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| City | Hampton, Virginia |
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| History | |
First air date | September 19, 1953 (72 years ago) (1953-09-19) |
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Call sign meaning | "Virginia's East Coast" (from WVEC radio, nowWXTG) |
| Technical information[4] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74167 |
| ERP | 1,000kW[1] |
| HAAT | 363.9 m (1,194 ft)[1] |
| Transmitter coordinates | 36°49′0″N76°28′5″W / 36.81667°N 76.46806°W /36.81667; -76.46806 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WVEC (channel 13) is atelevision station licensed toHampton, Virginia, United States, serving theHampton Roads area as an affiliate ofABC. The station is owned byTegna Inc., and maintains studios on Woodis Avenue inNorfolk; its transmitter is located inSuffolk, Virginia.
The station began operations on September 19, 1953, onUHF channel 15 as anNBC affiliate.[5] It was signed on by Peninsula Broadcasting Corporation,[6] co-owned by Hampton businessman Thomas P. Chisman and several other stockholders, along with WVEC radio (1490 AM, nowWXTG; and 101.3 FM, nowWWDE-FM). The station switched its affiliations to ABC in 1959, whenWAVY-TV (channel 10) took the NBC affiliation two years after signing on. During the late 1950s, WVEC-TV was also briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network.[7]
In those days, UHF stations were not as successful as VHF stations, and theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) did not yet make requirements for television sets to have UHF tuners. So on November 13, 1959,[8] WVEC-TV moved to its current location on VHF channel 13. Two years later, the channel 15 position would be occupied by currentPBSmember stationWHRO-TV.
In 1980, Chisman sold the station to Corinthian Broadcasting,[9] a unit ofDun & Bradstreet. At the time of the sale, it was the last locally owned and operated "Big Three" station in Hampton Roads. Four years later, Dun sold Corinthian toBelo, which owned theDallas Morning News andWFAA-TV in itshome city.
In 1997, WVEC (along withThe Virginian-Pilot andCox Communications) launched LNC4 (laterLNC5), a24-hour localcable news television channel, featuring repeats of WVEC newscasts and a live 10 p.m. newscast which began airing onWPEN-LP back in 1995. It was carried by Cox Communications on channel 5 within Hampton Roads.Pilot 13 News at 10 ceased production on January 30, 2009, however, the partnership with theVirginian-Pilot was expected to continue on a lesser level. LNC5 was closed on December 31, 2010.
On January 12, 2008, WVEC started producing local newscasts in digitalwidescreen16x9. Though not truly high definition, the digital widescreen broadcasts were rescanned and up-converted from standard definition to 1080i before transmission to match the ratio of HD television screens.[10] It remained the only major station in the Hampton Roads market to continue to air its newscasts inenhanced definition widescreen rather than true high definition until it upgraded to full HD in 2013.
On June 13, 2013, theGannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo.[11] The sale was completed on December 23.[12] Later on in August 2014, Gannett announced it would split its broadcast and digital holdings into a new company,Tegna; the split became official on June 29, 2015. WVEC was retained by the latter company. After the acquisition, the station was standardized on air as13 News Now.
In the late 1980s, WVEC-TV introduced its most well-known promotional campaign, "The Spirit of Hampton Roads"—a campaign which has been customized and used by several other Belo Corporation stations (most notably the originator, WFAA-TV's "Spirit of Texas" campaign and the extremely successful "Spirit of Louisiana" fromNew Orleans'WWL-TV). The campaign was revamped in September 1992 with a new logo and song composed by Nashville-based615 Music. WVEC originally dropped it in 1996 and replaced it with another slogan, "Working for You". "The Spirit of Hampton Roads" would finally return in 2003 onNew Year's Eve. WVEC phased out the "Spirit" image for the second time in 2008.
In 1978, upon the resignation of news anchor Tony Burden, WVEC-TV hiredABC News correspondentJim Kincaid as its main news anchor.[13] Kincaid's signature became his "Jim's notes", short commentaries which ended the station's nightly newscasts. Compilations of these essays were published in several books authored by Kincaid, includingNotes from Elam, referring to the small town inPrince Edward County, Virginia, where his farm was located. During theVietnam War, Kincaid was a war correspondent for ABC. He returned to Vietnam in 1994 and reported from the same locations he had covered in the 1960s, producing an award-winning documentary and series of news stories. Kincaid retired from channel 13 in 1997; he died in July 2011.[14]
Another well-known news anchor for WVEC-TV wasTerry Zahn, who was hired from WAVY-TV in 1994.[15] Zahn was very active with theAmerican Cancer Society and helped establish theRelay for Life in the area. He produced two videos about Relay for Life which were distributed nationally, and served as chairman of the local Relay, which at the time was the largest in the U.S. Zahn was diagnosed withbone cancer in 1997, but remained with channel 13 until his death in January 2000.[15] Each year, the American Cancer Society presents the Terry Zahn Award to a supporter of the Relay for Life. He was inducted into the National Relay Hall of Fame in 1999.
Hampton Roads TV news veteran Barbara Ciara began her career in the market at WVEC-TV, before joining WAVY-TV in 1983. Ciara rejoined channel 13 in 1989 and anchored evening newscasts for the station until defecting to rivalCBS affiliateWTKR (channel 3) in 2000.
On March 7, 2003, formerinvestigative reporter Craig Civale and former general assignment reporter Michelle Louie were engaged during a live segment of "Joe's Job" on13News Daybreak. Louie was filling in for fellow reporter Joe Flanagan, when she was to visit a jewelry shop. During a live shot, out came Civale with ring in hand, where he proposes to Michelle. They both, at the time, had been dating for five years. They were married in September 2004.[16]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WVEC-HD | ABC |
| 13.2 | 480i | Crime | True Crime Network | |
| 13.3 | MeTV | MeTV | ||
| 13.4 | Quest | Quest | ||
| 13.5 | 365 NET | 365BLK | ||
| 13.6 | OUTLAW | Outlaw | ||
| 13.7 | HEROES | Heroes & Icons | ||
| 13.8 | ShopLC | Shop LC |
WVEC ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[21] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 41 to VHF channel 13.
There is one low-power translator of WVEC that is located in theEastern Shore of Virginia and is municipally owned byAccomack County rather than Tegna.[22] WVEC and Tegna do not own or operate any translators in the Greater Hampton Roads area.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofVirginia | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Virginia | ||
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| CBS | ||
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| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
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| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNorth Carolina | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of North Carolina | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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