The Death of Channel 15

As many central Illinois TV viewers have already heard by now, or maybe haven't heard, Channel 15 will be no more after Friday evening.

Actually, it's not exactly a true "death", as the station will still be on the air, just not airing any local-oriented programming. (Local as in Champaign-Urbana, Danville, and the rest of east central Illinois.)

Starting on Tuesday, election day, WICD-TV will no longer be producing any newscasts of its own. Instead, news will be provided via a simulcast of sister station WICS in Springfield. This means that the long history of NewsChannel 15 will be no more. Channel 20 programming will be a complete simulcast of Channel 15, as the two will have exactly the same programming 24/7.

Now, C-U news from the Sinclair station will not go away completely. In the words of the station, it is just "moving". WICD has a sister FOX station (WCCU 27) that is a basic simulcast of WRSP 55 in Springfield. Also beginning Tuesday, Channel 27 will break away from its 9:00 newscast to air a separate "NewsChannel at 9", which will encompass Champaign anchors and reporters. The news will be an hour long, running until 10:00.

The move next week brings an end to a tradition of newscasts and history at WICD. The operation has been around in the city since the early 1960's, first beginning at the Inman Hotel (now Inman Place). In 1978, growth took the station west to Country Fair Drive, where it sits now in a former green stamp building. Multiple names have gone through the building, including legendary weatherman Keith Page, who was well-known throughout central Illinois.

It is hard to describe the history of WICD without its drawbacks. Competing with WCIA was the hardest that Channel 15 had for itself. Obviously, Channel 3 has made a name for itself even today with the public image it provides and the news anchors and reporters who are very active in the community. I'm not implying that WICD personnel have not, but it is less than WCIA. Even back in the day, Channel 3 was the go-to source for Fighting Illini football & basketball, plus local news at 6:00 and 10:00 with Jerry Slabe, Marta Carreira, and Judy Fraser, who were all household names in the area. The strong UHF signal of WCIA also brought it over a wide margin of homes, and it is a few years older than Channel 15, a stonghold at that.

Probably the biggest downfall that has been suffered for WICD folks is the shared ownership with WICS and the neglect that Channel 15 had to endure. Beginning in the late-1980's, the two stations were sharing news departments. WICD had a declining news department, without any live news capabilities, and it was operating on minimal staff. Channel 20 in Springfield has always maintained a strong news department and a station image and reputation that is stellar for the capital city citizens. The two stations shared resources, and unfortunately WICD 15 was the second of the two stations. Having no satellite coverage for much of the last decade hurt the Champaign operations even more, and it is still not available on DirecTV (and may soon be dropped from Dish).

The combined news department has been evolving over the past five years, and shared resources have happened a lot recently. WICS began sharing its weekend newscasts with WICD in the spring of 2011, and WICD did not broadcast in HD until last fall. Now, the new news set will only be used one hour per day.

The final WICD-TV newscast will be tomorrow. The "Sunrise" morning program, midday, and 5:00 newscasts will occur. To close up shop, "Nightside" will be presented at 10:00, with regular anchor Doug Quick with anchors and reporters. It will be the end of an era in central Illinois television news. One that has seen its ups and downs. One that has seen many staffers go on to bigger careers. One that had a life with the popular NBC lineup in the 1990's and continuing with ABC in the last decade.
One that has been a fixture in the community. One that will forever be remembered.

At 10:35 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) night, WICD-TV news will officially come to a close.