WBVB

(virtual channel 5) is a television station in the United States, licensed to Eastville, Indiana, serving the Baconville-Eastville-Birmingham market as a CBS network affiliate. It is owned by the Hearst Television subsidiary of Hearst Communications. Known for being the 2nd television station to sign on in Baconville, (after WCN-TV/WCNT) WBVB’s roots can be traced back to a station with the callsign WKL-TV.
==History==
===Early history===
In 1947, the FCC allocated channels 2, 4, 5, 7, and 11 to Baconville. Because of this, the Baconville Weekly Journal newspaper owners planned a new station for the Baconville area on channel 5. One of the key founders of the newspaper, Simon Adams, bought television equipment (transmitters, cameras, and more) and got them shipped to an empty building in Baconville that was to be the old WKL-TV facility. When the newspaper finished hiring staff in 1948, the FCC froze the TV spectrum, disallowing companies to apply for TV licenses (until the 6th Report and Order in 1952). 
===The beginning===
After the broadcasting “freeze” ended in 1952, the Weekly Journal applied for a TV license under the call letters WKL-TV. (for WeeKLy Journal) When the license got approved, the Weekly Journal put ads for the up-and-coming station on their newspapers to hype up the new station. After months of waiting, WKL-TV finally signed on on September 9 of that year. The first ever thing to be seen on the new channel 5 was a celebration at the WKL-TV building. After airing about an hour of footage of the celebration, WKL-TV aired programming through a microwave relay originating from WIOE.
In 1959, the quality of WKL’s programming faltered due to the Weekly Journal focusing more on their newspapers, and not their TV/radio assets. Because of this, the Weekly journal traded WKL-TV for WBVB, (owned by Hearst Inc.) and sold all of their other broadcast properties to other companies. The Weekly Journal and Hearst also agreed to swap callsigns as well to help better indicate the switching of owners. This changed WKL-TV’ callsign to the current WBVB.
The swap was done to ease viewers into the final sign off on the new WKL-TV a few months after the swap. The channel 11 frequency would be used again for another station that also has the WKL callsign.
===After the swap===
In 1961, WBVB started broadcasting live concerts from the WBVB facilities twice every month. This move knocked WCNT out of the 1st place spot in 1962. WBVB also introduced the first news program that the station had after the WBVB-WKL swap, called “B.V. News”, with B.V. standing for Baconville. This also popularized the acronym “BV”, and other stations still use that same acronym for promotion today.
In 1963, WBVB became the 2nd station to start broadcasting in color in Baconville, after WCNT. To promote the new color television, WBVB brought back the old concerts once again, and broadcast a series of concerts called “The Color Extravaganza”.
WBVB celebrated the anniversary of the callsign and owner switch with WKL in 1969. On the day of the anniversary, Hearst worked with the new owners of WKL, Gannett, to temporarily swap primetime programs as a way to “reverse the switch” and “make it feel like the 50s again”. WBVB also worked with Gannett to help bring higher-quality newscasts to WKL that year.
In 1972, WBVB moved its license location, facilities and transmitter to Birmingham, in the northern part of the market.. This caused a problem for viewers living in downtown Baconville and Eastville, in the central and southeast parts of the market, who found it difficult to receive WBVB after the license switch. To combat this, Hearst signed on a repeater on channel 29 with the callsign W29BV. This improved reception in the southern parts of the market. W29BV or its channel number would not be mentioned anywhere in the station’s programming and branding, except for required legal IDs.
In 1975, WBVB introduced a new logo, called the “Zany 5”. (a riff on KSL’s logo) WBVB used the new logo in a lot of its promotions, which “cemented it to be a part of Baconville area culture”. The Zany 5 started to be used in other products and logos without permission a few years later, so in 1977, WBVB sued Conglomerates Inc. which was the main company that misused the logo.
In 1978, WBVB wrote a jingle called "Stuck in Second Place" as part of a successful campaign to get WBVB back on the #1 spot for Baconville TV ratings. The jingle was also adapted for other stations who were also stuck in 2nd place around the world.
===The WBVB resurgence===
In 1981, CBS itself offered to buy WCNT. If this went though, WBVB would have taken the NBC affiliation, but the deal got canceled due to WCNT not wanting to lose its Crystal Network membership.
With WBVB’s new truck and helicopter (given by WCNT as a result of the “Dream Team” trial), WBVB staff made their own comedy skit called “What Do You Do with a Truck and a Helicopter?” with the permission of Hearst. The skit featured multiple WBVB staff and anchors trying out the new vehicles, and some puns and jokes about trucks, helicopters, and other vehicle-related things. The skit was meant for other WBVB staff to view, but soon, copies of the skit spread around the Baconville area. As a response to this, Hearst decided not to confiscate all copies of the skit, and instead made a sequel to the skit called “WDYDWaTaaH: Nowhere To Go” with the same staff and anchors from the 1st skit, plus some other WBVB staff. The sequel premiered on WBVB as a special program, replacing Wheel of Fortune on that day. The sequel was as much of a hit as the first skit, with over 650,000 people watching the special, making WBVB 1st place in the timeslot for quite a while.
In 1982, WBVB launched the “What is 5 for you?” campaign. Every year, WBVB gave the opportunity for people to submit adjectives to put next to the “5” in their slogan/branding, (e.g. “Cool 5” in 1989, “Amazing 5” in 1990) and the one with the most votes became part of the moniker. Ties were settled by the staff through an internal 2nd voting. WBVB also decided to occasionally use slogans from this campaign for its newscast intros and voiceovers. (e.g. “From Fantastic 5… This is Newscenter 5.”) The campaign was so popular that it still lasts even to this day.
In 1983, WBVB made a campaign that made fun of WCNT called “Just edit it well!” It features a “WCNT executive” planning their station’s new promo promoting the station’s “drab” programs. This was one of the things that led to WCNT’s downfall in the mid 80s. This also led to WBVB getting sued by WCNT in 1984. WCNT won the case, and WBVB paid $175,000 to the station and the owner of its parent company (Xavier Communications), David Gilbert.
In 1986, WBVB took the first place spot in the ratings after 25 years of being stuck in the 2nd place spot. To celebrate, WBVB threw a mini party at their building, and broadcast a special film about the station’s history. WBVB fell back to 2nd place in 1988, when WCNT rebranded.
In 1990, Gannett offered to trade their station, WKL-TV, for WBVB. Hearst (the owner of WBVB) counter-offered, accepting the deal only if they throw their station KJRH in the mix. Gannett declined.
In 1995, WBVB set up even more translators and repeaters in Baconville, Eastville, and in Gillingham. (a town in the southwestern part of the Baconville market ) This was done because lots of viewers kept on complaining about bad reception in the southern part of the market area, and that Hearst needed to set up even more translators. This was a move that pushed WBVB up to 1st place in 1996.
To make the most out of the nudge to first place, WBVB put the channel numbers of the translators in some of their programs and news opens. (From channels 5, 49, 55, and 61, this is Newscenter 5.) WBVB also did more stories in Eastville and Baconville, and stopped focusing on the northern portion of the DMA when it comes to newscasts.
In 1999, WBVB made “The Daily Dive”, a program meant to compete against WCNT’s WATCH and WBSV’s Seven Today. Unfortunately, the program proved to be a waste of money, as most of the views for the local newsmagazine and talk programs went to WATCH and Seven Today. WBVB stoped airing the show in 2000, making it the shortest-lived local program in the contiguous US.
===WBVB today===
WBVB took another shot at newsmagazines in 2005, with “Baconville’s Magazine”. It featured higher quality stories while keeping the same lighthearted feel of the old “Daily Dive” program. The new program proved to be successful, and finally beat Seven Today and WATCH in September of 2007.
In 2012, WBVB produced a film called “60 Years to Remember: A detailed look at Channel 5’s history” as part of its 60th anniversary. It took a deep dive into everything that happened to the station, including the owner swap, the Zany 5 logo, the failed local programs and other small tidbits and glimpses into WBVB’s past.
In 2022, WBVB brought back the live concerts yet again as part of their 70th anniversary. The FCC agave them permission to swap callsigns with the current WKL-TV for a week to make it seem like WBVB’s callsign is, and has always been WKL. (like it was in the 50s)
== Programming ==
Syndicated programs on WBVB (not including CBS network schedule) include The Drew Barrymore Show, Dr. Phil, Entertainment Tonight and Judge Judy.
=== News operation ===
WBVB’s newscasts were, and still are a very stiff competitor against the other Big 3 stations’ newscasts.
When WBVB first signed on as WKL, their newscasts were anchored by Perry Davis, and were just stories from the Baconville Weekly Journal newspaper, now on TV. These early newscasts were called The Weekly Journal News. A year later, in 1953, weather and sports segments got added to the newscasts alongside the stories from The Weekly Journal.
After the callsign and owner switch in 1959, WBVB quickly formed a bigger news department to stay competitive against WCNT and WBSV’s newscasts. These new newscasts were called “The Channel 5 Report”, and were anchored by Perry Davis (from the early news programs), Michael Pierce, meteorologist Larry Green, and Allen McArthur for the occasional sports stories. The new programs ended up in 3rd place after the launch, but slowly made their way back up to 2nd place.
WBVB changed the name of their newscasts to “The Color 5 Report” in 1963 after their recent switch to color broadcasting. WBVB also added Lauren McArthur to the news team (sister of Allen McArthur), and became famous for being the 1st woman to anchor a newscast in Indiana.
In 1968, WBVB changed the name of their newscasts back to “The Channel 5 Report”, as the popularity of Channel 5’s switch to color was dying down. WBVB also added some light-hearted stories and interactions in their newscasts. This was done because of influence from WCNT’s newscasts, one of the first stations in the entire US to add those elements to their newscasts.
The newscasts and titles remained the same until 1975, with the death of Michael Pierce. His spot is now permanently taken by Lauren McArthur, who used to be a substitute for any anchor that was sick or not available.
In 1981, WBVB started referring to their anchors as “The Dream Team”, another move popularized by WCNT. WCNT then sued WBVB for usage of the “dream team” name without permission or consent from them. WBVB won the trial, though, because the “dream team” name wasn’t copyrighted by WCNT or any other TV station. WCNT then decided to settle the drama out of court, and gave WBVB a mobile color unit/truck and a news helicopter, (soon to be called Sky High Chopper 5) plus the $500,000 needed to settle the trial.
In 1999, WBVB started airing their newscasts in high definition on its digital channel, WBVB-DT. 
WBVB upgraded their newscasts’ quality to 4K in 2019 when its ATSC 3.0 simulcast signed on via WCNT.
==== Notable current on-air staff ====
===== Anchors =====
* Ben Miller
* Olivia Johnson
* Joyce Taylor
* Scott Kaye
* Ethan Cross
===== Weather =====
* Corbin McFadden - (Member, AMS) - chief meteorologist
* Josh Gibson - (Member, AMS) - meteorologist
===== Sports =====
* Noah Graham
===== Reporters =====
* Giselle Jacinto
* Jonas Parker
* Nick Ross
* Michael Duncan
* Daniel Aaron
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Channel	Video	Aspect	Short name	Programming
5.1 	1080i	16:9 	WBVB 	CBS / Main WBVB programming
5.2 	720p 	16:9 	DOPPLER 	Super Doppler 5 Live! / Live weather maps 
from Super Doppler 5
5.3 	720p 	16:9 	THISBV 	This TV Baconville
5.4 	720p 	16:9 	THEGRIO 	TheGrio
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
WBVB ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 5, at 12 p.m. on June 11, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station continued to broadcast on its pre-transition channel 54 before the FCC’s UHF repack. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5.
Category:Baconville
Category:Channel 5
Category:Indiana
Category:CBS network affiliates
Category:Hearst Communications
Category:Hearst Television