WEAR
| WEAR-TV | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pensacola, Florida | |
| Branding | WEAR ABC3 |
| Slogan | Your Clear Choice for News |
| Channels | 3 (VHF) analog, 17 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | ABC (secondary until 1955) |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group |
| Founded | January 13, 1954 |
| Call letters meaning | The word EAR |
| Former affiliations | CBS |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 8.3 kW (digital) |
| Website | www.weartv.com |
WEAR is the is the ABC affiliate for the Pensacola, Mobile, and Fort Walton Beach viewing area. It is the only major affiliate in that market to be broadcast from Pensacola as opposed to Mobile. Its transmitter is located near Robertsdale, Alabama, and its studios are located on Mobile Highway in southwest Pensacola.
As a Pensacola-based station, their newscasts tend to focus on coverage of the Northwestern Florida, area as opposed to WKRG and WPMI, which predominately feature news concerning the southern Alabama area. WEAR is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which prohibited a Nightline broadcast in 2004 because the company felt it was near anti-war rhetoric. Prior to July 19, 2005 Sinclair prohibited WEAR from broadcasting Jimmy Kimmel Live in the late night time slot.
WEAR also operates WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate station broadcasting on channel 35.
Contents
Personnel
The WEAR news desk is headed by Bob Solarski, who has been anchor since March 1994 and was the host and producer of Channel 3 News This Week with Bob Solarski. "This Week with Bob Solarski" had about a two year run before being pulled. Currently there is no full-time co-anchor for the 10pm news. Allen Strum is the meteorologist and Dan Shugart is sports director and anchor.
Another key news anchor is Sue Straughn, who is one of the few black female news anchors in the area. She started at the station in 1973 as a clerk typist and now helms the five o'clock and six o'clock newscasts.
History
WEAR began operation on January 13, 1954 which was almost a year after WALA 10 began. The station was founded by Charles Smith and Mel Wheeler. Initially the station ran shows from both CBS and ABC but in 1955 when WKRG signed on Channel 3 became strictly an ABC affiliate.
In 1959 WEAR was sold to Rollins' Telecasting. The station continued as an ABC affiliate for many years. In 1987 Rollins Telecasting would merge with Heritage Broadcasting forming Heritage Media. In October of 1997 WEAR 3 was sold to Sinclair Broadcasting.
Controversies
Mediacom
Mediacom's contract to rebroadcast WEAR expired on 1 December 2006. Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcast Group have been unable to reconcile a new contract, as Sinclair is demanding a per-subscriber fee from Mediacom which the latter is unwilling to pay. Cable companies have not historically paid these fees to local broadcast stations, because, of course, the programming is broadcast free over-the-air. This has resulted in the possibility that Mediacom may be forced to drop WEAR from its cable lineup, causing an uproar amongst its customers. Many of Mediacom's customers have either purchased antennas to receive WEAR over-the-air if necessary, or have switched to other providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network. In recent weeks, Mediacom has begun to distribute antennas free of charge at its area offices.
On 1 December, the two companies agreed that Mediacom would continue to carry WEAR until at least 5 January while the parties continue negotiations.
As of February 2007, the two companies came to an agreement, the terms of which were not disclosed, to reinstate carriage of WEAR on Mediacom's cable system.
Cox Communications
Currently, Cox Communications does not carry WEAR's high-definition feed; this is due to a dispute Sinclair Broadcast Group and cable companies. As in the situation with Mediacom, Sinclair demands a per-subscriber fee from cable companies in exchange for the rights to rebroadcast the high definition feeds of its stations. Cable companies have not historically paid these fees to local broadcast stations, because, of course, the programming is broadcast free over-the-air.
Cox currently does not charge customers for high definition programming; as it is Cox's goal to maintain free high definition programming, accordingly Cox would like to keep its programming costs to a minimum.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has posted a complete statement on the issue on its corporate website at http://www.sbgi.net/misc/cable.shtml
Newscasts
- First News - 5 AM-5:30 AM weekdays
- Three in the Morning - 5:30 AM-7 AM weekdays
- Dayside - 11 AM-11:30 AM weekdays
- Channel 3 News at 5 - 5 PM-5:30 PM weekdays and Sundays
- Channel 3 News at 6 - 6 PM-6:30 PM weekdays, 6 PM-7 PM Saturdays
- Channel 3 News Late - 10 PM-10:35 PM every night
- Channel 3 News Extra - 10:35 PM-11:05 PM weeknights
External links
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