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WEAR-TV
Pensacola, Florida/Mobile, Alabama
Branding	WEAR ABC 3 (general) Channel 3 News (newscasts)
Slogan	First LIVE Local
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF)
Affiliations	ABC (secondary until 1955)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WEAR Licensee, LLC)
First air date	January 13, 1954
Call letters’ meaning	The word EAR
Sister station(s)	WFGX
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 3 (1954-2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1954-1955)
Transmitter Power	1000 kW
Height	579 m
Facility ID	71363
Transmitter Coordinates	30°36′45.4″N 87°38′41.6″W / 30.612611°N 87.644889°W / 30.612611; -87.644889
Website	www.weartv.com

WEAR is the ABC affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama/Pensacola, Florida viewing area. It is licensed to Pensacola and is one of two major commercial stations in the market that is licensed on the Florida side of the market, the other being sister station WFGX, a MyNetworkTV affiliate. WEAR is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Its transmitter is located near Foley, Alabama, and its studios are located on Mobile Highway (US 90) in southwest Pensacola.

Digital television

On June 12, 2009, WEAR-TV has left channel 3 and moved to channel 17 when the analog to digital conversion completed.^[1]

History

WEAR began operation on January 13, 1954, which was almost a year after WALA-TV began. The station was founded by Charles Smith and Mel Wheeler. Initially the station was a primary CBS affiliate, while sharing ABC with WALA. When WKRG-TV signed on in 1955, WEAR became strictly an ABC affiliate.

In 1959, WEAR was sold to Rollins Telecasting. In 1987, Rollins Telecasting merged with Heritage Broadcasting to form Heritage Media. In October 1997, WEAR and the other Heritage stations were sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, just as the remainder of Heritage Media was merging with News Corporation (the parent company of Fox). This sale also protected former longtime NBC affiliate WALA as the market's Fox affiliate; otherwise, WEAR would have been forced to switch its network affiliation to Fox.

WEAR started producing newscasts in HD on September 7, 2008. The station installed a new digital control room and re-built their news set. They are the first news operation in the Mobile/Pensacola market to produce a local newscast in high definition.

WEAR's newscasts tend to focus on coverage of the Northwestern Florida area as opposed to WKRG and WPMI-TV, which predominantly feature news concerning the southern Alabama area.

Sinclair prohibited its ABC affiliates, including WEAR, from airing a Nightline broadcast in 2004 because the company felt it was near anti-war rhetoric.[1]

Mediacom dispute

In late 2006, Sinclair entered into negotiations with Mediacom, the main cable provider for much of the Florida side of the Mobile-Pensacola market (including Santa Rosa County and Pensacola Beach). The two companies could not reach agreement over compensation rights. As a result, Mediacom pulled all of Sinclair's stations, including WEAR, from its systems on January 6, 2007. The dispute ended on February 2, when the two sides reached an agreement that restored WEAR to Mediacom systems.

Upon the expiration of the 2007 agreement on January 1, 2010, Mediacom was prepared to drop WEAR and WFGX once again from its systems. Sinclair agreed to a temporary extension until January 8th on December 31st, 2009 (so the BCS games could be viewed on Sinclair's ABC and FOX affiliates over Mediacom), and eventually, a 1 year agreement was reached which will keep Sinclair stations on Mediacom until 2011.

Personalities

Current On-Air Talent

Current Anchors/Hosts

• Mollye Barrows - First at 4 / 10pm Anchor (also reporter)
• James T. Jackson - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10PM (also reporter)
• Liz Nagy - weekend mornings "3 In The Morning"
• Bree Sison - weekday mornings "3 In the Morning" (also reporter)
• Bob Solarski - 5/6/10pm anchor
• Sue Straughn - Dayside / 5pm & 6pm anchor (also host of Straughn & Company and producer)
• Jared Willets - weekday mornings "3 In the Morning" & Dayside anchor

Reporters

• Laura Hussey - general assignment reporter
• Jaimee Lee - traffic reporter
• Greg Neumann - general assignment reporter (also fill-in anchor)
• Bill Pearson - general assignment reporter
• Jake Peterson - general assignment reporter
• Bob Solarski - host of Channel 3 News This Week (also producer)
• Dan Thomas - general assignment reporter
• Laurie Bernstein - general assignment reporter

First Warning Weather Team

• Allen Strum (AMS/NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weekdays at 4, weeknights at 5, 6 and 10PM
• Jim Carmack - Weather Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10PM (also reporter)
• Kathryn Daniel - Meteorologist; weekend mornings "3 in the Morning" (also reporter)
• Christian Garman (AMS/NWA Seals of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "3 In the Morning" (also entertainment reporter)

Sports Team

• Dan Shugart - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 10PM
• Steve Nissim - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10PM (also sports reporter)

Past personalities

• Jim Pennington (former anchor & news director)
• Mary Ollie Newman (former anchor)
• Ashley Chisolm (chief meteorologist) - At WEAR from 1993 until 2000 before leaving TV.
• Lance Sandstead (news anchor)
• Hank Astengo (sport anchor) - Now sports anchor for WCJB in Gainesville, Florida.
• Katie Horner (chief meteorologist) Now chief meteorologist at KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri.
• Jeff Weeks (morning weather) - No longer in TV.
• Beth Morgan (weekend weather)
• Sarah Pitzen (weekend weather)
• Annette Falwell (weekend news anchor) Now anchor-reporter at WCTI-TV in New Bern, North Carolina.
• Dave Daughtry (news anchor) Went to WALA in Mobile, Alabama, and now appears to have left TV.
• Heather Tesch - Former reporter, now a meteorologist at The Weather Channel
• Ann Kerian - Former Anchor/Military Affairs Reporter - Now "Executive Coach, Consultant and Public Speaker"
• Bob O'Brien
• Shauna Dunlap - Former morning anchor, left WEAR and began working for the FBI
• Charles Basset - Former weekend anchor, now at KWTV in Oklahoma City
• Catherine Pegram - Former morning anchor, now at WABI in Bangor, Maine
• Sherri Hemminghaus
• Doug Mouton - Former weekend sports anchor, now works as a reporter at WWL-TV in New Orleans.
• Rob Manning - Former news reporter
• David Brandao - Former news reporter
• Sara Baumgartner - Anchor
• Byron L. Pfordte - Former Reporter/Newscast Director, currently Art Director for Sinclair Broadcast Group stations WXLV & WMYV in Greensboro, NC.
• Erin Ovalle - Former reporter, now reporter at Sinclair sister station WGME-TV in Portland, ME
• Francesca Maxime - Former 10pm anchor
• Liz Swaine - Began career at WEAR-TV; voted "Best Journalist in the Nation" while at KTBS-TV in Shreveport; candidate for mayor of Shreveport, 2006
• Tara Brown - Former Morning Anchor
• Tom Siler - Former Meteorologist

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• Gulf Coast News 3 (early 1980s)
• Channel 3 News (mid 1980s-present)

Station Slogans

• We're Still the One, on Channel 3 (1977-1980; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• You and Me and Channel 3 (1980-1981; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• Now is the Time, Channel 3 is the Place (1981-1982; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• Come Along With Channel 3 (1982-1984; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• We're With You on Channel 3 (1984-1985; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• You'll Love It On Channel 3 (1985-1986; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• Together on Channel 3 (1986-1987; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• If It's WEAR-3, It Must Be ABC (1992-1993, local version of ABC ad campaign)
• TV is Good, on WEAR-3 (1997-1998; local version of ABC ad campaign)
• Your Clear Choice for News (2000-2006)
• First. Live. Local (2006-present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

External links

• Official site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WEAR
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEAR-TV
• Program Information for WEAR at TitanTV.com

References