WLTX
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WLTX, is the CBS television affiliate based in Columbia, South Carolina, broadcasting on Analog channel 19 and Digital channel 17. Its broadcast transmitter tower is located in Lugoff, South Carolina.
History
WLTX is the second oldest continuously operating TV station in South Carolina, having begun on September 1, 1953 as WNOK-TV. It signed on two months ahead of Columbia's WIS-TV, and originally broadcast on channel 67. It has always been a CBS affiliate, but carried a secondary DuMont affiliation until that network's demise in 1955. Its studios were located in the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Columbia, along with WNOK radio (1230 AM and 104.7 FM). It moved to the much stronger channel 19 on June 30, 1961.
In June 1967, WNOK-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio on Garners Ferry Road, 5 miles east of downtown Columbia and one mile from Interstate 77 and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. In 1977, WNOK-TV was sold to Lewis Broadcasting and became the present WLTX.
Historically, channel 19 has been a very distant second to long-dominant WIS, especially in news programming. Part of the problem was a weak signal. The Columbia market is a fairly large market geographically, and at first UHF stations were not strong enough to cover large areas. Although channel 19 decently covered Columbia and its close-in suburbs, it was practically unviewable in the outlying areas of the market. Until cable television arrived in the Columbia area in the 1970s, viewers in the outlying portions of the market had to rely on grade B signals from WRDW-TV in Augusta or WBTV in Charlotte. However, in 1985, WLTX activated a new tall tower in Lugoff that nearly doubled the station's signal and expanded its over-the-air coverage to 24 counties.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, WLTX (later followed by Columbia's ABC affiliate, WOLO-TV) aired reruns of old sitcoms instead of local news at 11 PM. Management at the time felt that it could not hope to compete with WIS, even with a taller tower. WLTX began a five-minute late newscast in 1993 and expanded to a full 35-minute newscast in 1995.
The loss of NFL broadcast rights to Fox in 1994 cost CBS and WLTX major revenue sources as advertising rates suffered because of the loss of ratings. From 1995 until 1998, WLTX was a secondary UPN affiliate, airing that network's programming on weekend afternoons when CBS had only limited sports programming.
In 1998, the current owner, Gannett, purchased WLTX from Lewis. Gannett invested heavily in making WLTX competitive against the traditionally dominant WIS, building a new set and hiring new station management and news talent. Soon after taking control, Gannett hired Jim Gandy, long-time meteorologist at WIS. While Gandy initially could not appear on the air in Columbia until the expiration of a one-year non-compete agreement, Gannett used him as a consultant in Columbia and substitute weathercaster at the company's other stations, including WXIA-TV in Atlanta and WUSA-TV in Washington, D. C..
Gannett also created new segments such as "On Your Side", "Restaurant Report Card", and "Big Money Monday." In 2001, WLTX added a 7:00 PM newscast to its lineup, competing head-on against WIS' flagship news program. In 2002, WLTX became the flagship broadcaster of the South Carolina Education Lottery. J.R. Berry and Darci Strickland, the popular morning news duo at WLTX, also became the evening news anchors that year. Also in the early 1990's WLTX launched a weekly program titled "News 19: Player of the Week". This program recognized high school student athletes accomplishments in the classroom and on the fields. Ray Allen, now of the Boston Celtics, won the award several times while playing at Hillcrest High School (now Middle School) in Dalzell.
Currently, WLTX is the ratings leader at noon, having CBS' strong daytime lineup as a lead-in. It regularly trades the lead in the early-morning timeslot with WIS. While it still trails WIS at 5, 6, 7 and 11 pm by a considerable margin, it has been far more competitive with WIS than it has been in years. In the May 2007 books, WLTX continued to win its newscast at noon as well as winning the first half-hour of the morning news program. It stayed second behind WIS on all the other newscasts and lost the key demographics that it had during the 11 pm newscast in February.[citation needed]
In May 2002, WLTX was the first commercial station in Columbia to broadcast in digital. It has been able to take advantage of the multi-casting and High Definition broadcasting technology to air various special events, including the Super Bowl and the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It broadcasts its own 24/7 Local Weather channel on digital channel 19-3 and on Time Warner Cable channel 812. However, its newscasts are not yet broadcast in High Definition.
WLTX launched a new 5pm newscast on August 20, 2007 titled "News 19: Friends @ Five". The new newscast features Darci Strickland, Andrea Mock, and Chief Meteorologist Jim Gandy. On June 23rd 2008 "Friends @ Five" won the Southeast Regional Emmy Award for it's innovative approach to connecting with viewers. Their 11pm newscast also won an Emmy Award for "Best Newscast" for the second year in a row.
Their website "wltx.com" is currently the #1 local website in that area.
WLTX runs syndicated programs such as The Andy Griffith Show, The Tyra Banks Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Without A Trace, and Cold Case
Logos
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This was the previous logo for WLTX before they received a makeover in 1999.
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This is the current logo for WLTX.
Personalities
Anchors
- Curtis Wilson - Morning Anchor @ 5 AM, since 2002
- Nat Roers - Morning Anchor @ 5 AM & Noon, since January 2005
- J.R. Berry - Evening Anchor @ 6, 7 & 11 PM, since 1990
- Darci Strickland - Evening Anchor for "Friends @ Five", 6 & 7 PM, since 1997
- Andrea Mock - Evening Anchor for "Friends @ Five" & 11 PM, since 2007
- Jennifer Tomazic - Reporter/Weekend Anchor @ 6 & 11 PM, since 2006
Reporters
- Jocelyn Maner - Reporter/Anchor, since May 2004
- Ashleigh Walters - Education Reporter, since March 2008
- Ashley Yarchin - Reporter, since September 2005
- Sharie Harvin - Reporter, since April 2007
- Jerome Collins - On Your Side Reporter, since October 2007
- Sydney Cummins- Reporter, since November 2007
- Michael Benning - Reporter, since June 2008
- Ashley Yore - Reporter, since July 2008
TrueView Weather
- Scott Ryan - AMS Morning Meteorologist @ 5 AM & Noon, since April 2002
- Jim Gandy - AMS Chief Meteorologist for "Friends @ Five", 6, 7 & 11 PM, since December 1999
- Daniel Bonds - Fill-in Meteorologist
- Lewis Turner - Weekend Weather Anchor, rejoined 2008
Sports
- Bob Shields - Sports Director/Weekday Sports Anchor @ 6 & 11 PM, since 1981
- Reggie Anderson - Sports Fill-in Anchor, since 1993
Past Personalities
- Matt Barrie (now at KXAS, Dallas, TX)
- Brandy Bell
- Addie Bradshaw (now at WGRZ, Buffalo, New York)
- Terry Brooks (now at WEWS, Cleveland, Ohio)
- Johnny Chappell
- Joel Connable (now at WTVJ, Miami, Florida)
- Chris Connor (Surridge)Former Deputy Communications Mgr. Hillary2000, now Director of Major Gifts, Miami City Ballet]]}
- Natasha Curry (now at KOMO-TV)
- Ainsley Earhardt (now at Fox News Channel)
- Bridgett Williams (now at WAGT, Augusta, Georgia)
- Camille Bradford Hugg
- Deloris Keith
- Jennifer Lindgren (now at WTLV, Jacksonville, Florida)
- Michael Chisholm
- Tabitha Kitchens
- Bryan Mims
- Adam Murphy (now at WGCL, Atlanta, Georgia)
- Ros Runner (now Chief Meteorologist at WSLS, Roanoke, Virginia)
- Todd Santos (now Meteorologist for NBC Weather Plus, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey)
- Lisa Sigell (now at KCAL/KCBS, Los Angeles, California)
- Sharon Smith (now at WBTV, Charlotte, North Carolina)
- Fred Steppe (now at WLTZ, Columbus, Georgia)
- Will Frampton (now at KXTV, Sacramento, California)
- Gene Upright
- Trinell Moore
- Kenneth Moton (now at WFTV, Orlando, Florida)
- Jonathan Jamison
- Ronda Robinson (now at WBRC, Birmingham/Anniston/Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
- Diana Watson (now at Fox Carolina WHNS)
- Kerri Hartsfield (now at WFMY, Greensboro, North Carolina)
- Andy Gary (News and FM - deceased)
- Jack Cook (News Director - deceased)
- Don Ferguson (News, sales, Jumptown and Tomahawk)
- Gwen Hebert (Robbie of Robbie's Roundup - deceased)
- James Payne (Jivetown)
- Stanley the Clown (several)
- Dr. Zot (J.T. Frierson)
- Bob Truer (News - deceased)
- Lois Quattlebaum (Community news - deceased)
Digital Television
WLTX-DT is an ATSC digital television signal broadcast over channel 17 which is available over-the-air with a digital tuner, or through digital cable service from Time Warner Cable. With either, there is an offering of three sub-channels:
- WLTX HD on DT 19.1 / 17.1 (Time Warner 810)
- News 19 Double Doppler on DT 19.2 / 17.2 (Time Warner 811)
- News 19 Weather Now on DT 19.3 / 17.3 (Time Warner 812)
As of March 20, 2007, the Newscasts on WLTX are not broadcast in High Definition. Most CBS programs broadcast from 8 PM ET, are broadcasted in HD, as are many sports programs on weekends.
At 8:00pm on January 21, 2008, WLTX became the first commercial station in Columbia to air a locally produced program in HD. Following a three week trip to Afghanistan, News 19's Will Frampton produced an hour long special titled "Stories from the 218th." The program gave a viewers a glimpse into the lives of the members of South Carolina's 218th Combat Brigade as they served in Afghanistan. It was rebroadcast on January 28th at 9am.
In 2009, WLTX will leave channel 19 and move to channel 17 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.[1]