WLOS

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• Template:Infobox television station

WLOS channel 13 is the ABC television affiliate in the U.S. city of Asheville, North Carolina. It also serves other portions of western North Carolina, upstate South Carolina (including Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson), northeastern Georgia, and eastern Tennessee. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and is sister station to WMYA-TV, the market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. WLOS' transmitter is located atop Mount Pisgah (North Carolina). It is carried on channel 13 on most cable providers in the market, however in its hometown of Asheville on Charter Cable it is carried on channel 3.

History

The station signed on air on September 18, 1954. It has been an ABC affiliate from the beginning.

Shortly after the station signed on, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed Asheville into the Greenville-Spartanburg market. This was due to the station's wide coverage in South Carolina. WLOS became the default ABC station as far south as Newberry SC and as far east as Rock Hill, SC. WLOS was widely viewed in 5 states. In addition to North and South Carolina, WLOS was also viewed over the air and on cable in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. Before the mid to late 1960s, no other ABC affiliate was available in many of these areas. For example, WLOS was widely viewed in Charlotte NC before WCCB came on the air there in 1964. WAIM-TV, channel 40 in Anderson, SC was a small TV station which tried to compete with WLOS. After coming on the air in 1953, they were a primary CBS affiliate, but also carried some ABC programs. When WSPA-TV came on the air in 1956, WAIM switched to primary ABC, with some CBS programing. Unfortunately, the WAIM signal covered only the immediate Anderson area. They never covered the larger cities of Greenville or Spartanburg. From its 1954 debut, WLOS had a strong signal in Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson, thus WAIM was doomed. Finally, in 1980 they went dark, to return later as independent WAXA-TV

The station was owned by Wometco until 1984, when the company was sold to the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). WLOS was later sold to Anchor Media, which in turn was later sold to River City Broadcasting, which merged with Sinclair in 1996. Channel 40 in Anderson, now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYA-TV is also now operated and effectively owned by Sinclair.

Late night

WLOS began 24/7 broadcasting in late 2005/early 2006, having previously signed off on early Saturday mornings from 5-6 AM after the late movie. It may still put up color bars now for a few minutes if the movie ends early but otherwise has paid programming. WLOS also signed off every night until 1992 with the introduction of ABC's overnight World News Now and later just late Friday night/early Saturday morning and late Saturday night/early Sunday morning until the early 2000s. according to a priticular sign-off clip from 1988, the sign offs back then included the national anthem played by the Mason County High School Band, while the color bars afterwards said "Good Morning, 13 WLOS-TV, Asheville, NC." Later on, the sign-offs included Sandi Patty's rendition of the national anthem with a video of different people saluting the flag, followed by shots of newspaper presses and people voting with ballots. These years used a color version of the Indian-head test pattern and in the center said "13 WLOS Asheville-Greenville-Spartanburg."

Slogans

WLOS used the slogan "Count on 13" from 1988 to 1993 and from 1984 to 1988 used a "Turn To" slogan along with Frank Gari's "Turn To News" theme for the newscasts.

Cable disputes

On January 5, 2007, Mediacom Cable dropped WLOS-TV because of a pay dispute with their owner Sinclair demanding more money for the station. [1] Additionally, Charter Cable doesn't carry WLOS-DT because of money disputes. [2]

Current newscasts

• News 13 This Morning - Monday-Friday, 5AM-7AM
• News 13 at Noon - Monday-Friday, Noon-1PM
• News 13 at 5:00 - Monday-Friday, 5PM-5:30PM
• News 13 at 5:30 - Monday-Friday, 5:30PM-6PM
• News 13 at 6:00 - Monday-Sunday, 6PM-6:30PM
• News 13 at 11:00 - Monday-Sunday, 11PM-11:35PM

Current news personalities

• Sherrill Barber, Reporter
• Larry Blunt, Anchor
• Russ Bowen, Weekend Anchor
• Jeremy Butterfield
• Bob Caldwell, Morning Weather Anchor
• Mike Cuevas, Chief Meteorologist
• Victoria Dunkle, Morning Co-Anchor
• Terrie Foster, Reporter
• Darcel Grimes, Anchor
• Larry Hawley, Sports Anchor
• Holly Headrick, Reporter
• Charu Kumarhia, Reporter
• John Le, Reporter
• Edward McDonald, Sports Anchor
• Susan Mundy, Morning Reporter
• Stan Pamfilis, Sports Director
• Kassandra Pride, Reporter
• Carolyn Ryan, Reporter
• Jay Siltzer, Morning Co-Anchor/Fill-In Weather Anchor
• Pat Simon, Anchor
• Tammy Watford, Anchor
• Julie Wunder, Weekend Weather Anchor

Past news personalities

• Mike Bettes, Chief Meteorologist (now at The Weather Channel)
• Brenda Burch, AM Anchor
• Ken Bostic, Evening Weather Anchor
• Michelle Boudin, Reporter (12/2001-12/2006) (now at WCNC-TV in Charlotte, NC)
• Jason Boyer, Weekend Meteorologist (now at KWGN-TV in Denver, CO)
• Donna Foreman, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Jon Greiner, Anchor/Reporter (now at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, PA}
• Hoyt Harris, Co-Anchor (now Anchor at KATC-TV in LaFayette, LA)
• Charlie Hicks, Sports Anchor/Reporter (1967-68)
• Suzanne Hudson, Anchor/Reporter
• Candice Little, Weekend Anchor/Reporter (now at Fox Charlotte in Charlotte, NC)
• Mimi Paige, Morning Anchor (deceased-killed in automobile accident)
• Mark Pompilio, Anchor (now at WKEF-TV in Dayton)
• Gary Stephenson, Chief Meteorologist/Weekend Meteorologist (now at News 14 Carolina in Raleigh, NC)
• Scott Wickersham, Anchor (now at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, NC)

Programming

Despite being an ABC affiliate, WLOS has pre-empted a fair amount of network programming over the years, including:

• The Edge of Night
• Fudge
• One Life To Live (early years, replaced with reruns of The Flintstones)
• Ryan's Hope (during the later years of the show)
• ABC Evening News (around the late 1960s to early 1970s, replaced with I Love Lucy reruns)
• All American Girl
• Thunder Alley
• Mike and Maty (replaced by The Jerry Springer Show)
• Full House (some episodes)
• America's Funniest Home Videos (some episodes)
• Dinosaurs (some episodes)
• The Critic (some episodes, replaced with syndicated reruns of Murphy Brown or local programs)
• the first season of The Drew Carey Show (replaced with reruns of Murphy Brown)
• first three seasons of The View (replaced with syndicated talk show The Jerry Springer Show)
• a 2004 airing of Nightline, which paid tribute to the soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq (pre-empted on orders from the Sinclair Broadcast Group; seen instead on WHNS)
• A 2004 airing of the movie Saving Private Ryan (also pre-empted on orders from the Sinclair Broadcast Group)

WLOS has been the home of popular syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! since 1985.

The station also produced a local children's show called Mr. Bill and Bumbo starring weathermen Bill Norwood (now retired) and Bob Caldwell (current morning and noon weather presenter), who celebrated his 40th anniversary on the air at WLOS in June 2006.

Newscast name history

WLOS's newscasts have been known by the following names:

• Your Esso Reporter
• Your World Today/Tonight (1970s)
• The Carolina's Today/News 75 [or 76] (1975-1976)
• Dateline 13 News (1970s-1980s)
• News 13 (1980s-current)

Logos

• Logo during the 1990s.
  Logo during the 1990s.
• Logo until 2006.
  Logo until 2006.
• Logo from 2006 until the present.
  Logo from 2006 until the present.

External links

• WLOS-TV (abc NEWS 13) Homepage
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