WNWO-TV is a television station in Toledo, Ohio and affiliated with the NBC-TV network. The stations serves Northwestern Ohio, Southeastern Michigan and can be viewed in Windsor, Ontario and Essex County over the air and on cable. Its transmitter is located in Oregon, Ohio.
History
Overmyer Broadcasting founded the station that would be known as WNWO-TV as an independent UHF station, the first in Toledo not to be affiliated with any television network. That however, wasn't the original plan. WDHO (for Daniel H. Overmyer) signed on the air on May 3, 1966 initially as the unlikely flagship of The Overmyer Network, very soon renamed The United Network (no relation to UPN), which began operations one year later, on May 1, 1967. The sole program on the United Network, The Las Vegas Show (starring comedian Bill Dana) was cancelled after being on the air for a month and the network closed down with it. WDHO soldiered on as an independent station carrying syndicated and local programming plus CBS, NBC and ABC network shows not cleared by WTOL or WSPD-TV (now WTVG).
The station affiliated with ABC in 1970; previously, ABC's Toledo affiliate was WSPD. WDHO's affiliation with ABC wasn't a successful one . Creditors threatened the station's existence and even the trailer housing the station's business office was in danger of repossession. It didn't help that WXYZ-TV in Detroit was available over the air in much of the Toledo market, or that other top rated ABC affiliates WEWS in Cleveland and WPTA in Fort Wayne, Indiana had Grade B signals in parts of the Toledo television market. Overmyer Broadcasting (which once also owned a chain of independent stations including KEMO in San Francisco, WATL in Atlanta and WPHL in Philadelphia) declared bankruptcy during the 1980s and the station was seized by the Bank of Boston (now Bank of America).
In 1986, the station was sold through a bankruptcy proceeding for $19.6 million to a local group, Toledo Television Investors, LTD. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WNWO-TV, the new call letters standing for North West Ohio, on June 1, 1986. In October 1994, Capital Cities Communications/ABC announced it would buy WTVG. Almost out of desperation, WNWO approached NBC, which was about to be evicted from WTVG. On November 5, 1995, WNWO became the new affiliate for NBC in Toledo.
WNWO-TV's logo from the late 1990s, after the affiliation switch from ABC to NBC.
Ironically (for being unsolicited by WNWO), this network swap increased the value of WNWO as a television station, owing to the ratings of NBC relative to ABC in 1995. The station was soon sold to the Malrite Communications Group. Malrite invested heavily in its new property, reportedly spending (according to the station's present owner) $3 million to upgrade the station. A new studio and offices were built on the site of the former WDHO on Byrne Road in Toledo, expanding the facility by 10,000 ft2. The station went from a newsroom of 8 people and one half-hour newscast a day to over 30 people and 3 hours of news a day. In 1997 the completely revamped newscast went on the air with anchors Dan Lovett and Lissa Guyton, Bill Spencer presenting the weather and Jim Tichy, the only hold over from the previous newscast, presenting sports. Despite a large ad campaign with the slogan "Building a better station for you", the newscast did not do well in the ratings. There was a lot of turnover on the anchor desk, and a number of personalities (including Jon Clark, Angela Atalla and Nora Murray) have left the station. The station has fallen into a distant last place behind Fox affiliate WUPW [2]. Again, WNWO is disadvantaged with higher rated NBC affilates (WDIV in Detroit, WLIO in Lima, Ohio, WCMH in Columbus, and WKYC in Cleveland) being availiable over the air in parts of the the Toledo market at city-grade or Grade B signal strength.
Raycom Media, Inc. bought all of the Malrite stations in 1998. However, Raycom owned WUPW at the time and had to sell it to avoid breaking the FCC's ownership rules in effect at the time, which did not allow duopolies.
WNWO was once again put up for sale in 2005 after Raycom merged with The Liberty Corporation, which included WTOL. The sale was necessary because the FCC does not allow duopolies between two of the four largest stations in a single market. Raycom chose to keep WTOL, because of CBS' (and even more so WTOL's) higher ratings at the time.
On March 27, 2006, Raycom announced that Barrington Broadcasting will be acquiring 12 Raycom stations, including WNWO. The group deal was finalized on August 11, 2006. As a result, WNWO joined Marquette's WLUC-TV, Saginaw's WEYI-TV and Northern Michigan's WPBN & WTOM as part of Barrington's family of stations serving Michigan and northwestern Ohio. Also in 2006, WNWO-TV began airing The Tube Music Network on its DT2 digital subchannel. This would end on October 1, 2007, when The Tube closed up. Its slot is now taken up by the Retro Television Network.
On August 10, 2007, WNWO launched the first 7pm newscast in the Toledo area. This 7pm newscast allows busy working people to watch news "when they need it," not where it's traditionally been broadcast.
Digital Programming
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
NBC 24 News Today and Today @ 11
- Kylie Conway
- Meteorologist Michael Schlesinger
- Stony Vasco Traffic (NBC 24 Today only)
NBC 24 News @ 6, 7, 7:30, and 11
- David Custer
- Shenikwa Stratford
- Chief Meteorologist Norm Van Ness
- Eric Haubert
NBC 24 News Weekends
- Arielle Berlin
- Meteorologist Kelly Heidbreder
- Ryan Fowler
Personalities
- Kristi Branam
- Aaron Brillbeck
- Rob Packard
- Jennifer Taylor
Past News Personalities
- Geneen Anderson (WPLG)
- Angela Atalla (WTSP)
- Gretchen Auker
- Jon Antalek
- Jim Blue
- Tom Bosco (WSYX)
- Paula Bridges (WPSD)
- Jon Clark
- Mike Costa
- Jodine Costanzo(WPXI)
- Dan DeCrow (ONN, WBNS)
- Denise Douglas (WJAC)
- Don Edwards
- Greg Entress
- Kelly Faegre
- Jenny Goldberg
- Lissa Guyton (WTVG)
- Dave Hecht (active duty/US Navy)
- Doug High (WPTD)
- Kari Howard (WNDU)
- Karla Hult (KARE)
- Paula Johnson (WKEF/WRGT-TV)
- Christian Kafton (KNTV)
- Paul Kiska (WEWS)
- Anna Kooiman (WCCB)
- Matt Lockwood
- Dan Lovett
- Kevin Milliken (WSPD Radio)
- Melissa McCrady (WTMJ)
- Brian McIntyre (ONN)
- Andrea Mock (WLTX)
- Nora Murray
- Darsha Philips (KTXL)
- Theresa Pollick (ODOT)
- Victoria Preston
- John Quaintance (WDHO-TV 1974-1975)
- Christa Quinn (WSPG)
- Tino Ramos (WBNS)
- Stephanie Roberts (WFTS)
- Richard Sharp (KCRA)
- Bill Spencer (WTVG)
- Jennifer Stacy (WINK)
- Jim Tichy (retired)
- DeWayne Walker
- Megan West (Golf Channel)
- Simon Shaykhet (WJBK)
- Paul Stelzer (WCMH)
- Matt Trezza
Tower
The WNWO Tower is a 438-meter high guy-wired aerial mast for the transmission of FM radio and TV programs in Oregon, Ohio, USA (Geographical coordinates: 41°40′03″N, 83°21′22″W). The WNWO Tower was completed in 1983 and is property of Raycom Media, Inc. It is the tallest man-made structure in Ohio.
See also: List of masts
Slogans
- "It's Happening on TV-24" (1977)
- "First in Toledo" (1981)
- "You Should See Us Now" (1983)
- "TV-24 is Yours" (1985)
- "The Station You Turn To" (1988)
- "Toledo's Very Own" (1991)
- "News You Can Always Turn To" (1993)
- "Building a Better Station for You" (1996)
- "Your News Station" (1997)
- "Your Most Local News Station" (1999)
- "Toledo's Weather Station" (2003)
- "Fair, Accurate, Honest" (2006)
External links
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