WIND

**WIND** (channel 17) is a television station serving the Terre Haute, Indiana market, affiliated with NBC and owned by Price Media Group. The station's studios are located on Wabash Avenue in downtown Terre Haute, and its transmitter is on North Cataract Road in Spencer.

## History

### Launch as independent station

WIND signed on the air on June 23, 1977, as a general entertainment independent station. It was the fourth television station in the market, after WTVI, WHJL, and WVIP, all of which were affiliated with the three major American over-the-air television networks. WIND's schedule consisted of cartoons in the early morning, religious programming in the late morning, classic sitcoms in the early afternoon, a three-hour after-school cartoon block running from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., more sitcoms in the early evening, and a movie at 9:00 p.m. before sign-off. The station was successful in terms of an independent, but still rated far behind the other three stations in Terre Haute.

From 1979 to 1980, WIND tried their hand at a local newscast, *WIND NewsWatch*, which aired weeknights at 8:30 p.m. in between sitcoms and the movie. The program was intended to give viewers another option for local news, as no other stations in the area had news in primetime. The newscast was cancelled not long after beginning, with the final edition airing on June 6, 1980. The following Monday, the station began airing the *Independent Network News*, a national newscast for independent stations like WIND. The former *NewsWatch* staff was kept to file nationally-seen reports for INN.

In 1983, the station launched a Saturday morning cartoon block called *The Weekend Fun Zone*. In addition to various syndicated cartoons, *Terre Haute Kids Club*, a local children's show, was aired on the block. The program was unique in that local children could sign up to join the Kids Club and be featured on the show. In 1985, the weekday morning block was renamed *Fun Zone Extra*, with afternoons being rebranded to *After School Fun Zone*.

### Affiliation with Fox

On January 1, 1987, WIND became an affiliate of the Fox network, a new attempt at a so-called "fourth network". The station's first Fox program was *The Late Show with Joan Rivers*, airing at 11:00 p.m. the night of the switch. At the time, Fox, also known as FBC at that point, did not have primetime programming, so WIND was still very similar to an independent station. The network began programming primetime on April 5, 1987, with the launches of *Married... with Children* and *The Tracey Ullman Show*.

In late 1988, the station partnered with the *Tribune-Star*, a local newspaper. The paper used their staff to produce hourly news and weather updates which aired on WIND during daytime programming. However, no full newscasts were ever aired, as the *Independent Network News*, by that time known as *USA Tonight*, was still airing on the station, now in the 6:30 p.m. slot.

### Sale to Young Broadcasting

On April 24, 1989, it was announced that WIND owner Terre Haute Broadcast Partners would be selling the station to fledgling broadcast company Young Broadcasting. WIND would become one of Young's first television stations. The sale was completed on October 6, 1989, not long after the company acquired two other stations from Knight-Ridder.

In March 1990, *USA Tonight* was moved into the 6:00 p.m. slot as Fox launched *Tribes*, a teen soap opera, airing it at 6:30. This proved to be a good decision, as the show was not competing against other national newscasts such as the *CBS Evening News*, which had been the number-one national newscast in Terre Haute for many years. *USA Tonight* was cancelled in June of 1990, temporarily leaving WIND without a newscast. However, on July 11, 1990, it was announced that WHJL, the Gateway Communications-owned ABC affiliate in Terre Haute, would begin producing a pre-recorded, half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast for the station. *The WIND Ten O'Clock News* launched on August 20, 1990.

WIND's partnership with WHJL strengthened in 1992 when they began re-broadcasting their noon news at 12:30 p.m., and the 11:00 p.m. news at midnight. In early 1993, the station rebranded to Fox 17, with newscasts becoming *Fox 17 News at Ten*. Additionally, the Fox-exclusive broadcast launched its own custom graphics, as well as a new theme, Total News by Non-Stop Music.

### Switch to NBC

In December of 1993, Fox announced they had signed a four-year contract, which cost them $1.58 billion, to carry football games from the NFL starting with the 1994 season. CBS, who had broadcast the games since the 1950's, only bid $295 million to keep the rights. In 1994, Citicasters Communications, owner of Terre Haute's NBC affiliate WTVI, sold most of their stations to New World Communications, which Fox had a 20% stake in. WTVI was sold directly to Fox, and it was announced in August 1994 that the station would be switching to Fox "shortly". This left NBC scrambling to find a station in Terre Haute that would carry their network. WHJL, an ABC affiliate, and WVIP, a CBS affiliate, both turned down offers to switch their affiliations, as did independent station WHST.

WIND was the only station left in the market. The station immediately accepted NBC's offer, signing a four-year contract with the network in late August 1994. At midnight on Sunday, September 12, 1994, WTVI and WIND swapped affiliations. *Sunday Today* was WIND's first NBC program.

WIND, now branded as WIND NBC 17, had not had their own news department since 1980. For a time after the affiliation switch, the station carried syndicated programming in slots in which newscasts would normally be aired. Throughout 1994, the station began hiring anchors, reporters, meteorologists, and sports anchors for new local newscasts on the station. Tom Klein, who was part of WIND's original news department, was hired as a lead evening anchor.

### The all-new WIND

At 6:00 a.m. on January 2, 1995, WIND launched their news department, *WIND News*, beginning with *WIND News Today*. Newscasts were aired weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. to 11:35 p.m. Although the station remained number four in the ratings book, NBC was satisfied with the station's efforts, after previously being skeptical about having them sign a contract with the network.

In January 1995, WIND began airing programming from the new United Paramount Network (UPN). The network only broadcast one hour of primetime programming per week, which WIND carried on Saturdays at 1:00 a.m. following the conclusion of *Saturday Night Live*. The station made essentially no mention of their secondary UPN affiliation, with the exception of occasionally airing programs for their shows.

Weekend evening newscasts were launched early in 1996, with a Saturday edition at 11:00 p.m. and Sunday editions at 6:00 and 11:00. The UPN affiliation was then dropped, going to WHST as their primary affiliation. In mid-1996, the morning broadcast was expanded by half an hour, beginning at 5:30 a.m. In September 1996, the station made changes to its syndicated lineup. *The Rosie O'Donnell Show* was added to the 10:00 a.m. slot, replacing *Donahue* (which the station had picked up in 1993 after WHJL dropped it). Additionally, the station replaced a 4:00 p.m. movie with two hours of sitcoms, including *Home Improvement* and *Seinfeld*. In 1997, an half-hour 5:00 p.m. newscast was launched, pushing *Home Improvement* back to 2:05 a.m.

On September 7, 1999, NBC launched *Later Today*, a morning talk show which replaced *Leeza* in the 9:00 a.m. slot. Leeza continued to air in syndication for one more season, and WIND picked it back up to air at 11:00 a.m., but both *Later Today* and *Leeza* were cancelled in the summer of 2000. NBC replaced *Later Today* with a third hour of the existing Today Show, but WIND needed to fill the spot left by Leeza. So, *The Rosie O'Donnell Show* was moved to 11:00 a.m., with her former slot being taken by a new local talk show, *The WIND Morning Exchange*, based on a format used by WDOK, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The program featured news and weather headlines at the top of the first and second half-hours, and general entertainment stories, cooking segments, interviews, local events, and music performances taking up the rest of the time. The format was incredibly successful, and, by the end of 2000, was the highest-rated daytime program in Terre Haute of any kind on any station. In the summer of 2001, WIND replaced the 6:00 a.m. newscast with *The Early Morning Exchange*, which quickly began beating all three other stations in the market on at that time. A weekend edition, airing Sundays at 9:00 a.m., was launched in November 2001.

Although the *Exchange* started off extremely strong, it began to decline by 2003, when higher-rated WTVI launched a similarly-formatted morning newscast, *Good Day Terre Haute*, airing from 5:00 to 9:30 a.m. In June 2004, the early morning edition of the exchange was replaced with a relaunched *WIND News Today,* which was also expanded to start at 5:30 a.m. The final edition of the original *Morning Exchange* program aired on August 27, 2004, with its replacement program, *The Jane Pauley Show*, premiering the following Monday. The weekend edition remained until late 2008, when it was replaced with a traditional news program.

In 2010, the station launched a 4:00 p.m. newscast, moving *The Ellen DeGeneres Show* back to 3:00 p.m. replacing *The Tyra Banks Show*. The newscast, unlike most other afternoon programs, had a focus on hard news. On May 26, 2011, *The Oprah Winfrey Show* ended its 25-year run in syndication. WVIP had aired it in the 4:00 p.m. slot since 1995. After the station began airing reruns of the program the following day, *WIND News at 4:00* ratings skyrocketed. Many stations airing *Oprah* chose to replace it with news, but WVIP instead began airing *Anderson* in the slot on September 12. This decision helped WIND become number one at 4:00.

### Sale to Media General

On June 6, 2013, owner Young Broadcasting announced it would merge with Media General. WIND was one of the 30 Young stations to be sold to the company. The sale was approved by the FCC on November 8, 2013, and was completed on November 12. The station became one of Media General's lowest-rated stations, and was neglected by the company.

Little to no changes were made to the station or its newscasts until 2016, when it launched a new newscast graphics package, "Look 11", also used by a few other Media General stations. Additionally, in late 2016, the morning newscast was expanded to start at 4:30 a.m.

### Sale to Price Media Group

On January 27, 2016, owner Media General announced it had agreed to be acquired by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $4.6 billion, plus the assumption of $2.3 billion in debt. The company also gave Meredith Corporation a termination fee of $60 million, and gave them the first right of refusal to acquire any stations divested during the merge. WIND and WCON in Norfolk, Virginia were the only two divested stations which Meredith passed on. On May 27, 2016, the Price Media Group announced it would acquire both stations for $1.3 billion. The transaction was completed along with the rest of the Media General sale on January 17, 2017.

In September 2019, the noon newscast expanded to an hour after the cancellation of *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?*, which had aired in the 12:30 slot since its debut in 2002. The broadcast was Terre Haute's first hour-long midday newscast, and remains the only one. WHJL and WVIP both air half-hour programs, while WTVI airs syndicated programming.

On November 12, 2021, WIND launched a new newscast graphics package, designed by the Price graphics hub and also used by sister station WACT, the ABC affiliate in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Additionally, the news music switched from "Inergy", used since the Media General days, to "Propulsion" by 615 Music. The station also adopted a new slogan, "News That Matters To You".

## News/station presentation

### Newscast titles

* WIND NewsWatch (1979-1980)
* Tribune-Star News Update (1988-1990)
* The WIND Ten O'Clock News (1990-1993)
* Fox 17 News at Ten (1993-1994)
* WIND News (1995-present)

### News themes

* News People - Tuesday Productions (1979-1980)
* Spirit of Texas - TM Productions (1988-1990)
* Good News - Gari Media Group (1990-1993)
* Total News - Non-Stop Music (1993-1994)
* Aurora - 615 Music (1995-1999)
* Global Village - Stephen Arnold Music (1999-2003)
* Pinnacle - Stephen Arnold Music (2003-2016)
* Inergy - Stephen Arnold Music (2016-2021)
* Propulsion - 615 Music (2021-present)

### Voiceover artists

* Wally White (1979-1980)
* No voiceover (1988-1990)
* Paul Turner (1990-1999)
* Bob Tracey (1999-2021)
* Miranda Wilson (2021-present)

## Programming

As of August 2022, syndicated programming seen on WIND includes *The Ellen DeGeneres Show*, *Access Hollywood*, *Inside Edition*, and, beginning in September, *Sherri*.

## Technical information

### Subchannels

 17.2
 17.3
 17.4
 17.5

### Analog-to-digital conversion

WIND discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 27, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 17.