WDGI

**WDGI** is a CBS-affiliated television station serving Wuhu Island that is licensed to Wedge Island. The station is owned by E.W. Scripps Company and transmitter is located near Maka Wuhu.

## History

The station first signed on the air on October 14, 1965, with the call letters, **WKBE-TV**, standing for "**K**aiser **B**roadcasting W**E**dge Island".

### **As an independent station**

It was originally owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, which also signed on WKBD-TV (Detroit) and the late WKBS-TV (Philadelphia) in January and September of that same year. In 1972, the Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation partnered with Field Communications in Kaiser Broadcasting Co. which included, which included WKBE-TV, 5 other Kaiser stations and Field's only station, WFLD. In 1977, the bulk of Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation, including WKBE-TV, was sold to Field.

Field Broadcasting would later put up it's stations for sale in 1982, and while it was difficult for WKBE-TV to be sold at first, in 1983, it was finally sold by Field to Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, and Scripps changed WKBE-TV's call letters to WDGI.

### **As a Fox affiliate**

On October 9, 1986, WDGI became a charter affiliate of the Fox network, which debuted on that same day, making WGNW-TV (channel 47) and WSLN (channel 27) as the only independent stations in the archipelago. However, when WDGI became "Fox 62", it came with some problems.

For many years, WDGI used to transmit from the top of Crab Rock in Wedge Island, unlike the other stations in the area, which broadcast near Maka Wuhu. This makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for WDGI to be received on the north side of Wuhu Island. That was why WDGI, in 1990, built a translator, serving the north side of Wuhu Island, which was W34DK (the call letters are completely coincidental) , with it's city of license being in Summerstone, transmitting near the Ancient Ruins National Historical Landmark.

### **As a CBS affiliate**

On May 22, 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation agreement with Fox, that resulted in twelve of New World's stations, including the area's longtime ABC affiliate, WUHU-TV (channel 9), about to become part of the network. ABC decided to affiliate with Gannett-owned WIWD, instead of WDGI, as WIWD was more powerful than WDGI. This left CBS with no option, but to affiliate with a UHF channel, as Hearst-owned WWNB, didn't want to give away it's long-standing NBC affiliation, not to mention WWNB already extended it's contract to keep it's affiliation with NBC. WGNW-TV also didn't want to affiliate itself with CBS, as Tribune was planning to affiliate it with The WB in a few months.

CBS looked to WDGI, as it was owned by Scripps, but despite being a Fox affiliate, WDGI wasn't part of the agreement that kept WEWS-TV and WXYZ-TV as ABC affiliates, so WDGI wasn't taken into consideration in the negotiation. On December 12, 1994, CBS, after failing to negotiate with the other stations in the area, it affiliated with WDGI from WIWD, in which WDGI gave it's former Fox affiliation to WUHU-TV (and making WUHU-TV a FOX O&O), and WUHU-TV gave it's former ABC affiliation to WIWD.

Although the affiliation switch wasn't in CBS' favor, it did, however, gave WDGI, for the first time, a full-fledged newscast, called "CBS 62 Eyewitness News". Before the switch, WDGI did 5 minute news/weather briefs from their studios in the Nineteenth Hole Hotel. After WDGI introduced it's newscast, it would've took up a lot of space to manage the newscast in the old studios, so Scripps built a new studio in Wuhu Town, to accommodate the newscast, which opened in 1996. In the interim, WDGI operated their newscasts from the studios of Independent-turned-UPN affiliate WSLN, acting as a temporary facility for the station's newscasts.

After the move to the new studios, WDGI became the 2nd-best newscast in the Wuhu Island and Wedge Island area, surpassing WIWD and WUHU-TV (after 25 years of WUHU-TV being the #1 newscast in the area, but falling for a while due to the switch), but behind WWNB-TV (who wasn't affected by the switch) and won numerous awards by the Associated Press. In 2003, they switched their name to "62 Action News" (although promos are referred to as "Your 62 Action News Station").

On June 12, 2009, WDGI signed off it's analog signal, like other stations in the area. However, unlike other stations, when WDGI switched to digital, it moved it's signal from it's longtime Crab Rock transmitter, to the new and powerful transmitter near Maka Wuhu, with all the other TV and most of the FM stations in the archipelago. This rendered it's translator, W34DK-D as useless, but still necessary to have extra and powerful strength in the north side of the main island.

In 2017, the FCC announced that in the spectrum auction, WDGI only sold off it's translator, W34DK-D to the spectrum, because Scripps claimed that the translator was rendered as useless, back in 2009. On June 23, 2017, after 27 years of having the translator be on the air, W34DK-D signed off for the last time, and prepared to be sold to the spectrum auction. Other than the translator, the spectrum auction won't affect WDGI's operations in any other way.

### **The Move to Channel 5**

That same year, the FCC issued a spectrum reallocation to take place across the country, where stations from digital channels 38-51 are required to be repacked to other channels below digital channel 36, to make room for more wireless broadband services. Although WDGI is not on the range of channels that must move elsewhere, it is still required to move to another channel, as the Univision-affiiated WUWI will move to digital channel 17.

WDGI has decided to be the Wuhu Archipelago's first TV station of the VHF-lo band and move to digital channel 5, and in a stunning decision to also do the same with their virtual channel, bringing them to the VHF band after 52 years of being on a UHF channel. The decision to move to channel 5 was made after 3ABN's retransmission from Wuhu Town signed off and returned it's license to the FCC, leaving a vacancy for WDGI to fill up. After the change, WDGI will still keep it's *Action News* branding it had for 14 years.

On January 1st, 2018, at 1:00am EST, WDGI has made the move from channel 62 to channel 5, both digitally and virtually, along with debuting a new logo and switched the name to "5 Action News" (although promos are referred to as "Your 5 Action News Station"). 5 other stations in the archipelalgo have also changed digital channels on the same day.

## News/Station Presentation

### Newscast Titles

* (CBS) 62 Eyewitness News (1994-2003)
* 62 Action News (2003-December 31, 2017)
* 5 Action News (January 1, 2018-present)

### News Themes

* Wall to Wall News - Stephen Arnold Music (1994-1998)
* Counterpoint - Stephen Arnold Music (1998-2003)
* Signature - Stephen Arnold Music (2003-2006)
* The CBS Enforcer Music Collection - Gari Media Group (2006-2009)
* Scripps TV Station Group Package - Musikvergnuegen (2009-2012)
* Inergy - Stephen Arnold Music (2012-present)

### Voice-over Announcers

* John B. Wells (1994-2003)
* Chris Corley (2003-2009)
* Bill Ratner (2009-present)

### Current On-Air Staff (year joined in parentheses)

Garrett Brady - News Director

* Joseph Milton - anchor; weekday mornings and noon (1995)
* Lori Holland - anchor; weekday mornings and noon (1999)
* David King - anchor; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 (2018)
* Anne Carone - anchor; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 (1994)
* Dave Stone - anchor; weekend mornings (2001)
* Patti Kipling - anchor; weekend mornings (1996)
* Leonardo Ogden - anchor; weekend evenings (2006)
* Pam McIntyre - anchor; weekend evenings (2004)

### 5 Action Weather Meteorologists

* Marlin Newcomb- meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon (1997)
* Phillip Queen - chief meteorologist (AMS Seal of Approval); weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 (1994)
* Katie Laffer - meteorologist; weekend mornings (2002)
* Jenny Pierson - meteorologist; weekend evenings (1998)

### 5 Action Sports Team

* Anthony Bender - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 (1994)
* Jim Barnes - sports reporter; weekend evenings (2002)

### Current On-Air Reporters

* Kelly Warner - general assignment reporter (1998)
* Tom Gross - general assignment reporter (1995)
* Don Clegg - general assignment reporter (2005)
* Alex Kilmer - general assignment reporter (1996)
* Alan Rosewood - general assignment reporter (1994)
* Laura Muniz - general assignment reporter (1997)
* Kate Hansen - general assignment reporter (2008)

### Former On-Air Staff

* Megan Kermitson - anchor (1994-1998; now reporter at WIWD)
* Tom Michaels - meteorologist (1996-1998; now morning anchor at WIWD)
* Daniel Wright - anchor (1994-2018; now retired)

## Branding History

* WKBE-TV 62 (1965-1982)
* WDGI-TV 62 (1982-1986)
* Fox 62 (1986-1994)
* It's 62! (1988-1992)
* WDGI, "The New 62" (1994, to promote switch from Fox to CBS)
* WDGI CBS 62 (1994-2003)
* Your 62 Action News Station (2003-2017)
* Your 5 Action News Station (2018-present)
* Coverage You Can Count On (2003-present, news branding)

## Station ID History

* This is WKBE-TV 62, Wedge Island/Wuhu Island. Now in Color. (1965-1970)
* You're watching WKBE-TV 62. Wedge Island/Wuhu Island. (1970-1982)
* This is WDGI-TV 62. Serving the Archipleago. (1982-1986)
* This is Fox 62. WDGI-TV. Wedge Island/Wuhu Island. (1986-1989)
* You're watching Fox 62. WDGI, Wedge Island/Wuhu Island. (1989-1994)
* You're watching WDGI 62. CBS in the Archipleago. (1994-1995)
* You're watching CBS 62, Wedge Island/Wuhu Island. (1995-2003)
* This is Your 62 Action News Station. Coverage You Can Count On. (2003-2017)
* This is Your 5 Action News Station. Coverage You Can Count On. (2018-present)

## Slogans

* *Catch It All on WDGI* (1987-1988; localized version of "Don't Let Fox Weekends Pass You By" Fox ad campaign)
* *This is the Year, WDGI* (1988-1990; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
* *It's on 62* (1990-1992; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
* *It's 62 You Know, Everybody Knows It's on Fox* (1992-1993; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
* *WDGI: You're Watching It*(1993-1994; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
* *It Could Only Happen on WDGI* (1994; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
* *I am WDGI People* (1994-1995; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *You're on CBS 62* (1995-1996; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *Welcome Home to a CBS 62 Night* (1996-1997; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *The Address is CBS 62...Welcome Home* (1997-1999; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *The Address is CBS 62* (1999-2000; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *CBS 62, It's All Here* (2000-2003; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *WDGI, It's All Here* (2003-2005; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *Everybody's Watching WDGI* (2005-2006; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *We Are WDGI* (2006-2009; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
* *Only WDGI, Only CBS* (2009-present; localized version of CBS ad campaign)

## Gallery

WDGI's logo as WKBE-TV under Kaiser ownership from 1965-1978.WDGI's logo as WKBE under Field Communcations ownership from 1978-1983.WDGI's logo from 1983-1994 as a independent and Fox affiliate.WDGI's first "CBS 62" logo from 1994-2003WDGI's "62 Eyewitness News" newscast logo from 1994-2003CBS screen bug from circa 1999.Screencap from November 2005 #1.Screencap from November 2005 #2.WDGI's news intro from 2008.WDGI's statement about the FCC spectrum auction, regarding W34DK-D.WDGI's letter/e-mail attachment regarding W34DK-D and the FCC spectrum auction.WDGI's logo from 2003-2017.WDGI's secondary logo from 2013-2017.WDGI's secondary logo from 2018-present.

**WDGI** 5 (CBS)
WUIE-TV 7 (PBS)
**WUHU-TV** 9 (FOX)
Island News 11 (cable only)
WIWD 12 (ABC)
**WUWI** 14 (UNI)
WSLN 27 (MNTV)
WNXP 36 (ION)
WSFT 40 (UniMás)
WGNW-TV 47 (CW)
**WTWI-CD** 51 (Telemundo)
WATS-DT 62 (ABN)