Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
WGHP
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WGHP | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| High Point / Greensboro / Winston-Salem, North Carolina | |
| Branding | FOX8 |
| Slogan | The News Leader |
| Channels | Analog: 8 (VHF) Digital: 35 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations |
| Founded | October 14, 1963 |
| Call letters meaning | Winston-Salem / Greensboro / High Point |
| Former affiliations | American Broadcasting Company (1963-1995) |
| Website | www.myfoxwghp.com |
WGHP ("FOX8") is the FOX television station which serves the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Piedmont Triad) market area. It is licensed to High Point and owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The station is the only one in the Piedmont area market to be owned and operated by any major network. Its transmitter is located in Sophia, North Carolina. The station is carried on cable channel 10 in most parts of the market.
FOX8 currently offers about 8 hours of local newscasts a day, along with a number of first-run syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms.
Contents |
The station began operation on October 14, 1963, and it was owned by Southern Broadcast Company. It was originally the Piedmont Triad's ABC affiliate. The station didn't carry Dark Shadows during its network run on ABC and broadcast old movies instead, according to a February 1971 issue of the North Carolina edition of TV Guide magazine. Likewise, it did not carry The Edge of Night during its run on ABC from 1975 to 1984. WGHP was consequently sold to Gulf Broadcasting in 1978.
WGHP was owned by Gulf Broadcasting until 1984, when it was acquired by Taft in a group deal. Great American Broadcasting purchased other Taft properties in 1987, but Taft would keep WGHP until 1992 when Great American bought the station as well.
In 1993 Great American Broadcasting filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That year they restructured and became known as Citicasters. They then put their stations up for sale.
In the winter of 1993-1994 it was agreed that New World (which acquired the SCI stations in a similar type of bankruptcy Citicasters had come out of) would buy Citicasters' WDAF-TV channel 4 in Kansas City, which was an NBC affiliate, and KSAZ-TV (formerly KTSP) channel 10 in Phoenix, which was a CBS affiliate. Citicasters would keep WTSP channel 10 in Tampa Bay and WKRC-TV channel 12 in Cincinnati -- which were both ABC affiliates at the time. Both of those stations would later switch to CBS when Scripps-Howard contracted with ABC to air on Tampa Bay's WFTS and Cincinnati's WCPO.
Shortly after Fox agreed to affiliate with all the New World stations except for NBC affiliates KNSD channel 39 in San Diego and WVTM-TV channel 13 in Birmingham, as well as independent WSBK-TV channel 38 in Boston, which would be sold to Paramount/Viacom and become a UPN station.
But WGHP (along with WBRC) would be sold directly to Fox, who took over the operation of WGHP and WBRC through local marketing agreements in the summer of 1995. On September 3, 1995, WGHP took the Fox affiliation. It took all Fox programs, including Fox Kids which it showed from 1-4pm, where soap operas from ABC had previously run as well as Saturday mornings where a local newscast previously ran. The ABC affiliation went to former Fox affiliate WNRW channel 45 (now WXLV-TV). WGHP added a few more talk/reality shows as well as some off network sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, Beverly Hillbillies, and others. The weekday newscasts expanded to occupy the Good Morning America timeslot. The evening newscasts remained in place. the 11 p.m. newscast was moved to 10 p.m. and expanded to an hour. In mid-January 1996, Fox closed on both WGHP and WBRC, with WGHP becoming an official Fox owned-and-operated station (O&O); WBRC had to wait another seven and one-half months, until September 1996, to switch from ABC to Fox.
In 1996, Pappas approached WGHP about picking up Fox Kids and moving it to their newly acquired WBFX channel 20 (then a WB affiliate, later WTWB-TV and now CW affiliate WCWG). In between that time Fox executives, upon picking up new affiliates through New World, decided to redo the on-air coverage policy of airing Fox Kids; the station can choose to keep airing it or be granted the right to preempt it and pass it down to another local counterpart. WGHP decided to let the station have the programming. This would be the first Fox owned and operated station to not run the kids block, and only one of 2 (with WBRC) until New World merged with Fox in 1997. WGHP added more talk and court shows in the afternoon. But they still have no Saturday morning newscast. WTWB dropped Fox's children programming in late 2001 when Fox canceled the weekday block nationwide. In 2002, Fox began a Saturday morning block of cartoons to replace Fox Kids known as Fox Box (now 4Kids TV), but WGHP did not pick that up. As a result, Fox's 4Kids TV does not air in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point.
On September 10th, WGHP debuted a new logo and graphics package similar to what is currently being rolled out to other Fox O&O's across the country. The new logo is similar to sister stations WJW-TV and WNYW-TV.
FOX8 Anchors
- Neill McNeill: Weekday Evening Anchor
- Julie Luck: Weekday Evening Anchor
- Brad Jones: Weekday Morning Anchor
- Cindy Farmer: Weekday Morning Anchor
- Melissa Painter: Weekend Anchor/Consumer Expert
FOX8 Reporters
- Leah Beno: General Assignment Reporter
- Tom Britt: Traffic Reporter/Fill-in Weather
- Bob Buckley: General Assignment Reporter
- Brent Campbell: Winston-Salem Bureau Chief
- Nicole Ferguson: General Assignment Reporter
- Doug Luzader: FOX News Washington, D.C. Correspondent
- Caron Myers: General Assignment Reporter
- Angela Rodriguez: General Assignment Reporter
- Shannon Smith: General Assignment Reporter, seen weekday mornings
- Chad Tucker: General Assignment Reporter
- Eric White: General Assignment Reporter
- Roy Ackland: "Roy's Folks" Feature Reporter
FOX8 Meteorologists
- Van Denton: Chief Meteorologist
- Emily Byrd: Weekday Morning Meteorologist
- Charles Ewing: Weekend Meteorologist
FOX8 Sports
- Rich Brenner: Sports Director/Anchor
- Kevin Connolly: Sports Anchor
- Danny Harnden: Sports Anchor
- Stewart Pittman: Photographer
- WGHP was first known as "Channel ei8ht" from 1963 until 1970. The name "ei8ht" has also been used by KOMU, WJW, KAIT, and a few others.
- WGHP was known as "WGHPiedmont" between 1987 and the early 1990s, with a triangle 8 logo also used by KSBW.
- In 1990, "WGHPiedmont" changed to "The Piedmont Newschannel". That name would be kept until the sale to Fox in 1995, when it became FOX 8. However, FOX 8 continued to use the slogan "The Piedmont Newschannel" until October 2005, when it adopted the new slogan "The News Leader."
 WGHP Logo from 1979 to the early 1980s |
 WGHP Logo from 1987 to 1995, branded WGHPiedmont. |
 Second WGHP logo under Fox ownership, from January 1997 to May 2001. The first logo had the Fox logo with the Triangle 8. |
|
 WGHP logo from May 2001 to September 10, 2007 |
WGHP Logo as of September 10, 2007 |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
WGHP 8 (High Point) - WFXI 8 / WYDO 14 (Morehead City / Greenville) - WCCB 18 (Charlotte) - WSFX 26 (Wilmington) - WRAZ 50 (Raleigh) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, MNTV and Other stations in North Carolina |
