WDTN, virtual channel 2, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Ohio's Miami Valley. Licensed to Dayton, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter in the Frytown section of the city. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 2 and in high definition on digital channel 1002. It is owned by the LIN TV Corporation.

WDTN operates CW affiliate WBDT (owned by Vaughan Media LLC) through a local marketing agreement. The two stations share studios on South Dixie Drive in Moraine (which is in a Dayton ZIP code). However, master control and some internal operations of WDTN are based within centralcasting facilities at sister station WISH-TV in Indianapolis.

Syndicated programming on this station includes: Inside Edition, Jeopardy!, The Doctors, Swift Justice with Jackie Glass and The Nate Berkus Show.

Digital programming[link]

WDTN's signal on UHF 50 is multiplex:

History[link]

Early years[link]

The license for what is now WDTN was granted to the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation of Cincinnati, which was a subsidiary of the Aviation Corporation (later known as Avco), on March 3, 1947. It was the first broadcast television license granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the Dayton market. However due to several delays, it did not actually go on-the-air until March 15, 1949,^[1] twenty days after CBS affiliate WHIO-TV began broadcasting.

The station originally signed onto channel 5^[2] with the call sign WLWD. Named for Crosley's flagship Cincinnati radio station WLW (World's Largest Wireless) + Dayton, it identified on-air as "WLW‑D". WLWD's offices, studios, and studio-transmitter link KUQ-43 were established on South Dixie Highway in the Dayton suburb of Moraine, in a building that had previously housed a skating rink. The studios and offices remain there to this day.

WLWD was one of five stations which made up the Cincinnati-based WLW television network. Other stations included in this network were flagship WLWT in Cincinnati, WLWC (now WCMH-TV) in Columbus, WLWA (now WXIA-TV) in Atlanta and WLWI (now WTHR) in Indianapolis. WLWD provided city-grade coverage of Cincinnati, and provided at least grade B coverage to most of the Columbus market. After the FCC banned common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals, it grandfathered Avco's common ownership of WLWD, WLWT and WLWC.

From its start, WLWD was affiliated with NBC. It also carried programming from DuMont and ABC. The first program shown on WLWD was the Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle.

On April 27, 1953, WLWD switched from channel 5 to channel 2.^[3][4]

WLWD lost DuMont in 1955, a few months before the network shut down. It lost ABC in 1965 (though it cleared some ABC daytime programming until 1971 as a secondary affiliate) when then-independent WONE-TV (now WKEF) picked up ABC's prime time programming.

Game show host and announcer Johnny Gilbert hosted his own local daytime variety/talk show immediately after the local airing of WLW television's Paul Dixon Show in the mid-1960s.^[5][6]

Phil Donahue (former news anchor and radio talk show host at WHIO) began hosting a talk show on WLWD in 1967,^[7] called The Phil Donahue Show, that was more issue oriented (greatly reducing the station's program budget). Donahue's show went national in 1970. Since most programs on the WLW television regional network originated from WLWT in Cincinnati, it was the first time WLWD was the originator of a program.

Aside from Paul Dixon's weekday morning show, other Cincinnati-based programming that aired on WLWD included: The 50-50 Club, hosted by Ruth Lyons (hosted by Bob Braun after Lyons' 1967 retirement), and the Saturday evening country music program Midwestern Hayride.

Due to WLWD's heavy local and regional programming schedule, many network programs from NBC and ABC were recorded on film as a kinescope for later airing. On rare occasions when a program was unavailable (sometimes due to network technical difficulties or if fill time was available before or after a network sportscast), a half-hour series entitled Star Performance, consisting mostly of drama pilots from the 1950s, would air. Fifteen minute mini-documentaries or newsreels would also air as a time filler under the title Miniature Theater.

Avco's broadcasting division continued to operate under the Crosley Broadcasting name until 1968, when it took on the name of its parent company.

WDTN[link]

In 1975, Avco decided to exit broadcasting. As a result, WLWD lost its grandfathered protection, and had to be sold off separately from WLWT and WLWC. It sold WLWD to Grinnell College in Iowa,^[8][9][10] which changed the call letters to WDTN. (From April, 2003 until April, 2010, the WLWD call sign was used by an FM station licensed to Columbus Grove, Ohio, serving the Lima market with a rhythmic hits format. That station has since changed its call sign to WBKS.)

Switch to ABC[link]

By the mid to late-1970s, ABC was searching for stronger affiliates in order to cement its status as the leading network in the country. Its existing affiliate, WKEF, was a distant third in the ratings, and did not have a news department until 1979. ABC's Cincinnati affiliate, WKRC-TV, and its Columbus affiliate, WTVN-TV (now WSYX), were both preempting certain of the network's daytime programs, late night shows, and some of its Saturday morning cartoons. Because of these preemptions, ABC also wanted a station in Dayton with a stronger over-the-air signal, able to reach Cincinnati and Columbus. In late 1979, ABC approached WDTN, which provided at least grade B coverage from northern Kentucky all the way to Columbus (the analog channel 2 signal traveled a long distance under normal conditions), and reached a deal. Almost by default, NBC was then left with WKEF.

On January 1, 1980, WDTN and WKEF swapped affiliations. Under the deal, WDTN was exempt from running ABC's soap operas after 2 p.m., since WKRC-TV easily covered Dayton. In place of One Life to Live and General Hospital, WDTN ran cartoons and off-network sitcoms.

As ABC affiliate[link]

In early September, 1981, Hearst Broadcasting bought the station.^[11]

By the late 1980s, cartoons and sitcoms made way for first run talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show (at 4 p.m.), The Montel Williams Show, and The Jerry Springer Show. WDTN would begin its talk block at 2 p.m. during the week.

In August, 1997, Hearst's television group merged with Argyle Television Holdings II to form what was then known as Hearst-Argyle Television. Argyle had purchased WDTN's former sister station, WLWT, that January. For the same reason that forced the breakup of Avco's television group 20 years earlier, Hearst-Argyle could not keep both stations (common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals would not be allowed until 2000). It opted to keep the larger WLWT and trade WDTN, together with WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, to Sunrise Television for WPTZ in Plattsburgh, New York, WNNE in Hartford, Vermont, and KSBW in Salinas, California. The sale was finalized on July 2, 1998.

In 2000, Time Warner Cable (Dayton's largest cable system) dropped the Cincinnati network affiliates to make room for new cable channels. As a result, ABC soap viewers could no longer see One Life to Live or General Hospital, while over-the-air viewers could still pick them up on WCPO-TV (which had become Cincinnati's ABC affiliate in 1996). As a result, in the fall of 2000, General Hospital was added to WDTN's schedule.

In May 2002, Sunrise merged with LIN TV. After the LIN TV acquisition, One Life to Live was added to the station's schedule as well. From this point on, WDTN aired ABC's entire schedule until the station returned to NBC in 2004.

Return to NBC[link]

On August 30, 2004, in a reversal of the 1980 switch, WDTN became an NBC affiliate for the second time to take advantage of the network's then stronger programming. In another reversal, ABC was left with WKEF by default. Ironically, several months after the affiliation shift, ABC's ratings overtook those of NBC.

On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could have resulted in the sale of the company. In early June, WDTN's website (along with those of several other LIN TV-owned stations not affiliated with Fox such as WNDY-TV, WWHO, WAND, WWLP, and WLFI-TV) underwent a redesign. The web addresses were then operated by the Local Media Network division of World Now for a little over a year until October, 2008, when LIN TV relaunched most of its station websites through Fox Interactive Media (later spun off as the independent company known today as EndPlay). Prior to the World Now contract, the web addresses were powered by Web Pros.

On October 3, 2008, LIN TV pulled WDTN (and its other stations) from Time Warner Cable, due to a dispute over "retransmission fees."^[12][13][14] Time Warner replaced WDTN with a free preview of HBO Family. On October 29, LIN TV and Time Warner Cable reached an agreement, restoring WDTN, as well as offering it in high definition on the cable system for the first time.^[15][16][17]

WDTN ended its analog broadcast on VHF channel 2 on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States.^[18] It remained on its digital channel (50)^[19] using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 2.

On June 4, 2010, it was announced LIN TV would begin operating CW affiliate WBDT (then owned by ACME Communications) through shared service and local sales agreements.^[20][21] Three months later, LIN TV exercised an option to purchase that channel along with another LIN-operated ACME station, fellow CW affiliate WCWF in Green Bay, Wisconsin.^[22] LIN TV requested WBDT's license be assigned to a subsidiary of Vaughan Media (owner of Austin, Texas CW affiliate KNVA, which is also operated by LIN TV). The company holds a 4.5% equity stake in Vaughan Media, but controls most of that company's voting stock, effectively making it a shell corporation for LIN TV.^[23] WBDT was integrated into WDTN's facilities and the merger between the two stations occurred sometime around October, 2010. WBDT originally had studios at Corporate Place in Miamisburg, along Byers Road.

On March 4, 2011, LIN TV's contract with DISH Network expired, and all TV stations owned or operated by LIN, including WDTN and WBDT, were pulled from DISH.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} On March 13, LIN and DISH entered into a retransmission consent agreement, and all affected channels were restored.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Station slogans[link]

• "TV2, Reaching Out To You" (mid–late 1970s)
• "Here's 2" (early 1980s)
• "Say Hello" (mid 1980s–1989, used during period station used Frank Gari's "Hello News" music package)
• "Turn to 2" (1989–1996; general slogan)
• "The Miami Valley's Fastest Growing Television News" (1989–1996; news slogan)
• "Dayton and the Miami Valley's Total News Coverage" (1996–2000)
• "Your Weather Authority" (2000–2002)
• "For News, Turn to 2" (2002–2004)
• "WDTN, Dayton's NBC" (2004–2008)
• "On Your Side" (2008–present)

News operation[link]

In the 1970s and 1980s, WDTN used the Eyewitness News branding. For most of its history, its newscasts have been a runner-up to market leader WHIO-TV. Broadcasts on WDTN remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. On April 11, 2012, the station announced that it was in the process of reconstructing its studios in preparation for the production of high definition content; it also provided photos of the project. No project completion date was given.^[33][34]

On August 18, 2007, the station began to produce a nightly prime time newscast for WBDT, known as 2 News at 10 on Dayton's CW. This show achieved higher ratings than WRGT-TV's nightly prime time news in Dayton's metered market households on the 26th day of its broadcast. That year, 2 News won the "Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence" for the second straight year.

In May 2011, the station changed the name of its weekday 5 a.m. – 7 a.m. newscast from 2 News Sunrise to 2 News Today.^[35] On November 14, 2011, the station moved 2 News Today's start time to 4:30 a.m.,^[36][37] probably in response to WHIO-TV's similar lengthening of its morning news on August 15.

In August 2011, the station announced plans to replace its weekday hour-long newscast, 2 News at Noon, with a local lifestyle talk show called Living Dayton, starting in early January 2012. It was planned that anchor Marsha Bonhart and meteorologist Jamie Jarosik would deliver news and weather at the top of the broadcast, and that the show would cover any breaking news.^[38][39] Living Dayton premiered on February 6, 2012,^[40] with newly-hired hosts Nathalie Basha and Zuri Hall. Later on February 6, it was announced that Jim Bucher would join the show as a contributor.^[41] The inclusion of news headlines and a weather forecast began on February 9; on the same day, Basha and Hall began providing a brief commentary-style discussion of topical issues, sometimes with a guest contributor, immediately following the news/weather segment.^[42]

WDTN includes segments from the syndicated consumer and personal finance series Money Talks with Stacy Johnson as part of its newscasts.

The station maintains news partnerships with several area newspapers. In addition to its main studios, WDTN operates bureaus in Springfield (on West Main Street) and in Xenia‎ (in the Xenia Daily Gazette newsroom on South Detroit Street).

WDTN operates its own weather radar known on-air as "Live Doppler 2X". The station's weather reports are sometimes branded as "Live Doppler 2X", sometimes as "Storm Team 2".

For many years, Charlie Van Dyke was the voice heard on WDTN's station IDs, news intros, promos, and other voice-over work. In September 2011, Van Dyke was replaced by Roger Rose.^[43]

Newscast titles[link]

• News and Sports (general)/Dayton Final (11 p.m. news, 1950–1965)
• TV2 News (1965–1968 & 1984-1989)
• TV2 News World (1968–1970)
• TV2 Nightly News (1970–1971)
• TV2 NewsHour (1972–1977)
• Eyewitness News (1977–1984)
• 2 News (1989–present)

[edit] News team^[44]

Anchors

• Mark Allan - weeknights at 5, 6, 10 (on WBDT) and 11 p.m.
• Michelle Kingsfield - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 10 (on WBDT) and 11 p.m.
• Marsha Bonhart - 2 News Today, updates during Living Dayton; also health reporter
• Holly Samuels - 2 News Today; also reporter

Live Doppler 2X Meteorologists

• Brian Davis (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief, weeknights on WDTN and WBDT
• Jamie Jarosik (NWA and AMS Seals of Approval) - 2 News Today, updates during Living Dayton
• Tara Hastings (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends
• Carl Nichols - retired chief,^[45] now fill-in

Sports

• Jack Pohl - director and anchor, weeknights at 6, 10 (on WBDT) and 11 p.m.
• Neil "Hutch" Konerman - weekends; also sports reporter

Reporters

• Pam Elliot - "On Assignment" team lead reporter (former 2 News Today co-anchor)^[46]
• Dan Edwards
• Jim Bucher - "Bucher's Beat" segment producer, Living Dayton contributor
• Megan O'Rourke - Greene County Bureau
• Jordan Burgess
• Anthony Kiekow
• Alexa Ashwell
• Brooke Moore
• Karrie Rossmiller - 2 News Today traffic reporter
• Nathalie Basha - Living Dayton host
• Zuri Hall - Living Dayton host

Notable former staff[link]

• Len Berman - news and sports reporter, now retired (formerly at NBC Sports and WNBC-TV)^[47][48]
• Julie Chen - reporter (now host of the U.S. version of Big Brother and co-host of The Talk, both on CBS)^[49][50]
• Jodine Costanzo - reporter (now at WPXI)^[51][52]
• Phil Donahue - host of The Phil Donahue Show, as described above
• Johnny Gilbert - local talk-variety show host in mid-1960s, as described above (now announcer on Jeopardy!)
• Kris Long - news anchor late 1970s-early 1980s (now at KPSP-LD)^[53]
• Dan Patrick - sports anchor (now at NBC Sports)^[54][55]

References[link]

External links[link]

• WDTN "Channel 2"
• WDTN mobile
• WBDT "Dayton's CW"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WDTN

Julie Chen
Chen with her husband Leslie Moonves at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Julie Suzanne Chen (1970-01-06) January 6, 1970 (age 42) Queens, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Presenter, news anchor, producer
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Leslie Moonves (2004-present)
Children	1
Website
Official CBS Bio

Julie Suzanne Chen (born January 6, 1970) is an American television personality, news anchor, and producer for CBS.^[1] She has 16 years of newscasting experience. She is best known for co-anchoring CBS' The Early Show, alongside Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez. She has been the host of the U.S. version of Big Brother since its debut in July 2000. She is currently a co-host and the moderator of the CBS daytime series, The Talk, which features a panel of five hosts, discussing controversial maternal topics and contemporary issues. The Talk premiered on October 18, 2010.

Early life[link]

Julie Chen was born in Queens, New York. Chen's mother Wan Ling Chen^[2] grew up in Rangoon, Burma, where Chen's grandfather was a leading industrialist. Her father was born in China and was one of the top leaders in the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek. Consequently, her family moved everywhere in China, eventually fleeing to Taiwan. Her two older sisters are Gladys and Victoria.^[3]

Chen attended Junior High School 194 in the Whitestone area of Queens, New York, where she was voted "Most Intelligent" and "Most Likely to Succeed." She graduated from high school in 1987 from St. Francis Prep after having missed the cutoff scores for specialized high school entrance exams for schools like the Bronx High School of Science, the school her older sisters attended. She attended the University of Southern California and graduated in 1991 with a major in broadcast journalism and in English.^[4]

Career[link]

One of her earlier jobs came in June 1990, interning at CBS Morning News—the series which she would anchor a decade later—where she answered phones and copied faxes for distribution. The following year, while still in school, she worked for ABC NewsOne for one season as a desk assistant. She was subsequently promoted to work as a producer for the next three years. The following year, she traveled to Dayton, Ohio, to work as a newsanchor for WDTN-TV, from 1995 to 1997.^[5][6]

From 1999 to 2002, Chen was the anchor of both early-morning shows, CBS Morning News & The Early Show, alongside Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson. From 2002-2010, she was a co-host for The Early Show on CBS, before leaving the daily position but remaining as a Special Contributing Anchor for the program. Before CBS News she was a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City.

Since 2000, she has also been the host of the American version of Big Brother. During the first season (2000), Chen was widely criticized in the media for her heavily scripted, wooden delivery in her interaction with the studio audience and in the interviews on the live programs, earning her the nickname "Chenbot." She has indicated in two separate interviews,^[7][8] that she takes no personal offense to the term, adding that it may derive from her "precise on-air style" which comes from "a desire to be objective." She again acknowledged the nickname while discussing mugs made in her likeness when she proudly proclaimed, "I am the Chenbot!" in a segment^[9] on the CBS Early Show.

Julie Chen is the moderator of the CBS daytime talk show titled The Talk, along with a panel of other "celebrity" moms. Season 1 of this series featured Chen with the co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Sara Gilbert, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini and Marissa Jaret Winokur who left during the first season.^[10] In August 2011, contract options for Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert and Sharon Osbourne were picked up and extended for Season 2. However, Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete's contracts were not renewed. No official reason was released from the show's producer John Redmann or CBS, which lead to gossip columns and internet forums to speculate on sensational rumors about why they were not asked to come back.^[11][12] In September 2011, they were replaced by co-host Sheryl Underwood and guest hosts actress Molly Shannon and reality TV star Kris Jenner.^[13][14] On October 23, 2011, the show confirmed officially that Aisha Tyler was added as a co-host.^[15] The show is similar to The View although not as politicized. It premiered on October 18, 2010.^[16]

Personal life[link]

Following her graduation from USC as a broadcasting and English major, Julie Chen became a news assistant for ABC News in L.A in September 1991. There, Julie Chen met her future long time boyfriend, TV news editor Gary Donahue. In August 2000, Julie Chen became engaged to Gary Donahue, 28 years her senior.^[17] Julie Chen's busy television career at CBS conflicted with Gary Donahue's desire to settle down and retire so the couple eventually ended their engagement in 2001. Chen focused her time on her career anchoring for both CBS Morning News and The Early Show as well as hosting the popular Summer reality television series Big Brother. Leslie Moonves aka "Les" Moonves is the president and CEO of CBS Television. He began dating Big Brother host Julie Chen during his long separation from his estranged wife Nancy Wiesenfeld Moonves. On April 22, 2003, a week after Les Moonves signed a five-year multimillion dollar contract with Viacom,^[18] his wife Nancy finally filed for divorce in L.A. Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences according to her lawyer Dennis Wasser.^[19] Divorce proceedings were delayed for almost two years due to financial settlement disagreements. On December 10, 2004, Moonves got a court to grant an early divorce leaving spousal support and child support to be determined at a later date.^[20][21]

On December 23, 2004, Julie Chen married Les Moonves in a private ceremony attended by friends and family at a private home in Acapulco, Mexico. Chen wore an ivory gown designed by renowned Lebanese designer Reem Acra, while Moonves wore an Armani suit. Following an old Chinese wedding tradition, Chen walked down the aisle with a coin in her shoe to guarantee prosperity. Following the ceremony, the couple danced to "The Way You Look Tonight" as fireworks lit up the night sky.^[22] Later, Chen explained in a Sirius Satellite Radio interview by Howard Stern that she signed "a very generous" prenup with Les Moonves.^[23] Chen is currently the stepmother of Les' three children: Adam, Michael, and Sara Moonves from his first marriage with Nancy.^[24] On September 24, 2009, she gave birth to a son named Charlie.^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Julie Chen at NNDB
• Archived biography of Chen from one of her first reporting jobs. - WDTN-TV, Channel 2, Dayton, Ohio.
• Interview with Entertainment Weekly discussing Chen, including her opinion on her nickname "The Chenbot."