WCPO-TV, channel 9, is the ABC-affiliated television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.
The station is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, which had previously owned the now-defunct Cincinnati Post (which ceased publication at the end of 2007) and its Kentucky edition (which became an online-only publication simultaneously with the closure of the Cincinnati Post). It is the only major Cincinnati television station under the same ownership since its inception as well as the only major station in town to remain owned by a locally-based company.
The station first signed on the air on July 26, 1949 as Cincinnati's third television station. The call letters came from the Post, who also owned WCPO radio, Cincinnati's original Top 40/Rock station (AM 1230, now WDBZ and FM 105.1, now WUBE). Originally on channel 7, it moved to channel 9 in 1952.
The station was originally a primary ABC affiliate, and also carried a secondary affiliation with theDuMont Television Network. With DuMont's demise in 1956, WCPO was left with just ABC until it swapped affiliations with WKRC-TV (channel 12) in 1961, becoming a CBS affiliate. This deal came because WKRC-TV's owner, Taft Broadcasting, had very good relations with ABC.
For three decades, WCPO had been one of CBS' strongest affiliates. However, in 1994, Scripps and ABC announced a long-term affiliation deal, which called for four Scripps-owned stations switching to ABC.[1]WCPO was included in the deal, which ABC agreed to as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV (channel 7) in Detroit and WEWS-TV (channel 5) in Cleveland. Both of those stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox. However, while three other Scripps-owned stations included in the same deal switched to ABC in December 1994 and January 1995, Scripps had to maintain CBS affiliation on WCPO for an additional one and a half years because WKRC's affiliation contract with ABC did not run out until June 6, 1996. On that day the two stations finally reversed the 1961 affiliation swap, with WCPO rejoining ABC and WKRC reuniting with CBS.
In December 2009, WCPO reached an agreement with local Fox affiliate WXIX-TV (channel 19) to pool videographers at press conferences.[2]
1980 Newsroom hostage crisis[]
On the early morning of October 15, 1980, WCPO and most of its news staff became part of a major news story when James Hoskins seized control of WCPO's newsroom.[3] Hoskins held reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman at gunpoint in the parking lot of WCPO's studios. He then forced his way into the newsroom and took seven more hostages.
A self-described terrorist, Hoskins stated in a videotaped interview with Green that he had, among other things, murdered his girlfriend before arriving at the studios. After voicing his displeasure with local government, Hoskins ended by saying that he would let his hostages go, but only after they helped him to barricade himself in their newsroom in anticipation of a shootout with police. Green and the others pleaded with Hoskins to get help, but to no avail. WCPO's news staff ran special newscasts from the parking lot throughout that morning.
Hoskins eventually let all the hostages go, and the standoff ended later that morning when Hoskins shot himself dead while on the phone with SWAT negotiators. Green was awarded a Peabody Award for her handling of the crisis. She later married anchor and then-news director Al Schottelkotte. The two remained married until his death in 1996.
Digital television[]
The station's digital signal, UHF 22 is multiplexed:
Digital channels
Channel
Name
Programming
9.1
WCPO-DT1
Main WCPO-TV Programming / ABC (HD)
9.2
WCPO-DT2
WCPO 24/7 Weather Channel
9.3
WCPO-DT3
Live Well Network
Subchannel 9.2 carries the same 24-hour local weather programming as the Weather Tracker channel on many local cable systems.[4]
Post-analog shutdown[]
WCPO-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States,[5] and remained on its pre-transition digital channel 10.[6] However, since many viewers had reception issues after the digital transition, even with an increase of power just weeks after the transition, the station has filed a Petition for Rulemaking to abandon VHF Channel 10 and move to UHF Channel 22.[7][8] On October 7, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" for WCPO-TV, which gives the public 25 days to comment on the proposed channel change.[9] On December 10, 2009, the FCC issued a Report & Order, approving WCPO's move from Channel 10 to 22.[10] On January 19, 2010, WCPO filed a minor change application for a construction permit for their new allotment. The FCC granted the construction permit on July 9.[11] At 2:05 a.m on December 8, 2010, WCPO performed a flash-cut, turning off channel 10 and started operations on channel 22. This flash-cut also included a power boost to 910 kW.[12]
Programming[]
All Scripps-Howard owned ABC affiliates, including WCPO, preempted Saving Private Ryan in 2004. WCPO produced The Uncle Al Show, a children's show that ran from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s.
News operation[]
Beginning in the early 1960s, WCPO was the undisputed leader in local newscasts, led by anchor and news director Al Schottelkotte, and remained Cincinnati's news leader for over 20 years.
In recent years, WCPO and WKRC have been battling each other for first place in the local television viewership ratings, while NBC affiliateWLWT has been lagging behind in third or fourth place. Typically, WCPO leads the evening news race while WKRC-TV leads in mornings and late nights. Even after the affiliation switch in 1996 involving two of the strongest affiliates of their respective networks at the time, both stations have remained among the strongest affiliates of their current respective networks. Consumer reporter John Matarese's reports have been syndicated to nine other stations, five of which are Scripps-owned, since 2003. However, as of October 12, 2010, Matarese's consumer reports have been aired on 11 other stations, the majority of which are Scripps owned.[13]
WCPO began broadcasting its local newscasts in high-definition on August 19, 2007, beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast. Improvements around the station include upgraded weather graphics that match WHIO-TV's upgrade (see above), new panel displays on set (to replace rear-projection CRT monitors on set and old plasma displays with obvious burn-in) and Scripps purchasing JVC HDPro equipment for WCPO.[14]In the summer of 2009, WCPO upgraded its field cameras to capture high definition pictures. WCPO broadcasts local news in 720p HDTV, which is the same HD format as ABC programming.
2007 controversy[]
On March 7, 2007 at 5:45 am, morning anchor David Rose was pulled off the air for slurring his words. He was let go three weeks later.[15]
Weather coverage[]
WCPO's forecasters are chief meteorologist, Steve Raleigh and meteorologists Larry Handley, Steve Norris and Cyndee O'Quinn. Cincinnati has always been a battleground for weather coverage, especially since the Montgomery/Blue Ash tornado of 1999. WCPO bills their radar as Ultimate Doppler 9, VIPIR 9, and TrueView. Their main radar in Batavia is one of the fastest radars in the nation, with an update usually every ten seconds.
On July 1, 2003, WCPO began to operate a second Doppler weather radar out of the Clermont County Airport in Batavia. In combination with the radar located at WCPO's transmission tower site, both radars were named Ultimate Doppler Radar. The new radar operates at a height of 100 ft. with its base 834 ft. above sea level. Currently, only the Batavia radar is used, even when attenuation at the site leaves a radius around the radar blank. The old radar at the transmission site is no longer used.
In July 2007, WCPO showed its new capability of placing actual satellite images (such as those from Google Earth) on the ground rather than just the green topo map. This helps the meteorologists at the station by showing them exactly where it's raining in relation to streets, buildings, ballfields, etc.
Bob Holtzman - sports anchor (now correspondent for ESPN)
Todd Hunter – staff announcer ("Eeee-leven O'Clock, Al Schottelkotte News Time...") & Weatherman for 33 years
Bruce Johnson – reporter (now weekend anchor and reporter for WUSA (TV) 9News in Washington DC
Sid Keitz – retired newscast director for The Al Schottelkotte News ("Directed by Sid Keitz. You've watched it on Channel 9, the station where news is first")
Janette Smith - noon and 5 pm anchor (1995–1998; went to anchor mornings at WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas; now seen hosting a home improvement show on the DIY Network and on specials for HGTV about Habitat for Humanity)
John Wade – singer/host "The John Wade Show" and "A John Wade Christmas Special" (now lives in Sedona, Arizona)
^ ab Bird, Rick (2002-01-18). "Ch. 9 'On Your Side'". The Cincinnati Post (E. W. Scripps Company). Retrieved 2009-12-03. "...Channel 9 has subtly dropped its 'hometown' moniker, used in promos and news features since 1998. ... Now the station's new positioning statement is '9 On Your Side.'"
