![]() ![]() It became an independent TV channel devoted to local news, weather, and sports in the Evansville media market. In 2008, when the NBC Weather Plus was shut down and discontinued, it became a locally oriented weather channel until it was replaced by a local news-oriented format in the late quarter of 2008. The channel's original branding was "First Alert Weather Now." WFIE's weather team provided the cut-ins for WFIE-DT2 during the entire existence of NBC Weather Plus. WFIE-DT2 was launched in fall 2005 as an affiliate of the NBC Weather Plus service, a 24-hour weather channel that provided regional and national weather information forecasts on a continuous basis, along with cut-ins of local weather forecasts from WFIE's weather forecasting team. WFIE-DT2 is the MeTV-affiliated second digital subchannel of WFIE, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on channel 14.2. The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion-in which Gray shareholders acquired preferred stock then held by Raycom-resulted in WFIE gaining new sister stations in nearby markets, including fellow NBC affiliate WNDU in South Bend (at the time Gray's only Indiana station) and ABC/ Fox affiliate WBKO in adjacent Bowling Green, Kentucky, in addition to its current Raycom sister stations. On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including WFIE, and Gray's 93 television stations) under the former's corporate umbrella. On February 1, 2006, Liberty Corporation merged with Raycom Media, with ownership remaining steady for over 12 years. In May 2002, the station began broadcasting digitally on channel 46. Liberty bowed out of the insurance business in 2000, bringing WFIE directly under the company banner. WFIE became the first television station in the market to broadcast in stereo in September 1985. In October 1981, Orion merged with Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of insurance and broadcasting conglomerate Liberty Corporation. It was the first station in Evansville to telecast live and local color programs beginning on March 10, 1966. With FCC approval, it moved to the stronger channel 14 in 1957. The Nortons' broadcasting holdings would eventually become known as Orion Broadcasting. The Fine family sold the station to the George Norton family of Louisville, Kentucky (owners of fellow NBC affiliate WAVE-TV) in 1956. The WFIE viewing area counties where the station's signal reaches either over-the-air, on cable or satellite are shown in light red. ![]() Also in 1956, WFIE became the area's first station to telecast color programming (by virtue of its NBC affiliation). It is the only station in the market never to have changed its primary affiliation as such, WFIE has the distinction of being the longest-tenured NBC affiliate in the state of Indiana. Both of those networks were dropped in August 1956 with the launch of WTVW (which took ABC) and the shutdown of DuMont. WFIE has always been an NBC affiliate, but originally carried secondary affiliations with ABC (shared with WEHT) and DuMont. WEHT (channel 25), while licensed to Evansville and having launched over a month before WFIE, has always had its studio located across the Ohio River in Henderson. WFIE was the second station in the Tri-State, but the first to be based in Evansville proper. The station, Indiana's sixth, was originally co-owned by Jesse, Isadore, and Oscar Fine. WFIE was granted a construction permit on June 10, 1953, and began broadcasting on November 15, 1953, on analog UHF channel 62. The station's studios are located on Mount Auburn Road in Evansville, and its transmitter is located in the Wolf Hills section of Henderson, Kentucky. WFIE (channel 14) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |