WHOI

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WHOI
Peoria, Illinois
Branding	HOI 19 (general) HOI News (newscasts) (pronounced "H-O-I") CW 4 (on DT2)
Slogan	Your Heart of Illinois
Channels	Digital: 19 (UHF)
Subchannels	19.1 ABC 19.2 The CW
Affiliations	ABC (secondary until 1957)
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting (operated through JSA and SSA by Granite Broadcasting Corporation) (Barrington Peoria License, LLC)
First air date	October 20, 1953
Call letters’ meaning	Heart Of Illinois
Sister station(s)	WEEK-TV WAOE
Former callsigns	WTVH-TV (1953–1965) WIRL-TV (1965–1973) WRAU-TV (1973–1985)
Former channel number(s)	8 (VHF analog, 1953-63) 19 (UHF analog, 1963-2009) 40 (UHF digital, 2003-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1953–1957) DuMont (secondary, 1953–1955)
Transmitter Power	195 kW
Height	203.1 m
Facility ID	6866
Transmitter Coordinates	40°39′11.1″N 89°35′14.4″W / 40.653083°N 89.587333°W / 40.653083; -89.587333 (WHOI)

WHOI is the ABC-affiliated television station for Peoria, Illinois. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on North Stewart Street in Creve Coeur. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station is operated by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation through a joint sales agreement (a.k.a. JSA) and shared services agreement (a.k.a. SSA). This makes WHOI a sister station to NBC affiliate WEEK-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WAOE. All three share studios on Springfield Road in East Peoria. Syndicated programming on WHOI includes: Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Ellen, and The Doctors. They operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel and Comcast channel 4. Known on-air as CW 4 from the cable channel, WHOI-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus.

Digital programming

The station's signal is multiplexed.

History

Channel 19 was Peoria's second television station signing-on as WTVH-TV on October 20, 1953. The station was owned-and-operated by Hilltop Broadcasting which was co-owned by the Peoria Journal Star. ^[1] Its original studios were at 234 North Madison Street in downtown Peoria. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on VHF channel 8 ^[2], it was a primary CBS affiliate but also carried shows from ABC and DuMont. The latter ceased operations in 1955 and WTVH lost CBS when WMBD-TV began broadcasting.

The Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, later known as Metromedia, purchased the station in 1959 and owned it for six years up to 1965. They were then sold to the owners of WIRL-AM who changed the call sign to WIRL-TV. It became WRAU-TV in 1973 and adopted its present calls of WHOI in 1985. The call sign WTVH was picked up by channel 5 in Syracuse, New York around 1976. In 1963, WHOI was bumped down to UHF channel 19 so that a third commercial VHF station could sign-on in the Quad Cities using that channel (the new station, WQAD-TV, is also an ABC affiliate).

In 1987, WHOI came under the ownership of Adams Communications following a merger with their previous owner, Forward Communications. The station was sold to Brisette Broadcasting in 1991 then to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. When Benedek merged with Gray Television in 2002 following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, WHOI was spun off to Chelsey Broadcasting. Starting in 1998, it began to run a cable-only WB affiliate "WBPE" on channel 4 on most systems in the area. Barrington Broadcasting became the owner of WHOI in 2004. On September 18, 2006, when The WB and UPN merged to create The CW, "WBPE" became part of The CW Plus which is a similar operation to The WB 100+. WHOI's digital signal added a new second digital subchannel to simulcast this programming to offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. ^[3]

On March 2, 2009, it was announced that the operations of WHOI and its CW subchannel would be taken over by WEEK-TV through a joint sales agreement and shared services agreement. Sixteen employees were transferred to WEEK-TV but as many as thirty were laid off immediately while WHOI moved to WEEK's studios. ^[1] This left the five full-power commercial stations in the market operated by two entities. The WHOI and CW subchannel websites were immediately changed to redirects to WEEK's web address. As part of the agreement, Granite-owned CBS affiliate WTVH which is the oldest television station in Syracuse, was folded into Barrington's NBC affiliate WSTM-TV in a similar way on the same day. ^[4] On June 12, 2009, WHOI remained on channel 19 when the analog to digital conversion completed. ^[5]

Newscasts

During the 1980s and early-1990s, WHOI aired a nightly 5:30 o'clock newscast and showed ABC World News Tonight weeknights at 6 and weekends at 5. This provided viewers with a local broadcast seven nights a week while other stations aired national news. By 2009 before being consolidated with WEEK-TV, WHOI produced local newscasts weeknights at 5, 6, and 10; Saturday nights at 6 and 10; and Sunday nights at 5:30 and 10. The weekday morning show, HOI News Daybreak, continues to air from 5 to 7 after America This Morning and before Good Morning America. After the merger, four personalities were merged with WEEK's news department and continue to be seen on-air. Otherwise, WHOI uses other personalities from that station for all other content. The weeknight 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts were replaced with one at 5:30 and ABC World News Tonight, now known as World News with Charles Gibson, was moved back to 6. There is still a local newscast weeknights at 10. The weekday broadcasts air from a secondary set at WEEK's studios and WHOI simulcasts that station's weekend news. Like all CW Plus stations in the Central Time Zone, WHOI-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 5 to 8.

Current personalities

+ denotes WHOI personnel integrated with WEEK-TV

Anchors

• + Mark Welp - weekday mornings
• + Jen Christensen - weeknights
• Denise Jackson - weekends and reporter

Meteorologists

• Lee Ranson - weeknights at 5:30
• Chuck Collins - weeknights at 10
• + Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings
• Jeff Muniz - weekends and reporter

Sports

• + Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights at 10
  • Sports Final host
• Marc Strauss - weekends and reporter
• Josh Simon - reporter
• Lee Hall - Sports Final host

Reporters

• Eric Shangraw - "You Gotta Eat" segment producer
• Michelle Mantel - producer
• Emily West
• Gina Ford

Past personalities

These personalities were seen on-air until the consolidation with WEEK-TV.

Anchors

• Mark Welp - weekday mornings (retained)
• Tim McGinnis - Managing Editor seen weeknights
• Jen Christensen - weeknights (retained)
• Laura Michels - weekends and reporter

Storm Team 19 Meteorologists

• Ric Kearbey - Chief seen weeknights
• Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings (retained)
• Jessica Wheeler - weekends and reporter
  • fill-in anchor now at WWMT

Sports

• Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 10 (retained)
• Donnie Tillman - weekends and reporter

Reporters

• Brock Spencer - Assignment Editor and special projects
• Ian Schwartz
• Nishi Gupta

These personnel were also seen on the station at some point in time.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast titles

• 19 Eyewitness News (1992-1995)
• HOI 19 News (2001-present)

Station slogans

• Count on a Friend, Turn to 19 (1989-1992; used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
• The Heart of Illinois (1992-2008; general slogan)
• Your News Source (1992-1995)
• Where Every Second Counts (2002-2008; news slogan)
• Accurate. Balanced. To the Point. (news) / Your Heart of Illinois (general; 2008-present)

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References

External links

• WHOI page on WEEK-DT's website
• ABC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHOI