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WTNH
New Haven / Hartford, Connecticut
Branding	NewsChannel 8
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Analog: 8 (VHF) Digital: 10 (VHF)
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	LIN TV Corporation (WTNH Broadcasting, Inc.)
First air date	June 15, 1948
Call letters’ meaning	Television New Haven or "Welcome To New Haven"
Sister station(s)	WCTX
Former callsigns	WNHC-TV (1948-1971)
Former channel number(s)	6 (1948-1953)
Former affiliations	Primary: DuMont (1948-1949) CBS (1949-1955) Secondary: NBC (1949-1955) DuMont (1949-1956) ABC (1950-1955)
Transmitter Power	174 kW (analog) 20.5 kW (digital)
Height	364 m (analog) 342 m (digital)
Facility ID	74109
Transmitter Coordinates	41°25′22.7″N 72°57′4.1″W / 41.422972, -72.951139
Website	www.wtnh.com

WTNH, channel 8, is the ABC affiliate for the state of Connecticut. It is licensed to New Haven. WTNH is owned by LIN TV Corporation, and is the sister station to WCTX (channel 59), the Hartford/New Haven market's MyNetworkTV affiliate. The two stations share a studio facility in New Haven, and WTNH's transmitter is located in Hamden, Connecticut.

On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company.[1]

History

WTNH debuted on June 15, 1948 as WNHC-TV on channel 6. The station was founded by the New Haven Register along with WNHC radio (1340 AM, now WYBC) and WNHC-FM (99.1 MHz., now WPLR). It is Connecticut's oldest television station, and the second-oldest in New England (WBZ-TV in Boston signed on less than a week earlier). It was originally an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, and claims to have been the first full-time affiliate of that short-lived network.[2] It added NBC and CBS in 1949, with ABC following in 1950.

In late 1953, WNHC-TV changed frequencies and moved to channel 8. The next year, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed Hartford and New Haven into a single market. WNHC-TV shared some NBC programming with New Britain's WKNB-TV (now WVIT) until 1955, as WKNB's signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven at the time. In 1955, the New Haven Register and the WNHC stations were bought by Triangle Publications of Philadelphia. Also in that same year, WNHC-TV lost its CBS affiliation when that network purchased Hartford's WGTH-TV (later WHCT and now WUVN). The station became a sole ABC affiliate, though it shared ABC programming with Waterbury-based WATR-TV (now WTXX) until 1966. It has been a primary ABC affiliate longer than any station in New England except WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine, also located on channel 8.

Triangle was forced to sell its television stations in 1971 after then-Pennsylvania Governor Milton J. Shapp complained the company had used its Pennsylvania stations in a smear campaign against him. The WNHC stations were among the first batch to be sold, going to Capital Cities Communications along with sister stations WFIL-AM-FM-TV in Philadelphia and KFRE-AM-FM-TV in Fresno. However, Capital Cities could not keep the radio stations because it already owned the maximum number of radio stations allowed at the time. As a result, WNHC-TV changed its call letters to WTNH-TV soon after Capital Cities took over. (The station dropped the -TV suffix from its calls in 1985, but continued to call itself "WTNH-TV" on-air well into the 1990s.) WTNH later adopted the Action News format made famous at its Philadelphia sister station, WPVI-TV (the former WFIL-TV).

Capital Cities bought ABC in 1986 in a deal that stunned the broadcast industry. However, the FCC would not allow the merged company to keep WTNH due to a significant signal overlap with ABC's flagship station, WABC-TV in New York City. WTNH's signal decently covers Fairfield County (which is part of the New York City market) as well as most of Long Island. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas and would not even consider granting a waiver when the overlap involved two city-grade signals. As a result, channel 8 was spun off to a minority-controlled firm called Cook Inlet Communications.

Cook Inlet sold WTNH to LIN in 1994. In the mid-1990s, the station dropped the Action News title in favor of the current "NewsChannel 8". When a new UHF independent station in New Haven, WTVU (later WBNE and now WCTX) signed-on in 1995, WTNH began operating the station under a local marketing agreement. In 2001, LIN bought WCTX outright. Since the start of the LMA, WTNH has produced a 10 p.m. nightly and 7 a.m. weekday newscast for WCTX.

WTNH operates a newsroom in New London at the headquarters of The New London Day, as well as a "Hartford Bureau" on Columbus Blvd. in that city. The station's Master Control room and some traffic responsibilities (along with WCTX) actually originate from Springfield, Massachusetts.

For many years, WTNH has been a distant runner-up in the market to WFSB. However, in recent years it has had to fend off a spirited challenge from a resurgent WVIT. There is a heavy regional tilt to WTNH's ratings for news and local programming, as it traditionally does far better in Nielsen's "Metro B" area (New Haven County) than "Metro A" (Hartford County). This trend does not hold for network programming. It is the one Hartford/New Haven TV station with a large Fairfield County audience as well.

WTNH was the first station in the country to use videotape for local programming, and one of the first to broadcast in color.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed.

In 2009, WTNH will leave channel 8 and move to channel 10 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.^[1]

News/Station Presentation

Newscast title

• Action News - (1978-1996)
• NewsChannel 8 - (1996-present)

Current personalities

Anchors

• Sonia Baghdady - weekday mornings and Noon
• Ted Koppy - weeknights at 6 and 11
• Keith Kountz - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 10
• Darren Kramer - weekday mornings and Noon
• Jocelyn Maminta - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
  • health reporter
• Ann Nyberg - weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• Chris Velardi - weekend mornings
• Sara Welch - weekend evenings
  • reporter

Storm Team 8

• Dr. Mel Goldstein - Weather Expert seen at Noon during the week
• Geoff Fox - weeknights
• Gil Simmons - weekday mornings
• Matt Scott - weekends
• Sid Starks - fill-in

Sports

• Noah Finz - Director seen on weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• John Pierson - weekend evenings
  • sports reporter
• Marc Robbins - sports reporter

Reporters

• Alan Cohn - investigative
• Tina Detelj - New London Bureau
• Mark Davis - Hartford Bureau political correspondent
• Desiree Fontaine - weekday traffic feature reporter
• Dennis Protsko - Chopper 8 also with WPRI-TV and WNAC-TV
• Erin Cox
• Crystal Haynes
• Jodi Latina
• Jamie Muro
• Annie Rourke
• Bob Wilson

Notable alumni

• Nancy Aborn
• Brian Burnell
• Dennis Buckman
• Jon Crane
• Leon Collins
• Verna Collins
• Persefone Contos
• Judy Chong
• Skip Church
• Kristen Cusato
• Wendy Cicchetti
• Kendra Farn
• Joe Francis
• Dick Galliette
• George Grande
• Jim Hoffer
• Christina Hager
• Marci Izard
• Bob Jones
• Tom Lewis
• Cathy Marshall
• SallyAnn Mosey
• Bob Norman
• Janet Peckinpaugh
• Bob Picozzi
• Sam Rosen
• Stelio Salmona
• Anna Sava
• Pat Sheehan
• Jocelyn Sigue
• Sue Simmons
• Jayne Smith
• Peter Standring
• Andrea Stassou
• Alexandra Steele
• Diane Smith
• Tricia Taskey
• Al Terzi (now at WFSB)
• George Thompson
• Mike Warren
• Carla Wohl

References

1. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

External links

• WTNH-TV website
• WTNH & WCTX wireless
• WTNH's YouTube channel
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTNH

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