WLVI-TV
Encyclopedia
WLVI, digital channel
41, is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts
which serves as the CW
affiliate for the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI is owned by Sunbeam Television
, and is a sister station
to WHDH, Boston's NBC
affiliate. The two stations share studios at Bulfinch Place in downtown Boston, and WLVI's transmitter is located in Needham
. The station is automated and operated completely by WHDH staffers. WLVI is the largest CW station not owned by either Tribune Company
or CBS Corporation
, the two main founding ownership groups of the network; however, Tribune did own the station from 1994 until 2006.
, digital television receivers displays WLVI's virtual channel
as 56. WLVI-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009.
) and WXHR (96.9 FM, now WTKK
). The station's studio and transmitter were located atop Zion Hill, in Woburn, Massachusetts
. WTAO was nominally affiliated with DuMont
and ABC
, though it was largely programmed as an independent station, especially after DuMont eliminated entertainment programming in 1955 and ABC opted to revert to secondary clearances on WNAC-TV (now WHDH) and, to a lesser extent, WBZ-TV
— these moves effectively left WTAO reliant on movies and limited local programming to fill its airtime. WTAO was written off as a failure and signed off for the last time on March 30, 1956 due to low viewership (only a small percentage of Boston-area TV sets even were capable of receiving UHF) and therefore, lack of revenue from sponsors. The station went back on the air on May 17, 1962 for a six-month Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) study before being taken off the air again on November 17 of the same year.
The channel 56 license, which changed its call letters to WXHR-TV in 1965, was purchased by Kaiser Broadcasting
and the Boston Globe in 1966. The new owners returned the station to the air on December 21, 1966 as independent WKBG-TV (Kaiser Broadcasting/Boston Globe), from a studio in Brookline, Massachusetts
but using the same transmission tower atop Zion Hill in Woburn that WTAO had utilized. Heard over its test patterns in preparing to go on the air and in its opening day broadcast, was the Bert Kaempfert
hit instrumental "That Happy Feeling
."
WKBG intended the Brookline studios to be temporary, and in 1969, channel 56 moved to a much larger facility in a former supermarket on Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester section of Boston. By that time, the station's transmitter had moved to its current site in Needham. The antenna at the Needham site gave channel 56 better coverage of the southern portion of the Boston market than the Woburn site afforded.
As a Kaiser station, channel 56's schedule consisted primarily of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, old movies and occasionally, network shows that were preempted by other local stations. However, the station was willing to experiment with such projects as Universal Television
's Operation Prime Time (although Paramount Television
would contribute some programs as well) and syndicated reruns of National Geographic specials in prime time. Such common independent-station programming as a Saturday "Creature Double Feature
" (following repeats of The Outer Limits
) reached youthful and cult audiences. U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien
has credited the station's rotation of classic musicals in its prime-time movie offering with encouraging him to consider a career as a performer.
For most of its tenure as an independent, channel 56 was well behind WSBK-TV
(channel 38) in the ratings. Still, it was carried on most cable systems throughout New England
, and channel 56 did carry some sports programming of its own, including road games of the Boston Celtics
from 1966 to 1969 and road telecasts of the Boston Bruins
from 1966 to 1967. It also carried telecasts of the World Hockey Association
's New England Whalers (now the NHL
's Carolina Hurricanes
) during the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons (25 regular-season games during 1972-73 and 20 games the next season, some home and some away games broadcast each year).
In 1974, the Boston Globe sold its share in WKBG back to Kaiser. The call letters were then changed to the current WLVI-TV (reflecting the Roman numeral for 56, LVI) that May, and in 1977, Chicago
-based Field Communications
(which had owned 22.5 percent of Kaiser since 1972) purchased WLVI and the other Kaiser stations. (The station dropped the -TV suffix on July 8, 2010, the same day sister station WHDH also dropped the suffix.)
In 1983, WLVI was sold to the Gannett Company
as part of a liquidation of Field's television assets. Under Gannett, WLVI continued its general entertainment format, which included children's programming from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m., as well as from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. under the WLVI Kids' Club banner. For the generation of New England children growing up during this period, "Uncle Dale" Dorman (also a popular Boston radio personality) was the familiar personality fronting the Kids' Club, hosting the cartoons and appearing in hosted commercial segments. By 1990, Dorman left the station and was replaced by Paul Wagner and Elizabeth Dann, who appeared in new segments of their own and, like Dorman, doubled as announcers. From 1985 to 1990, WLVI again became the carrier of the Boston Celtics road games.
WLVI continued use of the Field Communications-style station branding and logo for quite a while after Gannett acquired the station. In 1992, the numeric logo changed to a design in which the number "56" was encased in a tall, purple/blue box, with "WLVI" appearing in thin font above it in a purple/blue strip. The "5" was placed in the top left corner of the box, while the "6" appeared below it in the lower right-hand corner. The logo design, and numerals font, was directly replicated from the positions of the "5" and "6" that appeared on the clock face of the Boston Clock Tower.
In 1994, Gannett sold the station to the Tribune Company
, which affiliated the station with the newly-launched WB Television Network in January 1995. Soon afterward, after having been known as Channel 56 or TV 56 for most of its history, the station changed its branding to WB 56. A new red and white WB affiliate-style logo made its debut in May 1995, which was used on most station branding from the start. The 1992 Boston Clock Tower logo remained in use only on The Ten O'Clock News until mid-1996 (along with a top-of-the-hour ID that aired before the start of the newscast, in which the previous logo appeared with the WB logo and network backlot visuals). The station added primetime WB shows, as well as Kids WB on weekday afternoons. Cartoons, such as Ronin Warriors
, Sailor Moon, and recent sitcoms continued to be on the schedule, but a few talk and reality shows began showing up by 1996. The station also doubled as the WB affiliate for Providence
, where it had been available on cable for decades, until WLWC
signed on in 1997.
The station was temporarily off the air in August 1998 when a crane that was erecting a nearby studio-to-transmitter link (STL) tower collapsed onto WLVI's building. Though no one was injured and the damage was confined to the station's office spaces, the incident resulted in several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage. The station used a satellite truck for network programming downlink and studio space at WCVB-TV
for its 10 p.m. newscast.
In 1999, WLVI began a one-year stint as the flagship station of the Boston Red Sox
, with games produced by an independent company, Jankowski Communications, headed by former CBS executive Gene Jankowski. What was to be a long-term partnership between the team, Jankowski, and WLVI ended after a single year when Jankowski went under.
The following year, the station discontinued its morning children's programming block in favor of a short-lived morning newscast. The station also began running even more syndicated talk and reality shows, dropping most off network sitcoms except in the evenings. Afternoon children's programming continued to be provided by Kids' WB until early 2006. Channel 56 was the last commercial station in the Boston market that continued to broadcast weekday children's programming. Around this time, the station began phasing out references to its channel number in its branding, becoming Boston's WB.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN
networks announced that they would merge into a new network called The CW Television Network
. The new network signed 10-year affiliation agreements with most of Tribune's WB affiliates, including WLVI. It would not have been an upset had WSBK been chosen, however. Network officials had been on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Boston was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong. The CW began operations on September 18, 2006, and WLVI became known as Boston's CW. To correspond to the affiliation switch, the station's daily 10 PM newscast became known as The Ten O'Clock News on Boston's CW.
On September 14, 2006, four days prior to the launch of the CW, Tribune Broadcasting announced that WLVI would be sold to Sunbeam Television
, owner of WHDH-TV, for $117.3 million. The sale received final approval in late November 2006 from the FCC
, creating Boston's third television duopoly (the others are CBS
-owned WBZ-TV and WSBK, and Hearst-Argyle
-owned WCVB-TV and Manchester, New Hampshire
-based WMUR-TV
).
Even though the sale to Sunbeam had already become official by then, Tribune continued to operate WLVI until December 18, 2006, when the Tribune-run station website was closed and replaced with a redirect to the new Sunbeam-run website, and the final Tribune-produced newscast aired. WLVI's operations were merged with those of WHDH, and all of the station's equipment was moved to WHDH's studios on Bulfinch Place (just six miles from WLVI's old Morrissey Boulevard studio), and the station's news department was closed. The consolidation resulted in about 130 layoffs from WLVI, though some newsroom staffers were retained by WHDH, which took over production of WLVI's daily 10 p.m. newscast. Also, the station's sales department was transferred to the new location. The old set and equipment of WLVI were sold at auction several months later.
With the sale, WLVI changed its branding to CW 56, though the station is sometimes called New England's CW on-air. It has largely become a "pass-through" for automated programming.
On December 1, 1969, WKBG-TV debuted a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast, called Ten PM News; the first such newscast on a commercial television station in the market. The newscast was anchored by Boston news veteran Arch MacDonald, who was lured away from WBZ-TV, where he had been a news anchor for two decades. It is also notable for being the first on-screen job for Natalie Jacobson
, who went on to become lead anchor at WCVB-TV in the 1970s. Despite a loyal audience, WKBG lost a considerable amount of money on the newscast and shut the news department down at the end of 1970. MacDonald remained at the station for another year to host a weekday-morning interview program. Several other Kaiser stations that had also launched local newscasts shut those news departments down at about the same time. Another station in the Boston market, WXPO-TV
in Lowell
, had also briefly done a 10 o'clock newscast in 1969.
Field Communications started a news department shortly before putting WLVI up for sale. In 1982, it began producing a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast, which initially was a pair of ten-minute locally-produced inserts in what otherwise was an hour-long simulcast of CNN Headline News
. Under Gannett ownership, WLVI expanded it into a half-hour broadcast on April 23, 1984, originally on weeknights only. This was the third attempt at a primetime newscast in the Boston market. Debuting as The News at Ten, it established itself with top-drawer talent early on with Boston news veteran Jack Hynes as lead anchor and Bill O'Connell handling sports. Hynes' co-anchors in the first several years were Julie Emry (1984–1986), Uma Pemmaraju (1986–1988; later of WBZ-TV
and Fox News Channel
), Darlene McCarthy (1988–1990; later of WHDH-TV
) and finally Karen Marinella, who became weeknight co-anchor in November 1990 and remained so until the end of the in-house news operation. Also within the first few years, O'Connell moved on and was replaced by sports anchor Rich Schwartz, and original weeknight meterologist Jerry Brown was ousted by Ron Harris.
During its first three years on the air, The News at Ten was accompanied at 10:30 pm by the continuation of cable news service simulcasts. CNN Headline News appeared in the time slot following the local half hour news, as it did prior to the latter's debut. In January 1986, CNN was replaced in favor of an Independent Network News
broadcast anchored by Morton Dean
. When WLVI's one-year contract with INN expired, the station decided to increase airtime for The News at Ten. The weeknight broadcast expanded to an hour on Monday, January 26, 1987, followed by the addition of hour-long 10 pm weekend newscasts at the close of that week. The weekend editions were first by anchored by WLVI reporter Joe Shortsleeve (now with WBZ-TV) and Odetta Rogers, who was just hired from Manchester, NH ABC affiliate WMUR-TV
. Bob Gamere
, who had been substitute sportscaster on the weeknight broadcasts, was appointed permanent weekend sports anchor. In May 1989, Rogers left for WFSB-TV in Hartford and Gamere was fired after becoming involved in allegations of sexual abuse. At this time, Karen Marinella, who had started out as a general assignment reporter for the station, replaced Rogers until her promotion to weeknights over a year later.
For well over a decade, WLVI was the ratings leader in the time slot, with or without competition in the arena. Although PBS
station WGBH-TV
(channel 2) was the only other local station running a newscast at 10:00 (until 1991), it was not considered a major competitor since it is a non-commercial station. In the fall of 1993, however, legitimate competition sprang up for The News at Ten. Fox
affiliate WFXT
launched the NECN
-originated Fox 25 News at Ten on September 7 of that year, while WSBK-TV introduced the WBZ-produced WBZ News 4 on TV 38 in October. The latter stations aggressively marketed their fledgling newscasts, but 10 o'clock viewers were loyal to WLVI, which remained number one in the ratings. In 1994, just as the station was sold to Tribune, the newscast was renamed The Ten O'Clock News (always emphasizing "the"), in response to WLVI's durability against its new-found competition.
By this time, Jack Hynes relegated himself to weekend anchor, and commentator/substitute anchor on weekdays, paving the way for future lead anchors Jon Du Pre (1993–95), Jeff Barnd (1995–2003), and finally Frank Mallicoat (2003–06). Two of these successors were notable for particular stories and signature traits. Soon after he became lead anchor, Du Pre reported a story about a homeless man in Boston, whom, years later in his 2000 memoir, he revealed to be his own father (viewers were given no indication in 1993; Du Pre had feared and only speculated at the time that the story subject was, indeed, his father). Barnd, while having developed a strong following with viewers, became known for his joking in between stories and tendencies to ad-lib. One such occurrence of this behavior in September 2001 shocked local media outlets, in which Barnd jumped from his anchor chair and started dancing around the set after presenting the top story of the night's newscast. Barnd was subsequently disciplined by station management after the incident, but in 2002, the station's news director stated that Barnd was facing termination and that WLVI was seeking a return to a more serious newscast. In January 2003, Barnd was demoted from his anchor position, and left the station on his own will two months later. Replacing him was Frank Mallicoat, who, since 1991, had handled sports and general assignment reports before stepping up to co-anchor the weeknight show with Karen Marinella.
Another mainstay of WLVI's newscasts was chief meteorologist Mike Wankum
, who first joined the station in 1993. Wankum soon gained a following with his unique approach to forecasting and won numerous New England Emmy Awards. Boston Globe columnist Jon Keller was also a fixture for many years as the station's sharp political analyst. His regular feature, Keller at Large, received much critical acclaim. In 2005, Keller departed WLVI to become the new chief political reporter and analyst for WBZ-TV.
The only time WLVI programmed news outside its established 10:00 slot was in June 2000, when it premiered Boston's WB in the Morning. A mix of news, talk, and lifestyle features, the show aired from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. The newscast replaced sitcoms and children's shows on the schedule. The program lasted two years, but could not hold its own against the other local newscasts and national morning shows. The show was canceled in the spring of 2002.
By 2003, with fierce competition emerging from WFXT's now-in-house news department, ratings for WLVI's news started to slide. Within a year, the station had fallen to third place behind both WFXT (which was now number-one) and WSBK's Nightcast at 10 (produced again by WBZ). The WSBK newscast was canceled in January 2005, and WLVI was left in second place. However, it would not regain its former glory during the rest of its tenure as a Tribune-owned station. Due to the increasing popularity of the WFXT newscast and after Tribune closed local television newsrooms in Philadelphia
and San Diego
, there were unconfirmed rumors that Tribune would shut down the WLVI news department and have the newscast outsourced to another station or even canceled altogether. WLVI initially denied that its newsroom would be closed.
As a result of the sale to Sunbeam Television, WHDH took over production of WLVI's 10:00 p.m. newscast using its existing staff. As the sale only covered the license, network affiliation, and technical equipment, most of WLVI's 150 employees remained employed by Tribune until being let go. Jack Hynes closed the station's final newscast with a commentary, calling the sale and shutdown a "sad, and even tragic chapter in Boston television history", and noting "someone (else), somewhere, should have stepped up to the plate and bought the station". WHDH started producing WLVI's newscast on December 19, 2006. On that date, the newscast became known as 7 News at 10 on CW 56. From the start of the WHDH-production on WLVI until July 2007, the newscasts featured the music and graphics package used on Sunbeam's only other television property, WSVN
in Miami, at that time.
On July 29, 2008, WHDH began doing broadcasts in HD. It is the second station in Boston to broadcast in high definition, with WCVB-TV being the first. It also revealed a new television studio and graphics for a more compatible look with WSVN (which curiously remained without high definition newscasts until January 2009). The WLVI broadcast was upgraded as well.
WHDH had indicated that there might eventually be a new weekday morning newscast (again) on WLVI which would compete with WFXT's highly popular weekday morning show, but , that has not yet occurred. Instead, on January 3, 2011, the station began airing the 7 a.m. hour of The Daily Buzz
on weekdays.
Weeknights
Weekends
WLVI uses additional news personnel from WHDH. See that article for a complete listing.
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
41, is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
which serves as the CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
affiliate for the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI is owned by Sunbeam Television
Sunbeam Television
Sunbeam Television Corporation is a broadcasting company based in Miami, Florida, and owns three television stations in the United States.-History:...
, and is a sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
to WHDH, Boston's 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. The two stations share studios at Bulfinch Place in downtown Boston, and WLVI's transmitter is located in Needham
Needham, Massachusetts
Needham is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 28,886 at the 2010 census.- History :...
. The station is automated and operated completely by WHDH staffers. WLVI is the largest CW station not owned by either Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
or CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
, the two main founding ownership groups of the network; however, Tribune did own the station from 1994 until 2006.
Digital television
WLVI broadcasts digitally on its pre-transition channel 41. However, through the use of PSIPProgram and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers displays WLVI's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 56. WLVI-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009.
History
Channel 56 is the oldest UHF license in Boston. It first went on the air on August 31, 1953 as WTAO-TV, owned by Middlesex Broadcasting along with WTAO radio (740 AM, now WJIBWJIB
WJIB is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in Adult Standards and 1950s & 1960s pop music. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, with a sister station: WJTO at Bath, Maine...
) and WXHR (96.9 FM, now WTKK
WTKK
WTKK is a New England commercial talk radio station, first broadcast out of Boston on 96.9 FM beginning in 1999. It can be heard in eastern Massachusetts, the northernmost area of Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine...
). The station's studio and transmitter were located atop Zion Hill, in Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...
. WTAO was nominally affiliated with DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
and 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...
, though it was largely programmed as an independent station, especially after DuMont eliminated entertainment programming in 1955 and ABC opted to revert to secondary clearances on WNAC-TV (now WHDH) and, to a lesser extent, WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
— these moves effectively left WTAO reliant on movies and limited local programming to fill its airtime. WTAO was written off as a failure and signed off for the last time on March 30, 1956 due to low viewership (only a small percentage of Boston-area TV sets even were capable of receiving UHF) and therefore, lack of revenue from sponsors. The station went back on the air on May 17, 1962 for a six-month Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) study before being taken off the air again on November 17 of the same year.
The channel 56 license, which changed its call letters to WXHR-TV in 1965, was purchased by Kaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting was the name of an entity that owned and operated broadcast television stations in the United States from 1958 to 1977.-History:...
and the Boston Globe in 1966. The new owners returned the station to the air on December 21, 1966 as independent WKBG-TV (Kaiser Broadcasting/Boston Globe), from a studio in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
but using the same transmission tower atop Zion Hill in Woburn that WTAO had utilized. Heard over its test patterns in preparing to go on the air and in its opening day broadcast, was the Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader and songwriter. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records, and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, such as "Strangers in the Night" and "Spanish Eyes".-Biography:He was born in Hamburg, Germany - where he received his lifelong...
hit instrumental "That Happy Feeling
That Happy Feeling
"That Happy Feeling" was an instrumental pop music single recorded by Bert Kaempfert on March 16, 1962 and featured as the second cut on his album A Swingin' Safari. That song and the title track were among the first pop instrumentals to incorporate elements of South African music...
."
WKBG intended the Brookline studios to be temporary, and in 1969, channel 56 moved to a much larger facility in a former supermarket on Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester section of Boston. By that time, the station's transmitter had moved to its current site in Needham. The antenna at the Needham site gave channel 56 better coverage of the southern portion of the Boston market than the Woburn site afforded.
As a Kaiser station, channel 56's schedule consisted primarily of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, old movies and occasionally, network shows that were preempted by other local stations. However, the station was willing to experiment with such projects as Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
's Operation Prime Time (although Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
would contribute some programs as well) and syndicated reruns of National Geographic specials in prime time. Such common independent-station programming as a Saturday "Creature Double Feature
Creature Double Feature
Creature Double Feature was a syndicated horror show, broadcast in the Boston and Philadelphia area during the 1970s and 1980s. It sometimes also aired under names like Sci-Fi Flix and Creature Feature...
" (following repeats of The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
) reached youthful and cult audiences. U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
has credited the station's rotation of classic musicals in its prime-time movie offering with encouraging him to consider a career as a performer.
For most of its tenure as an independent, channel 56 was well behind WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
(channel 38) in the ratings. Still, it was carried on most cable systems throughout New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, and channel 56 did carry some sports programming of its own, including road games of the Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
from 1966 to 1969 and road telecasts of the Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
from 1966 to 1967. It also carried telecasts of the World Hockey Association
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...
's New England Whalers (now the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
's Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League , and play their home games at the 18,680-seat RBC Center...
) during the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons (25 regular-season games during 1972-73 and 20 games the next season, some home and some away games broadcast each year).
In 1974, the Boston Globe sold its share in WKBG back to Kaiser. The call letters were then changed to the current WLVI-TV (reflecting the Roman numeral for 56, LVI) that May, and in 1977, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based Field Communications
Field Communications
Field Communications was a division of Field Enterprises, which owned the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News. The company owned independent television stations in the United States, with WFLD-TV in Chicago as its largest-market station....
(which had owned 22.5 percent of Kaiser since 1972) purchased WLVI and the other Kaiser stations. (The station dropped the -TV suffix on July 8, 2010, the same day sister station WHDH also dropped the suffix.)
In 1983, WLVI was sold to the Gannett Company
Gannett Company
Gannett Company, Inc. is a publicly-traded media holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States, near McLean. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend...
as part of a liquidation of Field's television assets. Under Gannett, WLVI continued its general entertainment format, which included children's programming from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m., as well as from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. under the WLVI Kids' Club banner. For the generation of New England children growing up during this period, "Uncle Dale" Dorman (also a popular Boston radio personality) was the familiar personality fronting the Kids' Club, hosting the cartoons and appearing in hosted commercial segments. By 1990, Dorman left the station and was replaced by Paul Wagner and Elizabeth Dann, who appeared in new segments of their own and, like Dorman, doubled as announcers. From 1985 to 1990, WLVI again became the carrier of the Boston Celtics road games.
WLVI continued use of the Field Communications-style station branding and logo for quite a while after Gannett acquired the station. In 1992, the numeric logo changed to a design in which the number "56" was encased in a tall, purple/blue box, with "WLVI" appearing in thin font above it in a purple/blue strip. The "5" was placed in the top left corner of the box, while the "6" appeared below it in the lower right-hand corner. The logo design, and numerals font, was directly replicated from the positions of the "5" and "6" that appeared on the clock face of the Boston Clock Tower.
In 1994, Gannett sold the station to the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
, which affiliated the station with the newly-launched WB Television Network in January 1995. Soon afterward, after having been known as Channel 56 or TV 56 for most of its history, the station changed its branding to WB 56. A new red and white WB affiliate-style logo made its debut in May 1995, which was used on most station branding from the start. The 1992 Boston Clock Tower logo remained in use only on The Ten O'Clock News until mid-1996 (along with a top-of-the-hour ID that aired before the start of the newscast, in which the previous logo appeared with the WB logo and network backlot visuals). The station added primetime WB shows, as well as Kids WB on weekday afternoons. Cartoons, such as Ronin Warriors
Ronin Warriors
Ronin Warriors, known in Japan as , is a Japanese anime series and manga adaptation created by Hajime Yatate. The anime was produced and animated by Sunrise, and aired across Japan on Nagoya Television from April 30, 1988 to March 4, 1989 and has a total of 39 episodes.Ronin Warriors was produced...
, Sailor Moon, and recent sitcoms continued to be on the schedule, but a few talk and reality shows began showing up by 1996. The station also doubled as the WB affiliate for Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, where it had been available on cable for decades, until WLWC
WLWC
WLWC is the CW-affiliated television station licensed to New Bedford but which operates out of Providence and acts largely as a Rhode Island station despite its licensing. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in the Ashley Heights section of East...
signed on in 1997.
The station was temporarily off the air in August 1998 when a crane that was erecting a nearby studio-to-transmitter link (STL) tower collapsed onto WLVI's building. Though no one was injured and the damage was confined to the station's office spaces, the incident resulted in several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage. The station used a satellite truck for network programming downlink and studio space at WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
for its 10 p.m. newscast.
In 1999, WLVI began a one-year stint as the flagship station of the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
, with games produced by an independent company, Jankowski Communications, headed by former CBS executive Gene Jankowski. What was to be a long-term partnership between the team, Jankowski, and WLVI ended after a single year when Jankowski went under.
The following year, the station discontinued its morning children's programming block in favor of a short-lived morning newscast. The station also began running even more syndicated talk and reality shows, dropping most off network sitcoms except in the evenings. Afternoon children's programming continued to be provided by Kids' WB until early 2006. Channel 56 was the last commercial station in the Boston market that continued to broadcast weekday children's programming. Around this time, the station began phasing out references to its channel number in its branding, becoming Boston's WB.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
networks announced that they would merge into a new network called The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. The new network signed 10-year affiliation agreements with most of Tribune's WB affiliates, including WLVI. It would not have been an upset had WSBK been chosen, however. Network officials had been on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Boston was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong. The CW began operations on September 18, 2006, and WLVI became known as Boston's CW. To correspond to the affiliation switch, the station's daily 10 PM newscast became known as The Ten O'Clock News on Boston's CW.
On September 14, 2006, four days prior to the launch of the CW, Tribune Broadcasting announced that WLVI would be sold to Sunbeam Television
Sunbeam Television
Sunbeam Television Corporation is a broadcasting company based in Miami, Florida, and owns three television stations in the United States.-History:...
, owner of WHDH-TV, for $117.3 million. The sale received final approval in late November 2006 from the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, creating Boston's third television duopoly (the others are 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...
-owned WBZ-TV and WSBK, and Hearst-Argyle
Hearst-Argyle
Hearst Television, Inc. is a broadcasting company in the United States, owned by the New York City-based Hearst Corporation. It holds joint ventures in television production with NBC Universal Television Distribution...
-owned WCVB-TV and Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
-based WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
).
Even though the sale to Sunbeam had already become official by then, Tribune continued to operate WLVI until December 18, 2006, when the Tribune-run station website was closed and replaced with a redirect to the new Sunbeam-run website, and the final Tribune-produced newscast aired. WLVI's operations were merged with those of WHDH, and all of the station's equipment was moved to WHDH's studios on Bulfinch Place (just six miles from WLVI's old Morrissey Boulevard studio), and the station's news department was closed. The consolidation resulted in about 130 layoffs from WLVI, though some newsroom staffers were retained by WHDH, which took over production of WLVI's daily 10 p.m. newscast. Also, the station's sales department was transferred to the new location. The old set and equipment of WLVI were sold at auction several months later.
With the sale, WLVI changed its branding to CW 56, though the station is sometimes called New England's CW on-air. It has largely become a "pass-through" for automated programming.
News operation
At WTAO-TV's inception, the station aired two fifteen-minute newscasts, at 6 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., branded as United Press News and anchored by Bob Merhmann. These newscasts were canceled within two years.On December 1, 1969, WKBG-TV debuted a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast, called Ten PM News; the first such newscast on a commercial television station in the market. The newscast was anchored by Boston news veteran Arch MacDonald, who was lured away from WBZ-TV, where he had been a news anchor for two decades. It is also notable for being the first on-screen job for Natalie Jacobson
Natalie Jacobson
Natalie Jacobson was for a quarter-century a well-regarded and popular television newscaster with WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts....
, who went on to become lead anchor at WCVB-TV in the 1970s. Despite a loyal audience, WKBG lost a considerable amount of money on the newscast and shut the news department down at the end of 1970. MacDonald remained at the station for another year to host a weekday-morning interview program. Several other Kaiser stations that had also launched local newscasts shut those news departments down at about the same time. Another station in the Boston market, WXPO-TV
WXPO-TV
WXPO-TV was a short-lived television station that was licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, but mainly targeted the Boston market. Owned by Merrimack Valley Communications, the station aired on channel 50.-History:...
in Lowell
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
, had also briefly done a 10 o'clock newscast in 1969.
Field Communications started a news department shortly before putting WLVI up for sale. In 1982, it began producing a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast, which initially was a pair of ten-minute locally-produced inserts in what otherwise was an hour-long simulcast of CNN Headline News
CNN Headline News
HLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News and CNN2, is a cable television news channel based in the United States and a spinoff of the cable news television channel, CNN. Initially airing tightly-formatted 30-minute newscasts around the clock, since 2005, the channel has increasingly aired long-form...
. Under Gannett ownership, WLVI expanded it into a half-hour broadcast on April 23, 1984, originally on weeknights only. This was the third attempt at a primetime newscast in the Boston market. Debuting as The News at Ten, it established itself with top-drawer talent early on with Boston news veteran Jack Hynes as lead anchor and Bill O'Connell handling sports. Hynes' co-anchors in the first several years were Julie Emry (1984–1986), Uma Pemmaraju (1986–1988; later of WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
and Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
), Darlene McCarthy (1988–1990; later of WHDH-TV
WHDH-TV
WHDH, digital channel 42 , is an NBC-affiliated television station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest NBC station not owned by the network. Owned by Sunbeam Television, WHDH is a sister station to CW affiliate WLVI...
) and finally Karen Marinella, who became weeknight co-anchor in November 1990 and remained so until the end of the in-house news operation. Also within the first few years, O'Connell moved on and was replaced by sports anchor Rich Schwartz, and original weeknight meterologist Jerry Brown was ousted by Ron Harris.
During its first three years on the air, The News at Ten was accompanied at 10:30 pm by the continuation of cable news service simulcasts. CNN Headline News appeared in the time slot following the local half hour news, as it did prior to the latter's debut. In January 1986, CNN was replaced in favor of an Independent Network News
Independent Network News
The name Independent Network News can represent:* Independent Network News : Nationwide news service for independent radio stations in the Republic of Ireland...
broadcast anchored by Morton Dean
Morton Dean
Morton Dean is an American television news journalist who has worked for CBS News and ABC News since the mid-1960s....
. When WLVI's one-year contract with INN expired, the station decided to increase airtime for The News at Ten. The weeknight broadcast expanded to an hour on Monday, January 26, 1987, followed by the addition of hour-long 10 pm weekend newscasts at the close of that week. The weekend editions were first by anchored by WLVI reporter Joe Shortsleeve (now with WBZ-TV) and Odetta Rogers, who was just hired from Manchester, NH ABC affiliate WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
. Bob Gamere
Bob Gamere
Bob Gamere is an American Sportscaster.-Career:A sports anchor on WNAC and announcer of Holy Cross football games, Gamere made his television play-by-play debut in 1970, succeeding Jerry Coleman as a broadcaster for the New York Yankees on WPIX...
, who had been substitute sportscaster on the weeknight broadcasts, was appointed permanent weekend sports anchor. In May 1989, Rogers left for WFSB-TV in Hartford and Gamere was fired after becoming involved in allegations of sexual abuse. At this time, Karen Marinella, who had started out as a general assignment reporter for the station, replaced Rogers until her promotion to weeknights over a year later.
For well over a decade, WLVI was the ratings leader in the time slot, with or without competition in the arena. Although PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
station WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
(channel 2) was the only other local station running a newscast at 10:00 (until 1991), it was not considered a major competitor since it is a non-commercial station. In the fall of 1993, however, legitimate competition sprang up for The News at Ten. 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 WFXT
WFXT
WFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
launched the NECN
New England Cable News
New England Cable News is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal serving the New England region of the United States. It is very similar to CNN in structure and style, but focuses more on regional news. The channel is also similar to Northwest Cable...
-originated Fox 25 News at Ten on September 7 of that year, while WSBK-TV introduced the WBZ-produced WBZ News 4 on TV 38 in October. The latter stations aggressively marketed their fledgling newscasts, but 10 o'clock viewers were loyal to WLVI, which remained number one in the ratings. In 1994, just as the station was sold to Tribune, the newscast was renamed The Ten O'Clock News (always emphasizing "the"), in response to WLVI's durability against its new-found competition.
By this time, Jack Hynes relegated himself to weekend anchor, and commentator/substitute anchor on weekdays, paving the way for future lead anchors Jon Du Pre (1993–95), Jeff Barnd (1995–2003), and finally Frank Mallicoat (2003–06). Two of these successors were notable for particular stories and signature traits. Soon after he became lead anchor, Du Pre reported a story about a homeless man in Boston, whom, years later in his 2000 memoir, he revealed to be his own father (viewers were given no indication in 1993; Du Pre had feared and only speculated at the time that the story subject was, indeed, his father). Barnd, while having developed a strong following with viewers, became known for his joking in between stories and tendencies to ad-lib. One such occurrence of this behavior in September 2001 shocked local media outlets, in which Barnd jumped from his anchor chair and started dancing around the set after presenting the top story of the night's newscast. Barnd was subsequently disciplined by station management after the incident, but in 2002, the station's news director stated that Barnd was facing termination and that WLVI was seeking a return to a more serious newscast. In January 2003, Barnd was demoted from his anchor position, and left the station on his own will two months later. Replacing him was Frank Mallicoat, who, since 1991, had handled sports and general assignment reports before stepping up to co-anchor the weeknight show with Karen Marinella.
Another mainstay of WLVI's newscasts was chief meteorologist Mike Wankum
Mike Wankum
Mike Wankum is a staff meteorologist at WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been with the station since December 2006. Previously, he was chief meteorologist at WLVI-TV Channel 56 from July 1993 to December 2006. He has won nine Emmys at WLVI-TV and one Emmy at WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia...
, who first joined the station in 1993. Wankum soon gained a following with his unique approach to forecasting and won numerous New England Emmy Awards. Boston Globe columnist Jon Keller was also a fixture for many years as the station's sharp political analyst. His regular feature, Keller at Large, received much critical acclaim. In 2005, Keller departed WLVI to become the new chief political reporter and analyst for WBZ-TV.
The only time WLVI programmed news outside its established 10:00 slot was in June 2000, when it premiered Boston's WB in the Morning. A mix of news, talk, and lifestyle features, the show aired from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. The newscast replaced sitcoms and children's shows on the schedule. The program lasted two years, but could not hold its own against the other local newscasts and national morning shows. The show was canceled in the spring of 2002.
By 2003, with fierce competition emerging from WFXT's now-in-house news department, ratings for WLVI's news started to slide. Within a year, the station had fallen to third place behind both WFXT (which was now number-one) and WSBK's Nightcast at 10 (produced again by WBZ). The WSBK newscast was canceled in January 2005, and WLVI was left in second place. However, it would not regain its former glory during the rest of its tenure as a Tribune-owned station. Due to the increasing popularity of the WFXT newscast and after Tribune closed local television newsrooms in Philadelphia
WPHL-TV
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with the News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network...
and San Diego
KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV, virtual channel 69, is a Fox-affiliated television station in San Diego, California. It broadcasts a 720p high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter southeast of Spring Valley...
, there were unconfirmed rumors that Tribune would shut down the WLVI news department and have the newscast outsourced to another station or even canceled altogether. WLVI initially denied that its newsroom would be closed.
As a result of the sale to Sunbeam Television, WHDH took over production of WLVI's 10:00 p.m. newscast using its existing staff. As the sale only covered the license, network affiliation, and technical equipment, most of WLVI's 150 employees remained employed by Tribune until being let go. Jack Hynes closed the station's final newscast with a commentary, calling the sale and shutdown a "sad, and even tragic chapter in Boston television history", and noting "someone (else), somewhere, should have stepped up to the plate and bought the station". WHDH started producing WLVI's newscast on December 19, 2006. On that date, the newscast became known as 7 News at 10 on CW 56. From the start of the WHDH-production on WLVI until July 2007, the newscasts featured the music and graphics package used on Sunbeam's only other television property, WSVN
WSVN
WSVN, channel 7, is a television station located in Miami, Florida, USA. WSVN is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. The station has its studio facilities located in North Bay Village and transmitter based in north Miami-Dade County.WSVN operates a Key...
in Miami, at that time.
On July 29, 2008, WHDH began doing broadcasts in HD. It is the second station in Boston to broadcast in high definition, with WCVB-TV being the first. It also revealed a new television studio and graphics for a more compatible look with WSVN (which curiously remained without high definition newscasts until January 2009). The WLVI broadcast was upgraded as well.
WHDH had indicated that there might eventually be a new weekday morning newscast (again) on WLVI which would compete with WFXT's highly popular weekday morning show, but , that has not yet occurred. Instead, on January 3, 2011, the station began airing the 7 a.m. hour of The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
on weekdays.
Newscast titles
- United Press News (1953–1955)
- Ten PM News (1969–1970)
- The News at Ten (1984–1994)
- The Ten O'Clock News (1994–2006)
- The Ten O'Clock News on WB 56 (1996–2005)
- Boston's WB in the Morning (2000–2002)
- The 10 O'Clock News on Boston's WB (2005–2006)
- The 10 O'Clock News on Boston's CW (2006)
- 7 News at 10 on CW 56 (2006–present)
Station slogans
- Here in Boston, the choice is yours, on Channel 56 (1978–1983)
- Here in Boston, the kids' choice is, Channel 56 (1978–1983)
- LVI is part of living, living 56! (1984–1989)
- Boston's 10 PM News Leader (The Ten O'Clock News, 1994-2000)
- It's Great To Be Here (2002–2006)
- C Where It's At (2007–2008)
News team
7 News at 10 on CW 56 (10 to 11 pm)Weeknights
- Anchors:
- Kim KhazeiKim KhazeiKim Khazei is a news anchor woman for 7News Boston WHDH-TV and its sister station WLVI-TV .- Career :Kim Khazei began her TV career at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri, then worked for four years at KQTV in Missouri as an evening anchor and reporter....
- Reid Lamberty
- Kim Khazei
- Weather:
- Pete Bouchard
- Sports:
- Joe AmorosinoJoe Amorosino-Early life:Amorosino was born in Quincy, Massachusetts and grew up in the neighboring town of Braintree. He is a 1988 graduate of Don Bosco High School in Boston and a 1992 graduate of Boston University.-Broadcasting career:...
- Joe Amorosino
Weekends
- Anchors:
- Sarah French
- Ryan Shulteis
- Weather:
- Jeremy Reiner
- Sports:
- Larry Ridley
WLVI uses additional news personnel from WHDH. See that article for a complete listing.
Notable former on-air staff
- Michael BarkannMichael BarkannMichael Barkann is an award winning sports host, anchor and reporter for Comcast SportsNet.-Education:...
-Sports (now at Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia) - Mike CrispinoMike CrispinoMike Crispino is an American sportscaster who currently serves as the radio play-by-play announcer for the New York Knicks as well as host of the MSG Network's golf show, The Road to the Barclays. Crispino is also the lead play by play announcer for St. John's Red Storm Men's Basketball team on...
- Sports (Now at the MSG NetworkMSG NetworkThe MSG Network, now shortened to simply MSG, is a regional cable television and radio network serving the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is focused on New York City sports teams...
) - Bob GamereBob GamereBob Gamere is an American Sportscaster.-Career:A sports anchor on WNAC and announcer of Holy Cross football games, Gamere made his television play-by-play debut in 1970, succeeding Jerry Coleman as a broadcaster for the New York Yankees on WPIX...
- sports anchor / reporter - Natalie JacobsonNatalie JacobsonNatalie Jacobson was for a quarter-century a well-regarded and popular television newscaster with WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts....
- anchor (retired) - Uma Pemmaraju - anchor (now at Fox News ChannelFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
)