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http://www.baynews9.com/Home.html »
Bay News 9 is a cable-based television news station located in St Petersburg, Florida. It currently serves the Tampa Bay Area including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties.
It was originally created by cable service operator Time Warner, which managed the system at the time and now is the main content provider for the new system known as Bright House Networks, to make local news available continuously throughout this fast-growing region. Former WTSP news anchor Al Ruechel was one of its first anchors and remains with the operation. Three original anchors remain with the station: Ruechel, Mike Clay, and Alan Winfield. Winfield only works during hurricanes after leaving the station full time in 2006 to join a religious ministry. One of the original reporters, Chuck Johnson, also remains with Bay News 9. In December 2008, Jen Holloway left the station to pursue more time marketing a product that she invented. However, she will remain with Bright House Networks. Weekend morning anchor, Erica Riggins replaced her spot [3]. Jen's last official newscast on Your Morning News was on Friday, December 12, 2008 [4]. For that point forward, she filled in for Al Ruechel as the afternoon/evening anchor. Her official last day with Bay News 9 was on December 31, 2008. Al now co-anchors the weekday evening news with Leigh Moody, who's been with the station for 8 years. Leigh started as the Weekend Evening Anchor and moved up the Weekend Morning newscasts before taking over the Weekday Evening anchor duties.
General Manager Elliot Wiser came from Seattle to create the station. His drawing of the original wheel remains on the wall of the station hallway. Wiser also created the Bay News 9 weather channel, a Spanish service, the on-demand channels and the web site. He also created a 24-hour sports channel called Catch 47 (later renamed Bright House Sports Network).
The station began operating on September 24, 1997 and gives weather updates every ten minutes "on the nines" and more frequently during unusual weather conditions. In 2002, it was first in the area to provide a VIPIR Doppler radar system. In 2007, Bay News 9 became the first station in Florida and only a handful of stations to provide a Dual-Pole Doppler Radar system [5]. On Monday, January 5, 2009, Bay News 9 launched its upgraded doppler rader system called Klystron 9. This new system is capable of seeing weather features in greater detail than other Doppler radar systems. [6]
It is seen on channel 9 on all systems, except for Pasco County, where it's seen on channel 6 (WTSP is on channel 9, due to its transmitter location). Using cutting edge technology, that has been copied by CNN Headline News, the newscasts are recorded for repeat broadcasts with breaking news and weather forecasts inserted almost hourly. Frequent weather reports are taped for convenience of staff. That's why they always say, '19 minutes past the hour'.
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