WOOD-TV Totally Explained

WOOD-TV is the NBC affiliate for West Michigan (the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Michigan television market). It is licensed to Grand Rapids and broadcasts on channel 8. WOOD's transmitter is located in western Barry County near the town of Middleville, Michigan. WOOD-TV transmits its signal from an antenna 991 feet (302 m) in height, and its signal reaches as far as Lansing, Big Rapids, and South Bend, Indiana.
WOOD-TV can also be seen on WOGC-CA channel 25 in Holland, and on an un-called transmitter operating under a "Special Temporary Authority" (STA) on channel 46 in Muskegon. These repeaters were established around 2002, due to interference from the digital signal of Milwaukee's WMVS, which also broadcasts on channel 8.

History

The station first went on the air on August 15, 1949, as WLAV-TV on channel 7. It was the fourth television station in Michigan, and the first outside of Detroit. The original owner was Leonard Adrian Verslius, who had signed on WLAV-AM, Grand Rapids' second radio station, in 1940.
   In 1951, Versalius sold the station to Grandwood Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Bitner Group, owners of Grand Rapids' first radio station, WOOD-AM 1300, for $1.37 million. WOOD-AM had applied for a television license in 1948, but it came just after the FCC imposed a freeze on new television construction permits. In fact, WLAV had been one of the last construction permits issued before the freeze. Grandwood eventually tired of waiting and cut a deal with Verslius to buy his station. On October 19, WLAV-TV became WOOD-TV, broadcasting from a new site in northeast Grand Rapids.
   On December 8, 1953, WOOD-TV moved from channel 7 to channel 8 and also increased its power from 28,000 to 100,000 watts. The channel change was promoted as "Mark the date: We move to Channel Eight on December Eight." The move was to alleviate interference with WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) in Chicago.
   In 1955, the station moved to its current facility in the Heritage Hill area of Grand Rapids. Time-Life, Inc. bought WOOD-AM and WOOD-TV in 1957. The call letters became WOTV in 1972 when WOOD-AM was sold.
   Channel 8 has been an NBC affiliate from the very beginning, though it had a secondary CBS affiliation until WKZO-TV (now WWMT) in Kalamazoo expanded its signal to cover Grand Rapids. It also had secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont.(External Link

) The ABC affiliation lasted until 1962, when WZZM-TV signed on. The DuMont affiliation ended in 1956, when that networked ceased operations.
   In an area first, the station purchased electronic news equipment in 1975. Five years later, the station became the first to broadcast live news from outside the studio. When LIN Broadcasting bought WOTV in 1983, the station introduced West Michigan's first news helicopter.
   In 1990, LIN Broadcasting transferred WOTV's license to its subsidiary LCH Communications. In 1992, the station reclaimed its old call letters with WOOD radio's permission, donating the WOTV calls to WUHQ (channel 41), with whom it had a local marketing agreement. In 1994, LIN Broadcasting spun off its television division into a separate company known as LIN TV Corporation, but WOOD-TV wasn't included in the spinoff; instead, WOOD-TV became wholly owned by AT&T (which also owned 45 percent of LIN TV at the time) when that company absorbed the remainder of LIN Broadcasting in 1995. LIN TV reacquired WOOD-TV and its LMA with WOTV in 1999 when AT&T sold off its stake in the company to Hicks, Muse, Furst & Tate (now HM Capital). LIN TV would purchase WOTV outright in 2001.
   The weekday noon newscasts and weekend 6:00 p.m. newscasts were expanded to one-hour formats in 1995, with the first 30 minutes are shown on sister station WOTV.
   But as NBC decreased some of its programming during the 1990s, preemptions on WOOD-TV were noticeably reduced. Today, while clearing all other NBC programs, WOOD-TV still pre-empts the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News in favor of hour-long news coverage at 6 p.m.
   WOOD-TV recently activated translators in Muskegon and Holland, because the digital television signal of WMVS in Milwaukee, also on channel 8, knocks WOOD-TV off the air in those areas under certain conditions.
   Carol Duvall of HGTV's Carol Duvall Show started her career at WOOD-TV.
   Partial list of on-air personnel from 1969 to 1980:
Bill Allen, Dave Bolton, Jane Brierley, Roger Brown, Eddie Chase, Dick Cheverton, Jim Childress, Jim Cummins, Della DiPietro (aka Della Koach), Todd Donoho, Don Elliott, Henry Erb, John Estabrook, Dick Evans, Curt Fonger, Suzanne Geha, Derek Hayward, Ron Howes (aka Ron Howard), Doris Jarrell, Ed Kemp, Jim Kipp, Steve Kmetko, Buck Matthews, Dick McKay, Matt McLogan, Andy Rent, Warren Reynolds, Sally Scobey, John Stehr, John Strickler, Bill Struyk, Alex Taylor, Don Turner, Nick Unger, Ben Watson, Rhona Williams, Captain Woody

News

Newscasts

Monday-Friday: 5:00-7:00 a.m. during network morning program, 12:00-1:00 p.m., 5:00-5:30 p.m., 5:30-6:00 p.m., 6:00-6:30 p.m., and 11:00-11:35 p.m.. The 6:00 p.m. newscast is repeated on WXSP at 7:00 p.m..
Saturday: 6:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m..
Sunday: 6:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m.. To the Point airs from 10:00-10:30 a.m.
All WOOD-TV newscasts are shown on its sister station WOTV. However, paid programming airs at 12:30pm weekdays and World News airs at 6:30pm during the weekends instead of 24 Hour News 8's second half hour.
WOOD-TV's morning updates are shown during The Today Show on WOOD and during Good Morning America on WOTV.

To The Point is a weekly Sunday morning political talk show hosted by Rick Albin, which airs at 10 a.m..

Partners

WOTV

WXSP

The Grand Rapids Press

Holland Sentinel

NBC

CNN

MSNBC

Provides weather content to Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle

Slogans

"West Michigan's News Leader" (current)

"First. Best. Live." (Mid 90s-1999)

"Come on home to TV-8" (1988)

Sports

Sports Overtime is a weekly half-hour sports broadcast, airing Sundays after the 11:00 p.m. newscast. Football Frenzy is a weekly program covering the Friday night high school football games, as well as other sports news of the day. The 11:00 p.m. newscast is shortened to allow the Frenzy to air during the regular newscast timeslot.

Major personalities

24 Hour News 8 Daybreak

Weekdays:

Jennifer Moss - Anchor.
Brett Thomas - Anchor.
Terri DeBoer - Meteorologist.

Weekends:

Emily Linnert - Anchor, Producer
Larry Figurski - Anchor, Sports Reporter
Matt Kirkwood - Meteorologist. 24 Hour News 8 at Noon

Weekdays:

Brian Sterling - Anchor.
Susan Shaw - Anchor.
Bill Steffen - Meteorologist.
Eva Aguirre Cooper - Communications Director (Connecting with Community segment). 24 Hour News 8 at 5:00

Weekdays:

Brian Sterling - Anchor.
Susan Shaw - Anchor.
Bill Steffen - Meteorologist. 24 Hour News 8 at 5:30

Weekdays:

Brian Sterling - Anchor.
Susan Shaw - Anchor.
Bill Steffen - Meteorologist. 24 Hour News 8 at 6:00

Weekdays:

Larry Nienhaus - Anchor.
Suzanne Geha - Anchor. She is a niece of former UPI correspondent Helen Thomas.
Craig James - Chief Meteorologist.
Jack Doles - Sports Director.

Weekends:

Brad Edwards - Anchor.
Rachael Ruiz - Anchor.
Jason Terzis/Larry Figurski - Sports Anchors 24 Hour News 8 at 11:00

Weekdays:

Suzanne Geha - Anchor.
Larry Nienhaus - Anchor.
Jack Doles - Sports Director.
Craig James - Chief Meteorologist.

Weekends:

Rachael Ruiz - Anchor.
Jason Terzis/Larry Figurski - Sports Anchors To The Point

Sunday 10:00am:

Rick Albin - Anchor, Political Reporter.

Past Logos

External results

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