Editing WEAE-FTV

{{refimprove|date=April 2013}}
{{Infobox broadcast
| call_letters             = WEAE
| city                     = Pittsburgh
| station_logo             = 
| station_branding         = ABC 8 {{small|(general)}}<br>24 Hour News 8 {{small|(newscasts)}}
| station_slogan           = ''Pittsburgh's Own'' {{small|(general)}}<br>''Pittsburgh's 24 Hour News Source'' {{small|(news)}}<br>''Taking Action For You'' {{small|(investigative reports)}}
| digital                  = 8 ([[wikipedia:very high frequency|VHF]]/[[wikipedia:Program and System Information Protocol|PSIP]])
| subchannels              = 8.1 ABC
| other_chs                = 
| affiliations             = [[wikipedia:American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]  (1953-1962, 2006-Present)
| owner                    = ATE Media Corporation
| licensee                 = ATE Media Corporation of Pittsburgh
| location                 = Pittsburgh, Pennslvania
| country                  = United States
| airdate                  = {{Start date and age|1953|12|24}}
| enddate                  = 
| callsign_meaning         =W '''E'''ntravision '''A'''nd '''E'''ngaging<br>{{small|(former slogan)}}
| sister_stations          = 
| former_callsigns         = 
| former_channel_numbers   = '''Analog''':<br>8 (VHF, 1953–2009)<BR>'''Digital'':<BR>13 (VHF, 1998-2009)
| former_affiliations      = [[wikipedia:NBC|NBC]] (1962-2006)
| effective_radiated_power = 77.5 [[wikipedia:Watt|kW]]
| HAAT                     = {{convert|374|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id              = 
| coordinates              = 
| licensing_authority      = 
| homepage                 = 
}}

'''WEAE-FTV''', [[wikipedia:digital television|digital]] and [[wikipedia:virtual channel|virtual channel]] 8, is an ABC affiliated fantasy telvision station located in Pittsburgh, Pennslvania. The station is owned by ATE Media Corporation. The station maintains studio facilities located in downtown Pittsburgh, and its transmitter is based in McKeesport.

The station has been affiliated with ABC since January 1, 2006, when it ended a 44-year stint as an NBC owned-and-operated station. This is channel 8's second stint with ABC; it was affiliated with that network for nine years at the station's inception.

==History==
The station first signed on the air on December 24, 1953. Founded by Pittsburgh Broadcasting (partly owned by Andy Warhol),<ref name="B&C">?? </ref>. Channel 8 immediately assumed the ABC affiliation. For most of its first 20 years in television, ABC was relegated to secondary status on existing stations in most two-station markets. However, at the time channel 8 signed on, no ABC affiliate put even a grade B signal into Pittsbugh. In contrast, NBC affiliates from Johnstown and Wheeling were able to be received in Pittsburgh and a CBS affiliate from Steubenville, Ohio put a fairly strong grade B signal into the area. Warhol thus figured that if it signed with ABC, it would not get much local competition.



===As an NBC affiliate===
Although Pittsburgh was the sixth largest market in the country (behind [[New York City]], [[Chicago]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Philadelphia]] and [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]-[[Baltimore]]), the other stations in town were slow to develop. This was because the major cities in the [[Ohio River|Upper Ohio Valley]] are so close together that they must share the VHF band. After the FCC lifted the license freeze in 1952, it refused to grant any new commercial VHF construction permits to Pittsburgh in order to give the smaller cities in the area a chance to get on the air. 


NBC, in fact, actually attempted to purchase the CBS station in Wheeling/Steubenville license before it went on the air and move its license to Pittsburgh due to the close proximity between Pittsburgh and Steubenville (At the time less than an hour apart by car; the completion of the [[wikipedia:Interstate 376|Penn-Lincoln Parkway]] in 1964 reduced that time to about a half-hour driving time today.), but the FCC turned NBC down. The Wheeling/Steubenville TV market, despite its very close proximity to Pittsburgh and overlapping signals, remains a separate market by FCC standards today.


NBC then sought to purchase a station in Pittsburgh after signing on stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC. WEAE was sold to the network in 1962. NBC has traditionally been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks was generally unsatisfied with WPIT (channel 11, now a Fox O&O) and now with its affiliate at the time KDKG (channel 2, now a CBS O&O). 

With the ownership change to NBC, channel 8 became an NBC owned and operated station on January 1, 1962. 

In 1970, WEAE-TV began carrying most of NBC's [[American Football League]] game telecasts as the network obtained the league's broadcast television rights; however, Pittsburgh Steelers home games aired by the network had to be [[wikipedia:blackout (broadcasting)|blacked out]] due to NFL rules at the time (NFL blackout rules in effect at the time all games were blacked out in the team's primary [[wikipedia:media market|market]], regardless of whether they were sold out; the league has since lowered the designated sales threshold to allow home game broadcasts to 75% of all tickets). In 1967, WEAE-FTV ran an award-winning documentary ''The Acid Test, [[wikipedia:LSD|LSD]]''; hosted by news editor Jerry Palmer, the film took five months to produce with more than 5,000 feet of film shot. 

By 1990, WEAE-FTV devoted nearly all of its programming hours outside of network shows to locally produced news programs, broadcasting nearly 40 hours of newscasts each week. [[General manager]] Ben Ogden felt his station's money was better spent on local programming, rather than paying syndication distributors to acquire nationally syndicated shows. In 1990, WEAE paid $11,000 to WPRC-FTV (channel 28) in Pittsburgh to carry the station's election coverage (using WEAE's reporters), in order to allow channel 8 to air NBC's Tuesday night lineup, including ''[[wikipedia:Matlock (TV series)|Matlock]]'' and ''[[wikipedia:In the Heat of the Night (TV series)|In the Heat of the Night]]''.<ref>"Zapped." ''U.S. News & World Report'' 109.15 (1990): 24.</ref>

===Switch to ABC ===

In 2004, ABC agreed to an affiliation deal with ATE Media Corporation after CBS announced it would not to renew ATE Media Stations in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Rockford, Flint, Terre Haute, and Lexington due to the [[wikipedia:Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime controversy|Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime controversy]], which resulted in most of ATE Media's fantasy television stations becoming ABC affiliates. After the deal was announced, ATE Media then announced it was acquiring WEAE from NBC Owned Fantasy Television Stations and ATE Media Founder and President [[Patrice Rafferty]] used the threat of making [[WHOO-FTV|its new Indianapolis sister station]] (which had just affiliated with NBC, now a fellow ABC affiliate) a minor network affiliate or an independent station unless ABC affiliated with all of its big three stations with ABC. Eventually, ATE Media signed a long-term affiliation deal, which called for all of ATE Media-owned stations to switch their affiliation to ABC, including a 30-year deal with ABC in May of 2012 that would keep their existing ABC affiliates owned by ATE Media<ref>??</ref>. 

WEAE became Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate at 3:00&nbsp;a.m. on January 1, 2006, switching networks with WPTL, which took WEAE's outgoing NBC affiliation. The final NBC program broadcast on the station on January 1, 2006 was ''Last Call with Carson Daly''; NBC moved all of its programming locally to WPTL after the program ended. The first ABC program broadcast on WEAE was ''Good Morning America'' later that morning. 



In 2006, WEAE changed its on-air branding to "ABC 8" to comply with the network mandated branding conventions (although it still retains the longtime ''24 Hour News 8'' title for its newscasts.



==Digital television==

===Digital channel===
<!----
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! [[Display resolution|Video]]
! [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! [[Program and System Information Protocol#What PSIP does|PSIP Short Name]]
! Programming<ref>[http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=KCNC#station RabbitEars TV Query for KCNC]</ref>
|-
| 4.1 || [[1080i]] || [[16:9]] || KCNC-TV || Main KCNC-TV programming / CBS
|-
| 4.2 || [[480i]] || [[4:3]] || Decades || [[Decades (TV network)|Decades]]<ref name="Decades2"/>
|-
|} --->

===Analog-to-digital conversion===
<!----
KCNC-TV shut down its analog signal, over [[Very high frequency|VHF]] channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States [[Digital television transition in the United States|transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts]] under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition [[Ultra high frequency|UHF]] channel 35.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2012-03-24}}</ref> Through the use of [[Program and System Information Protocol|PSIP]], digital television receivers display the station's [[virtual channel]] as its former VHF analog channel 4.

As part of the [[Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act|SAFER Act]],<ref name="FCC Nightlight">{{cite web|url=https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-291375A1.pdf|title=UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program|publisher=Federal Communications Commission|format=PDF|date=June 12, 2009|accessdate=June 4, 2012}}</ref> KCNC kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the [[Digital television transition in the United States|digital television transition]] through a loop of [[public service announcement]]s from the [[National Association of Broadcasters]].

On October 21, 2014, CBS and [[Weigel Broadcasting]] announced the launch of a new [[digital subchannel]] service called [[Decades (TV network)|Decades]], scheduled to launch on all CBS-owned stations in 2015, which KCNC-TV launched on channel 4.2 on January 23, 2015.<ref name="Decades2">[http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/01/21/decades-cbs4-sub-channel-debuts-this-friday/ Decades, CBS4 Sub-Channel, Debuts This Friday (1/21/2015)]</ref> The channel is co-owned by CBS and Weigel (owner of CBS affiliate [[WDJT-TV]] in [[Milwaukee]]), with Weigel being responsible for distribution to non-CBS-owned stations. It airs programs from the extensive library of [[CBS Television Distribution]], including archival footage from [[CBS News]].<ref name="Decades">[http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/cbs-stations-weigel-partner-oldies-digi-net-decades/134996 CBS Stations, Weigel Partner on Oldies Digi-Net Decades] ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (10/21/2014)</ref>

--->

==Programming==
WEAE clears the entire ABC network schedule; however, it is one of the few ABC stations that airs the Saturday and Sunday editions  ''Good Morning America'' two hours later than most ABC stations (aligning it with the program's recommended timeslot in the [[wikipedia:Mountain Time Zone|Mountain Time Zone]]).

When WEAE joined ABC in 2006, the station aired the network's daytime schedule out of pattern as the station, like most other ATE Media-owned ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, aired ''General Hospital'' at 10:00 a.m. instead of the network's recommended 3:00 p.m. time slot until 2012 when the network returned the 3:00 p.m. slot back to its affiliates.


[[wikipedia:Broadcast syndication|Syndicated]] programs broadcast by WEAE include ''[[wikipedia:Rachael Ray (TV series)|Rachael Ray]]'', ''[[wikipedia:Entertainment Tonight|Entertainment Tonight]]'', ''[[wikipedia:Inside Edition|Inside Edition]]'', ''Access Hollywood'' and ''The Insider''. WEAE and [[WMRI-FTV|WMRI]] in Fort Wayne, Indiana are the only ATE Media-owned ABC affiliates that has aired ''Entertainment Tonight'' and ''Inside Edition'' since their debuts.



==News operation==
WEAE-FTV presently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays, 2½ hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces the sports highlight/discussion programs ''Saturday Sports Extra'' (which airs during the final 13 minutes of the Saturday edition of the 11:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast) and  ''AutoNation All Access'' (which airs after the Sunday edition of the 11:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast).

In 1969, Jerry Palmer, who served as anchor of the 11:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast, left channel 8 for WPIT, to replace Bill Rayburn, who left for an anchor job at a station in [[wikipedia:Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]]. In the 1970s, the station ran its late evening newscasts on weekends at 12:00&nbsp;a.m. (one hour later than the typical late news timeslot in the [[wikipedia:Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time Zone]]). 


In 1982, WPIT anchor Tom Stuart left to join WEAE, joining several other new hires such as Stephanie Farrell, Sally Hulinger, Cordy, Jeff White, and Katie Cordy. That June, WEAE-TV debuted a half-hour 5:30&nbsp;p.m. newscast titled ''First News'', which was co-anchored by Lynne Green and Larry Farrell, with Alex McCarroll as the featured reporter on the new show; the program would eventually expand to an hour-long broadcast beginning at 5:00&nbsp;p.m., and remained on the station until it was cancelled in May 1996 in order to air ''[[wikipedia:The Oprah Winfrey Show|The Oprah Winfrey Show]]'' in the timeslot. 


In 2002, Marg Rockford was forced out as general manager of WEAE and replaced by Willow Havens. Meanwhile, Mallory Lopez moved from [[San Antonio]] to join channel 8. In 2003, Juanita Davidson (then known as John E. Davidson) and Tom Stuart served as WEAE's primary evening news team for its 11:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast (reinstating a two-man anchor team for its 11 p.m. newscast and the second ATE Media-owned station after WFAZ Terre Haute), with Bree Maass and Rhonda Sallinger as reporters. On April 21, 2008, Karen Lee (who previously worked at Cleveland sister station WCOH) replaced Jeff Smith as co-anchor of the weeknight newscasts. WEAE also began broadcasting its local newscasts in [[wikipedia:high-definition television|high definition]] on that date, becoming the second fantasy television station in the Pittsburgh market (after WPTL) to make the conversion and the market's third station to broadcast all of its programming, including syndicated programs, in the format (behind WPTL and its sister station [[WPN-FDT|WPN]] (channel 57)).

On May 27, 2010, WEAE implemented a new standardized graphics package for the ABC-owned stations, with the ABC logo (includes the glass design) featured prominently in the package. WEAE retained [[615 Music]]'s ''In-Sink'' as the theme music for its newscasts (whose used upon the 2003 station's rebranding) until September 20, 2013,<ref??</ref> when the station began using [[wikipedia:Frank Gari|Gari Media Group]]'s ''This is Home'' as most of ATE Media's other owned-and-operated stations ([[WMRI-FTV|except]] [[WTXI-FTV|the]] [[WAWZ-FTV|ten]] [[WCIN-FTV|ABC]] [[WLOK-FTV|affiliated]] [[WOWO-FTV|stations]] [[WFAZ-FTV|in]] [[WHOO-FTV|Indiana]] [[WEAI-FTV|owned by]] [[WLFY-FTV|ATE Media]]) did upon or before adopting the standardized graphics<ref>??</ref> (cuts from ''In-Sink'' continue to be used for sponsor tags during the newscasts).

The 5:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast returned to the schedule on June 13, 2011 after a 15 year absence as part of a two hour block leading to the 6 p.m. newscast, with the 4 p.m. only lasting less than three months before it was dropped a second time after the September 2, 2011 broadcast and replaced three days later by ''Rachael Ray''.<ref>??</ref> On January 13, 2014, WEAE expanded its weekday morning newscast to 2½ hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30&nbsp;a.m.

===Notable former on-air staff===




==See also==


==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==




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[[Category:Television channels and stations established in 1953]]
[[Category:Peabody Award winners]]