WTAP-TV


WTAP-TV, virtual channel 15, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States and serving the Mid-Ohio Valley. Owned by Gray Television, it is sister to two low-power stations: Fox affiliate WOVA-LD and CBS affiliate WIYE-LD. The three stations share studios on Market Street in downtown Parkersburg; WTAP-TV's transmitter is located in Independence Township, Ohio. On cable, the station is available on Suddenlink channel 4 and CAS Cable channel 3.

History

The station signed-on on Veterans Day 1953. WTAP aired an analog signal on UHF channel 15 and, early in its life, aired programming from all four major networks of the time—NBC, ABC, CBS and DuMont. Then as now it was a primary NBC affiliate. WJPB-TV in Fairmont launched four months later and took on exactly the same affiliation. Original plans called for WTAP to join WJPB and turn the Parkersburg and Clarksburg areas into one giant television market. However, the area is a very rugged dissected plateau and neither station's signal was strong enough to carry across the terrain. Additionally, Parkersburg and Fairmont are apart, and UHF stations do not carry very well across long distances.
As a result, WTAP currently remains the only full-power commercial station based in Parkersburg. The only other outlets licensed to the city are the aforementioned low-power Fox and CBS affiliates, and outlying translators of West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. By the mid-1950s, it was obvious that Clarksburg–Weston–Fairmont and Parkersburg–Marietta were going to be separate markets. However, WTAP retained secondary affiliations with ABC and CBS until 1970, when it became a sole NBC affiliate.
As it was the sole commercial station in town, area cable systems have long piped in stations from outlying markets. Suddenlink's system in Washington County, Ohio supplements the area with stations from Columbus, as does the Parkersburg–Marietta DirecTV feed. CAS Cable and Suddenlink's systems in Wood and Pleasants counties in West Virginia supplement coverage with stations from the Huntington–Charleston market.
The station's first studios were on West 7th Street in downtown Parkersburg near Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital. It had a number of owners in its early days including the Zanesville Publishing Company which bailed WTAP out when it almost went off-the-air in the mid-1950s. It held ownership for about a decade until a group of local businessmen bought the station. The station was acquired by Benedek Broadcasting of Hoffman Estates, Illinois in 1980. The West 7th Street facilities were also home to WTAP-AM 1230 until the radio station was spun off and sold to a separate entity. In summer 1990, WTAP-TV moved to its present studios in a former industrial research building. A long-time WTAP on-air personality, Glenn Wilson, suggested and got Parkersburg's approval to rename the last block of Market Street "Television Plaza". As a result, the new building was given "One Television Plaza" as its official mailing address.
After Benedek declared bankruptcy and sold most of its stations in 2002, WTAP was bought by Gray Television. In 2004, it was the first NBC affiliate in West Virginia to offer high definition programming from the network. In late 2005 Gray purchased NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington making that station and WTAP sisters. On April 10, 2006, the station launched new second and third digital subchannels to serve as the area's Fox and UPN affiliates, respectively. To make these services possible, WTAP underwent a technical transformation. It carved out two new digital high definition-ready control rooms from space previously used for storage. The station also installed entirely digital production and master control rooms.
After UPN merged with The WB to form The CW in September 2006, WTAP-DT3 transitioned from UPN to Fox's new sister network, MyNetworkTV. WTAP has been digital-only since February 17, 2009.
WTAP is carried on multiple cable systems stretching as far east as West Union, West Virginia, as far south as Point Pleasant, West Virginia, as far north as Guernsey County, Ohio, and as far west as Athens, Ohio.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP short nameProgramming
15.11080iWTAPNBCMain WTAP-TV programming / NBC
15.2480iCBS-SDSimulcast of WIYE-LD / CBS
15.3480iFOX-SDSimulcast of WOVA-LD / Fox
15.4480iWeatherDoppler weather radar

Programming

programming on WTAP includes Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Inside Edition and Dr. Phil among others. All four shows are distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

News operation

WTAP is one of the strongest NBC affiliates in the United States according to Nielsen ratings. Over the years, its various owners have invested considerable resources in its news operation. It airs 4½ hours of news each weekday, a considerable amount for what has always been a very small market. Although it serves a largely rural area of only 125,000 people, its newscasts have more viewers than many other television stations in medium to large markets sharing audiences with up to three other affiliates.
After Gray Television bought WSAZ, there were rumors WTAP would scrap its news operation and simulcast newscasts from that station. WSAZ has long been available on cable in Parkersburg and its local newscasts, also among the highest-rated in the country, have always covered Parkersburg. However, Gray itself never considered shuttering WTAP's news department. In addition to WTAP's strong ratings performance, many of WTAP and WSAZ's stablemates are fairly close to each other while operating independently.
At some point in time after adding Fox, WTAP-DT2 began offering a 30-minute prime time newscast. Known as Fox Parkersburg News at 10, the weeknight show mirrors local news seen on the main channel, except for slightly different graphics and unique features. The station became the first outlet in West Virginia to upgrade newscasts to high definition on May 29, 2011. In addition to its main studios, WTAP operates a bureau in Marietta, Ohio. Unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, the station does not air a full two-hour weekday morning show, half-hour newscast weeknights at 5:30 p.m. or local news Sunday nights at 6:00 p.m.

Notable former personalities