WSYX
WSYX, channel six, is the
ABC television affiliate in
Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group and is the sister station to Fox affiliate
WTTE (channel 28). The two stations share a studio facility in the
Grandview Heights section of Columbus.
The station began operations on
August 30,
1949 as
WTVN-TV, Columbus' second television station. It was owned initially by Picture Waves, Inc., a local firm that also operated
WTVN radio (610 kHz.). During 1950, Picture Waves sold the WTVN stations to the
Taft Television and Radio Company, which was based in
Cincinnati. Taft signed-on WTVN-FM (96.3 MHz., now
WLVQ) in 1959.
WTVN-TV was an affiliate of the
DuMont network at its inception, and in 1953 took on a secondary affiliation with ABC. Channel six became an exclusive ABC station when DuMont closed down operations in 1956. In the early 1970s, Taft's ownership of WTVN-TV and
WKRC-TV in Cincinnati was awarded "grandfather status" by the
Federal Communications Commission which, under its newly-enacted "
one-to-a-market" rule, prohibited television stations with overlapping signals to share common ownership while protecting existing instances. (One of channel six's competitors, Crosley/Avco-owned WLWC [channel 4, now
WCMH-TV], was also given grandfathered protection through a similar situation.)
In 1987 Taft Broadcasting underwent a corporate restructuring, which saw Cincinnati-based financier
Carl Lindner acquire a majority of Taft's shares. The company was renamed Great American Broadcasting, and as the FCC recognized the restructuring as an ownership change, WTVN-TV could not be retained by Great American. A group of former Taft Broadcasting shareholders led by the Bass brothers, purchased WTVN-TV in October 1987 for their new company, called Anchor Media. In January 1988, after assuming control of channel six, the new owners renamed the station
WSYX. WTVN radio and WLVQ-FM remained owned by Great American Broadcasting for the next several years.
Anchor Media, which also purchased
KOVR in
Stockton, California during 1988, was bought by River City Broadcasting in 1993. River City was merged into the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. Sinclair owned Columbus' Fox affiliate WTTE, but sold that station to Glencairn, Ltd. after announcing its purchase of River City. Though the FCC did not yet permit the ownership of two television stations in the same market, Sinclair operated a
de-facto duopoly in Columbus because the Smith family (Sinclair's founding owners) controlled nearly all of Glencairn's stock. Sinclair circumvented the rules further by operating the two stations under a
local marketing agreement, with WSYX as the senior partner. In 2001, Sinclair tried to acquire Glencairn outright, but the FCC permitted Sinclair to acquire only four of Glencairn's stations (WTTE was not one of the four stations to be acquired by Sinclair outright; in this case, Sinclair's re-acquisition of WTTE would have violated FCC rules forbidding common ownership of two of the four largest stations in a single market). Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting, but is still effectively owned by Sinclair because nearly all of its stock is owned by trusts controlled by the Smith family.
In August 2006, WSYX launched a digital subchannel to carry programming from
My Network TV, a new programming service from
News Corporation, the parent company of Fox . It's branding will be Mytv Columbus
Channel six was generally in last place in the local news ratings, except for two periods when the station was intensely competitive (from 1977 to 1983, and from 1988 to 1992). Over the years, the station has featured high profile Columbus anchors including Tom Ryan, Pat Lalama, I.J. Hudson, Lou Forrest (known as Louis de la Foret on
CNN Headline News), and Deborah Countiss.
Liz Claman, now an anchor on
CNBC, and Carol Costello, now an anchor on CNN, were also one time anchors on WSYX.
Currently, WSYX's combined news operation with sister station WTTE is called "Columbus' NewsCenter", producing seven hours of news a day on channel six. Piror to at least the late 1990's, WSYX's newscasts were long known as "Action 6 News". The stations place a prime focus on their weather operation, which subscribes to
AccuWeather, by placing the forecast near the beginning of each newscast and by providing weather updates every eight minutes during morning newscasts. WSYX and WTTE did not participate in the wider implementation of Sinclair's
News Central format for its newscasts, but it has continued to air "The Point", a one-minute political commentary that is a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts.
Because the audio component of television channel six is located at 87.7 MHz, WSYX emphasizes the fact that many FM radios can also receive the station when a television set is not nearby. Other examples of this include
WRGB,
WDSU,
WTVJ, and
WLNE.
Weekdays
*
NewsCenter Mornings on ABC 6 - 5:00-7:00 a.m.
*
NewsCenter at Noon on ABC 6 - Noon-1:00 p.m.
*
NewsCenter at 5 on ABC 6 - 5:00-6:00 p.m.
*
NewsCenter at 6 on ABC 6 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
*
NewsCenter NightTeam on ABC 6 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.'''
Current personalities*Anne Allred, Reporter
*Susan Burton, Health Reporter
*Lisa Colbert, Weather Anchor
*Sean Cuellar, Anchor/Reporter
*Crystal Davis, Reporter/Meteorologist
*Johnny DiLoretto, Entertainment Reporter
*Maria Durant, Reporter
*Clay Hall, Sports Director/Anchor
*Yolanda Harris, Anchor
*Kent Justice, On Your Side Reporter
*Carol Luper, Senior reporter
*Jerry Martz, Chief Meteorologist
*Shannon McCormick, Reporter
*Megan Pringle, Morning anchor
*Anthony Rothman, Sports Anchor
*Mike Rowe, Anchor/Reporter
*Dr. Marivi Soto, Checkup
*Gabe Spiegel, Anchor
*Terri Sullivan, Anchor
*Dana Turtle, Reporter/Meteorologist
*Simone Wilkinson, Reporter
Past personalities*Donna Hanover, anchor. (ex-wife of former
New York City Mayor
Rudy Giuliani)
*Bob Alan, weather.
*Mike Bettes, meteorologist. Now at
The Weather Channel.
*Terre Blair, anchor. (Married songwriter
Marvin Hamlisch.)
*Kimberly Boles, anchor/reporter.
*Chris Bradley, meteorologist. (1998-2005) Now the Chief Meterorologist on
WBNS-TV as of July 2006.
*Charlene Brown, noon/5:30 anchor (1990-2001)
*Tom Burris, anchor.
*Don Carson, chief meteorologist (1980-1986)
*Liz Claman (1989-1991) Now at
CNBC*Kirstin Cole, anchor.
*Larry Cosgrove, chief meteorologist. (1986-1989)
*
Carol Costello, anchor. (1988-1990) Now at
CNN*
Chad Myers, chief meteorologist. (1989-1994) Now at
CNN*Deborah Countiss, anchor.
*Wendi Craver, anchor.
*Jim Finnerty, anchor (1987-1988)
*Michele Gailiun, anchor.
*Keisha Grant, anchor/reporter.
*Earl Green, anchor (1974-1980)
*Jon Greiner, anchor.
*Lou Forrest, anchor. (1988-1992)
*Lonnie Haskins, sports director.
*Bob Hetherington, anchor.
*I.J. Hudson, anchor.
*Mike Jackson, anchor/reporter
*Bud Kaatz, sports director (-1982)
*Bruce Kirk, 5:00 anchor/reporter (1970s-1980s)
*Pat Lalama, anchor.
*
Dwight Lauderdale, early 1970's, now at
WPLG*Tom Lawrence, main anchor (1992-1994)
*Tom Layson, anchor.
*Rick Lord, reporter
*Tram Mai, anchor/reporter.
*Karen Massie, anchor/reporter
*Steve Minich, sports anchor (1980's)
*Meredith Paul, anchor.
*Liz Ogletree, reporter
*Mariza Reyes, reporter
*Ralph Robinson
*Tom Ryan, anchor. (1979-1987)
*Calvin Sneed, consumer reporter (1986-1989), now at WTVC-TV, Chattanooga
*Lorene Wagner, anchor.
*Shelley Walcott, Reporter
*Ben Woods, meteorologist. (1994-1998)
*
WSYX Website
