WUPW

WUPW-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Northwestern Ohio that is licensed to Toledo. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter in Oregon. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, the station has studios at Four SeaGate on North Summit Street in Downtown Toledo. Syndicated programming on WUPW includes: The Office, TMZ on TV, The People's Court, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Seinfeld.

History

The station went on-air September 22, 1985 as an Independent with an analog signal on UHF channel 36. Originally, WUPW was owned by a consortium of local investors and private companies. It became a charter Fox affiliate on October 6, 1986. It was sold to Atlanta-based Ellis Communications in 1993. Three years later, that company was sold to a group led by the Retirement Systems of Alabama who merged with Aflac's broadcasting group to form Raycom Media.

After Raycom acquired the Malrite Communications Group in 1999 (which owned NBC affiliate WNWO-TV), WUPW was spun-off to Sunrise Television due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules at the time prohibiting common ownership of two stations in the same market. WNWO was longer-established and Raycom opted to keep that channel over WUPW.

Until 2001, WUPW was the only over-the-air television station in the area to air cartoons weekday afternoons as the local WB affiliate, WT05, is cable exclusive. Current owner LIN TV acquired this station in 2002 through its purchase of Sunrise Television. Raycom bought CBS affiliate WTOL in 2006 after Liberty Broadcasting merged with Raycom. WNWO was sold to Barrington Broadcasting due to the same FCC rule of common ownership. In early-June 2007, WUPW along with three other LIN TV-owned Fox affiliates switched their websites over to Fox Interactive Media's "My Fox" platform which is already being used by Fox owned-and-operated stations (O&Os;). The LIN-owned channels were the first non-Fox O&Os; to adopt the new site design.

On October 2, 2008, Time Warner Cable’s contract to carry WUPW on its cable system expired and lost the right to carry this channel's programming as a result. On October 29, the station and Time Warner reached a contract for carrying both analog and high definition signals. However, customers in Erie County (except the immediate Sandusky area) and Huron County no longer receive WUPW on local cable. This area is included in Time Warner's Northeastern Ohio region and is served accordingly by Cleveland's WJW. Later in October along with other LIN-owned Fox affiliates, WUPW redesigned its website to remove itself from the "My Fox" template. The new website is also operated by Fox Interactive Media but is now using a design jointly developed by LIN TV and News Corporation.

Its high definition-ready 8VSB digital transmitter was first turned on for broadcasting in 2003. The transmitter is a liquid-cooled solid state system and quickly became known as a very reliable signal as other stations in the Toledo area struggled with the Inductive output tube type of transmitter during the birth of digital television in Northwestern Ohio. The WUPW transmitter has lots of redundancy as it has sixteen amplifiers and hot standby back-up exciters. It also has its own on-board computer system to watch over critical systems. The WUPW transmitter site has a emergency diesel generator to keep the station on-the-air even if a total loss of electrical power were to occur in the city. In June 2009, the station's digital signal remained at channel 46 following the digital transition. However, it can be tuned to channel 36 using PSIP. In early-2010, the FCC received an application from WUPW to nearly double its power from 110 to 200 kilowatts.

The station's broadcast tower is 1,253 foot high that has a seven foot face on each of its three sides. The tower was built by Stainless Steel Tower of Pennsylvania. The top section has a 53 foot aerial mast with a side mount dipole antenna for the transmission of analog television programs. The digital antenna is a side mount made by Dielectric and is mounted at 1,200 feet. It was completed in 1985 and is the property of LIN TV. WUPW airs regional and national sports programming from Fox Sports. Local teams that appear on on WUPW include Detroit Lions regular season games (from NFL on Fox). Since its normal coverage area reaches within 75 miles of the Lions' home Ford Field, it is part of the Lions' blackout area.

News operation

On January 28, 1996, WUPW entered into a news share agreement with CBS affiliate WTOL which resulted in a weeknight prime time newscast at 10 p.m. produced by the latter. Known as Fox 36 News at 10, the show originated from WTOL's facilities on North Summit Street. Most stories were recycled from the CBS affiliate's newscasts. The partnership between WUPW and WTOL ended on July 31, 2000 with this channel's news operation moving to Four SeaGate.

New graphics and a new set accompany the launch of the independent half-hour show known as Fox Toledo News at 10. The broadcast was extended to an hour on August 6, 2001 with a five minute "Fastcast" review of news, weather, and sports ending at 11 while also expanding to seven nights a week. On January 5, 2004, WUPW launched Fox Toledo News First at 4 on weekdays with the nightly 10 o'clock show renamed as First at 10 and a updated set and new graphics. In November 2006, this station took over third place ranking in viewership in the November ratings period which was a position previously held by WNWO. In 2007, it began using the Fox O&O; News Theme and a version of the Fox O&O; graphics package that were modified in-house. The theme and graphics were offered to all Fox affiliates, regardless of ownership, through affiliate news video service Fox News Edge. In September 2010 the station began to offer limited morning news and weather cut-ins in a two-hour programming block known as The Morning Zone, which features the unusual scheduling of off-network stalwarts Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond at 6am and 6:30am, respectively, along with syndicated former Fox game shows Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader and Don't Forget the Lyrics in the latter hour.

September 24, 2007 saw the expansion of First at 4 to an hour. This newscast was canceled on January 11, 2010 and replaced with a show that airs weeknights at 6:30 against national news programs seen on the big three networks. Its weather radar is known as "Stormtracker Doppler MAX". Throughout its existence, WUPW's news department has won many awards. The channel maintains partnerships with the Toledo Free Press, Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, Findlay Living Magazine, Wauseon Fulton County Expositor, and at one time, on WNWT-AM 1520.

As of June 2011, WUPW remains one of two "Big Four" network-affiliated television stations in Toledo that haven't yet made the upgrade in broadcasting their newscasts in high definition or 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. WTVG was the first to make the upgrade in July 2010. WTOL was the second station to go HD in April 2011. WUPW is planning to upgrade its newscasts into high definition near the end of 2011 to early 2012.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

Station slogans

News team

Current on-air staff (as of June 2011)

Weather team

Sports team

Reporters

References

External links