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WOLO-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for South Carolina's Midlands licensed to Columbia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 (or virtual channel 25.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Rush Road in unincorporated Southwestern Kershaw County. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 5 and in high definition on digital channel 1105. Owned by Bahakel Communications, WOLO has studios on Shakespeare Road in Arcadia Lakes (official address is Columbia) and a secondary facility (for newscast production) at the Main Street intersection with Gervais Street/US 1/US 378 in Downtown Columbia. Syndicated programming on the station includes Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Judge Joe Brown, and Judge Judy among others.

Digital television

On WOLO-DT2 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 105 is a simulcast of its main signal with a second audio program and descriptive video service. On WOLO-DT3 is a 24-hour live feed of a NOAA National Weather Service Doppler weather radar with audio from NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards. This cannot be seen on Time Warner Cable at the current time. On WOLO-DT4 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 106 is Me-TV.

History

Channel 25 signed on the air as WCOS-TV on May 1, 1953 owned by Columbia Radio along with WCOS radio (AM 1400 and FM 97.9, now 97.5). It was South Carolina's first television station, and carried programming from all three networks--CBS, NBC and ABC. Studios were located in a Quonset hut near the station's current studio location.

WCOS-TV had very modern equipment by 1953 standards. However, UHF stations always found the going difficult in those days because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) didn't require television manufacturers to have UHF tuning capability until 1964. In the 1950s, viewers had to purchase separate converters to watch UHF stations, and even then, the picture was often hard to receive. The problem really manifested itself in November, when WIS-TV, channel 10, signed on as the city's first VHF station and took all NBC programming. WCOS was left with ABC since it had lost CBS to WNOK-TV, channel 67 (now WLTX, channel 19) in September. ABC was a very weak network at the time.

Even though WCOS' fate was sealed when WIS-TV signed on, the station limped along until 1956, when WNOK-TV offered to pay Charles W. Pittman, president of Columbia Radio, to take the struggling station off the air. Pittman, who had put much of his own money into WCOS, accepted and signed off on January 21, 1956.

Channel 25 remained dark for over five years, in hopes of returning to the air again "in the near future". On October 1, 1961, local investors bought the license and returned to the air as WCCA-TV, also an ABC affiliate. As a result of its time off the air, while it was the first television station in the state, it is not the longest continuously operating--that distinction goes to WCSC-TV in Charleston. In 1964, Cy Bahakel, owner of WCCB-TV in Charlotte (100 miles north), bought WCCA and changed the calls to the current WOLO-TV. The station's ownership is the longest-serving ownership of any of the Columbia market's television stations, with president Beverly Poston taking over as president of Bahakel after her father's death in 2006.

In 2001, WOLO activated a new tower along I-20 near Camden. It is the tallest structure in South Carolina, at almost 1,800 feet. Before then, the station had long been plagued by a weak signal. Although it decently covered Columbia and its close-in suburbs, it only provided grade B coverage of the second-largest city in the market, Sumter, and was all but unviewable in the outlying areas. As such, many areas of the market weren't able to get a decent signal from channel 25 until cable television arrived in Columbia in the 1970s. Much of the western part of the market got a better signal from WJBF in Augusta (and often, with numerous pre-emptions, WJBF, not WOLO, carried ABC programming). In 2002, WOLO was the second commercial station in the Columbia market to go digital.

WOLO runs syndicated programs such as Judge Joe Brown, Judge Judy, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy!.

As of March 4, 2011, WOLO carries Me-TV on subchannel 25.4.

Starting with the 2011 season, WOLO becomes the flagship television station for the South Carolina Gamecocks, as ESPN Regional Television announced on June 21, 2011, that WOLO and WKTC will share duties for the Southeastern Conference television package, replacing Raycom-owned WIS. ^[1]

News operations

WOLO has experienced several firsts, including the first certified meteorologist and color radar in South Carolina (in 1978) and the first live broadcast via satellite (in 1980). The station also had the first female news anchor in the market, Elizabeth Snite. WOLO was the first television station to have a hand-held videotape camera, a Sony Mini-Cam and Jerry Emanuel, Sports Director and reporter was the first to use that camera to do feature stories as opposed to breaking news stories. However, WOLO has spent most of its history as the weakest major-network affiliate in Columbia. In 1997, WOLO upgraded its news image by hiring Jim Blue and Leslie Mouton (Mattox) and branded itself as "25 Eyewitness News". It also adopted the "AccuWeather" franchise. It also expanded its news product to include a morning show, "Good Morning Columbia" and a 5 PM newscast.

In 2002, Bahakel moved WOLO's operations to WCCB in Charlotte, where they stayed for three years. During that time, WCCB's studios played host to WOLO's newscasts. All news gathering was still based in Columbia with a News Director and reporters producing the daily newscasts. WOLO cut many jobs and shows, and only the weekday evening newscasts were retained. This was one of the first examples of "central casting" (housing several stations' operations in one location) in the United States.

Bahakel returned WOLO's anchors to Columbia in Fall 2005, while keeping the production of their weather casts in Charlotte, and built a new street-side studio across from the state capitol. It has underscored its commitment to local news with slogans such as "Live from Main and Gervais" (the major intersection housing WOLO's new street-side newsroom) and "More Local News." Around the same time, WOLO switched its on-air name from ABC25 to ABC Columbia, similar to the change made at WCCB, which switched its branding from "FOX 18" to "Fox Charlotte".

While it is still well behind WIS and WLTX, WOLO has been more competitive since it moved back to Columbia. Additionally, it has begun reaping the full benefits of its technical upgrades of the past decade and the switch to digital.

On September 21, 2009, WOLO was the first station in Columbia to air its news in high definition, accompanied by a new graphics and music package. Along with WOLO's September 21, 2009 transition to high definition came a new website scheme, a simple flash layout, aimed towards younger viewers. The station was the first to begin gathering its field video in high definition in February 2010. On October 12, 2010, WOLO became the first station in the market to air live shots in HD. On November 2, 2010, WOLO became the first station in Columbia to stream live video to the iPhone.

After nine years of not airing a morning newscast, WOLO-TV re-launched Good Morning Columbia on August 1, 2011. It also debuted its first-ever noon newscast, ABC Columbia News at Noon, the same day.^[2]

Newscast titles

• Newscene 25 (1980s)
• 25 News (1983-1990 and 1999-2001)
• 25 Live News (1990-1993)
• WOLO News Hour (1993-1996)
• 25 Eyewitness News (1996-1999 and 2001-2002)
• ABC 25 News (2002-2005)
• ABC Columbia News (2005-present)

Station slogans

• "Live From Main and Gervais, Columbia's First High Definition Newscast" (2009-present, news)
• "Your HD, Widescreen News Station" (2010-present, station)

News team

Anchors and reporters

• Alicia Barnes - weeknights and "Wrinkle Free Wednesday" segment producer (also heard on WWDM-FM 101.3 and WHXT-FM 103.9)
• Eric Weisfeld - weeknights and "ABC Columbia Watchdog" segment producer
• Anderson Burns - weekday mornings and noon (also reporter and "Hidden Columbia" segment producer)
• Rochelle Dean - weekends; also General Assignment Reporter
• Dave Aiken - Station/Program Manager and "Voice of the Viewer" segment producer
• Crandall Sims - reporter and weekday noon producer
• Monique Williams - reporter

Meteorologists (+ denotes personnel based at WCCB)

• + Reg Taylor (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen Sunday through Thursday nights
• Jonathan Oh - weekday mornings and noon (also New Media Coordinator)
• + Jacinda Garabito - Friday and Saturday nights
• Emily Baird - morning/noon fill-in
• + Derek James - evening fill-in
• + Tera Blake - evening fill-in

Sports

• Tim Hill - Director seen weeknights
• Rob Brennan - Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter

Photojournalists

• Rich Wandover - Chief
• Matt Perron
• Joy Batt
• Benjamin Prater
• Sean Galloway
• Jason Shideler

Past notable staff

• Rick Leventhal - now at Fox News Channel
• Leslie Mouton - now at KSAT-TV
• Tom Ackerman - now at WLEX-TV
• David Hartman
• John Gaughan

References

External links

• ABCColumbia.com (Official WOLO-TV Website)
• MeTVColumbia.com (Official "Me-TV Columbia" Website)

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