WISH-TV

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WISH-TV
Indianapolis, Indiana
Branding	WISH-TV8 (general) News8 (newscasts)
Slogan	Indiana's Own Your 24-Hour News Station
Channels	8 (VHF) analog, 9 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	LIN TV
Founded	July 1, 1954
Call letters meaning	We're Indiana State Hoosiers or the word "WISH"
Former affiliations	DuMont (1954-1956) secondary
Website	www.wishtv.com

WISH-TV channel 8 is the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its transmitter is also located in Indianapolis. It is the flagship of the LIN TV group, which also owns area stations WIIH-CA (a Univision affiliate) and WNDY-TV (a My Network TV affiliate). WISH-TV, WNDY-TV and WIIH-TV are co-located at a building on Meridian Street, which also serves as an operations hub for other LIN television stations in the Midwest. WISH also offers a 24-hour weather service, LWS to central Indiana cable systems.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts 2.1 Weekdays 2.2 Saturdays 2.3 Sundays 3 External links

[edit] History

The station began broadcast operations at 6pm on July 1, 1954 and has been a CBS affiliate from the start. It also carried some programming from DuMont, but became solely affiliated with CBS in 1956. Notably, WISH is the only station in Indianapolis that has never changed its primary network affiliation.

At one point WISH and sister CBS affiliate WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana were owned by Corinthian Broadcasting, a division of Dun & Bradstreet. Dun sold its entire broadcasting unit to Belo in 1984; however, due to FCC ownership limits at the time, Belo sold WISH and WANE to LIN Broadcasting (the predecessor of LIN TV) shortly thereafter.

From the mid-1980s until 2002, WISH was the leading news station in the Indianapolis market until WTHR took over the position. This was due largely because most of its news team has been at the station for over 20 years. At one time, WISH boasted that "more people in Central Indiana get their local news from 24-Hour News 8 than from any other source" at the close of many newscasts and in promos.

Mike Ahern was the station's main evening news anchor, as well as the de facto face of WISH's newsroom for more than thirty years. He joined the station as a reporter in 1967, and retired from the anchor chair on December 1, 2004. His longtime co-anchor, Debby Knox, joined him in 1980 and is still on the air today. Popular Stan Wood served as the station's main weatherman for much of the 1960s through the 1990s, while Patty Spitler was an afternoon news anchor and entertainment reporter from 1982 to 2004. News director Lee Giles, who left the station in 2004, was one of the longest-tenured news directors in local broadcasting.

Currently, WISH is a distant No. 2 in the ratings behind WTHR, except during the early news when it runs neck and neck with WRTV. However, due to the recent strength of CBS primetime, WISH's News 8 at 11 PM is now the number one news at 11PM in the Indianapolis market.

WISH-TV's newsroom began to produce WNDY-TV's 10pm newscast in 2005, when LIN purchased WNDY from Viacom.

Since 1991, all of WISH's news music themes have had components of the song Back Home Again in Indiana. This tradition continues today.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• Daybreak Early Edition - 5 AM-5:30 AM
  • Scott Sander, Joy Dumandan, Julie Patterson (traffic), Randy Ollis (weather)
• Daybreak First Edition - 5:30 AM-6 AM
  • Scott Sander, Joy Dumandan, Julie Patterson (traffic), Randy Ollis (weather)
• Daybreak - 6 AM-7 AM
  • Scott Sander, Joy Dumandan, Julie Patterson (traffic), Randy Ollis (weather)
• Daybreak 'Til Eight - 7 AM-8 AM
  • Scott Sander, Joy Dumandan, Julie Patterson (traffic), Randy Ollis (weather)
• WISH-TV 8 Noon News - Noon-12:30 PM
  • David Barras, Deanna Dewberry, Randy Ollis (weather)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Five - 5 PM-6 PM
  • Debby Knox, Karen Hensel, David Barras, Deanna Dewberry, Steve Bray (weather)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Six - 6 PM-6:30 PM
  • Debby Knox, Eric Halvorson, Angela Buchman (weather), Anthony Calhoun (sports)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Eleven - 11 PM-11:35 PM
  • Debby Knox, Eric Halvorson, Angela Buchman (weather), Anthony Calhoun (sports)

[edit] Saturdays

• Daybreak Saturday Early Edition - 6 AM-7 AM
  • Rick Dawson, Ruthanne Gordon, Ken Brewer (weather)
• Daybreak Saturday Morning - 7 AM-9 AM
  • Rick Dawson, Ruthanne Gordon, Ken Brewer (weather)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Six - 6 PM-7PM
  • Mike Corbin, Shana Kelley, Sean Ash (weather), Chris Widlic (sports)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Eleven - 11 PM-11:22 PM
  • Mike Corbin, Shana Kelley, Sean Ash (weather), Chris Widlic (sports)
• SportsLocker - 11:22 PM-Midnight
  • hosted by Anthony Calhoun

WISH-TV is one of several CBS affiliates that do not carry the Saturday Early Show, aired instead over WNDY.

[edit] Sundays

• Daybreak Sunday Early Edition - 6 AM-7 AM
  • Rick Dawson, Ruthanne Gordon, Ken Brewer (weather)
• Daybreak Sunday Morning - 7 AM-9 AM
  • Rick Dawson, Ruthanne Gordon, Ken Brewer (weather)
• 24 Houe News 8 at Six - 6PM-7 PM
  • Mike Corbin, Shana Kelley, Sean Ash (weather), Chris Widlic (sports)
• 24 Hour News 8 at Eleven - 11 PM-11:22 PM
  • Mike Corbin, Shana Kelley, Sean Ash (weather), Chris Widlic (sports)
• SportsLocker - 11:22 PM-Midnight
  • hosted by Anthony Calhoun

WISH-TV does not air the CBS Evening News weekend broadcasts.

[edit] External links

• WISH-TV website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WISH
• What Columbus Watched... - History of television in Indianapolis and Central Indiana from the perspective of a Columbus, Indiana resident

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Indiana
WISH 8 (Indianapolis) - WTHI 10 (Terre Haute) - WANE 15 (Fort Wayne) - WLFI 18 (Lafayette) - WSBT 22 (South Bend) - WEVV 44 (Evansville)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious and Other stations in the state of Indiana