WTOV-TV

(Redirected from WTOV)

'WTOV-TV', channel 9, is the NBC affiliate for the Wheeling, West Virginia/Steubenville, Ohio television market. It is licensed to Steubenville, and also operates a bureau in Wheeling. WTOV's transmitter is located in Mingo Junction, Ohio. The station's signal can be reached as far north as Youngstown, Ohio, as far west as Coshocton, as far east as Greensburg, Pennsylvania and as far south as Monroe County, Ohio. Although the area is much better served by WPXI, WTOV's signal can easily be picked up in higher-elevated areas of the city of Pittsburgh with only a "rabbit-ear" antenna. WTOV is also carried on many cable systems that fall outside of its broadcast signal in Northern and North Central West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. It offers NBC Weather Plus on its digital subcarrier.
The station first went on air as CBS affiliate 'WSTV-TV' (for 'ST'euben'V'ille) on December 24, 1953. It was owned by Rust Craft Broadcasting along with WSTV radio (AM 1340 and FM 103.5, now WOGH). It also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC, sharing that network's programming with NBC affiliate WTRF-TV. It changed its call letters to WTOV (standing for "'W'e're 'T'elevision for the 'O'hio 'V'alley") in 1979 after Rust Craft, merged with Ziff Davis. On January 7, 1980, WTOV swapped affiliations with WTRF and became an NBC affiliate. The station began phasing out ABC in the 1970s, but continued to carry a few ABC programs in off-hours for many years. Channel 9 had little need to air many ABC shows, however, as Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV was widely available on cable.
In 1983, Ziff Davis sold WTOV, along with then-sister stations WEYI-TV in Saginaw, Michigan and WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, to Television Station Partners, L.P. Television Station Partners was then bought out by Smith Broadcast Group in 1996. In 2000, Cox Enterprises acquired WTOV, along with WJAC-TV in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, from Sunrise/STC Broadcasting (one of several subsidiaries of Smith Broadcasting). The station dropped the remaining ABC shows from its schedule soon after Cox took over. It also updated its logo to resemble that of sister station WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh.
The station airs tape-delayed high school football games of the week including numerous playoff games of local teams. WTOV aired many college football/basketball games from ABC and ESPN Plus. One of the station's slogans is ''WTOV9 Is Everywhere''.

Contents

News Personalities

Former News Personalities

Trivia

External links

News Personalities

★ Jackie Cain - weekend anchor/reporter

★ Kevin Carter - chief meteorologist (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist)

★ Allison Latos - morning anchor/reporter

★ Jasmine Lo - Wheeling newsroom reporter

★ Chandi Lowry - reporter

★ Rob Metzger - Sports Reporter

★ Eric Minor - evening anchor (5, 6, and 11)/producer/reporter

★ Lisa Montgomery - weekend meteorologist

★ Jeff Oechslein - morning/noon meteorologist

★ Dino Orsatti - morning anchor/reporter

★ Natalie Pasquarella - 11 p.m. anchor/reporter

★ John Paul - weekend anchor/reporter

★ Don Sloan - sports director

★ Deb Witkowski - lifestyle reporter (What Would Deb Do)

★ Shelby Zarotney - noon, 5, and 6 pm anchor/producer/reporter

Former News Personalities

★ Sherri McChutchen - Evening Anchor (now works for WKKX 1600AM in Wheeling)

★ Jim Forbes - Evening Anchor (now works for competitor WTRF)

★ Dave Williams - weekend meteorologist

★ Bill Phillips - former sports director (currently works for sister Pittsburgh station WPXI)

★ Mark Zinni - Former Weekend Anchor/Reporter (currently Morning Anchor/Reporter at WPRI in Providence, RI)

Trivia

★ The call letters WTOV previously were used by channel 27 in Portsmouth, Virginia from 1953 until it went dark in 1956. The station went back on the air in 1961 as WYAH (owned by televangelist Pat Robertson), and today it is CW O&O WGNT.

External links

★ WTOV 9

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