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WLVI-TV is the CW-affiliated television station for Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. Licensed to Cambridge, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 56 and a digital signal on UHF channel 41. WLVI's transmitter is located east of I-95 / Route 128 in Needham. The station is owned by Sunbeam Television as part of a duopoly with NBC affiliate WHDH-TV. The two stations share studios located at Bulfinch Place near Government Center in downtown Boston. WLVI is known on-air as "CW 56".

WLVI offers The Tube, a 24-hour digital music video channel, on its DT2 digital subchannel and digital cable. It can be seen on Comcast channel 296 and Verizon FiOS channel 862.

WLVI may air NBC programming when WHDH is not able to do so as in a news-related emergency.

History

Channel 56 is the oldest UHF license in Boston. It first on the air on September 27, 1953 as WTAO-TV. The station's studio and transmitter were located atop of Zion Hill, in Woburn, Massachusetts. WTAO was written off as a failure in 1956 due to low viewership and lack of revenue from sponsors. The station went back on the air as WXHR in 1962 for a six-month FCC study before being taken off the air again.

The channel 56 license was purchased by Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe in 1965 and renamed as WKBG-TV (Kaiser Broadcasting/Boston Globe). The station returned to the air in December 1966, from the same studios/transmission tower atop Zion Hill in Woburn that WTAO/WXHR had utilized. In 1969, the station's studios moved from Woburn to Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester section of Boston. In the early 1970s, the station's transmitter moved to its current site in Needham, Massachusetts. The antenna in Needham enabled channel 56 to better reach the southern portion of the Boston market than the Woburn site afforded.

As a Kaiser station, channel 56's schedule consisted primarily of cartoons, off-network sitcoms and old movies. However, it was willing to experiment with such projects as Universal Television's Operation Prime Time (although Paramount Television would contribute some programs as well) and syndicated reruns of National Geographic specials in prime time. Such common independent-station programming as a Saturday "Creature Double Feature" (following repeats of The Outer Limits) reached youthful and cult audiences. U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien has credited the station's rotation of classic musicals in its prime-time movie offering with encouraging him to consider a career as a performer.

The station constantly lagged behind the sports-heavy schedule of rival independent WSBK-TV (channel 38). Still, it was carried on most cable systems throughout New England, and channel 56 did carry some sports programming of its own, including road games of the Boston Celtics from 1966 to 1969 and road telecasts of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers (now the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes) and the Boston Bruins from 1966 to 1967 .

In 1974, the Boston Globe sold its share in WKBG back to Kaiser. The call letters were then changed to the current WLVI-TV that May, and in 1977, Chicago-based Field Communications (which had owned 22.5 percent of Kaiser since 1972) purchased WLVI and the other Kaiser stations. In 1982, WLVI was sold to the Gannett Company as part of a liquidation of Field's television assets.

Under Gannett, WLVI continued its general entertainment format of children's programming from 6:00 to 11:00 a.m., as well as from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. as the WLVI Kids' Club. For that generation of kids, "Uncle Dale" Dorman was the familiar personality fronting the Kids' Club, hosting the cartoons and appearing in hosted commercial segments. By 1990, Dorman left the station and was replaced by Paul Wagner and Elizabeth Dann, who appeared in new segments of their own and, like Dorman, doubled as announcers.

WLVI also started a news department, which soon resulted in a 10:00 p.m. newscast, and continued use of the Field Communications-style station branding and logo for quite a while. From 1985 to 1990, channel 56 again became the broadcast home of Celtics road games.

In 1994, Gannett sold the station to the Tribune Company, which affiliated the station with the newly-launched WB network in January 1995. The station's newscast later became known as The Ten O'Clock News on WB 56.

The station was temporarily off the air in August 1998 when a crane that was erecting a nearby studio-to-transmitter link (STL) tower collapsed onto WLVI's building. Though no one was injured and the damage was confined to the station's office spaces, the incident resulted in several hundred thousand dollars worth of damages. The station used a satellite truck for network programming downlink and studio space at WCVB-TV for its 10 p.m. newscast.

In 1999, WLVI began a one-year stint as the flagship station of the Boston Red Sox. The station also discontinued its morning kids programming block in favor of a short-lived morning newscast. The station also began running more syndicated talk and reality shows. Afternoon children's programming continued to be provided by Kids' WB until early 2006 . Channel 56 was the last commercial station in the Boston market that continued to broadcast weekday children's programming.

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge into a new network called the CW. On September 18, 2006, WLVI became the CW's Boston affiliate. At that point, WLVI became known as Boston's CW. To correspond to the affiliation switch, the station's daily 10 PM newscast became known as The Ten O'Clock News on Boston's CW.

On September 14, 2006, four days prior to the launch of the CW, Tribune Broadcasting announced that WLVI would be sold to Sunbeam Television for $117.3 million. After getting final approval in late November 2006 from the FCC, Sunbeam consolidated WLVI with its existing Boston station, WHDH-TV, creating Boston's second television duopoly (the other is CBS-owned WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV). WLVI was moved into WHDH's studios in downtown Boston, and the station's news department was closed. The consolidation resulted in about 130 layoffs from WLVI, though some newsroom staffers were retained by WHDH, which took over production of WLVI's daily 10 PM newscast.

Even though the sale to Sunbeam had already become official by then, Tribune continued to operate WLVI until December 18, 2006, when the Tribune-run station website was closed and replaced with a redirect to the new WHDH-run website, and the final Tribune-produced newscast aired. With the sale, WLVI has become known as CW 56 or New England's CW. It has largely become a "pass-through" for automated programming.

Also with the sale to Sunbeam, WLVI is the largest CW station not owned by either Tribune or CBS Corporation, the two main founding ownership groups of the network.

News Operation

On December 1, 1969, WKBG debuted a 10 p.m. newscast, called Ten PM News, anchored by legendary Boston TV anchorman Arch MacDonald. It is also notable for being the first on-screen job for Natalie Jacobson, who went on to become lead anchor at WCVB-TV in the 1970s. This newscast was short-lived, however. Another station in the Boston market, WXPO-TV in Lowell, had also briefly done a 10 p.m. newscast in 1969.

Field Communications started a news department shortly before putting the station up for sale and began a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast, which initially was a pair of ten-minute locally-produced inserts in what otherwise was an hour-long simulcast of CNN Headline News. Under Gannett ownership, WLVI expanded it into a half-hour, 10 p.m. newscast on April 23, 1984, the third attempt at a primetime newscast in the Boston market. Debuting as The News at Ten, it established itself with top-drawer talent early on, with Boston news veteran Jack Hynes as lead anchor, Bill O'Connell handling sports. Hynes' co-anchors in the first several years included Julie Emry, Darlene McCarthy (who later went to WHDH-TV), Uma Pemmaraju, and finally Karen Marinella, who arrived in 1990 and remained until the end of WLVI's Tribune newscast in December 2006.

By the early 1990s, the newscast had become THE Ten O'Clock News (always emphasizing "the"), and had expanded to a full hour.

For well over a decade, WLVI was the 10:00 news ratings leader, with or without competition in the arena. Though Boston PBS station WGBH-TV was the only other local station running a newscast at 10:00 (until 1991), it was not considered a major competitor since WGBH-TV is a public television station. In the fall of 1993, Fox affiliate WFXT launched the NECN-originated Fox 25 News at Ten and independent WSBK-TV introduced the WBZ-TV-produced WBZ News 4 on TV38, giving WLVI serious competition. By then, 10 p.m. viewers were loyal to WLVI, and the station remained number-one in the ratings.

At that time, Jack Hynes relegated himself to weekday contributor/fill-in anchor while regularly anchoring the weekend newscasts, paving the way for later lead anchors Jon Du Pre, Jeff Barnd, and finally Frank Mallicoat. Mallicoat had handled sports and general assignment reports before stepping up to co-anchor the 10 p.m. weeknight news with Karen Marinella in 2002.

Another mainstay of WLVI's The Ten O'Clock News was chief meteorologist Mike Wankum, who first joined the team in 1993. Wankum soon gained a following with his unique approach to forecasting and won numerous New England Emmys.

The only time WLVI programmed news outside their established 10 p.m. slot was starting in June 2000, when they premiered Boston's WB in the Morning. A mix of news, talk and lifestyle features, the show aired for two hours in the morning, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Previously, sitcom reruns and some children's programming had aired here, but the station managed to keep the same amount of kids' shows on the schedule without sacrificing. The program lasted two years, but couldn't hold its own against the other local newscasts and national morning shows, and was cancelled in the spring of 2002.

By 2003, with fierce competition emerging from WFXT's now-in-house news department, ratings for WLVI's 10 p.m. news started to slide. Within a year, the station had fallen to third place, behind both WFXT (which was now #1) and WSBK-TV's Nightcast at 10 (produced again by WBZ-TV). As the WSBK newscast was cancelled in January 2005, WLVI was left in second place, but would not regain its former glory during the rest of its tenure as a Tribune station.

Due to the increasing popularity of the WFXT newscast and after Tribune closed local television newsrooms in Philadelphia and San Diego, there were unconfirmed rumors that Tribune would shut down the WLVI news department and have it outsourced to another channel or even cancelled altogether. WLVI had initially denied that its newsroom would be closed.

File:Wlvi new news.JPG
Ad for WHDH-produced newscast from WLVI's website.

As a result of the sale to Sunbeam Television, WHDH took over production of WLVI's 10 PM newscast using its existing staff. As the sale only covered the license, network affiliation, and technical equipment, most of WLVI's 150 employees remained employed by Tribune until being let go. Newscaster Jack Hynes closed the station's final newscast noting: "someone (else) should have bought the station", calling the sale and shutdown "a tragic chapter in Boston's television history." [1]

WHDH started producing WLVI's newscast on December 19, 2006. On that date, the newscast became known as 7 News at 10 on CW 56. WHDH has indicated that there might eventually be a new weekday morning newscast again on WLVI which would compete with WFXT's highly popular weekday morning newscast. [2]

From the start of the WHDH-production on WLVI until July of 2007, the newscasts featured the music and graphics package currently used on Sunbeam's only other television property WSVN in Miami. Starting in July, WLVI began airing a newscast opening that resembles those seen on WHDH, except with a 7 News at 10 title. Consequently, the transitions are much flashier than the Tribune-produced newscast and even those on WHDH. There is no "CW 56" channel bug shown during the newscast. Instead, there is a Circle 7 logo with a smaller "CW 56" logo below that. The newscast airs from 10 to 11 PM seven days a week. This is a change, as Tribune produced only a half-hour newscast on Saturday nights. For use on WLVI, WHDH has introduced new lifestyle and entertainment segments to fill the hour-long newscast mirroring some from WSVN.


News Team

File:Petebouchard.JPG
WHDH's Chief Meteorologist seen weeknights on WLVI.

Weekdays

  • Anchors:
    • Matt Lorch
    • Frances Rivera
  • Weather:
    • Pete Bouchard
  • Sports:
    • Joe Amorosino
  • Entertainment:
    • Romeo


Weekends

  • Anchors:
    • Brandon Rudat
    • Nichelle King
  • Weather:
    • Dylan Dreyer
  • Sports:
    • Dave Briggs


during WHDH-produced WLVI newscasts, additonal new personnel from WHDH are used, see the WHDH article for a complete listing

Past Personalities

These personalities were part of WLVI's last news team until the station was sold to Sunbeam Television. Three people from this news team have found new jobs at other stations in the market.

Weekdays

  • Frank Mallicoat - anchor (now at WFXT as Sunday morning anchor and weekday reporter)
  • Karen Marinella - anchor
  • Mike Wankum - Chief Meteorologist (now at WCVB-TV as weekend evening meteorologist)
  • Mike Ratte - Sports Director


Weekends

  • Paul Mueller - anchor and weeknight reporter (now at WRNN-TV)
  • Stephanie Leyden - anchor and weeknight reporter
  • Joe Venuti - meteorologist (now at WCVB-TV as Sunday morning meteorologist and weather producer)
  • Jamie Kenneally - sports anchor


These other notable personalities were also part of WLVI's own in-house news team when the station produced its own newscasts.

  • Arch MacDonald - first anchor
  • Jerry Brown - first Chief Meteorologist
  • Jack Hynes - anchor (retired)
  • Natalie Jacobson - anchor (now at WCVB-TV)
  • Bill O'Connell - sports anchor / reporter
  • Bob Gamere - sports anchor / reporter
  • Steve Udelson - Chief / weekend meteorologist
  • Ron Harris - Chief / weekend meteorologist
  • Julie Emry - anchor
  • Darlene McCarthy - anchor
  • Uma Pemmaraju - anchor (now at FOX News Channel)
  • Odetta Rogers - anchor
  • John Rooke - sports anchor / reporter
  • Joe Shortsleeve - anchor (now at WBZ-TV)
  • Jon Du Pre - anchor
  • Jeff Barnd - anchor (now in Philadelphia)
  • Glenn Pearson - anchor
  • Genevieve Rossi - morning reporter
  • Karen Twomey - reporter (now at WBZ-AM)
  • Jon Monahan - reporter (now at WFXT-TV)
  • Darin Adams - morning meteorologist
  • Rosalind Jordan - reporter
  • Christina Huey - weekend anchor
  • Lauren Jiggetts - reporter (now at WMAQ-TV)
  • Terrell Harris - reporter
  • Shelli Lockhart - anchor (now at WDAF-TV)
  • Jon Keller - critic at large (now an WBZ-TV)
  • Barbara Morse - health reporter (now at WJAR)
  • Jim Smith - reporter (now on WBZ-TV)
  • Barbara Conrad - weekend meteorologist


This list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

Administration

  • Robert Burns - General Sales Manager
  • Paul Magnes - Local Sales Manager
  • Heather Hazelton - National Sales Manager


Account Executives

  • Marcy Burt
  • Jim Depaul
  • Christina Humphrey
  • Jim Melody
  • Charlie Sheilbler


References

Template:New Hampshire TV

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