From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WREG-TV
Memphis, Tennessee
Branding	NewsChannel3
Slogan	On Your Side
Channels	Analog: 3 (VHF) Digital: 28 (UHF)
Translators	62 K62DA, Malden, MO
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Local TV
Founded	January 1, 1956
Call letters meaning	Variation of original calls
Former callsigns	WREC-TV (1956-71)
Website	www.wreg.com

WREG-TV is Memphis, Tennessee's CBS television affiliate, operating on channel 3. The station is owned by Local TV, which took over all of the television stations formerly owned by The New York Times Company on May 7, 2007. Its transmitter is located in Memphis.

WREG-TV first went to air on New Year's Day 1956 as WREC-TV. Owned by electrical engineer and radio dealer Hoyt Wooten along with WREC-AM 600, the station began regular broadcasts the next day. The calls stood for Wooten's radio store, the Wooten Radio-Electric Company. It took the CBS affiliation from WHBQ-TV because WREC-AM had been a CBS affiliate since 1929. Studios were located in the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. Wooten had actually applied for one of the first television licenses in the country, in 1928.

For its first six years, WREC-TV was the only locally-owned station in Memphis (WHBQ-TV was owned by General Tire and WMC-TV was owned by Scripps). However, Wooten sold WREC-AM-FM-TV in 1962 to Cowles Communications. In turn, Cowles sold WREC-TV to the New York Times in 1971 and the call letters changed to WREG-TV; it later sold the radio stations to other interests. Four years later in 1975, the Times built new facilities for WREG on one of the highest points on Chickasaw Bluff, overlooking the Mississippi River.

For the past two decades, WREG has been in a Nielsen ratings war with WMC-TV, steadily gaining in recent years in a battle for the lead the likes of which the Memphis market hasn't seen in decades.

The race became its most competitive when it switched to a new anchor team with years of experience at other stations in the Memphis market. Claudia Barr was previously a main anchor at competitor WHBQ (Memphis's FOX affiliate) and Richard Ransom was previously a morning anchor and reporter at WMC (Memphis's NBC affiliate). Ransom and Barr replaced longtime anchors Jerry Tate and Pam McKelvy.

WREG often works together with a sister Local TV station, WHNT in Huntsville, Alabama, located in the next market adjoining Memphis to the east. The two often share resources on large stories, such as the April 2007 trial of Mary Winkler. For the first week of the trial, WREG worked from the satellite truck of WHNT. During the second week, WHNT worked from WREG's truck. Also, reporters from one station often do live reports for the other. Further, WHNT also airs WREG's Knowledge Bowl on its digital sub-channel.

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

in 2009,WREG will be leaving analog channel 3 and will be digital channel 28. [1]

Throughout the early 1960s into the early 1980s, WREC/WREG claimed to possess the largest motion picture library of any TV station in the United States, which was evidenced in its daily (late afternoons and late nights) and weekend programming lineup at the time. The station used some of those features for theme weeks (e.g., "Godzilla Week", "John Wayne Week"), which proved to be very popular with viewers. However, like most major network affiliates in the early 1980s, channel 3 began cutting back on the heavy amount of movie airings that occupied much of its off-network schedule, a move prompted by the presence of cable, VCRs, and the emergence of then-independent competitors WPTY-TV in 1978 and WMKW (now WLMT) in 1983.

WREG is one of the few CBS stations that preempts the Saturday Early Show in favor of a Saturday morning newscast.

Syndicated programs on Channel 3 include Inside Edition, Jeopardy!, Entertainment Tonight, and The Insider.

Current on air staff include:

• Richard Ransom-formerly of WMC
• Claudia Barr-formerly of WHBQ
• Markova Reed
• Tim Simpson
• Jim Jaggers-formerly of WHBQ
• Todd Demers
• Austen Onek
• Omari Flemming
• George Brown-formerly of WMC
• Brian Kuebler
• Amy Speropoulos
• Tom Powell
• Mike Matthews
• Mike Ceide
• Glenn Carver
• Melissa Moon
• Theo Travers
• April Thompson
• Stephanie Scurlock
• Alex Coleman
• Marybeth Conley

Former on air staff include:

• Paul Dorman
• Pam Crittenden
• John Powell
• Fred Cook
• Pam McKelvy
• Joe Larkins
• Mike Lawhead
• Carolyn Brookter
• Jerry Tate
• Cindy Whipple
• Rob Sylvestor
• Susie Robinette
• Gene Hocutt
• Brian Teigland
• Tom Stocker
• Jeff Beimfohr
• Jim Bonds
• Olin Morris
• Cheryl Kahn
• Earl Morrell
• Ray Pohlman
• De Anna Sheffield
• Jennifer Van Vranken

• NewsChannel 3
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WREG
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K62DA