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| Channels | |
| Branding | WCPO 9 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WKOI-TV | |
| History | |
| Founded | February 20, 1948[1][2] |
First air date | July 26, 1949 (75 years ago) (1949-07-26) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Cincinnati Post (a now defunct Scripps newspaper) |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 59438 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 297 m (974 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°7′30.4″N84°29′56″W / 39.125111°N 84.49889°W /39.125111; -84.49889 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WCPO-TV (channel 9) is atelevision station inCincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated withABC. It is theflagship television property of locally basedE. W. Scripps Company, which has owned the station since its inception. WCPO-TV's studios are located in theMount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati next to theElsinore Arch, and itstransmitter is located at the site of the station's original studios on Symmes Street, in theWalnut Hills section of the city.
WCPO-TV first signed on the air at noonET on July 26, 1949, and the first face seen was Big Jim Stacey.[4] Originally operating on VHF channel 7, it was Cincinnati's third television station. It was also the third television station to be built from the ground-up and signed-on by the E. W. Scripps Company, followingWEWS inCleveland and WMCT (nowWMC-TV) inMemphis. The station's call letters were derived from then-sister radio stations WCPO (1230 AM, nowWDBZ) and WCPO-FM (105.1 FM, nowWUBE), both of which were sold in 1966.[5] Scripps also publishedThe Cincinnati Post, the city's afternoon newspaper whose name served as the basis for the WCPO call letters.
Following the release of theFCC'sSixth Report and Order in 1952, all of Cincinnati's VHF stations changed channel positions.[6] WCPO-TV was reassigned to channel 9, as the previous channel 7 allocation was shifted north toDayton and later given toWHIO-TV; when the channel shift occurred on March 10, 1953, the station's transmitting power increased to the FCC's maximum of 316kilowatts.[7]
WCPO-TV was originally a primary ABC affiliate, maintaining a secondary affiliation with theDuMont Television Network[8] until DuMont's demise in 1956. On April 30, 1961, channel 9 traded network alignments withWKRC-TV (channel 12), becoming aCBS affiliate as ABC moved to WKRC-TV.[9][10] This deal came because WKRC-TV's owner, Cincinnati-basedTaft Broadcasting, had developed very good relations with ABC.
WCPO-TV originally broadcast from a studio on Symmes Street in Walnut Hills, adjacent to the station's self-supporting transmission tower; the WCPO radio stations also operated from this location. On June 23, 1967, WCPO-TV moved its studios into a new, modern facility on Central Avenue in downtown Cincinnati.[11][12]
On the early morning of October 15, 1980, WCPO and most of its news staff became part of a major news story when James Hoskins, armed with a9mm J&R M68semi-automatic rifle and fiverevolvers, seized control of WCPO's newsroom.[13] Hoskins held reporterElaine Green and her cameraman at gunpoint in the parking lot of WCPO's studios. He then forced his way into the newsroom and took seven more hostages.
A self-described terrorist, Hoskins stated in a videotaped interview with Green that he had, among other things, murdered his girlfriend before arriving at the studios. After voicing his displeasure with local government, Hoskins ended by saying that he would let his hostages go, but only after they helped him to barricade himself in their newsroom in anticipation of a shootout with police. Green and the others pleaded with Hoskins to get help, but to no avail. WCPO's news staff ran special newscasts from the parking lot throughout that morning. Hoskins eventually let all the hostages go, and the standoff ended later that morning when Hoskinsshot himself dead while on the phone withSWAT negotiators. Green was given aPeabody Award for her handling of the crisis.[14] She later married anchor and then-news directorAl Schottelkotte. The two remained married until his death in 1996.
For three decades, WCPO had been one of CBS' strongest affiliates. The Cincinnati market was initially unaffected by the1994–96 affiliation switches, as the station was in the middle of a long-term affiliation contract with CBS; however, in September 1995, Scripps and ABC announced a 10-year affiliation deal for WCPO.[15] A year earlier, Scripps had agreed to switch three of its other stations (WMAR-TV inBaltimore,KNXV-TV inPhoenix, andWFTS-TV inTampa) to ABC[16] as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two largest stations,WXYZ-TV inDetroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. Both of those stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose longtime affiliatesWJBK in Detroit andWJW in Cleveland toFox as part of an affiliation deal withNew World Communications.
Scripps had to maintain the CBS affiliation on WCPO until WKRC's affiliation contract with ABC expired the following year; in the meantime, in October 1995, WCPO introduced new "9 Stands for News" station branding that shrunk the CBS logo and revamped its news graphics and theme music,[17] improving ratings.[18] On June 3, 1996, WKRC's contract ended and the two stations reversed the 1961 affiliation swap, with WCPO rejoining ABC and WKRC reuniting with CBS. The last CBS program to air on channel 9 was the50th Annual Tony Awards at 9 p.m. EDT, while the first ABC program to air wasGood Morning America. WCPO set up a toll-free hotline to answer calls from confused viewers. The station debuted new on-air graphics designed by aLos Angeles firm.[19]
On May 15, 2004, WCPO moved its studio facilities from 500 Central Avenue (now the site of an expandedDuke Energy Convention Center) to a new state-of-the-art building on Gilbert Avenue, in theMount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati.
Scripps' Cincinnati combination of WCPO andThe Cincinnati Post ended when the newspaper ceased publication at the end of 2007. (Its Kentucky edition became an online-only publication simultaneously with the closure of thePost.) WCPO is the only major Cincinnati television station that has been under the same ownership since its inception, as well as the only major station in the market to remain owned by a locally based company.
On June 26, 2023, WCPO began airingThe Debrief, a nightly newscast airing at 7:30 p.m. originating from and simulcast onScripps News—Scripps' in-house national news network that airs on subchannel 9.6—as part of a plan by Scripps to integrate Scripps News programming on their main network affiliates as a way to promote Scripps News and increase the network's exposure.[20]
WCPO-TV presently broadcasts 43 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and four hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In recent years, WCPO and WKRC have been battling each other for first place in local news viewership, whileNBC affiliateWLWT (channel 5) has been lagging behind in third or fourth place. Typically, WCPO leads the evening news race, while WKRC-TV leads in mornings and late evenings. Even after the affiliation switch in 1996 involving two of the strongest affiliates of their respective networks at the time, both stations have remained among the strongest affiliates of their current respective networks.
WCPO lacked a dedicated news department until 1959. Al Schottelkotte, a longtime columnist forThe Cincinnati Enquirer (which was then owned by Scripps along with thePost), joined the station as its first news director and anchorman—a post he held until 1986. Within a year, WCPO was the undisputed local news leader in the Cincinnati market, and remained the top-rated station for over 20 years. Partly because of his influence, theCBS Evening News was not cleared by WCPO for most ofWalter Cronkite's tenure; Schottelkotte criticized the program for mostly focusing on world events and believed it "hardly covered anything west of Washington", adding:
Everything you saw [on CBS' newscast] was an epic fromTimbuktu. I was not interested in having the people of Cincinnati waste their time with that kind of news.[21]
Consumer reporter John Matarese's reports have been syndicated to nine other stations, five of which are Scripps-owned, since 2003. However, as of October 12, 2010, Matarese's consumer reports have been aired on eleven other stations, the majority of which are Scripps owned.[22]
WCPO began broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh-definition on August 19, 2007, beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast. Improvements around the station included upgraded weather graphics that match WCPO's upgraded graphics, new panel displays on set (to replace rear-projectionCRT monitors on set and old plasma displays with obvious burn-in) and Scripps purchasingJVC HDPro equipment for WCPO.[23] In the summer of 2009, WCPO upgraded its field cameras to provide high definition video.
In December 2009, WCPO reached an agreement with local Fox affiliateWXIX-TV (channel 19) to pool videographers at press conferences.[24]
On October 1, 2012, WCPO-TV debuted the new Scripps-mandated standardized graphics and music package ("Inergy" byStephen Arnold).
On February 3, 2020, WCPO debuted a new logo and an updated Scripps-mandated graphics and music package, while at the same time dropping the9 On Your Side moniker in favor of simplyWCPO 9 News.
Cincinnati's television stations have used their weather coverage as a selling point, especially since theMontgomery/Blue Ash tornado of 1999. WCPO brands its radars as "9 First Warning Doppler", "VIPIR 9" and "TrueView". The station runs its own radar located inBatavia, which has an average refresh time of ten seconds.
On July 1, 2003, WCPO began to operate a secondDoppler weather radar out of theClermont County Airport in Batavia. In combination with the radar located at WCPO's transmission tower site, both radars were named "Ultimate Doppler Radar", though the transmitter dome was eventually put out of service. The new radar operates at a height of 100 feet (30 m) with its base 834 feet (254 m) abovesea level.Attenuation at the site leaves a radius around the radar blank.
In July 2007, WCPO launched a radar system with satellite imagery to allow fine street-level detail of weather events to specific locations. The TrueView system allows for local and nationwide radar sweeps.National Weather ServiceNEXRAD radars inWilmington, Ohio (which covers Cincinnati, Dayton andColumbus from a central point, as is done in several areas of the country with multiple major cities),Indianapolis andLouisville are used to provide full-market coverage of severe weather events. The VIPIR 9 technology also utilizes the NEXRAD radars and 9 First Warning Doppler to create its 3D images.
WCPO'sinvestigative unit, the I-Team, was created in 1988,[25] following the station's Peabody Award-winning investigation ofDonald Harvey. The I-Team has won dozens of national awards,[26] including the 1992Sigma Delta Chi Award and 1993Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for stories about fraudulent business practices.[27] In 1999, WCPO won the Peabody, duPont, and Sigma Delta Chi awards for Laure Quinlivan's investigations into mismanagement of construction ofPaul Brown Stadium.[28] The station won another Peabody in 2001 for Quinlivan's one-hour documentary,Visions ofVine Street, that aired commercial-free in prime time in the wake of the2001 riots.[25]
In 1967, WCPO introduced the Newsbird, the first news-gathering helicopter in Cincinnati and one of the first in the industry to feature live transmissions.[29][30] On January 17, 1983, theBell 206B ran out of fuel and crashed outside the station.[31]
From 1996 to September 2000, WCPO leased a Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III helicopter out ofLunken Field.[32] Outfitted with several cameras, Chopper 9 was used for traffic reports, updates on construction of Paul Brown Stadium andFort Washington Way, and Friday night football specials. The helicopter proved especially useful for covering the aftermath of the1999 Blue Ash tornado. WCPO allowed the lease to expire in 2000, citing its high cost.[33]
On February 7, 2014, WCPO debuted another Chopper 9, this time a Bell 206B-3 JetRanger, for daily traffic and news coverage.[34][35]
In 2016, WCPO debuted Sky 9, aquadcopter drone featuring a4K-resolution camera.[36] WCPO allowed Chopper 9's lease to expire in February 2020 in favor of Sky 9 drone footage.[37]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WCPO-HD | ABC |
| 9.2 | 480i | CourtTV | Court TV | |
| 9.3 | Bounce | Bounce TV | ||
| 9.4 | MYSTERY | Ion Mystery | ||
| 9.5 | LAFF | Laff | ||
| 9.6 | IONPlus | |||
| 9.7 | HSN | HSN | ||
| 64.5 | 480i | 16:9 | DABL | Dabl (WSTR-DT5) |
WCPO-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[40] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10,[41] usingvirtual channel 9.
Since many viewers had reception issues after the digital transition, even with an increase of power just weeks after the transition, the station filed a Petition for Rulemaking to abandon VHF channel 10 and move to UHF channel 22.[42][43] On October 7, 2009, the FCC issued a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" for WCPO-TV, which gives the public 25 days to comment on the proposed channel change.[44] On December 10, 2009, the FCC issued aReport & Order, approving WCPO's move from VHF channel 10 to UHF channel 22.[45] On January 19, 2010, WCPO filed a minor change application for a construction permit for their new allotment. The FCC granted the construction permit on July 9.[46] At 2:05 a.m. on December 8, 2010, WCPO performed a flash-cut, turning off channel 10 and starting digital operations on channel 22. This flash-cut also included a power boost to 910 kW.[47]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)If you don't like Channel 9's new orange news graphics, don't worry. The graphics change again June 3, when Channel 9 switches to ABC from CBS. Sources say ABC will pick up the tab for another graphics overhaul. Meanwhile, we can watch the CBS eye logo keep shrinking on Channel 9 before it disappears completely in June.
Mr. Chase attributes Channel 9's late-news rebound, in part, to the nightly "Eye On Your World" feature and better graphics.
In 1967, WCPO-TV was the first Cincinnati news department to use a helicopter. ... 'The News Bird' made an immediate impact on spot news coverage and remained an effective part of theAl Schottelkotte News until [Larry] Mason and his helicopter left Channel 9 in 1972.
