WAND (channel 17) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...
licensed to
Decatur, Illinois, United States, serving the
Central Illinois
Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the state, divided from north to south. Also known as the ''Heart of Illinois'', it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agri ...
region as an affiliate of
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
. Owned by
Block Communications
Block Communications Inc. (also known as Blade Communications) is an American privately held holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in New York City when ...
, the station maintains studios on South Side Drive in Decatur, and its transmitter is located along
I-72
Interstate 72 (I-72) is an Interstate Highway in the midwestern United States. Its western terminus is in Hannibal, Missouri, at an intersection with U.S. Route 61 (US 61); its eastern terminus is at Country Fair Drive in Champai ...
, between
Oreana and
Argenta.
Although WAND's
call letters
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
sound like "
wand
A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic.
Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which ...
" if pronounced as a word, the station is never referred to in that manner; it is always mentioned on air as "W-A-N-D."
History
![WAND and WBUI towers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/WAND_and_WBUI_towers.jpg)
The station began operations on June 17, 1953 as WTVP, owned by the Prairie Broadcasting Company of Decatur (the call letters stood for "Television Prairie"). It broadcast an
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
signal on UHF channel 17 from a tower southwest of Decatur. It is the oldest station in central Illinois, and the state's second-oldest station on the UHF band. It initially hoped to pick up programs from all four networks of the time. Those hopes were dashed, and WTVP had to settle for a primary affiliation with
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and a secondary affiliation with
DuMont. It was one of ABC's first fourteen primary affiliates, and one of the few early ABC affiliates on the UHF band that survived the 1950s.
Like many stations in medium-sized
markets, WTVP initially was not able to get a direct network feed. The station had to rely on
kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...
s of ABC and DuMont programming from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and the programs often aired two weeks after their live broadcast. By October, however, WTVP was able to get ABC programming live from a
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...
link in
Danville. At this time, it also took on a secondary
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliation. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several f ...
.
Even after
WCIA
WCIA (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Champaign, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Central Illinois region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Springfield-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate W ...
signed-on from
Champaign
Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...
in November, WTVP continued to air some CBS programs until 1959.
WTVP was sold to a
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based group in 1958, only to be sold two years later to
Metromedia
Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...
. In 1961, the station activated a
low-powered translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
on channel 70 in Champaign. At the time, channel 17 provided only a Grade B ("rimshot") signal to the Champaign–
Urbana side of the market and much of that area could not see it at all. Prairie Broadcasting merged with
LIN Broadcasting
LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in Ind ...
at the end of 1965; channel 17 was LIN's first television property. On February 15, 1966, the
call letters
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
changed to the present WAND (originally meaning "Area Near Decatur"). Its previous calls currently reside on a
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member station in
Peoria.
On October 8, 1966, WAND activated a new tower located between Oreana and Argenta, retaining its original tower as a backup. It was topped with an experimental
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
"Vee-Zee" antenna, one of only two ever put into service. The second antenna was used by
WJJY-TV
WJJY-TV was a short-lived television station based in Jacksonville, Illinois that was on the air from 1969 to 1971. It was the ABC television affiliate for Quincy, Illinois, and also reached Springfield as well.
History
West-central Illin ...
in nearby
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. It was the first million-
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
tower in the state and added Champaign-Urbana to the station's city-grade coverage. As a result, WAND became the first station in the region to provide a city-grade signal to all four of the market's largest cities. At the same time, the channel 70 translator was moved to Danville on channel 68 (with the call sign W68AA).
On March 26, 1978, WAND's tower was brought down by a massive
ice storm
An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on e ...
. All but of the tower fell down under the weight of massive sheets of ice. The collapse exposed a serious design flaw in the tower. Due to WAND's location near the bottom of the UHF dial, the antenna had been one of the heaviest ever used for broadcasting. However, the tower had been designed with the specifications of a much lighter antenna, and was thus not properly engineered to handle so much weight. The same storm destroyed the former tower of WJJY (which had gone off the air seven years earlier), which was of a similar design and had been assembled by the same company. WAND was off-the-air for two weeks until it returned to the air from its original tower. The translator was eventually moved back to Champaign still on channel 68. This left Danville without over-the-air programming from ABC for several months.
In 1979, WAND activated its current tower, also situated between Oreana and Argenta. It is the tallest broadcasting tower in Illinois. Operating at a full five million watts, it was the most powerful analog signal in the state. Around this time, the station moved the translator back to Danville, this time on channel 31. LIN wholly owned WAND until March 2000 when it sold 67 percent of the station to current owner Block Communications in exchange for 100 percent of
WLFI-TV
WLFI-TV (channel 18) is a television station in Lafayette, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Entertainment Studios, Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Yeager Road in West Lafayette, I ...
in
Lafayette
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757â ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. However, LIN continued to operate the station for another seven years as part of the deal. On September 5, 2005, WAND became an NBC affiliate, swapping affiliations with
WICS
WICS (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Illinois, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on East Cook Street in Springfield's Eastside; its ...
/
WICD
Wicd, which stands for Wireless Interface Connection Daemon, is an open-source software utility to manage both wireless and wired networks for Linux. The project started in late 2006 with the creation of Connection Manager, which eventually becam ...
. The switch came as part of a larger nationwide deal that saw sister station
WDTN
WDTN (channel 2) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Springfield, Ohio–licensed WBDT (channel 26), a ''de facto'' owned-and-oper ...
in
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
join NBC as well.
LIN sold its 33 percent share of WAND to Block, along with full operational control of the station, on November 9, 2007. However, WAND's website remained in the old format of most of the other LIN-owned stations of the time until the WAND web site was redesigned in late-2009 or early-2010.
Newscasts
In late 1993, a
Doppler weather radar
Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse- ...
was installed atop the station's building in Decatur. Then, in 2006, new technology was introduced called "Live Doppler 4X". This system consists of four real-time
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...
radars that run from various locations from
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
, and Illinois. WAND also has its own advanced weather vehicle to track
severe weather
Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. Types of severe weather phenomena vary, depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmos ...
occurring in Central Illinois called "Stormrunner". The vehicle provides real-time
WeatherBug
WeatherBug is a brand owned bGroundTruth based in New York City, that provides location-based advertising solutions to businesses. WeatherBug consists of a mobile app reporting live and forecast data on hyperlocal weather to consumer users.
Hist ...
observations and streams live video back to the station.
In 2009, WAND became the first station in the market to air a half-hour newscast on weekday afternoons at 4:30. This was made possible due to the cancellation of ''
Deal or No Deal
''Deal or No Deal'' is the name of several closely related television game shows, the first of which (launching the format) was the Dutch '' Miljoenenjacht'' (''Hunt/Chase for Millions''). The centerpiece of this format is the final round (a. ...
''. WAND immediately aired its 5 p.m. newscast making a full hour of local news. In July 2011, WAND moved its 4:30 p.m. show up to 4 and moved ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...
'' back to its original spot at 4:30. On January 27, 2014, WAND expanded its weekday noon broadcast to one hour. It began broadcasting local newscasts in high definition on June 26, 2010, becoming the first
commercial television station in the area to make the upgrade.
Notable current on-air staff
*
Jim Kosek
Notable former on-air staff
*
Grant Napear
*
Devin Scillian
*
Bob Wright
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WAND shut down its analog signal, over
UHF channel 17, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to
transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18. Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former UHF analog channel 17. On June 6, 2011, the FCC granted WAND a construction permit to move its digital frequency back to its former analog allotment on channel 17; and to operate its digital signal to the maximum 1 million watts—equivalent to 5 million watts for an analog transmitter.
[http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1423763.pdf ]
Translators
In addition to its main signal, WAND can also be seen on three
low-power digital translators:
See also
*
Channel 20 digital TV stations in the United States The following television stations broadcast on Digital television, digital channel 20 in the United States:
* K20BP-D in Phillips County, Montana
* K20BR-D in Gage, etc., Oklahoma
* K20CN-D in Fortuna/Rio Dell, California
* K20CV-D in Raton, New Me ...
*
Channel 17 virtual TV stations in the United States
References
Channel 17 history with pictures
External links
*
{{Block Communications
Television channels and stations established in 1953
Companies based in Macon County, Illinois
1953 establishments in Illinois
AND
or AND may refer to:
Logic, grammar, and computing
* Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses
* Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition
* Bitwise AND, a boolea ...
NBC network affiliates
Cozi TV affiliates
Ion Television affiliates
Defy TV affiliates
Newsy affiliates
MeTV affiliates
Metromedia
Decatur, Illinois