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WAPT (channel 16) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...
, United States, affiliated with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
. The station is owned by
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and the Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor ...
and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Channel 16 Way (off MS 18) in southwest Jackson. WAPT was the third commercial station in Jackson. It signed on in October 1970 and was owned by Jackson-based insurer American Public Life Insurance Company. Under several owners, it had generally been the third-rated station for local news in the market, a historic position attributable to its late entrance and smaller coverage area in the 1970s and 1980s. Argyle Television acquired WAPT in 1995, then proceeded to merge with Hearst in 1997. The station has become more competitive in local news under Hearst ownership.


History


Early years

In 1965, two groups sought Jackson's channel 16 allocation: John MacLendon, owner of Jackson radio station WOKJ and a station in
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
, and an affiliate of American Public Life Insurance Company, a Jackson-based insurer. The
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) designated the applications for consideration in the same
comparative hearing The comparative hearing process was used by the United States Federal Radio Commission from 1927 to 1934 and its successor, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), from 1934 to 1994 for the evaluation of mutually exclusive applications for b ...
case, and in October, the two merged their applications. At the time, it was stated that channel 16 would begin broadcasting in the fall of 1967. By March 1969, American Public Life had announced in its 1968 annual report to shareholders that construction activities were underway and the station, dubbed WAPT, was negotiating with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
for affiliation. However, that November, MacLendon died of a heart attack in a Miami hospital; he had fallen ill on a business trip to Central America. American Public Life Insurance Company then acquired MacLendon's 50-percent share from his estate. On September 1, 1970, the two commercial stations in Jackson,
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate
WLBT WLBT (channel 3) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media, which also operates American Spirit Media–owned Fox affiliate WDBD (channel 40) and Vicksburg-licensed MyNet ...
and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate
WJTV WJTV (channel 12) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios on TV ...
, ceased airing ABC programming. However, WAPT was not ready to go on the air; a strike at the
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factory in
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, delayed the delivery of its antenna. WAPT began broadcasting on October 3, 1970; a football game between
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and
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
was carried that day by WJTV and WAPT, as WJTV had been a backup plan if channel 16 could not start in time. Its arrival brought full three-network service to Jackson: Tom Dupree of ''The Clarion-Ledger'' hailed the station for "eliminating the biggest headache which has plagued Jackson since the first TV was plugged in". American Public Life Insurance Company sold WAPT in 1976 to a consortium of six professional and business investors, known as Television America Sixteen, for $500,000 and the assumption of another $3 million in liabilities; at the same time, its board chairman sold his interest in WRBT-TV in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
. Three years later, Clay Broadcasting of
Charleston, West Virginia Charleston () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in West Virginia, most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Kanawha County and ...
, acquired WAPT for $7.5 million from the group, promising improvements in the news department, which continued to badly lag even though ABC was the number-one network at the time. Clay sought to update WAPT's equipment and expand the staff of the station.


Price and Northstar Television Group ownership

Price Communications acquired Clay's four-station group in 1987 for $60 million after Clay began soliciting bids for the company's holdings; Price acquired the TV stations, while Thomson Newspapers acquired its print publications. Two years later, Price executive Dick Appleton led a management buyout of part of the company, paying $120 million for four Price stations, including WAPT; the new ownership was named Northstar Television Group. For a time in 1991, Appleton traveled to Jackson to run the station directly, relieving the general manager, who was recovering from brain surgery. He then fired the news director and told a newspaper reporter that WAPT was the "sick kid" in his station group. WAPT was one of 57 stations that declined to carry ''
NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble ca ...
'' when it debuted in September 1993; the show's language, nudity, and violence led all five of the state's ABC affiliates to decline to air the program at the outset. The station reversed its stance in January 1995, with general manager Stuart Kellogg citing changes made by ABC.


Argyle/Hearst ownership

Argyle Television II acquired three of the four Northstar stations in a deal announced in September 1994 and consummated in January 1995. The company was made up of investors who had sold the original Argyle Television group to
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia comp ...
. In August 1997, Argyle merged with the
Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
's broadcasting unit to form what was then known as Hearst-Argyle Television. The name continued until 2009, when the Hearst Corporation acquired Argyle's stake in the venture, took it private, and renamed it Hearst Television. In 2005,
Sacha Baron Cohen Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( ; born 13 October 1971) is an English comedian, actor and performance artist. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haf ...
appeared as his
Borat ''Borat'' (also known as ''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'') is a 2006 mockumentary directed by Larry Charles, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakhs, Kazakh jou ...
character in a news interview while secretly filming a segment for the movie of the same name. The station had been told by a publicist that the appearance was for a Bulgarian television documentary and was provided a fake website to that effect. After the film's release the next year, Dharma Arthur, a news producer for WAPT, wrote a letter to ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' saying that Borat's appearance on the station had led to her losing her job: "Because of him, my boss lost faith in my abilities and second-guessed everything I did thereafter...How upsetting that a man who leaves so much harm in his path is lauded as a comedic genius." Although Arthur had said she was fired from the station in the letter to ''Newsweek'', she had previously told the
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that she had resigned. During
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in 2005, 19 employees of
WDSU WDSU (channel 6) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Howard Avenue in the city's Central Business District, and its transmitte ...
, the Hearst-Argyle station in
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, relocated to WAPT. A secondary set was built at WAPT to support temporary newscasts from Jackson, which were broadcast on radio and internet. WDSU anchors were later sent to
WESH WESH (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Clermont-licensed CW affiliate WKCF (channel 18). The t ...
in
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; they did not return to New Orleans until October.


News operation

WAPT began producing local news in early 1971. Bert Case was the first news director; he went on to a 40-year career at WLBT when he left in 1974. Dick Thames, the first sports anchor, died in a 1972 plane crash as he was preparing a news story; footage of the crash was filmed by a WAPT cameraman. WAPT has traditionally been the third-rated station for local news in Jackson, behind WJTV and market leader WLBT. In part, this was because, historically, WLBT and WJTV, both on the very high frequency (VHF) band, had larger coverage areas; WAPT's signal reached about 69 percent of the area that WLBT's did. In addition, the station had fewer resources in every area. With just one sportscaster, anchors got burned out keeping up with central Mississippi sports, particularly when WLBT and WJTV both had larger teams; WAPT often cycled through sports anchors. At the end of 1988, the station ceased broadcasting weekend newscasts; under Northstar, WAPT restored weekend news in November 1990 and began airing a morning newscast in 1992. Argyle made a major shakeup of the station's news talent after it took over in 1995. Two station staples, anchor Stephanie Bell-Flynt and commentator Cal Adams, were fired in September 1995, with Bell-Flynt being replaced on the evening newscasts she anchored. News director Bob Noonan, who had been on the job only seven weeks, defended the firings as necessary to "put a more competitive team on the field". In the 2000s and 2010s, WAPT has become more competitive with WJTV for second place, though both stations continue to trail WLBT. Hearst has expanded the station's news offerings progressively under its ownership. Weekend morning newscasts, sandwiching the weekend editions of ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...
'', debuted in 2011. In 2020, a 9 p.m. newscast debuted on the MeTV subchannel.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

WAPT ended regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 16, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 21, using
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...
16. As part of the SAFER Act, WAPT kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wapt (Tv) 1970 establishments in Mississippi American Broadcasting Company affiliates Get (TV network) affiliates Hearst Television MeTV affiliates Story Television affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1970 APT