WMAZ-TV
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WMAZ-TV, channel 13, is the CBS affiliate television station in Macon, Georgia, United States. It is owned by Gannett. Syndicated programming on WMAZ includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Ellen.
History
The station signed on September 27, 1953, owned by Southeastern Broadcasting Company along with WMAZ radio (AM 940, now WMAC; and FM 99.1, frequency now occupied by WDEN). It is the fourth-oldest station in the state and the oldest outside of Atlanta, beating WDAK-TV (now WTVM) in Columbus by only a day. Southeastern Broadcasting won a television license on its second try; it had previously made an unsuccessful bid for channel 7 a year earlier. The new station was one of the most powerful VHF stations in the country, providing at least secondary coverage from the southern Atlanta suburbs to the western suburbs of Savannah. It carried programming from all three major networks, but has always been a primary CBS affiliate owing to WMAZ-AM's long affiliation with CBS Radio.
WMAZ's callsign comes from its AM sister's roots as a physics project at Mercer University. The call letters stand for Watch Mercer Attain Zenith.
Southeastern Broadcasting sold WMAZ-AM-FM-TV to Southern Broadcasting Corporation in 1963, earning a healthy return on its 1935 purchase of WMAZ-AM. Southern Broadcasting merged with the News-Piedmont Company of Greenville, South Carolina to form Multimedia, Inc. in 1967. In 1974, WMAZ-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio on Gray Highway in Macon.
Multimedia merged with Gannett in 1995, making WMAZ-TV a sister station to Georgia's third-oldest station, WXIA-TV in Atlanta.
WMAZ was the only station in town until 1968, when WCWB-TV (now WMGT-TV) started and took the NBC affiliation. WMAZ continued to carry selected ABC shows until WGXA began in 1982.
It is still the only VHF station in the market, in part because Macon is sandwiched between Atlanta to the north, Columbus to the west, Augusta and Savannah to the east. In part due to this, it has dominated central Georgia ratings for most of its history.
Its current image campaign, "Straight from the Heart," dates to 1983, based on Bryan Adams' song of the same name. Its sister station, WBIR-TV, an NBC affiliate in Knoxville, also uses the slogan and image campaign.
On November 4, 2011 WMAZ moved all their newscast to the "Law Call" set, with the normal red and black newsroom/control room backdrop. Three days later, on November 7, WMAZ announced during their 5 o'clock newscast that they will be upgrading to HD in the upcoming weeks. The first reporting of the transition was on morning anchor Stephanie Susskind's Facebook page where she wrote, "If things look a little different this morning, it's because we are getting ready to go HD! Stick with us for some temporary changes as we get our studio ready to broadcast in High Definition soon". Ten days later, WMAZ began broadcasting their newscasts in HD, becoming the first full power station in the Macon market to do so (behind WRWR-LD, a low power station in Warner Robins which began airing HD newscasts on September 17, 2010). Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WMAZ does not broadcast local news weeknights at 5:30 p.m.
Digital Television
On June 12, 2009, WMAZ-TV terminated its analog signal and moved its digital signal to channel 13.
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WMAZ-TV | Main WMAZ-TV programming / CBS |
| 13.2 | 480i | 4:3 | WMAZTV3 | Radar/Local Weather |
News operation
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1950s)
- WMAZ-TV News (1957-1960s)
- The 11th Hour Report (1960s-1969)
- Pulse News (1969-1971)
- Channel 13 News (1971-1974)
- News 13 (1974-1978)
- Eyewitness NewsCenter (1978-1979)
- Eyewitness News (1979-1996)
- 13 WMAZ Eyewitness News (1996–present)
Station slogans
- Channel 13, Georgia's Color Station (1960s)
- Channel 13 is The Place To Be (early 1970s)
- Straight From The Heart (1983–present)
Newscast music
- Move Closer to Your World by Mayoham Music (1972–1976)
- Where You Belong by TM Productions (1976–1978)
- WJZ 1975 News Theme by unknown composer (1978–1980)
- WMAZ 1980 News Theme by unknown composer (1980-19??)
- KSDK 1981 News Theme by unknown composer (1990–1994)
- WWL News by Stephen Arnold Music (1994–2006)
- Seize The Day by 615 Music (2006–2008)
- Gannett News Music Package by Rampage Music New York, Inc. (2008-2013)
- This Is Home by Gari Media Group (2013–present)
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News team
Current on-air staff
Current anchors
- Suzanne Lawler – weekend mornings Eyewitness News Mornin' (7:00-9:00 a.m.); also fill-in sports anchor
- Lorra Lynch-Jones – weeknights at 5:00 p.m.
- Frank Malloy – weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.;
- Annette St. Clair – weekday mornings Eyewitness News Mornin' (5:00-7:00 a.m.)
- Kenny Burgamy -weekday mornings Eyewitness News Mornin' (5:00-7:00 a.m.) and at noon
- TBA – weekends at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
Weather team
- Ben Jones (AMS Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- TBA – meteorologist; weekend mornings Eyewitness News Mornin' (7:00-9:00 a.m.) and weekends at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- David Enrst (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings Eyewitness News Mornin' (5:00-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
- Chrissy Miner – (AMS member) meteorologist; fill-in
- Mike Fuller – meteorologist; fill-in
Sports team
(all co-host of HighSchoolSports.net Football Friday Night and HighSchoolSports.net Full Court Press)
- Courtney Lyle - sports anchor/reporter, Weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Marvin James – sports anchor/reporter, Weekends at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Ben Jones – sports reporter
- Brian Stewart - Sports Intern
Reporters
- Elise Brown - multimedia journalist
- Austin Lewis - multimedia journalist
- Jennifer Moulliet - multimedia journalist
- Judy Le - multimedia journalist
- Katelyn Heck - multimedia journalist
- Tom George - multimedia journalist
- Randall Savage – "Close Up" host; also special assignment editor
Local program hosts
- Brooke Hawkins – Scene 13 co-host
- Annette St. Clair – Law Call host
- Del Ward – "Personal Profile" interviewer
Former on-air staff
- Jennifer Bellamy, Multi-media Journalist, 2008-2011, now at WLTX in Columbia, S.C.
- Vanessa Echols, Reporter (1983–1987, now at WFTV)
- Joel Godard, Weather Anchor (early 1970s, later the announcer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien)
- Phil Keating - reporter (1990; now at Fox News Channel)[1]
- Scott McGrew (1991-1993, now at KNTV)
- Maureen O'Boyle – morning anchor/reporter (1982-1987) later anchored A Current Affair, and Extra, now at WBTV-TV in Charlotte)
- Yenu Wodajo, Saturday 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Anchor/Reporter (2006–2008), now at ABC 33 40 in Birmingham, AL
- Bofta Yiman, Multi-media Journalist and weekend anchor, 2009-2011, now at Fox 13 in Memphis, TN.
References
- ^ "Phil Keating Bio". Fox News. Retrieved 9 March 2013.