WJCL (TV)
Encyclopedia
WJCL is the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 for Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

's Coastal Empire and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

's Lowcountry
South Carolina Lowcountry
The Lowcountry is a geographic and cultural region located along South Carolina's coast. The region includes the South Carolina Sea Islands...

. Licensed to Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

, it broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 Western Chatham County, Georgia
Chatham County, Georgia
Chatham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. In the official US Census of 2010, Chatham County had a total population of 265,128 . Chatham is the most populous Georgia county outside the Atlanta metropolitan area...

. The station can also be seen on Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

 channel 4, Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

 channel 7 and Charter
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...

 channel 12. There is a high definition feed offered on Comcast digital channel 431, Charter digital channel 704, and Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

 Cable digital channel 1105. Owned by New Vision Television
New Vision Television
New Vision Television is a broadcast company based in Los Angeles, California. The company owns or manages 18 television stations in medium sized markets.-New Vision I:...

, WJCL operates Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate WTGS
WTGS
WTGS is the Fox-affiliated television station for South Carolina's Lowcountry and Southeastern Georgia's Coastal Empire. Licensed to Hardeeville, South Carolina, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter in unincorporated Western Chatham County, Georgia...

 (owned by PBC Broadcasting, LLC) through a shared services
Shared services
Shared services refers to the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the providing department effectively becomes an...

 agreement. The two outlets share studios on Abercorn Extension/GA 204
Georgia State Route 204
State Route 204 begins just east of Pembroke at U.S. 280/S.R. 30 and ends in Savannah at I-16 exit 165 .In Savannah, this is a very major and heavily traveled surface arterial and is known as Abercorn Expressway, Abercorn Street and 37th Street...

 in Savannah's Hunters Chase section. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 programming on WJCL includes Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...

, Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...

, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...

and The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...

among others.

History

The station signed-on July 18, 1970
1970 in television
The year 1970 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1970.For the American TV schedule, see: 1970-71 American network television schedule.-Events:...

 as WJCL-TV and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 22. It was the fourth television station to launch in Savannah and immediately became the area's first primary ABC outlet. Before this, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate WTOC-TV
WTOC-TV
WTOC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Southeastern Georgia's Coastal Empire and Southern South Carolina's Lowcountry. Licensed to Savannah, Georgia, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter along Fort Argyle Road/SR 204 in unincorporated...

 and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 affiliate WSAV-TV
WSAV-TV
WSAV-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Coastal Empire of Southeastern Georgia and the Lowcountry of Southern South Carolina. Licensed to Savannah, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter in Pooler, Georgia...

 shared secondary relations with ABC. Originally owned by former Savannah mayor and avid amateur radio operator Julius Curtis Lewis, Jr.
Julius Curtis Lewis, Jr.
Julius Curtis Lewis, Jr. was an American businessman, philanthropist and Chairman of J.C. Lewis Enterprises, Lewis Broadcasting Corporation, J.C. Lewis Investment Company, and Island Investments...

 (whose initials provided the call sign), the station marked many "firsts". At the time, it built the tallest broadcast tower in the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...

 rising some (150 feet) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

.

Color film and videotape were introduced to the Savannah market by WJCL. It claims to have been the first station in the area to televise a live event (President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

's Savannah visit and ride in a parade on Skidaway Road) as well as broadcasting in stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...

. WJCL-TV and WJCL-FM
WJCL-FM
WJCL-FM , known as "Kix 96", is a radio station in Savannah, Georgia featuring country music. WJCL is a 100,000 watt FM station which serves as the secondary Emergency Alert System radio station for the region.-History:The station was founded by J...

 96.5 were both run by Lewis Broadcasting's Executive Vice President, J. Fred Pierce, from 1972 until the television station's first sale in 1999. It dropped the -TV suffix from the call letters in 1981.

In 1982, WJCL swapped affiliations with WSAV (due to the latter's action) and became an NBC affiliate. However, a mere four years later, it returned to ABC in 1986. When Lewis purchased the WNOK
WNOK
WNOK is a CHR radio station licensed to Columbia, South Carolina and serves the Columbia, South Carolina market. The Clear Channel Communications outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 104.7 MHz with an ERP of 90 kW...

 television and radio stations in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...

 in 1977, he quickly sold-off WNOK radio (for an undisclosed price) and immediately changed the television outlet's call sign to WLTX
WLTX
WLTX, is the CBS-affiliated television station in Columbia, South Carolina. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 from a transmitter located in Lugoff, South Carolina. Syndicated programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show, The Doctors, The Ellen DeGeneres...

. In 1982, he purchased WYEA in Columbus, Georgia
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...

 from Aflac
Aflac
Aflac Incorporated is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States, founded in 1955 and based in Columbus, Georgia. In the United States, Aflac underwrites a wide range of insurance policies, but is perhaps more known for its payroll deduction insurance coverage, which pays...

 and changed its calls to WLTZ
WLTZ
WLTZ is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Chattahoochee Valley of West-Central Georgia and East-Central Alabama. Licensed to Columbus, Georgia, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from its studios on NBC 38 Drive in the Vista Terrance section of South...

 to follow a similar call letter format used for his station in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

's capitol (including "LT" meaning Lewis Television).

In the early-1990s, Lewis sold two of his radio stations, WSTZ-FM
WSTZ-FM
WSTZ-FM is a classic rock music formatted radio station in Jackson, Mississippi, but is licensed to Vicksburg, Mississippi. WSTZ is owned by Clear Channel. WSTZ serves Jackson and surrounding area with an ERP of 85,000 watts....

 and WSTZ-AM in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

 for an undisclosed price. In 1999, Lewis Broadcasting sold WJCL to Grapevine Communications which has since merged with Piedmont Television
Piedmont Television
Piedmont Television was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was based in Charlotte, North Carolina....

. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Lewis decided to divest an even larger portion of his media interests and sold four of his combined eight owned and/or previously owned radio and television stations including WJCL, WTGS, WJCL-FM, and WLTX. On May 1, 2007, Lewis broadcasting entered into an agreement with SagamoreHill Broadcasting
SagamoreHill Broadcasting
SagamoreHill Broadcasting is a privately held American holding company that owns eleven television stations largely based in the southern United States...

 to sell-off its last remaining television station, WLTZ.

In 2001, WJCL partnered with Carleton Public Relations, Inc. to produce ABC 22 LawCall. Radio on-air personality Lexie Kaye was hired by Carleton Public Relations as producer of the weekly live, legal call-in show. The program featured Mike Avery as host along with attorneys from the Carter & Tate firm with a weekly guest and various topics. This was the first legal call-in show in the nation to use the "LawCall" name. The show aired until June 2006 on Sunday nights from 11 to 11:30. Since Lewis' sale of the station in 1999, it has been bought twice. WJCL and WTGS were most recently sold to New Vision Television and Parkin Broadcasting respectively. The station unveiled a new blog-based website in June 2007.

On November 2, 2007 it was announced that with the recent acquisition of WJCL by New Vision Broadcasting, a brand new website was on the way. The revamped website (operated largely in-house with technology borrowed from Broadcast Interactive Media) featured the usual news, weather, and sports along with streaming video. In January 2009, the websites of WJCL and several of its sister stations migrated to the Inergize Digital Network platform (with KOIN
KOIN
KOIN is the CBS affiliate television station serving the Portland metropolitan area. Its transmitter is located in Portland, Oregon, United States; it broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 40...

 in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 being the first station in the New Vision group featuring it). The station is the setting of the second season of TV Guide Network's Making News
Making News: Savannah Style
Making News: Savannah Style was a reality program set at the duopoly of WJCL and WTGS in Savannah, Georgia. It followed the daily activities of the lowest-rated news department in the Savannah television market. The show was the second in the Making News series, following Making News: Texas Style,...

which began airing on June 4, 2008. WJCL's broadcasts have been digital-only since February 17, 2009. On that date, the station moved its signal from UHF channel 23 back to its analog allotment.

News operation

While WJCL did enjoy some early success under Lewis' watch, it spent most of its first decade on the air in third place, well behind WTOC and WSAV. This was typical at the time for a UHF competing against two VHF stations in a single market. However, WJCL was very successful in commercial video production and local television advertisement sales. It also frequently beat out WTOC with the weekday afternoon airing of popular syndicated programming such as Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...

, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...

. Those three television series were eventually moved to WSAV.

Unlike most ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

, WJCL does not offer local newscasts during the weekday midday hours as well as weeknights at 5 and/or 5:30. WSAV originally offered news weeknights at 5 and not at 5:30, but its show in the former time slot was cancelled sometime in the early-2000s. It would not be until June 21, 2010 when that station added a new weeknight broadcast at 5:30. Through a news share agreement in place since the late-1990s, WJCL produces an hour-long nightly prime time newscast on its sister station currently known as WTGS News at Ten. This production maintains separate news anchors on weeknights. For awhile, WTGS also simulcasted WJCL's Good Morning Show on weekdays from 5 until 7 but it was dropped at some point.

On March 16, 2009, the station became the first outlet in Savannah to upgrade local newscasts to high definition and the nightly news on WTGS was included. This would be followed by WTOC on October 10, 2010 after adding HD local news. It was not until March 8, 2011 that WSAV finally upgraded to high definition broadcasts. On October 28, 2010, it was announced WJCL and WTGS would combine operations with the Savannah Morning News
Savannah Morning News
The Savannah Morning News is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Morris Communications, Inc. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry"...

and be relocated to the newspaper's facility on Chatham Parkway in Savannah. The actual date of consolidation has yet to be determined. WJCL and WTGS operate a bureau on Fording Island Road in Hilton Head--the only physical presence that a Savannah station has on the South Carolina side of the market.

Newscast titles

  • JCL News (1970s-1980s)
  • JCL Newswatch 22 (1980s)
  • TV-22 Action News
    Action News
    Action News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...

    (1980s-1990s)
  • News Savannah (1990s-1999)
  • ABC 22 News (1999-2005)
  • WJCL, Your Local News Source (2005-2008)
  • WJCL News (2008-present)

Station slogans

  • "Real People, Real News"
  • "Your Local News Source" (2001-2008)
  • "The Coastal Source" (2008-present)

News team

Anchors
  • Jessica Kiss - weekday mornings
  • Casey Jones - weeknights at 6 and 11
  • Jenifer Andrews - weeknights at 6 and 11
  • Lindsay Housaman - weeknights at 10
  • Jesse Blanco - weeknights at 10
  • Nick Paradise - weekends and consumer reporter


WJCL FutureTrak Meteorologists
  • Jeff Kirk - weeknights
  • Jonathan Myers - weekday mornings
  • James Hopkins - weekends and news reporter


Sports (both seen on The Frenzy)
  • Frank "The Big Guy" Sulkowski - Director
    Sports Director
    A sports director is an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. In local news, the sports director is typically the station's primary sportscaster, and often anchors the primetime newscasts on weekdays. They are in charge of sports programming and...

    seen weeknights
  • Allen Kinzly - weekends and sports reporter


Reporters
  • Judy Helmey - "The Fishin' Report with Captain Judy" segment producer
  • Michelle Rubrecht - "Savvy Shopper" segment producer
  • Maura Kennedy - fill-in news anchor
  • Deidre Johnson - education

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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