1986-1995, Now working for Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN)
• Deborah Countiss (retired from WSYX in Columbus)
• Trevor Pettiford
• Shawn Ley (now at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, OH)
• Heidi Sonen, Chief Meteorologist 1993-1997,
• Ed Krahling, long time anchor, (retired in 1993, died in 1998)
• Ken Jefferson, anchor (1977–2002)
• Mick Hubert, sports director (1979–1989) (The Voice of the Florida Gators)
• Dr. Sherry Stanley-Wheaton, health reporter
• Joe Parise, weekend weather specialist (now teaching Chemistry at Capital University and Physics at Bishop Watterson High School, both in Columbus, Ohio)
• Paul Herdtner, anchor/reporter
• Bruce Asbury, Lead Weather Specialist 1982-89
• Tracie Savage, anchor/reporter 1986-91
• Rick Smith, staff announcer and host of "Summer Nights" and "WHIO Reports"(died in 2006)
• Sallie Taylor, anchor/reporter (1988–2007), now full-time mother
• Linda Robertson, anchor/health reporter now @ University of Dayton
• Sher Patrick, anchor/reporter (now Marketing Manager at Community Blood Center in the Dayton area)
• Dave Freeman, Chief Meteorologist (now at KSNW in Wichita, KS)
• Guil Herrick, Sports reporter/anchor (1994–2001) now a teacher in Dayton
• Paul Moses, anchor/reporter
• Myriam Wright, anchor/reporter
• Sam Yates, anchor/reporter-retired from news, now head of Yates and Associates in Jensen Beach Florida.
• Vanessa Tyler, anchor/reporter, now @ WPIX-TV, New York City
• Joe Rockhold "Uncle Orrie", 1950s/60s children's show host and staff announcer,retired in 1969 (died in 1981)
• Ken Hardin "Ferdy Fussbudget" 1950s/60s children's show co-host and sidekick of Uncle Orrie. (died in 1991.)
• Steve Prinzivalli, meteorologist (2003-2005) (now a meteorogolist for Weatherbug.com)
• Jack Jacobson "Nosey The Clown" 1950s early sidekick of Uncle Orrie and "Ignatz Hammerschlob" later as "Dr. Scar" and as general manager at KGUN in Tucson and author of book "The Sky Blazers",retired (died on March 23, 2008)
• Dave Eaton "Charlie Goodtime" 1970s children's show host
• Dick Bieser, manager of community relations and on air personality, retired in 1993.
• Scott Dean, Former Meteorologist on Daybreak Edition and Noon Newscenter (2000-2006) (now at WTVD in Raleigh, NC)
• Chris Ingalls, reporter (now at KING in Seattle)
• Guy Fogle, sports (formerly of WDTN and WKEF also, now retired from news, and teaching at Carlisle High School in Carlisle,OH)
• Warren Madden, meteorologist (1993–1996), now at The Weather Channel
• Paul Miller, reporter/anchor (1975–1979), later NBC Correspondent, now retired.
• Bob Shreve, overnight host of "Night People Theater", a Friday night/Saturday morning movie program...similar to his Saturday night program in Cincinnati (died in 1990.)
• Denny Cheatham, Videographer/one-man band (1963–2009), retired
• Sylvia Newsome, anchor
• Brian Orzel, chief meteorologist (January 1998-December 2002)
• Jeff Porter, Meteorologist, Daybreak Edition(2005-September 4, 2009)
• Maury Williams, anchor/reporter (1987–1992), now at Luxottica Retail, EyeMed Vision Care
• Tom Andrews, anchor in the 1960s, went on to become Dayton City Commissioner, then worked in communications for Reagan and Bush 1 administrations.
• Steve Summmers, reporter/anchor (2006-2007)