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 earth ...
licensed to
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton () is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the 7th most populous city in Virginia and 204th most populous city in the nation. Hampton i ...
, United States, serving the
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...
area as an affiliate of
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 ...
. The station is owned by
Tegna Inc.
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
, and maintains studios on Woodis Avenue in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North ...
; its transmitter is located in
Suffolk, Virginia
Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area a ...
.
History
The station began operations on September 19, 1953, on
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 15 as an
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 ...
affiliate. It was signed on by Peninsula Broadcasting Corporation, co-owned by Hampton businessman Thomas P. Chisman and several other stockholders, along with WVEC radio (1490 AM, now WXTG; and 101.3 FM, now
WWDE-FM
WWDE-FM (101.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Hampton, Virginia, serving the Norfolk/Hampton Roads media market. WWDE-FM airs an Adult Contemporary radio format, with a Country format on their HD2 subchannel. The station is ow ...
). The station switched its affiliations to ABC in 1959, when
WAVY-TV
WAVY-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Virginia Beach–licensed Fox affiliate WVBT (cha ...
(channel 10) took the NBC affiliation two years after signing on. During the late 1950s, WVEC-TV 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 fi ...
.
In those days, UHF stations were not as successful as VHF stations, and the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) did not yet make requirements for television sets to have UHF tuners. So on November 14, 1958, WVEC-TV moved to its current location on VHF channel 13. Two years later, the channel 15 position would be occupied by current
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 educati ...
WHRO-TV
WHRO-TV, virtual channel 15 ( UHF digital channel 31), is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to both Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, United States. Owned by the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications ...
.
In 1980, Chisman sold the station to Corinthian Broadcasting, a unit of
Dun & Bradstreet
The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk and financia ...
. 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 to Belo, which owned the ''
Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''The Galves ...
'' and
WFAA-TV
WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur, Texas, Decat ...
The Virginian-Pilot
''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgini ...
24-hour
The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pass ...
local
cable news
Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television.
In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...
television channel, featuring repeats of WVEC newscasts and a live 10:00 p.m. newscast which began airing on WPEN-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 the ''Virginian-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 digital
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
16x9. 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. It remained the only major station in the Hampton Roads market to continue to air its newscasts in enhanced definition widescreen rather than true high definition until it upgraded to full HD in 2013.
On June 13, 2013, the
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Tegna
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
; the split became official on June 29, 2015. WVEC was retained by the latter company. After the acquisition, the station was standardized on air as ''13 News Now'' though still using the ABC logo on screen.
In February 2018, the logo for WVEC was updated along with a new theme curated by Sixième Son entitled " C Clarity" used for the newscasts.
Branding and image
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" from
WWL-TV
WWL-TV (channel 4) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Slidell-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WUPL (channel 54). Both stations share studios on Rampart Street ...
). The campaign was revamped in September 1992 with a new logo and song composed by Nashville-based
615 Music
615 Music is a broadcast production music company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by Randy Wachtler. 615 Music composes television news music packages and custom image campaigns for many television networks around the world. 615 Music al ...
. 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 on
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the December 31, last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly ...
. WVEC phased out the "Spirit" image for the second time in 2008.
News operation
In 1978, upon the resignation of news anchor Tony Burden, WVEC-TV hired
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show ''Good Morning America'', ''Ni ...
correspondent
Jim Kincaid
James W. Kincaid (October 23, 1934 – July 17, 2011) was an American television news correspondent for ABC News and local news anchor for WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia, for over 18 years.
Biography and early career
Kincaid was born on Octobe ...
as its main news anchor. 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, including ''Notes from Elam'', referring to the small town in
Prince Edward County, Virginia
Prince Edward County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,849. Its county seat is Farmville.
History
Formation and county seats
Prince Edward County was formed in the Virginia Colony in 1 ...
, where his farm was located. During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and ...
, 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.
Another well-known news anchor for WVEC-TV was Terry Zahn, who was hired from WAVY-TV in 1994. Zahn was very active with the
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...
and helped establish the Relay 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 with
bone cancer
A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thyro ...
in 1997, but remained with channel 13 until his death in January 2000. 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 rival
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 Entertainme ...
affiliate
WTKR
WTKR (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by E. W. Scripps Company alongside Portsmouth-licensed CW affiliate WGNT (channel 27). Bo ...
(channel 3) in 2000.
On March 7, 2003, former
investigative reporter
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
Craig Civale and former general assignment reporter Michelle Louie were engaged during a live segment of "Joe's Job" on ''13News 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.
In 2008, WVEC began broadcasting their newscast in digital widescreen, but because it was not completely high definition, it led rivals WAVY-TV, WVBT and WTKR to broadcast their news in high definition as opposed to WVEC's digital widescreen. It wouldn't be until August 17, 2013, when WVEC began broadcasting their news in high definition starting with the 6 p.m. newscast.
WVEC began using Gannett/Tegna's graphics and "This Is Home" package on July 24, 2014. The conversion happened during storms and debuted in "Storm Mode".
Notable former on-air staff
*
Sharyn Alfonsi
Sharyn Elizabeth Alfonsi (born June 3, 1972) is an American journalist and correspondent for ''60 Minutes''. She made her debut appearance on ''60 Minutes'' on March 1, 2015. In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious duPont-Columbia journalism a ...
, reporter 1995–97; later with
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 ...
KTRK-TV
KTRK-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Bissonnet Street ...
until 2018, now Strategic Communications Manager and Spokesperson for the City of
Baytown, Texas
Baytown is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within Harris and Chambers counties. Located in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, it lies on the northern side of the Galveston Bay complex near the outlets of th ...
*
Marcia Bartusiak
Marcia F. Bartusiak is an author, journalist, and Professor of the Practice Emeritus of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Trained in both communications (B.A. from American University, 1971) and ...
, hired in 1971 as WVEC's first female reporter and later anchorwoman. Leaving in 1975, she moved into the field of science writing. The author of seven books, she is now Professor of the Practice Emeritus at MIT.
* Simeon Coxe, reporter specializing in off-beat stories in the 1970s and 1980s. Lead singer for the 1960s and 1990s
Silver Apples
Silver Apples were an American electronic rock group from New York, active between 1967 and 1970, before reforming in the mid-1990s. It was composed of Simeon (born Simeon Oliver Coxe III, June 4, 1938 – September 8, 2020), who performed ...
.
*
Jim Kincaid
James W. Kincaid (October 23, 1934 – July 17, 2011) was an American television news correspondent for ABC News and local news anchor for WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia, for over 18 years.
Biography and early career
Kincaid was born on Octobe ...
, hired from ABC News in 1978, served as anchor from 1978 to 1996, retired in 1997. (deceased)
* John Miller, news anchor and news director in the 1970s and 1980s, morning and noon anchor in the 1990s. Elected Virginia state senator in November 2007 until his death in April 2016
*
Hank Plante
Henry A. "Hank" Plante is an American television reporter and newspaper columnist. He is on-air at KMIR-TV, NBC Palm Springs (KMIR-TV) and he is a former member of the Editorial Board of Gannett's Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs. Winner o ...
, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, now retired in Palm Springs, California
* Robyne Robinson, former Military Affairs reporter. Later with
KMSP-TV
KMSP-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetwor ...
in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
until 2010. Retired from broadcasting to become Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party lieutenant gubernatorial candidate in the 2010 Minnesota DFL Gubernatorial primary.
* Stan Verrett, now an anchor at
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...
and
ESPNEWS
ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a ...
, also worked for rival WAVY.
* Terry Zahn, hired from WAVY in 1994, served as anchor until death from bone cancer in January 2000.
* Regina Mobley, hired by WVEC in 1995 and transferred to WAVY-TV in January 2021.
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 ...
:
On November 8, 2010, WVEC added ABC's Live Well Network (now
Localish
Localish (formerly Live Well Network, stylized as LOCALISH) is a lifestyle TV network owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, part of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
Localish's 24/7 channel streams on Hulu Live ...
) on channel 13.2. On January 23, 2013, WVEC added MeTV to a new subchannel, 13.3. On January 20, 2015, WVEC removed Live Well Network and replaced it with the Justice Network (now
True Crime Network
True Crime Network (formerly Justice Network) is an American digital multicast television network that is operated by True Crime Network, LLC, a limited liability company, which is owned by Tegna Inc. The network specializes in true crime, inv ...
).
Analog-to-digital conversion
WVEC discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 41 to VHF channel 13.
Eastern Shore translator
There is one low-powered translator of WVEC that is located in the
Eastern Shore of Virginia
The Eastern Shore of Virginia consists of two counties ( Accomack and Northampton) on the Atlantic coast detached from the mainland of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is s ...
and is municipally-owned by Accomack County rather than Tegna. WVEC and Tegna do not own or operate any translators in the Greater Hampton Roads area.
* ' W18EG-D '' Channel 18.2 Onancock