is the
ABC network
Television affiliate for
New Hampshire which also is considered part of the
Boston, Massachusetts television market in the southern part of the state. Licensed to Manchester, the station is owned by
Hearst-Argyle Television . WMUR broadcasts an analog signal on
VHF channel 9 and a digital signal on
UHF channel 59 from a transmitter located on Mount Uncanoonuc in
Goffstown, New Hampshire .
The station is known on air as '' although it has used the "ABC 9" branding on rare occasions including its website. The station's studios, known as the "WMUR-TV Broadcast Center", are located on South Commercial Street in Downtown Manchester. Several parts of its programming lineup are similar to that of sister station
WCVB-TV channel 5, Boston's ABC affiliate, as both stations share some
Syndicated Programs and WMUR airs a localized version of ''
Chronicle '', WCVB's longtime signature program.
Along with WMUR and WCVB, Hearst-Argyle also owns nearby
WNNE channel 31, an NBC affiliate. WNNE is based in
White River Junction, Vermont and is a semi-satellite of
WPTZ , another NBC affiliate owned by Hearst-Argyle. WPTZ, which is based in
Plattsburgh, New York , is the NBC affiliate for the
Burlington, Vermont - Plattsburgh television market. As a result of WNNE sharing its coverage area in New Hampshire with WMUR, WNNE's website features WMUR news stories and video.
During election seasons, WMUR is well-known for organizing and producing some of the higher profile candidate debates for
ABC News , as well as
CNN , before the first
United States Presidential primary. On
March 9 , 2005, as a result of its coverage of political events, the station won the "USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism" for the third consecutive time.
WMUR was established by former New Hampshire governor
Francis P. Murphy on
March 1 ,
1954 . It was the first television station in the state and broadcasted daily newscasts, local game shows, and movies. The station was sold to Richard Eaton's United Broadcasting in 1959, following Murphy's death a year earlier. In the 1970s, one of its local programs was the children's weekday strip known as ''The Uncle Gus Show''. Unlike Boston's astronaut "Major Mudd" or the widely franchised "Bozo", host "Uncle Gus" wore no costume except an angler's hat.
In July of 1981, following Richard Eaton's death, WMUR was sold to Birney Imes Jr., a
Columbus, Mississippi businessman who also owned that city's
WCBI-TV , as well as
WBOY-TV in
Clarksburg, West Virginia . Under the ownership of Imes, he made WMUR a major influence in New Hampshire, upgrading its facilities and news department. In September of 1987, as a result of the expansion, it moved from its original studios on Elm Street in Manchester to 50 Phillippe Cote Street, in the historic Millyard area of the city. Then, in 1995, WMUR purchased land and a building at their current location of 100 South Commercial Street. This building was rebuilt as a state-of-the-art Broadcast Center. They went on the air from this new location in January, 1996, subleasing their old building to
CNN for their coverage of the
New Hampshire Primary . The station is currently located at 100 South Commercial Street on an 80,000 square feet station. In November of 1998, WMUR's digital signal signed on at UHF Channel 59. In December of 2000, Imes Communications sold the station to
Hearst-Argyle Television . In 2004, the station celebrated 50 years of broadcasting. On
September 23 ,
2005 , WMUR became available on satellite via
DirecTV in the North Country region of New Hampshire (
Coos ,
Carroll ,
Grafton , and
Sullivan Counties).
Manchester is about 45 miles north from Boston, while Concord is about 60 miles. Boston's VHF stations have grade A signals in Manchester and Grade B signals in Concord, while the UHF stations have grade B signals in Manchester but spotty signals in Concord. It was thought that Southern New Hampshire could break away from Boston and become its own market. If the sub-market were to break away from Boston, it would rank in the top 100 of all U.S. television markets.
At the start of 1988, the sub-market had WMUR and
PBS affiliate
WENH . On
February 1 ,
1988 , an independent station based in Concord,
WNHT channel 21, became Southern New Hampshire's first
CBS affiliate and also began to produce local newscasts. WNHT lost the affiliation and stopped broadcasting on
March 31 ,
1989 as a result of low viewership and ratings. There has not been a CBS affiliate based in the state since then. In the early 1990s, Boston's CBS affiliate
WBZ operated a news bureau in Manchester until it closed. However, another one was established on Elm Street in November of 2006. When WNHT signed off, WMUR and WENH remained the only network affiliated stations again until the creation of
MyNetworkTV in September of 2006. At that point, another independent station,
WZMY channel 50 (formerly WNDS) based in
Derry , became the Southern New Hampshire and Boston affiliate for MyNetworkTV.
There has never been an
NBC affiliate based in the state, although
WNNE has, since 1978, broadcast NBC programming into parts of western New Hampshire from just across the state line in Vermont. While
The WB and
UPN were broadcasting, there were no affiliates either. With the new
CW network, that did not change. WMUR has always promoted the fact that it is the only major network affiliate and local news source in the state. The station's current slogan confirms that.
WMUR operates three outlying transmitters in the northern parts of New Hampshire, and has done so since the early 1990s. This distinguishes WMUR as being the only commercial television station in the country to completely cover an entire state. Until 2001, two of the stations aired programming from the
FOX network and simulcasted WMUR's newscasts. The other one simulcasted WMUR itself since the beginning. The two FOX stations switched to simulcasting WMUR when
WMTW-TV , the ABC affiliate for
Portland, Maine , moved its transmitter off of
Mount Washington .
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WMUR broadcasts over 85 hours of local news each week. The station operates two news bureaus in the state: a "Lakes Region Bureau" located at The Inn at Bay Point in 1270.
WMUR broadcasts national news from a "
Washington D.C. Bureau" operated by Hearst-Argyle. Although WMUR does not own or operate a
Weather Radar of its own, the station uses live
NOAA National Weather Service data from several regional sites presented in a forecasting system onscreen in newscasts called "Storm Watch 9 Storm Tracker". A live feed of this system is offered on WMUR's website.
- Erin Fehlau - weekday mornings and Noon
- Scott Spradling - weekdays at 5 PM and 5:30 PM, political reporter, and host of "Close Up New Hampshire"
- Jean Mackin - weekdays at 5 PM and 5:30 PM and 11 PM, also weekday reporter
- Tom Griffith - weekdays at 6 and 11 PM, also "New Hampshire Chronicle"
- Jennifer Vaughn - weekdays at 6 PM and medical reporter
- Tiffany Eddy - weekdays at 11 PM and "New Hampshire Chronicle"
- Kria Sakakeeny - weekend evenings and weekday evening reporter
- Sean McDonald - weekend evenings and weekday evening reporter
''
- Mike Haddad - Chief Meteorologist; Weekdays: 5-6:30, 11:00 pm
- Kevin Skarupa - Weekdays: 5-7 am, 12:00 pm
- Josh Judge - Weekends: 7-9 am, 6:00, 11:00 pm
- Bill Gile - Fill in and assistant
- Jason Nappi - Fill in and assistant
- Chris Thomas - Former Weekday AM/noon meteorologist, now occasional fill-in
- Jamie Staton - Director seen weekdays at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM, and 11 PM
- Jason King - weekend anchor and weekday reporter
- Naoko Funayama - fill in anchor, reporter, and producer
- Ray Brewer
- Josh Davis
- Kevin Flynn
- Heather Hamel
- Andy Hershberger - Crime Reporter
- Sally Kidd - National Correspondent
- Laurie Kinney - National Correspondent
- Sean McDonald- fill in for Erin Fehlau as of 7/5/07
- Traci Mitchell - National Correspondent
- Kris Neilsen - based at the "Lakes Region Bureau"
- Kimberly Bookman
