 | |
 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WAWV-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | September 1, 1965 (1965-09-01) |
Former channel numbers |
|
| ABC (secondary, 1965–1973) | |
Call sign meaning | Channel 2 |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 20426 |
| ERP | 464kW |
| HAAT | 296 m (971 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°14′33″N87°23′29″W / 39.24250°N 87.39139°W /39.24250; -87.39139 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WTWO (channel 2) is atelevision station inTerre Haute, Indiana, United States, affiliated withNBC. Its seconddigital subchannel serves as anowned-and-operated station ofThe CW (viaThe CW Plus). WTWO is owned byNexstar Media Group, which provides certain services toABC affiliateWAWV-TV (channel 38) underjoint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) withMission Broadcasting. The two stations share studios onUS 41/150 in unincorporatedSullivan County (south ofFarmersburg), where WTWO's transmitter is also located.
The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1965. Founded by Illiana Telecasting, the first program ever broadcast on WTWO wasNBC's morning news programToday, which aired at 7 that morning. WTWO, whose call letters were originally assigned to what is now fellow NBC affiliateWLBZ inBangor, Maine, from 1954 to 1958, originally operated as a primary NBC affiliate with a secondary affiliation with ABC; it carried ABC network programs either ontape delay or by airing them live from the network feed through occasional preemptions of NBC programs (the most notable preemption being the 1967–1969science fiction seriesStar Trek).
Eleven days after its sign-on, on September 12, 1965, WTWO began broadcasting network programming incolor. Illiana Telecasting sold the station to Booth Newspapers in 1968. ABC programming was split between channel 2 and primaryCBS affiliateWTHI-TV (channel 10) until April 1973, when the network moved to upstart WIIL-TV (channel 38, nowWAWV-TV, which would eventually drop ABC to joinFox in September 1995 and rejoin ABC in September 2011). In July 1975, Booth Newspapers sold the station toMalcolm Glazer's Fabri Development Corporation. Malcolm Glazer sold WTWO and two of its sister stations,WRBL inColumbus, Georgia, andKQTV inSt. Joseph, Missouri, to TCS Television Partners in 1990. TCS Television Partners sold both WTWO and KQTV toIrving, Texas–basedNexstar Broadcasting Group in 1997.
In the spring of 2006, the station dropped on-air references to its channel 2 allocation in its branding, opting to brand simply by the WTWO call letters; the channel 2 branding was restored on October 18, 2010, when it changed its on-air brand to "NBC 2".
On July 9, 2012,Time Warner Cable replacedCincinnati NBC affiliateWLWT with WTWO on its systems in southwesternOhio and northeasternKentucky, due to acarriage dispute with WLWT ownerHearst Television, that resulted in its stations being pulled from TWC's systems in several markets.[2] Nexstar complained that Time Warner Cable substituted the Hearst stations with its own outside of their market areas without permission, while the provider alleged it was within its rights to carry select Nexstar-owned stations as replacements until it reached a new agreement with Hearst,[3] which Hearst and Time Warner Cable reached on July 19, restoring WLWT on its Cincinnati area systems.[4]
Nexstar announced that it would acquire Media General, owners of rival WTHI-TV on January 27, 2016.[5][6] Despite WTHI's higher ratings, on March 4, 2016, Nexstar and Mission declared their intentions to keep WTWO/WAWV and sell WTHI to another company;[7] four months later; on June 13, 2016, it announced that WTHI and four other stations would be acquired by Heartland Media, through its USA Television MidAmerica Holdingsjoint venture with MSouth Equity Partners, for $115 million, to comply withFederal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership caps.[8]
On September 1, 2024, WTWO-DT2 assumedThe CW affiliation in Terre Haute from WTHI-TV. Nexstar owns a majority stake in the network.[9]
WTWO made national news in January 2006 when it declined to air the controversial NBC dramedy seriesThe Book of Daniel, citing calls and emails from viewers objecting to the show's plotline involvingJesus Christ as the rationale for its decision. In a statement on the station's website, then-general manager Duane Lammers stated "our relationship with NBC always provided for the right to reject programming. I am reaffirming that right to let them know I will not allow them to make unilateral decisions affecting our viewers".[10][11] Due to poor ratings and affiliates in other markets (includingLittle Rock sister stationKARK-TV) also choosing to preempt the program, NBC canceled the show after only three episodes (this incident may have served as the basis for a plotline in a 2006 episode of the short-lived NBC dramaStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip, in which an NBC affiliate in Terre Haute refused to air the titular comedy series in the show because of a sketch called "Crazy Christians").[citation needed]
WTWO presently broadcasts 17 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with three hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Unlike most NBC affiliates in theEastern Time Zone, the station does not air a 5 p.m. newscast; this is due to the fact that it produces one for sister station WAWV-TV, with channel 2 opting to run syndicated programming during the 5 p.m. timeslot.
Newscasts on the station began when it debuted on September 1, 1965, under the titleW-2 News. In early 1968, the station rebranded as "TV-2" (while retaining a hyphen for the branding of the station's calling, rendered as "W-TWO"); its evening newscasts were accordingly renamedTotal News Tonight (the title was later amended toTotal News at Twelve, when the station added a midday newscast at noon, and toTotal News Today for the 6 p.m. newscast). TheTV-2 News title was used in conjunction with theTotal News brand from 1971 until January 1972, when the former became the full-time newscast branding. The station became the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in color in 1971, with Johnny Palmer being appointed as anchor of WTWO's evening newscasts (Palmer remained with the station until he retired in 1992). In 1973, the station adopted theEyewitness News format for its news programs, which remained in use by the station until 1994, when its newscasts were renamedNewsChannel 2 (which was amended toWTWO NewsChannel 2 after Nexstar bought channel 2 in 1997, and then revised asWTWO NewsChannel in 2007).
The station debuted an hour-long news and talk program in September 1998, titledLive at Five. After WTWO entered into ajoint sales agreement with Fox affiliate WBAK-TV, WTWO assumed production responsibilities for channel 38's half-hour primetime newscast at 10 p.m. on January 1, 2004, from WTHI (which had been producing the program since WBAK became the market's Fox affiliate in 1995), in addition to allowing the station to rebroadcast the 6 a.m. hour of channel 2's weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. In May 2007, WTWO began using digital camera equipment for newsgathering purposes. In 2010, the station unveiled a new set for its newscasts, along with a new graphics and music package (using the "Look B" package originally developed by graphics firm NBC ArtWorks for NBC's owned-and-operated stations, along withStephen Arnold Music's "The Rock" package); the station's news operation was also rebranded asNBC 2 News.
WTWO aired a one-minute promo on 2006 that criticized WTHI's weather coverage, claiming that WTHI'sDoppler radar system was inferior to WTWO's because it was located within downtown Terre Haute, resulting in a "dead zone"—the area within the radius of the radar dome where reflectivity cannot be detected—over the city proper, stating that the WTWO radar's "dead zone" was positioned over a corn field and claimed that the combined experience of WTWO's weather staff was more than that of WTHI's staff; it also stated that WTHI's power had multiple points of failure in contrast to WTWO's.[12] The promotion, though technically accurate, became a source of amusement onComedy Central'sThe Daily Show because of its use of hyperbole and techniques reminiscent of political "attack ads".[13] After general manager Duane Lammers called theDaily Show "hard-up for material" in aTribune-Star article,[14] hostJon Stewart[15] mocked WTWO further in the following night's opening segment. A response video toThe Daily Show and Stewart that was supposed to be for internal uses at the station was leaked onYouTube; it has since been taken down, but was uploaded once more oniFilm.[16]
When what became WFXW discontinued its Fox affiliation to rejoin ABC as WAWV on September 1, 2011, WTWO moved its 5 p.m. newscast to WAWV (at the same time, the 10 p.m. newscast was relegated to live streaming broadcast, which was carried on WTWO/WAWV's shared website until it was discontinued on December 28, 2012). WTWO began producing a half-hour midday newscast at noon of channel 38 on September 10, 2012. In addition to handling production of those newscasts, WTWO produces local weather updates seen on WAWV duringAgDay andGood Morning America, as well as morning news updates seen the during the latter network morning program.[17]
On September 28, 2016, WTWO (along with sister station WAWV) began airing local newscasts in HD with a new set. WTWO also changed the newscast title toWTWO News, formerlyNBC 2 News.
In 2025, the noon newscast on WAWV began simulcasting on WTWO, and in turn became a WTWO-branded production.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WTWO-DT | NBC |
| 2.2 | 720p | CW | The CW Plus[9] | |
| 2.3 | 480i | Laff | Laff | |
| 2.4 | Antenna | Antenna TV |
On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement withKatz Broadcasting for the Escape (nowIon Mystery),Laff,Grit, andBounce TV networks (the last one of which is owned by Bounce Media LLC, whoseCOO Jonathan Katz is president/CEO of Katz Broadcasting), bringing the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including WTWO and WAWV-TV.[19] Subchannels Laff and Escape were off the air from July 25, 2017, to May 15, 2018, due to transmission problems. A temporary antenna had been used to broadcast WTWO and sister station WAWV-TV on 2.1 and 38.1. As of May 15, 2018, the new antenna was installed, and all subchannels returned to the air, including newly availableCozi TV.[20][21] On February 1, 2021,Antenna TV replaced Cozi TV on 2.4.[22]
WTWO ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 36, usingvirtual channel 2.[23]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIndiana | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Indiana | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIllinois | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Illinois | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
| ABC | .svg){kind=logo} | |
|---|---|---|
| CBS | ||
| The CW |
| |
| Fox | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| NBC | ||
| Other stations | ||
| TV network |
| |
| Other assets |
| |
| Acquisitions | ||
** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
