WYFF

'WYFF' is the NBC television affiliate based in Greenville, South Carolina. It serves a market which includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson in South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. The market takes in large portions of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. Its transmitter is located near Caesars Head, South Carolina. WYFF 4 WeatherPlus is offered on WYFF's digital feed.

Contents

History

Programming

Current and past station personalities

External links

History

The station went on the air on December 31, 1953 as 'WFBC-TV', South Carolina's fifth television station. It was owned by the Peace family, publishers of ''The Greenville News'' and Greenville Piedmont, along with WFBC radio (1330 AM, now WYRD, and 93.7 FM). For its first two years of operation, its studios were located on Paris Mountain before moving to its current location on Rutherford Street in 1955. Norvin Duncan was the station's first news anchor, moving from the radio side.
''"Monty's Rascals"'' (started in 1960) was one of the station's popular children's shows, starring two channel 4 weathermen: Monty DuPuy (who left in 1978) and Stowe Hoyle as Mr. Doohickey (wearing a hat with an old Santa's beard). The show continued as ''"The Rascal's Clubhouse"'' after DuPuy's departure in 1978 and continued until 1982. Two years later, Hoyle retired. An earlier version of the program, Kids Korral, was hosted by Johnny Wright.
During the 1960s, personalities from channel 4 included Dave Partridge and Jim Phillips (Phillips died in 2003), better known to listeners of Clemson Tiger football radio broadcasts as "the voice of the Clemson Tigers". Locally televised color programming also began in February 1967. In 1968, the Peace family media holdings were reorganized as Multimedia, Inc. with WFBC-AM-FM-TV as the flagship stations.
In the mid 1970s the famous ''Arrow 4 logo'' was introduced and was used in one form or another for many years. Partridge succeeded Duncan as anchor of the 6 and 11 o'clock news. In 1976 Kenn Sparks joined, and the 6 o'clock news went to a full hour called ''The Scene at Six''. Later, in 1979, the long-running 'Your Friend Four' slogan was introduced and seen in a 1980 edition of TV Guide.
The 1980s brought new personalities to channel 4, like James Baker, sportscasters J.D. Hayworth, (later Congressman from Arizona), Roger Berry, Mark Marino and weatherman Charlie Gertz (who died in 2003 from a stroke). ''Action News 4'' became ''NewsCenter 4'' in the early 1980s.
In 1983, due to new rules restricting common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same market, Multimedia sold off its Upstate cluster. In an unusual trade of one group's flagship station for another, WFBC-TV was traded to Pulitzer Publishing Company in return for KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis. At that point, Channel 4 changed its call letters to WYFF-TV ('W'e're 'Y'our 'F'riend 'F'our), but dropped the "-TV" suffix from its callsign a few months later. Pulitzer also acquired WXII-TV in the Piedmont Triad as part of the same deal. Although Pulitzer closed on WXII later in 1983, the acquisition of WYFF would not be finalized until January of 1985 because Pulitzer had to sell off WLNE-TV in Providence in order to comply with FCC ownership limits of the time; in the interim, Pulitzer operated WYFF under a time brokerage agreement with Multimedia. The station's logo also changed in 1983. New personalities include Carl Clark, Kim Brittain, and Carol Anderson (later Carol Goldsmith) who co-anchors the 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 11 o'clock newscasts. In the late 1980s, Carol Anderson was replaced by Annette Estes who came from its rival station WSPA-TV. Stan Olenik also came from WSPA. Goldsmith later took her spot back from Estes after Estes made an off-color slip on live air.
''NewsCenter 4'' became simply known as ''News 4'' in the 1990s. Charlie Gertz retired, and the "arrow 4" logo was dropped by 1991.
WYFF (or WFBC?) was the first Upstate television station to begin 24/7 broadcasting, and did so sometime in the mid-late 1980s. They ran NBC News Overnight (later Nightside) /Home Shopping Spree/CNN Headline News overnight. They have since 2005 discontinued CNN Headline News (and previously the Home Shopping Spree) overnight and now run NBC Late Night/drama reruns/home-garden shows/paid programming overnight.
In 1999 Hearst-Argyle bought Pulitzer's entire television division, including WYFF-TV.

Programming

Here's a list of NBC programs that was pre-empted by WFBC/WYFF over the years (most of which ended up on channel 40 [WAXA, now WMYA]), those include:

★ ''Alvin and the Chipmunks''- It aired on WYFF-TV until 1986 it was seen instead on WAXA-TV now (WMYA-TV) before WYFF-TV picked it back up in the late 1980s.

★ ''Heckle and Jeckle''- pre-empted by WFBC-TV's popular ''Monty's Rascals''

★ ''Underdog''

★ ''Who, What or Where''- Replaced by WFBC-TV's local talk show ''Today in The Piedmont''

★ ''The Facts of Life''- NBC daytime reruns during 1984-85, seen instead on WAXA-TV

★ ''Kidd Video''- It was seen instead on WAXA-TV

★ ''Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends''- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV

★ ''Super Password''- It was pre-empted by WYFF-TV during its entire run, and shown instead on WAXA-TV

★ ''Foofur''- It was shown instead on WAXA-TV

★ ''Time Machine''- Another WYFF-TV pre-empted NBC show that WAXA-TV aired in 1985.

Current and past station personalities

★ Monty DuPuy - Worked as a weatherman at WFBC-TV from the 1950s til 1978 when he moved to radio. He hosted ''Monty's Rascals'' with Stowe Hoyle as ''Mr. Doohickey'' from 1960 til 1978.

★ Norvin Duncan - WFBC's first newscaster who died in April 2003.

★ Stowe Hoyle - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1950s till his retirement in 1984. Also known as Mr. Doohickey on ''Monty's Rascals''/''The Rascals Clubhouse''.

★ Johnny Wright - Weatherman for WFBC who hosted children's show "Kids Korral" in the mid and late 1950s. Died in 1995.

★ Kenn Sparks - Anchored for WFBC/WYFF from 1976 til 1994. Currently employed in public relations for BMW North America.

★ Charlie Gertz - Weatherman for WFBC/WYFF from 1980 til his retirement in 1991. He died in Bethesa, Maryland from a stroke in June 2003.

★ J.D. Hayworth - Sportscaster for WFBC/WYFF from 1981 til 1986, he was a congressman from Arizona from 1995 to 2007.

★ Jim Phillips - Known as ''The Voice of Clemson'' who anchored sports for WFBC-TV from 1968 til 1981. He died in September 2003. Ironically, Pete Yanity, from WSPA-TV, succeeded him on the Tiger Sports Network.

★ Carl Clark - Anchored for WYFF-TV from 1983 til 1994, he retired from the station and went to rival WSPA-TV until he retired from TV in 2003.

★ Annette Estes - Came from rival WSPA-TV in 1987 to replace Carol Goldsmith as co-anchor in 1987. Has been a Certified Professional Behavioral and Values Analyst, Coach, and Consultant in her own practice since leaving WYFF-TV in December. 1991.

★ Carol Goldsmith - Joined WYFF-TV in May 1985 as a reporter, now anchors 6PM, and 11PM newscasts with Michael Cogdill.

★ Stan Olenik - Came from rival WSPA-TV in the late 1980s to be a sportscaster for WYFF-TV.

★ Tim Waller - Joined the station in 1994. He anchored the 5:30PM newscasts with Sharon Johnson until 2007 when there replaced by Nigel Robertson and Beth Brotherton.

★ Michael Cogdill - Joined WYFF-TV in 1989 as a reporter/weekend anchor, now co-anchors with Carol Goldsmith on the 6PM, and 11PM newscasts.

★ Lee Brown - Joined WFBC-TV in the 1970s, currently a news director for WYFF-TV.

★ John Cessarich - Joined WYFF-TV after Charlie Gertz's retirement in 1991 as a current weatherman.

★ Geoff Hart - Joined WYFF-TV in 1993 as a sportscaster, he's also a sports director for the station.

★ Kim Brittan - Joined WFBC-TV in 1982 to replace Barbara Sloan as co-anchor with James Baker for the newscasts. She left in the mid-1980s. She's now at WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina.

★ Dale Gilbert - Joined WYFF-TV around the 1980s to become weekend weathercaster, now morning and noon weatherman for the station.

★ Frank Blair - Worked at WFBC-TV around in the 1950s or 1960s, was a Today Show newsanchor until 1976. He died in 1995.

★ Liz Walker - Worked as a weekend anchor in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival WHNS-TV in the late 1990s as a weekend anchor. She's now working for Charter Communications.

★ Judy Booker - Worked as a weekend weatherwoman in the late 1980s/early 1990s, then moved to rival station WSPA-TV in the early 2000s as a weekend morning weatherwoman until the present.

★ Mark Marino - Joined WYFF-TV in August 1980 until January 1984 as Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter. Noteworthy coverages included Clemson's 1981 National Championship vs. Nebraska in the Orange Bowl as well as The Masters from 1981-83. Currently an insurance agent in Tampa, FL.

★ Mike Seidel - Joined WYFF-TV in 1983, and was the weekend meteorologist for 6 years. Currently meteorologist and field reporter for The Weather Channel (since March, 1992)

External links

★ WYFF4.com

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