WXII-TV

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WXII-TV (digital channel 31, virtual channel 12) is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Greensboro–High Point–Winston-Salem designated market area, serving North Carolina's Piedmont Triad region and parts of Southwest Virginia. It is licensed to Winston-Salem and is currently owned by Hearst Television. Its transmitter is located on Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County, North Carolina. The station is carried on cable channel 11 in most parts of the market.

History

The station began operation on September 30, 1953 as WSJS-TV. It is the third-oldest surviving station in North Carolina, behind Charlotte's WBTV and Greensboro's WFMY-TV. The station at first was owned by a subsidiary of Piedmont Publishing, publishers of the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel along with WSJS radio (600 AM and 104.1 FM, now WTQR), and Hollywood star Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers.

Johnny Beckman, an early employee, recalls working at WSJS-TV in those early years.

There were three of us, and we all did multiple jobs -- the weather, commercials, a teenage dance party. We were all scrambling around trying to make a living. Broadcasting was not high-paying then. The pay has certainly improved, but it was a more enjoyable career than it has become now.

The station has always been affiliated with NBC. ABC was shared with WFMY until WGHP signed on in 1963. The station first broadcast from the basement of WSJS studios on Spruce Street in Winston-Salem. The first broadcast was of the first game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The station originally broadcast from an antenna near Kernersville. The tower was moved to Sauratown Mountain in 1955.

When Piedmont Publishing was sold to Media General in 1968, Gordon Gray, the longtime publisher of both papers, held onto WSJS-AM-FM-TV as Triangle Broadcasting. Gray also received the franchise for the city's cable system. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that TV stations could not also own the cable systems in their markets. Gray was thus forced to sell WSJS-TV in 1972 to Multimedia Inc., who renamed the station WXII-TV. The letters "XII" from "WXII" are the Roman numerals for the number "12", which is the station's channel number. At the time of the call letter change, the station ran a promotional ad parodying the death of Julius Caesar to amplify the Roman numeral theme. Two other stations in the market later switched to Roman numeral call letters (WXLV-TV 45 and WLXI-TV 61; WGSR-LP's previous incarnation also used Roman numerals as WXIV).

Multimedia swapped WXII and WFBC-TV in Greenville, South Carolina (now WYFF) to Pulitzer in 1983 in exchange for KSD-TV in St. Louis (now KSDK). When Pulitzer bowed out of broadcasting in 1997, Hearst bought the entire group, including WXII.

Digital Television

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
12.1	1080i	16:9	Main WXII-TV programming / NBC
12.2	480i	4:3	This TV

WXII digital subchannel 12.2 added This TV on June 1, 2009.

Programming

Syndicated programs on WXII-TV include: Live with Regis and Kelly, Dr. Phil, Anderson, Inside Edition, and Entertainment Tonight.

News operation

File:WXII open.png

WXII newscast title card; seen nightly at 11

WXII currently broadcasts 33.5 hours of local news per week, with 5.5 hours on weekdays and three hours on weekends. A 2½ hour morning newscast begins at 4:30 a.m., followed by one-hour blocks at noon and 5 p.m., a half-hour block at 6 p.m., and a 35-minute wrap at 11 p.m. On weekends, a two-hour morning newscast begins at 5 am, followed by half-hour blocks at 6 and 11 p.m.

Ratings began to increase following a series of severe weather events in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

On February 12, 2010, after the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, WXII became the last local station in the Piedmont Triad to produce its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition, joining WGHP and WFMY. For a few months after the switch, weather graphics were still broadcast in the 4:3 format with blue colored pillarboxing, but since has upgraded the graphics to 16:9 widescreen format. The studio cameras and news packages are in 16:9 SD widescreen. Broadcasts are now in 16:9 1080i High Definition.

News/station presentation

WXII used the "Hello News" theme package in the early 1980s. Their campaign song was "Hello Piedmont." Following the "Hello" campaign of the early 1980s, WXII hired a Florida production company to put together a new image campaign, "Count on Us". This was used for little more than a year and then dropped. In the early 1990s WXII was rebranded "Your Carolina News Connection". As with most TV stations, WXII used custom versions of NBC campaigns—one example being "Come Home to WXII". They also made a local version of "Come Home to the Best, Only on NBC" in 1988, featuring shots of NBC's stars and WXII's anchors throwing a party to coincide with the station's 35th anniversary. The latter clip can be seen on YouTube (originally uploaded by the station itself).

In the mid-to-late 1990s, WXII branded itself as NewsChannel 12, and its positioning statement was "Complete Local Coverage of the Western Piedmont." Once Hearst took full control (around 1999-2000), both the NewsChannel and positioning statement were dropped. The station then began branding itself as WXII 12 News. As of 2008, the station refers to itself (TV and online) as WXII Digital Media.

Newscast titles

• WSJS-TV News (1953–1964)
• Golden Triangle News Report (1964–1971)
• Eyewitness News (1971–1977)
• NewsCenter 12 (1977–1985)
• Channel 12 News (1985–1992)
• Newswatch 12 (1992–1996)
• NewsChannel 12 (1996–2000)
• WXII NewsChannel 12 (2000–2003)
• WXII 12 News (2003–present)

Station slogans

• "Count on Us" (late 1980s)
• "Your Carolina News Connection" (1991–1996)
• "Complete Local Coverage of the Western Piedmont" (1996–2004)
• "Your Home for Piedmont Triad and Southwest Virginia News" (2007–2008)
• "The Number 1 Choice for News in the Triad" (2009–present)

News team

Current on-air staff

News anchors

• Cameron Kent (Weeknights 5, 6 and 11 p.m.)
• Wanda Starke (Weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.)
• Kimberly Van Scoy (Weekday Mornings)
• Nicole Ducouer (Weekday Mornings)
• Margaret Johnson (Weekdays at Noon)
• Ericka Miller (Weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weekday reporter)
• Veronica White (Weekend mornings; also weekday morning reporter)

WXII 12 Weather

• Lanie Pope (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; Monday-Fridays at 5, weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Austin Caviness (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings
• Michelle Kennedy (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Monday-Wednesdays at noon and 5 p.m. and weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
• Brian Slocum (NWA Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Thursday-Fridays at noon and weekend mornings

Sports team

• Kenny Beck - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m. (formerly weekend morning anchor)

Reporters

• Kate Amara - Washington Bureau reporter
• Stephanie Berzinski - general assignment reporter
• Mary Beth Brown - "Girl Talk" feature reporter
• Sally Kidd - Washington Bureau reporter
• Nikole Killion - Washington Bureau reporter
• Arthur Mondale - weekday morning reporter
• Bill O’Neil - investigative reporter
• Rob Wu - general assignment reporter
• Dr. Wiggy - health reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• John Beard - Former anchor and reporter (1976-77). Now at WGRZ in Buffalo.
• Paul Dellegatto - former chief meteorologist (1986–1990). Currently chief meteorologist at WTVT in Tampa.
• Bonnie Schneider - meteorologist. Joined CNN in 2005.
• Jennie Stencel - Former traffic reporter. Resigned on May 14, 2010.

Out-of-market cable and DirecTV carriage

In recent years, WXII has been carried on cable in multiple areas outside of the Greensboro media market. That includes cable systems within the Charlotte market in North Carolina and the Roanoke market in Virginia. On DirecTV, WXII has been carried in multiple areas within the Roanoke market in Virginia.

CATV

In the 1970s and 1980s, WXII was once carried in Moore and Richmond Counties.

External links

• WXII-TV website
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