| WPTV | |
|---|---|
| West Palm Beach, Florida | |
| Branding | WPTV NewsChannel 5 HD |
| Slogan | Local Coverage You Can Count On |
| Channels | Analog: 5 (VHF) Digital: 12 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 5.1 NBC |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | E. W. Scripps Company |
| Licensee | Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company |
| First air date | August 22, 1954 |
| Call letters' meaning | West Palm Beach TeleVision -or- Phipps Family TeleVision (second station owner) |
| Former callsigns | WJNO-TV (1954-1956) |
| Former Affiliations | NBC Wx+ (on DT2, 2004-2008) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 900 kW (DT) 15.5 kW (after 2009) |
| Height | 391.5 m (analog) 386.5 m (DT) |
| Facility ID | 59443 |
| Website | WPTV 5's Website |
WPTV, ch. 5, is the NBC-affiliated TV station for West Palm Beach, Florida. It's transmitter is located southeast of Wellington along U.S. 441 & FL 7. Owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, the station has studios on South Australian Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach (the mailing address is Banyan Boulevard, however). Syndicated programming on WPTV includes: Ellen, Dr. Phil, Oprah, Extra & Entertainment Tonight.
History[]
WPTV began broadcasting on August 22, 1954 with the call letters WJNO-TV. At sign-on, the 1st words heard on-air were from control room director Vern Crawford (who later became a fishing reporter for the station): "The power has just been turned on for WJNO-TV ch. 5 by Frank M. Folsom, President of The Radio Corporation of America." At that time, the station was owned by William Cook & Theodore Granick & there were only 32 employees working @ the station. It was later purchased by The Phipps Family in 1956 & they changed the call letters to the current WPTV. Then, in 1961, a man named Mort Watters purchased the station for Scripps Howard. Under Scripps Howard ownership, the station began expanding. WPTV's current 1,000-foot (305 m) transmitter tower was built along with new transmitter facilities. The station's West Palm Beach studios were rebuilt & expanded.
In May 1971, Scripps Howard built new studios for the station on Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach. In 1976, WPTV began operating the market’s 1st live mobile news van. In 1999, WPTV added a new Harris analog transmitter to improve it's signal. The station also built a new 1,325-foot (404 m) transmitter tower. This upgrade came several years after Miami's NBC affiliate WTVJ moved from Ch. 4 on the Broward-Miami Dade border line to ch. 6 in South Dade county. This also gave WPTV a city-grade signal the northern half of Broward County, including Ft. Lauderdale. WTVJ's signal in most of Broward County is Grade B, not city grade. In March 16 2001, the station moved from their facilities on Flagler Drive to a larger, newer & advanced complex @ 1100 Banyan Boulevard on the city's west side approaching Clear Lake. The building's exteriors portray the exteriors of the fictional TV studio seen during the 2nd season of the NBC sitcom Good Morning, Miami. WPTV's "Circle 5" logo is a variation of the 1 used for many years by it's Cleveland, Ohio sister station, WEWS-TV (they resurrected the logo in January of 2007, albeit in a slightly different form).
News operation[]
WPTV has been rated #1 in local news in West Palm Beach since Nielsen began recording data in the market. Following the July 2008 sweeps period, WPTV retained it's title as the top-rated TV station in the state of Florida (based on sign-on to sign-off household share in metered markets). On August 4 2007, WPTV became the 1st TV station in South Florida to air it's local news in HD. This upgrade resulted in the debut of a new graphics package & weather set with advanced HD weather equipment. In addition to it's main studios in downtown West Palm Beach, the station operates 3 news bureaus. The Stuart Bureau is located on South Federal Highway (a.k.a. U.S. 1 in Stuart). The Port St. Lucie Bureau is located in the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspaper printing facility.
The South County Bureau is located on Congress Avenue in Delray Beach inside the building of news partner Sun Sentinel. WPTV's 1 million watt weather radar is called "VIPIR 5" & it operates a helicopter called Chopper 5. In addition to NBC News, WPTV is also a CNN affiliate. Until it's shutdown on December 1 2008, the station had offered NBC Wx+ on it's 2nd DT subchannel, Comcast DT cable ch. 216 or 188 & via live streaming video on it's website. The news department has been recognized with 3 regional Edward R. Murrow awards in the past 7 years. In 2001, the station won for it's continuing coverage of the 2000 Presidential vote controversy in Palm Beach County. In 2003, the station was recognized in the news documentary category for a story on the desperate conditions in Haiti. And in April of 2008, the station was recognized for excellence again in the documentary category for it's hour-long primetime special on medicare fraud produced by it's Contact 5 investigative unit.
Newscast titles[]
- WJNO-TV News (1954-1956)
- WPTV News (1956-1965)
- The Sixth Hour Report / The Eleventh Hour Report (1965-1972)
- TV-5 News (1972-1975)
- Action 5 News (1975-1993)
- NewsChannel 5 (1993-present)
Station Slogans[]
- Part of Your Life (late 1970s)
- Action 5 News: The Recognized Authorities (early 1980s)
- We're Looking Out For You! (1984-1989)
- Your News Leader (1980s-early 1990s)
- The 24-Hour News Channel (early 1990s)
- Coverage You Can Count On (1993-2007)
- Local Coverage You Can Count On (2007-present)
News team[]
Anchors
- Roxanne Stein - weekday mornings & health reporter
- John Favole - weekday mornings & @ Noon (Monday through Thursday)
- Jay Cashmere - Friday mornings, @ Noon & weekend mornings
- weekday morning reporter
- Chandra Bill - weekdays @ Noon, 5 & 5:30
- Shannon Cake - weeknights @ 5 & 5:30
- investigative reporter
- Kelley Dunn - weeknights @ 6 & 11
- Jim Sackett - weeknights @ 6 & 11
- Paige Kornblue - weekend mornings & Wednesday through Friday weekday morning reporter
- Jamie Holmes - weekend evenings & reporter
- Tania Rogers - weekend evenings & reporter
Storm Team 5
- Steve Weagle (CBM) - Chief seen weeknights
- Keenan Smith (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings & Noon
- Glenn Glazer (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend mornings
- James Wieland (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend evenings
Sports
- Ryan Lieber - Sundays through Thursdays @ 6 & 11
- Jay Gilmore - Fridays & Saturdays @ 6 & 11
- Sports reporter seen 3 days a week
Reporters
- Captain Julie Stevens - Chopper 5 pilot & reporter
- Eric Glasser
- Tim Malloy
- Bryan Garner
- Katie Brace
- Marci Gonzalez
- Nichelle King
- Carolyn Scofield
- Danielle Dubetz
- Jennifer Rivera
- Jesse Chavez
Post-analog shutdown[]
After the analog TV shutdown & DT conversion, which is tentatively to take place on February 17 2009, WPTV will move it's DT broadcasts to ch. 12. However, through the use of PSIP, DTV receivers will display WPTV's virtual ch. as 5.