WSAV-TV
Encyclopedia
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
. The station can also be seen on Comcast
and Time Warner
channel 2 with high definition on Comcast digital channel 432 and Time Warner digital channel 805, channel 3 and channel 4 in some surrounding areas. Owned by Media General
, WSAV has studios on East Victory Drive (U.S. 80) in the Live Oak section of Savannah. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: Jeopardy!
, Wheel of Fortune
, Dr. Phil
, and Oprah
.
and Comcast digital channel 237 is the area's MyNetworkTV
affiliate. This aired the Retro Television Network
(RTV) outside weeknight prime time until September 26, 2011, when it was replaced with Me-TV. WSAV-DT2 also repeats Dr. Phil and Oprah from the main channel on weeknights after MyNetworkTV prime time.
) after a long legal battle over the frequency with WJIV
-AM 900. It initially aired an analog signal from a transmitter on top of a bank building on Broughton Street in Downtown Savannah. The flashing WSAV sign was a landmark on the street for many years. WSAV-AM had long been with NBC Radio, so WSAV-TV took the NBC television affiliation.
It shared ABC
with CBS
affiliate WTOC-TV
until WJCL-TV signed-on in 1970. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
. WSAV briefly had an FM station using an antenna atop the middle of three AM towers at the transmitter facility on Oatland Island. However, without many listeners to the simulcast programming, FM operation was ended in the 1950s.
In 1960, WSAV-AM-TV moved into a brand new facility on Victory Drive where WSAV-TV still is today. A new tower was built at the site boosting its signal to many of the surrounding counties in Georgia and South Carolina. The current tower in Pooler was built in 1976. In the same year, WSAV-AM was sold. In 1982, the station swapped affiliations with WJCL and became an ABC affiliate. That network had become number one in the country and was searching for stronger affiliates. However, this channel returned to NBC in 1986 one year after that network became number one again.
In the mid-1990s, like many other commercial television stations in the United States
, WSAV was sold several times. At the beginning of that decade, the station was owned by a subsidiary of the News-Press & Gazette Company
, who sold its entire broadcasting group of the time to the first incarnation of New Vision Television
in 1993. Ellis Communications bought the New Vision stations in 1995. In 1996, Ellis was sold to Retirement Systems of Alabama who merged it with Aflac
's former broadcasting division to form Raycom Media
. Since Aflac had owned rival WTOC, Raycom could not keep both channels due to Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulations forbidding common ownership of two stations in the same market
. Raycom opted to keep the higher-rated WTOC and sell WSAV. In early-1997, Raycom traded WSAV and two other stations to current owner Media General in return for WTVR-TV
in Richmond, Virginia
. In the 2000s, this station acquired the local rights to the syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Both were previously shown on rival WJCL for almost two decades.
On February 1, 2006, WSAV celebrated its 50th anniversary. To commemorate the event, Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson
officially announced the date as "WSAV Day" and lauded the station for its many achievements over the decades. Its continued service to its viewers being always "On Your Side" whenever a viewer needs to get a story out was also recognized. On September 5, WSAV began carrying MyNetworkTV and RTV on a new second digital subchannel. This service is also available to DirecTV
customers in Savannah on channel 29. WSAV-DT2's website and the digital subchannel feature a logo in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that reads "WSAV-DT 3.2 Savannah". WSAV-TV ended analog services on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States
. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 39. Through the use of PSIP
, WSAV-TV's main NBC signal is displayed as virtual channel
3. On September 26, 2011, RTV was replaced with classic programming from Me-TV.
sidekick
s "Wilbur the Weather Bird", "Arthur Mometer" (the thermometer
), and "Calamity Clam". Captain Sandy would appear on the news set wearing a vaguely nautical cap and blazer as a nod to the region's dependence on the Atlantic Ocean
. The comedy elements of the forecast included the thermometer and the clam. Captain Sandy's big thermometer was temperamental and would fidget before revealing the next day's high and low temperatures. When Captain Sandy opened Davy Jones' Locker
to get the tide information (a crucial component of any weather forecast in the region) out of Calamity Clam, the puppeteer always tried to bite the captain's hand.
By the end of the 1970s, new station ownership found Captain Sandy's routine embarrassing (and likely anachronistic since most television stations had discontinued local children's shows years before) and the owners made the Captain finally conform to convention prescribing him a suit and tie like other newscasters. The owners also fired the puppets shortly after to the almost-certain sorrow of area children. One of the personalities behind the Captain Sandy character was smooth-voiced Joe Cox, who later left WSAV to become weatherman at cross-town rival WJCL, where he also hosted an evening radio program on WJCL-FM
96.5. The original Captain Sandy from 1956 was played by Norm Strand.
Unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
, WSAV does not offer midday or 5 p.m. newscasts during the week (It previously did offer a 5pm newscast for some time, but it was cancelled sometime in the early 2000s). The most recent addition to local news occurred on June 21, 2010 when the station added a show weeknights at 5:30. Before this, WTOC had been the area's only channel to air a broadcast in this time slot. Like all RTV stations in the Eastern Time Zone, WSAV-DT2
airs Daytime weekday mornings at 9 for an hour that is produced by sister station WFLA-TV
in Tampa Bay
.
In early-March 2009, WSAV-DT2 launched the market's only newscast weeknights at 7. Known as My Lowcountry 3, it airs for an hour. Unlike the main channel's local broadcasts, this production focuses on the South Carolina side of the market featuring coverage from throughout the Lowcountry and the state. There is a weather forecast targeted towards Hilton Head as well as South Carolina sports headlines. WSAV was the featured city during Al Roker
's weather forecast on the April 23, 2007 edition of Today. Roker referred to the station as "WSAV NBC 3". WSAV became the last Savannah station to air local news in high definition on March 8, 2011 beginning with the 5:30 pm program. News and weather updates from this station can be heard on: WGCO-FM 98.3, WGZO-FM 103.1 , WFXH-FM
106.1, WUBB FM 106.9, WXYY FM 107.9, and WHHW AM 1130. All news anchors also serve as reporters.
Storm Team 3 Meteorologists
Reporters
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...
-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 the Coastal Empire of Southeastern 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...
and the 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...
of Southern 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...
. 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 39 from a transmitter in Pooler, Georgia
Pooler, Georgia
Pooler is a city in Chatham County, Georgia, United States. According to 2010 US Census, the population was 19,140, a threefold increase over the 2000 count of 6,239...
. 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...
and Time Warner
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
channel 2 with high definition on Comcast digital channel 432 and Time Warner digital channel 805, channel 3 and channel 4 in some surrounding areas. Owned by Media General
Media General
Media General, Inc. is a media company based in the Southeastern United States. Its major properties include newspapers such as The Tampa Tribune, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as numerous television stations, such as flagship station WFLA-TV.The company was...
, WSAV has studios on East Victory Drive (U.S. 80) in the Live Oak section of Savannah. 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 the station includes: 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...
, Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, 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...
, and Oprah
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
.
Digital programming
On WSAV-DT2WSAV-DT2
WSAV-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV and Me-TV television station for South Carolina's Lowcountry and Georgia's Coastal Empire. It is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WSAV-TV owned by Media General...
and Comcast digital channel 237 is the area's MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate. This aired the Retro Television Network
Retro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
(RTV) outside weeknight prime time until September 26, 2011, when it was replaced with Me-TV. WSAV-DT2 also repeats Dr. Phil and Oprah from the main channel on weeknights after MyNetworkTV prime time.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 3.1 | Main WSAV-TV programming / NBC |
| 3.2 | WSAV-DT2 MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation... & Me-TV |
History
The station signed-on VHF channel 3 on February 1, 1956 and was co-owned with WSAV-AM 630 (now WBMQWBMQ
WBMQ is a news/talk formatted radio station located in Savannah, Georgia.-History:Originally known as WSAV-AM, the station operated 250 Watts fulltime on 1340 kHz, then jumped to 5,000 Watts day and night on 630 kHz , when the NARBA shift took effect...
) after a long legal battle over the frequency with WJIV
WJLG
WJLG is a radio station broadcasting a Sports radio format. Licensed to Savannah, Georgia, USA, the station serves the Savannah area. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media and features programing from Fox Sports Radio and Premiere Radio Networks.-History:The station went on the air as...
-AM 900. It initially aired an analog signal from a transmitter on top of a bank building on Broughton Street in Downtown Savannah. The flashing WSAV sign was a landmark on the street for many years. WSAV-AM had long been with NBC Radio, so WSAV-TV took the NBC television affiliation.
It shared 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...
with 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...
until WJCL-TV signed-on in 1970. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
. WSAV briefly had an FM station using an antenna atop the middle of three AM towers at the transmitter facility on Oatland Island. However, without many listeners to the simulcast programming, FM operation was ended in the 1950s.
In 1960, WSAV-AM-TV moved into a brand new facility on Victory Drive where WSAV-TV still is today. A new tower was built at the site boosting its signal to many of the surrounding counties in Georgia and South Carolina. The current tower in Pooler was built in 1976. In the same year, WSAV-AM was sold. In 1982, the station swapped affiliations with WJCL and became an ABC affiliate. That network had become number one in the country and was searching for stronger affiliates. However, this channel returned to NBC in 1986 one year after that network became number one again.
In the mid-1990s, like many other commercial television stations in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, WSAV was sold several times. At the beginning of that decade, the station was owned by a subsidiary of the News-Press & Gazette Company
News-Press & Gazette Company
The News Press & Gazette Company is a media company based in St. Joseph, Missouri, wholly owned and operated by the Bradley family. It is presided by Brian Bradley and David R. Bradley, with Hank Bradley , Eric Bradley and Kit Bradley serving on its Board of Directors. All are descendants of...
, who sold its entire broadcasting group of the time to the first incarnation of 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:...
in 1993. Ellis Communications bought the New Vision stations in 1995. In 1996, Ellis was sold to Retirement Systems of Alabama who merged it with 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...
's former broadcasting division to form Raycom Media
Raycom Media
- History :Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations....
. Since Aflac had owned rival WTOC, Raycom could not keep both channels due to 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) regulations forbidding common ownership of two stations in the same 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...
. Raycom opted to keep the higher-rated WTOC and sell WSAV. In early-1997, Raycom traded WSAV and two other stations to current owner Media General in return for WTVR-TV
WTVR-TV
WTVR-TV, virtual channel 6, is a CBS television affiliate based in Richmond, Virginia owned by Local TV, the broadcasting arm of Oak Hill Capital Partners...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. In the 2000s, this station acquired the local rights to the syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Both were previously shown on rival WJCL for almost two decades.
On February 1, 2006, WSAV celebrated its 50th anniversary. To commemorate the event, Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson
Otis Johnson
Otis Samuel Johnson is a politician from Georgia, U.S. and, as of September 2007, the current Mayor of Savannah. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Background:Mayor Johnson is a Savannah native who graduated from A.E...
officially announced the date as "WSAV Day" and lauded the station for its many achievements over the decades. Its continued service to its viewers being always "On Your Side" whenever a viewer needs to get a story out was also recognized. On September 5, WSAV began carrying MyNetworkTV and RTV on a new second digital subchannel. This service is also available to DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
customers in Savannah on channel 29. WSAV-DT2's website and the digital subchannel feature a logo in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that reads "WSAV-DT 3.2 Savannah". WSAV-TV ended analog services on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 39. Through the use of PSIP
Program 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...
, WSAV-TV's main NBC signal is displayed as 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....
3. On September 26, 2011, RTV was replaced with classic programming from Me-TV.
Weather with Captain Sandy
This channel was known for an unusual practice on its newscasts from the 1950s to the 1970s. WSAV was home to "Captain Sandy" who was something of a hybrid between a weatherman and children's show host. The character gave the weather on the weeknight news working with puppetPuppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
s "Wilbur the Weather Bird", "Arthur Mometer" (the thermometer
Thermometer
Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient using a variety of different principles. A thermometer has two important elements: the temperature sensor Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer (from the...
), and "Calamity Clam". Captain Sandy would appear on the news set wearing a vaguely nautical cap and blazer as a nod to the region's dependence on the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. The comedy elements of the forecast included the thermometer and the clam. Captain Sandy's big thermometer was temperamental and would fidget before revealing the next day's high and low temperatures. When Captain Sandy opened Davy Jones' Locker
Davy Jones' Locker
Davy Jones's Locker is an idiom for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors. It is used as an euphemism for death at sea ....
to get the tide information (a crucial component of any weather forecast in the region) out of Calamity Clam, the puppeteer always tried to bite the captain's hand.
By the end of the 1970s, new station ownership found Captain Sandy's routine embarrassing (and likely anachronistic since most television stations had discontinued local children's shows years before) and the owners made the Captain finally conform to convention prescribing him a suit and tie like other newscasters. The owners also fired the puppets shortly after to the almost-certain sorrow of area children. One of the personalities behind the Captain Sandy character was smooth-voiced Joe Cox, who later left WSAV to become weatherman at cross-town rival WJCL, where he also hosted an evening radio program on 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. The original Captain Sandy from 1956 was played by Norm Strand.
News operation
For most of its history, WSAV has been a solid, if distant, runner-up to long-dominant WTOC. In 1976, as part of a major expansion of its news department, channel 3 moved to a former insurance office next door to its original Victory Drive studios.Unlike most NBC 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...
, WSAV does not offer midday or 5 p.m. newscasts during the week (It previously did offer a 5pm newscast for some time, but it was cancelled sometime in the early 2000s). The most recent addition to local news occurred on June 21, 2010 when the station added a show weeknights at 5:30. Before this, WTOC had been the area's only channel to air a broadcast in this time slot. Like all RTV stations in the Eastern Time Zone, WSAV-DT2
WSAV-DT2
WSAV-DT2 is the MyNetworkTV and Me-TV television station for South Carolina's Lowcountry and Georgia's Coastal Empire. It is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WSAV-TV owned by Media General...
airs Daytime weekday mornings at 9 for an hour that is produced by sister station WFLA-TV
WFLA-TV
WFLA-TV, virtual channel 8, is the NBC-affiliated television station in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida. The station is the flagship station of its owner and operator, Media General. Its transmitter is located in Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida. WFLA is the only station in the market to be...
in Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
.
In early-March 2009, WSAV-DT2 launched the market's only newscast weeknights at 7. Known as My Lowcountry 3, it airs for an hour. Unlike the main channel's local broadcasts, this production focuses on the South Carolina side of the market featuring coverage from throughout the Lowcountry and the state. There is a weather forecast targeted towards Hilton Head as well as South Carolina sports headlines. WSAV was the featured city during Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...
's weather forecast on the April 23, 2007 edition of Today. Roker referred to the station as "WSAV NBC 3". WSAV became the last Savannah station to air local news in high definition on March 8, 2011 beginning with the 5:30 pm program. News and weather updates from this station can be heard on: WGCO-FM 98.3, WGZO-FM 103.1 , WFXH-FM
WFXH-FM
WFXH-FM, known as "Rock 106.1", is an active rock radio station targeted to Savannah, Georgia. The station was a monitored reporter on the Alternative panel. Formerly, WFXH reported as an Alternative station to Arbitron and various radio industry publications. The station featured a specialty show...
106.1, WUBB FM 106.9, WXYY FM 107.9, and WHHW AM 1130. All news anchors also serve as reporters.
Newscast titles
- WSAV-TV News (1956-1964)
- The World Today/The World Tonight (1964-1967)
- The Sixth Hour Report/The Eleventh Hour Report (1967-1971)
- TV-3 News (1971-1974)
- NewsCenter 3 (1974-1990)
- WSAV NewsCenter (1990-1996)
- News 3 (1996-present)
Station slogans
- It's 3 in Savannah and Keep Your Eyes on 3 (1960s)
- Channel 3, Proud As A Peacock! (1979-81; local version of NBC campaign)
- Channel 3, Our Pride Is Showing (1981-82; before the switch)
- Come on Along with Channel 3 (1982-1983; local version of ABC campaign)
- That Special Feeling on Channel 3 (1983-1984; local version of ABC campaign)
- We`re With You on Channel 3 (1984-1985; local version of ABC campaign)
- You`ll Love It on Channel 3 (1985-1986; last local version of ABC campaign, before switching back to NBC)
- Channel 3, Let`s All Be There! (1986; local version of NBC campaign)
- Come Home to Channel 3 (1986-1987; local version of NBC campaign)
- Come on Home to Channel 3 (1987-1988; local version of NBC campaign)
- Come Home To The Best, Only on Channel 3 (1988-1990; local version of NBC campaign)
- WSAV, The Place To Be! (1990-1992; local version of NBC campaign)
- "Coverage You Can Count On" (mid 1990s-2006)
- "On Your Side" (2006-present)
News team
Anchors- Kim Gusby - weekday mornings and "Perfect Pet" segment producer
- Andrew Davis - weeknights at 5:30
- Tina Tyus Shaw - weeknights at 5:30 and 6
- Russ Riesinger - weeknights at 6 and 11
- Friday Night Blitz host
- Holly Bounds - weeknights at 7 and South Carolina reporter
- TBD - weekends
- Ken Slats - Sports Director seen weeknights at 6, 7, and 11
- Friday Night Blitz host and "Slats Superstars" segment producer
Storm Team 3 Meteorologists
- Kris Posman (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights - Lee Haywood (NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings - David Ernst (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends
Reporters
- Kris Hummer - media content producer and "Coastal Link" segment producer
- Sheila Parker - crime and safety
- Brittany Shane - South Carolina
- JoAnn Merrigan - consumer
- Alice Massimi - community
- Tuquyen Mach
- Meredith Ley