From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WOOD-TV
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Branding	WOOD-TV 8 / 24 Hour News8
Slogan	West Michigan's News Leader
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 7 (VHF) digital
Translators	WOGC-CA 25 (UHF) Holland, Michigan STA 46 (UHF) Muskegon, Michigan
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	LIN TV
Founded	1949
Call letters meaning	Wood Furniture Industry
Former callsigns	WLAV-TV (1949-51) WOTV (1972-92)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949-60), ABC (1949-62), DuMont (1949-1956)[1] (all secondary)
Website	www.woodtv.com

WOOD-TV is the NBC affiliate for West Michigan (the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan television market). It is licensed to Grand Rapids and broadcasts on channel 8. WOOD's transmitter is located in western Barry County near the town of Middleville, Michigan. WOOD-TV transmits its signal from an antenna 991 feet (302 m) in height, and its signal reaches as far as Lansing, Big Rapids, and South Bend, Indiana.

WOOD-TV can also be seen on WOGC-CA channel 25 in Holland, and on W46DD a translator operating under "Special Temporary Authority" (STA) on channel 46 in Muskegon. These repeaters were established around 2002, due to interference from the digital signal of Milwaukee's WMVS, which also broadcasts on channel 8.

Contents 1 History 2 News 2.1 Newscasts 2.2 Partners 2.3 Slogans 2.4 Sports 2.5 Major personalities 3 Ownership 4 Past Logos 5 References 6 External links

The station first went on the air on August 15, 1949, as WLAV-TV on channel 7. It was the fourth television station in Michigan, and the first outside of Detroit. The original owner was Leonard Adrian Versluis, who had signed on WLAV-AM, Grand Rapids' second radio station, in 1940.

In 1951, Versluis sold the station to Grandwood Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Bitner Group, owners of Grand Rapids' first radio station, WOOD-AM 1300, for $1.37 million. WOOD-AM had applied for a television license in 1948, but it came just after the FCC imposed a freeze on new television construction permits. In fact, WLAV had been one of the last construction permits issued before the freeze. Grandwood eventually tired of waiting and cut a deal with Verslius to buy his station. On October 19, WLAV-TV became WOOD-TV, broadcasting from a new site in northeast Grand Rapids.

On December 8, 1953, WOOD-TV moved from channel 7 to channel 8 and also increased its power from 28,000 to 100,000 watts. The channel change was promoted as "Mark the date: We move to Channel Eight on December Eight." The move was to alleviate interference with WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) in Chicago.

In 1955, the station moved to its current facility in the Heritage Hill area of Grand Rapids. Time-Life, Inc. bought WOOD-AM and WOOD-TV in 1957. The call letters became WOTV in 1972 when WOOD-AM was sold.

Channel 8 has been an NBC affiliate from the very beginning, though it had a secondary CBS affiliation until WKZO-TV (now WWMT) in Kalamazoo expanded its signal to cover Grand Rapids. It also had secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont.[2] The ABC affiliation lasted until 1962, when WZZM-TV signed on. The DuMont affiliation ended in 1956, when that networked ceased operations.

In an area first, the station purchased electronic news equipment in 1975. Five years later, the station became the first to broadcast live news from outside the studio. When LIN TV bought WOTV in 1983, the station introduced West Michigan's first news helicopter.

In 1992, the station reclaimed its old call letters with WOOD radio's permission, donating the WOTV calls to WUHQ (channel 41), with whom it had a local marketing agreement. LIN would purchase WOTV outright in 2002.

The weekday noon newscasts and weekend 6:00 p.m. newscasts were expanded to one-hour formats in 1995, with the first 30 minutes are shown on sister station WOTV.

But as NBC decreased some of its programming during the 1990s, preemptions on WOOD-TV were noticeably reduced. Today, while clearing all other NBC programs, WOOD-TV still pre-empts the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News in favor of hour-long news coverage at 6 p.m.

WOOD-TV recently activated translators in Muskegon and Holland, because the digital television signal of WMVS in Milwaukee, also on channel 8, knocks WOOD-TV off the air in those areas under certain conditions.

Carol Duvall of HGTV's Carol Duvall Show started her career at WOOD-TV.

Partial list of on-air personnel from 1969 to 1980:

Bill Allen, Dave Bolton, Jane Brierley, Roger Brown, Eddie Chase, Dick Cheverton, Jim Childress, Jim Cummins, Della DiPietro (aka Della Koach), Todd Donoho, Don Elliott, Henry Erb, John Estabrook, Dick Evans, Curt Fonger, Suzanne Geha, Derek Hayward, Ron Howes (aka Ron Howard), Doris Jarrell, Ed Kemp, Jim Kipp, Steve Kmetko, Buck Matthews, Dick McKay, Matt McLogan, Andy Rent, Warren Reynolds, Sally Scobey, Glenn Smith, John Stehr, John Strickler, Bill Struyk, Alex Taylor, Don Turner, Nick Unger, Ben Watson, Rhona Williams, Captain Woody

The weather radar is called "Live Doppler Network". It operates the most powerful radar in West Michigan at its facilities in Orangeville Township.

• Monday-Friday: 5:00-7:00 a.m. during network morning program, 12:00-1:00 p.m., 5:00-5:30 p.m., 5:30-6:00 p.m., 6:00-6:30 p.m., and 11:00-11:35 p.m.. The 6:00 p.m. newscast is repeated on WXSP at 7:00 p.m..
• Saturday: 6:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m..
• Sunday: 6:00-8:00 a.m. during network morning program, 6:00-7:00 p.m., and 11:00-11:30 p.m.. To the Point airs from 10:00-10:30 a.m.
• All WOOD-TV newscasts are shown on its sister station WOTV. However, paid programming airs at 12:30pm weekdays and World News airs at 6:30pm during the weekends instead of 24 Hour News 8's second half hour.
• WOOD-TV's morning updates are shown during The Today Show on WOOD and during Good Morning America on WOTV.

To The Point is a weekly Sunday morning political talk show hosted by Rick Albin, which airs at 10 a.m..

• WOTV
• WXSP
• The Grand Rapids Press
• Holland Sentinel
• NBC
• CNN
• MSNBC
• Provides weather content to Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle

• "Breaking News At Once, Devolpments As They Happen (current)
• "West Michigan's News Leader" (current)
• "First. Best. Live." (Mid 90s-1999)
• "Come on home to TV-8" (1988)

Sports Overtime is a weekly half-hour sports broadcast, airing Sundays after the 11:00 p.m. newscast.

Football Frenzy is a weekly program covering the Friday night high school football games, as well as other sports news of the day. The 11:00 p.m. newscast is shortened to allow the Frenzy to air during the regular newscast timeslot.

24 Hour News 8 Daybreak

• Weekdays:
  • Jennifer Moss - Anchor.
  • Brett Thomas - Anchor.
  • Terri DeBoer - Meteorologist.
• Weekends:
  • Kristi Anderson - Anchor, Education Reporter.
  • Larry Figurski - Anchor, Sports Reporter
  • Matt Kirkwood - Meteorologist.

24 Hour News 8 at Noon

• Weekdays:
  • Brian Sterling - Anchor.
  • Susan Shaw - Anchor.
  • Terri DeBoer - Meteorologist.
  • Eva Aguirre Cooper - Communications Director (Connecting with Community segment).

24 Hour News 8 at 5:00

• Weekdays:
  • Brian Sterling - Anchor.
  • Susan Shaw - Anchor.
  • Bill Steffen - Meteorologist.

24 Hour News 8 at 5:30

• Weekdays:
  • Brian Sterling - Anchor.
  • Susan Shaw - Anchor.
  • Bill Steffen - Meteorologist.

24 Hour News 8 at 6:00

• Weekdays:
  • Larry Nienhaus - Anchor.
  • Suzanne Geha - Anchor. She is a niece of former UPI correspondent Helen Thomas.
  • Craig James - Chief Meteorologist.
  • Jack Doles - Sports Director.
• Weekends:
  • Brad Edwards - Anchor.
  • Rachael Ruiz - Anchor.
  • Joe Sullivan - Meteorologist.
  • Jason Terzis/Larry Figurski - Sports Anchors

24 Hour News 8 at 11:00

• Weekdays:
  • Suzanne Geha - Anchor.
  • Larry Nienhaus - Anchor.
  • Jack Doles - Sports Director.
  • Craig James - Chief Meteorologist.
• Weekends:
  • Rachael Ruiz - Anchor.
  • Joe Sullivan - Meteorologist.
  • Jason Terzis/Larry Figurski - Sports Anchors

To The Point

• Sunday 10:00am:
  • Rick Albin - Anchor, Political Reporter.

The station was founded by Leonard Verslius. Over the years, the station was bought and sold five times:

• Sold in 1951 to Grandwood Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Bitner Group.
• Sold in 1957 to Time-Life Broadcast Inc..
• Sold in 1983 to LIN Broadcasting (the predecessor to today's LIN Television).
• Sold in 1990 to LCH Communications (however, LIN continued to manage the station under LCH ownership).
• Sold in 1999 to LIN Television.

LIN Television is the current owner of WOOD, as well as two other West Michigan stations, WOTV and WXSP, and numerous television stations across the United States.

The 8 on this WOTV logo was used until the station became WOOD-TV again in 1992. By then, the 8 would be slanted to the right. This particular logo came from ca. 1978.

• WOOD TV Channel 8 (June 13, 2005). Michigan's Radio and TV Broadcast Guide.
• About WOOD. WOODTV.com.
• You Tube:WOODTV8.

• WOOD homepage
• Michiguide: WOOD-TV
  • Michiguide: WOGC-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WOOD
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for WOGC-CA
  • Channel 46 (Muskegon) translator information and coverage map (FCC)

Broadcast television in the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo-Battle Creek/Muskegon area  (Nielsen DMA #39)
WWMT 3 (CBS - The CW on DT2) - WOOD 8 (NBC) - WZZM 13 (ABC, The AccuWeather Channel on DT2) - WXSP 15 (MNTV) - WXMI 17 (Fox) - WUHQ 29 (A1/MTV3) - WGVU 35 / WGVK 52 (PBS) - WUHO 36 (Ind.) - WMKG 38 (FN/Sportsman) - WOTV 41 (ABC) - WZPX 43 (ION) - W48CL 48 (3ABN) - WTLJ 54 (TBN) - WLLA 64 (FN)