Tall 12 or Local 12, whatever you call it, it’s the day to celebrate WKRC-TV.
Fourteen months after Crosley Broadcasting’s WLWT-TV hit the air, the Taft family launched the city’s second station as WKRC-TV on Channel 11 on April 4, 1949.
In the past 75 years, WKRC-TV has broadcast many memorable moments in Cincinnati TV history: The Skipper Ryle children’s show; Rod Serling’s first TV dramas on The Storm; Tim Hedrick’s weather beacons on the Chiquita building Downtown; 35 years of Bengals preseason games; Sasha Rionda’s Neustro Rincon Hispanic reports; Bob Sheve’s Past Prime Playhouse movies; the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire; and Nick Clooney’s variety show, followed 18 months later by Clooney anchoring the evening news.
Here are 75 things to know about WKRC-TV’s people and programs, in no particular order.
1-CHANNEL 11: WKRC-TV debuted on Channel 11 in Cincinnati, then switched to Channel 12 on Oct. 20, 1952 as part of the federal government’s re-allocation of frequencies. WLWT-TV started as Channel 4, and WCPO-TV premiered in July 1949 on Channel 7.
2-BEVERLY HILLS SUPPER CLUB FIRE: WKRC-TV’s superior live video from the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, which killed 165 people, was sampled by enough viewers that Nick Clooney’s Channel 12 news ended Al Schottelkotte’s 22-year streak as No. 1 at 11 p.m. for WCPO-TV in 1982. Here is reporter Howard Ain telling John Lomax about that night:
3-OPRAH WINFREY: How many people know that the Oprah Winfrey Show aired in Cincinnati on Channel 12 for her first season in September 1986, before WCPO-TV got it to launch a 5 p.m. newscast the next year?
4-BENGALS TV: No other TV station has been associated with the Bengals longer than WKRC-TV, which broadcast preseason games for 35 years — and plenty of ancillary programs like Bengals Weekly and Bengals Nation — until Channel 12 lost the rights to WXIX-TV last month.
5-TIME-STAR BUILDING: WKRC-TV went on the air in 1949 from the Taft family’s Times-Star newspaper building at 800 Broadway, now used for the Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court and Juvenile Court.
6-SISTER BLANDINA: A one-hour special in 2022, Sister Blandina Segale: A Cincinnati Saint, devoted to a Sisters of Charity nun from Cincinnati, won a prestigious national Gabriel Award, a regional Emmy and other awards.
7-NICK CLOONEY SHOW: Nick Clooney was first seen by Channel 12 viewers hosting a midday variety show 1972-75, after the show moved from Channel 9 (1969-72), before anchoring the evening news.
8-ROD SERLING: Frustrated by writing variety show patter and sitcoms at WLW, Rod Serling wrote his first TV drama scrips for The Storm, a live half-hour show in 1951-53, before he created The Twilight Zone for CBS in 1959. WKRC-TV canceled The Storm when it was unable to sell the series to a network. (Yes, WKRC-TV’s bosses envisioned a live TV drama series on network TV from Cincinnati!) This clip shows the limitations of shooting The Storm in an office building, instead of a spacious TV studio:
9-THE DISH: WKRC-TV’s quest for local programming led the station to the Cincinnati State’s Midwest Culinary Institute for the September 2005 premiere of a short-lived daytime TV series called The Dish with chef Jean-Robert de Cavel and chef Meg Galvin from the school’s faculty.
10-LAUREN HILL: Anchor Brad Johansen told Cincinnati about Lauren Hill, the Mount St. Joseph University basketball player who was battling terminal brain cancer in 2014. WKRC-TV broadcast Hill’s college basketball debut on Nov. 2, 2014 with Johansen doing play-by-play. Johansen and photographer Eric Gerhardt did multiple features on Hill, and an award-winning one-hour special after her death in 2015.
11-EDIE MAGNUS: Cincinnati native Edie Magnus was a reporter and weekend anchor for Nick Clooney’s team before joining ABC News in 1985, beginning a 22-year network TV career at ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS and the short-lived USA Today the TV Show syndicated show 1987-89.
12-RANDY LITTLE: Weekend anchor Randy Little was promoted to main anchor when Clooney left for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles in 1984. After Nick returned in 1986, Little went to anchor at WCPO-TV.
13-DOPPLER TIM’S WEATHER BEACON: In 1989, chief meteorologist Tim Hedrick used color lights atop the Chiquita Building in downtown Cincinnati to inform people about the weather. Here’s a clever commercial by Peter Barrett, the station’s former marketing director, with a trio explaining the red, blue, green and white lights:
14- CINCINNATI’S NEW ONE-TWO: Of all the WKRC-TV branding through the years, the oddest was the 1978 campaign promoting Channel 12 as the “New 1-2,” mentioned at end of the weather beacon spot. Now it’s called Local 12. (Aren’t Channels 5, 9 and 19 local, too?)
15-ANGENETTE LEVY: Before becoming host/correspondent/producer for the Law & Crime network in 2020, Levy was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor for 10 years at Channel 12.
16-TAFT BROADCASTING: At its peak, Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting also owned Kings Island; Hanna-Barbera Productions (Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Flinstones); the Worldvision Enterprises syndication company; Quinn Martin Productions (The Fugitive, Cannon, The F.B.I.); and TV and/or radio stations in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Tampa, Kansas City, Buffalo and Birmingham, Ala.
17-CAMMY DIERKING: The 1978 Sycamore High School graduate became the city’s first female sports anchor when hired by WKRC-TV in 1988. She hosted Good Morning Cincinnati for 13 years with John Lomax before being promoted in 2010 to main evening co-anchor with Rob Braun. She left the station in 2019.
18-PETE ROSE: While he was with the Philadelphia Phillies, Pete Rose was hired as a Channel 12 sports commentator in the 1982 off season. When Rose had difficulty reading lines from the TelePrompter, anchor Nick Clooney decided it best to just talk sports with Pete unscripted at the anchor desk. Here's a clip:
19-DAVE BURCHELL: Dave Burchell anchored news for 20 years until 2011, when his contract was not renewed. He's now a voice actor whose credits include Grand Theft Auto V, Snoop Dogg Presents: The Joker’s Wild and Skylanders.
20-DENNIS WHOLEY: In the 1960s, when Cincinnati TV stations still did lots of live TV shows (Ruth Lyons, Bob Braun, Paul Dixon, Nick Clooney), Taft Broadcasting brought in Dennis Wholey to host a short-lived syndicated talk show from WKRC-TV.
21-ROGER AILES: Years before Roger Ailes created the Fox News Channel in 1996, he came here to produce the Dennis Wholey Show in 1969. After Ailes resigned in 2016 amid accusations of sexual harassment, New York magazine reported that Ailes allegedly harassed a 19-year-old model auditioning for the Wholey show.
22-HARRY TRAYNER: Harry Traynor, who aggressively covered the Hamilton County courthouse for WSAI-AM, was hired by WKRC-TV as assignment editor and newsroom manager to supervise daily news coverage.
23-DENNIS JANSON: While most people associate him with WCPO-TV, Dennis Janson first worked as Channel 12's entertainment reporter and later as sports anchor with Clooney. He jumped to WCPO-TV in 1984, the same year Clooney went to LA.
24-BEV WHITE: Reporter Bev White anchored Channel 12’s morning news in the 1980s before going to Miami in 1988 and KNBC-TV in Los Angeles in 1992.
25-NICK CLOONEY’S EYEWITNESS 12 NEWS: After Nick Clooney was named news anchor in 1976, WKRC-TV rebranded the late news as Eyewitness 12. Here’s a promo for his newscast:
26-EDGE: Days before the Beverly Hills fire in 1977, WKRC-TV received its first mobile videotape news gathering system called EDGE, or Electronic Data Gathering Equipment. You can see the EDGE branding in the Eyewitness 12 promo above.
27-DEB DIXON: One of Clooney’s young reporters was Deb Dixon, who became one of Cincinnati television’s best crime reporters, and top TV storytellers, in her 44 years at WKRC-TV.
28-STEVE HORSTMEYER: After learning TV weather forecasting at WLWT-TV under legendary meteorologist Tony Sands, Steve Horstmeyer joined Channel 12 as the morning meteorologist working with Cammy Dierking and John Lomax for 19 years. He finally became a chief meteorologist in 2008 by jumping to WXIX-TV.
29-KEN BROO: Ken Broo also migrated from WLWT-TV to WKRC-TV to become sports director and Bengals play-by-play announcer on sister 550 WKRC-AM in 1990. He left for Washington, D.C., in 1996, returned to WLWT-TV, and later hopped over to WCPO-TV.
30-OPENING DAY: Thanks to WKRC-TV, the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening Day game returned to free over-the-air television more than 10 years ago by simulcasting the Fox Sports Ohio telecast, after several years airing exclusively on cable TV. This year WKRC-TV lost the rights to WLWT-TV.
31-GLEN RYLE: Known to Baby Boomers as Skipper Ryle, Glen Ryle (Schnitker) hosted a children’s TV show for 17 years (1955-72) on WKRC-TV, and briefly on Taft’s sister station in Philadelphia. The World War II and Korean War veteran wore many other hats at Channel 12, including staff announcer, weatherman, movie host and host of Commander 12. Here’s the retirement tribute to Ryle:
32-CLUTCH CARGO: One of the Skipper Ryle staples was a Clutch Cargo cartoon about an adventurous pilot whose lips moved thanks to a process called Syncro-Vox, which superimposed a human mouth on the animated face.
33-BOWLING FOR DOLLARS: When Skipper Ryle was canceled, WKRC-TV assigned Glen Ryle to host the nightly bowling show, a popular format on many TV stations. Channel 12’s two bowling lanes were under the Nick Clooney Show set!
34-CINCINNATI GARDENS: WKRC-TV premiered three days late. The plan was to start broadcasting April 1, 1949, as noted in a full-page advertisement in a hockey program for Cincinnati Gardens.
35-SOUPY SALES: Comedian Soupy Sales (real name Milton Supman) made his TV debut in 1950 as “Soupy Hines” on WKRC-TV, where he first was hit in the face with a pie. He hosted Hines Varieties and Soupy’s Soda Shop, TV’s first teen dance program.
36-SURVIOR: CBS’ Survivor reality show really caught on in Cincinnati after its premiere in 2000. With Roger Bingham from Crittenden and “Big Lil” Morris from Deerfield Township as contestants, WKRC-TV was one of the top-rated Survivor affiliates for several years.
37-IRA JOE FISHER: You gotta have a gimmick, and Ira Joe Fisher had a dandy one. The Channel 12 weatherman wrote his forecasts backwards on a see-through plastic sheet, while facing the audience, from 1980-83. The Clooney-Fisher-Janson team was No. 1 in the late news ratings before he left the station — only to return a few years later to host a live daily variety show 1986-88. Here’s a clip:
38-ROMPER ROOM: As early as 1955, WKRC-TV aired this syndicated show for preschoolers. Kay King was named local host in 1958 from 61 applicants.
39-RICH JAFFE: Longtime TV news photographer Rich Jaffe shot many of Howard Ain’s reports in the early 1970s, left to work in Florida, then returned in 1991 to work at Channel 12 in front of the camera as a breaking news reporter for 15 years.
40-LARRY DAVIS: Reporter Larry Davis joined WKRC-TV in 2001 as a news writer after being a radio reporter for WKRC-AM, WLW-AM, 96 Rock and WSAI-AM for 28 years. He debuted on Channel 12 in 2003, and spent the next 15 years covering Butler and Warren counties.
41-EYEWITNESS NEWS: After Clooney stepped down as anchor, WKRC-TV assembled a new anchor team in 1988 by bringing Debra Silberstein to town and pairing her with Rob Braun, who was promoted from the 7 p.m. news. Channel 12 also hired meteorologist Tim Hedrick from Iowa and named former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson as sports anchor. Silberstein’s contract was not renewed in 1991.
42-GARY MILLER: The former ESPN SportsCenter anchor, named sports director in 2017, was let go last August — right before the Bengals season — and was not replaced. WKRC-TV has only one on-air sports reporter (Chris Renkel), the same with Sinclair’s sister stations in Dayton.
43-FRED WYMORE: Before Dennis Janson, Clooney’s Channel 12 sportscaster was Fred Wymore, the North College Hill graduate who went off to bigger TV markets including WCBS-TV in New York. Here’s a clip of Wymore and Clooney at the anchor desk:
44-WALT MAHER: One of the most colorful characters in Cincinnati television, Walt Maher was the longtime weekend sports anchor at WKRC-TV who suggested to Reds owner Marge Schott that she settle a contract dispute with outfielder Kal Daniels by flipping a coin — which she did live on Channel 12 from Plant City Stadium parking lot in Florida. In the clip above, he did a UC basketball story for Wymore’s sportscast. Maher also coached Channel 12’s Who-Dos basketball team which raised thousands of dollars for charities.
45-TALL 12: When the station moved into new studios at 1960 Highland Ave. in Mount Auburn, overlooking I-71, WKRC-TV rebranded itself as “Tall 12.”
46-SASHA RIONDA: Former CNN International host Sasha Rionda was hired in 2004 to create Nuestro Rincon, the city's first Spanish language TV newscast. She left in 2007, and now works for the Weather Channel.
47-THE RIFLEMAN: After WKRC-TV and WCPO-TV swapped network affiliations in 1961, Glen Ryle made his national TV debut on ABC’s Rifleman, a popular Western starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. The two stations would swap networks again in 1996, with Channel 12 going back to CBS.
48-GEORGE CICCARONE: A prolific features reporter, George Ciccarone parlayed his “By George” stories into a career reporting or producing for Good Morning America, HBO, Fox Sports, Inside Edition, A Current Affair and others.
49-JEFF HIRSH: For 40 years — 21 years at WKRC-TV after 19 years at WLWT-TV — reporter Jeff Hirsh had a knack for explaining complicated government issues and long tedious trials. “I loved covering government. My goal was always to cover politics for people who didn’t care about politics,” he said when he retired in 2019.
50-BOB SHREVE: Who watched the movie? Fans of funnyman Bob Shreve tuned into the Past Prime Playhouse late Saturday night to watch the host — not the cheesy movies — and for the occasional celebrity visitors such as former Batman TV star Adam West.
51-LEN GOORIAN: TV pioneer Len Goorian came to WKRC-TV in 1955 after working for WLWT-TV with Bill Nimmo and WCPO-TV with Paul Dixon. At Channel 12 he transformed war veteran Glen Ryle (Schnitker) into kiddie TV host “Skipper Ryle,” and hosted the Len Goorian Show talk show in the early 1960s. He later produced Lilas Folan’s Lilias, Yogo and You at WCET-TV.
52-THE TROUBLESHOOTER: WKRC-TV hired reporter Howard Ain from Dayton’s old WLWD-TV in 1975 to be one of the first of three TV consumer reporters in the country. He did “Troubleshooter” reports for 37-1/2 years until retiring in 2013.
53-SHEILA GRAY: The popular Fox 19 morning host was lured over to WKRC-TV when her WXIX-TV contract expired in 2013 by Jon Lawhead, the former WXIX-TV general manager who ran WKC-TV from 2012 to 2023. She co-anchors Good Morning Cincinnati with Bob Herzog and Aleah Hordges.
54-NEWSMAKERS: Dan Hurley hosted and produced Channel 12’s Newsmakers Sunday public affairs interview show for 22 years in addition to his “day jobs” at the Cincinnati Museum Center and Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. It was canceled to make room for Sinclair's Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.
55-FOUNTAIN SQUARE: Starting in 2001, WKRC-TV broadcast Good Morning Cincinnati with Cammy Dierking, John Lomax and Steve Horstmeyer from a Fountain Square studio located in the space now occupied by Graeter’s. They never drew Today show-like crowds, and the morning show returned to Highland Avenue in 2005.
56-12 ON 12: WKRC-TV has promoted “11 minutes of non-stop news before the first commercial” since the early 1990s. But in the 1980s, the station boasted “12 on 12,” with 12 minutes of non-stop news.
57-DANCE PARTY FRIDAY: A couple years after Bob Herzog joined Good Morning Cincinnati as traffic reporter he brightened up Fridays with his clever “Dance Party” spoofs like “Bridgetown Funk” (“Uptown Funk”) and “Traffic Man” (“Rocket Man”). They were canceled due to steep music rights fees and Herzog moving to co-anchor (but you’ll find some clips on TikTok). Herzog has become one of the city’s most popular personalities after being elevated to morning co-host with Gray and the late John Lomax.
58-SATURDAY MORNING NEWS: Saturday morning local TV news, now a fixture, started in 1992 under news director Steve Minium with a two-hour newscast anchored by newcomer Brad Johansen. Johansen moved to sports when Ken Broo left, then returned as news anchor in 2014.
59-JERRY THOMAS: Taft Broadcasting brought its popular WKRC-AM morning host Jerry Thomas to the TV studio down the hall to co-host PM Magazine, a hybrid syndicated magazine show, Bowling for Dollars and an afternoon movie.
60-JOYCE WISE: Joyce Wise enjoyed two stints at WKRC-TV, first as PM Magazine co-host and later as co-host of the Ira Joe Fisher Show.
61-ROB BRAUN: The son of longtime WLWT-TV entertainer Bob Braun joined Channel 12 in 1984 after his dad's station passed on hiring him. After a brief stint as reporter and 7 p.m. news anchor, he was named primary co-anchor in 1988 and had a long run paired with Kit Andrews and Cammy Dierking. He left the station after 35 years in 2019. Here’s a 1994 promo for the “12 NEWS Your Local News Source”:
62-TIM HEDRICK: Here’s a testament to chief meteorologist Tim Hedrick, the Illinois native hired from a Des Moines, Iowa, TV station in 1988: He became so ingrained in Cincinnati that he once told me people asked him if he went to Oak Hills, Elder, St X or Western Hills high school. Hedrick, promoted by Channel 12 as “The Weather Authority, was arguably the city's most popular TV personality in the 1990s and early 2000s. He died too young from complications from prostate cancer at 55 in 2016.
63-DOPPLER RADAR: In the early 1990s WKRC-TV built a high-powered Doppler radar in Northern Kentucky for chief meteorologist “Doppler Tim” Hedrick and his staff. It’s no longer in use due to the cost of operation and maintenance. Channel 12 uses National Weather Service radar.
64-JOHN GUMM: A month after broadcasting live for 12 hours during hurricane Katrina on WWL-TV in New Orleans, the Clermont County native moved his young family back home in 2005 and took a job with WKRC-TV. He did mornings until Hedrick’s health failed, when he took over the evening forecast — but the chief meteorologist title remained vacant for four years until Gumm was officially promoted in 2020, four years after Hedrick’s death.
65-THE VIETNAM WAR: WKRC-TV sent photojournalist Terry Armor and anchor Bill Gill to Vietnam in the 1960s to interview local soldiers for two half-hour reports called Bringing Home The War. Armor also did the first comprehensive look at the medical field using laser technology in a film for Taft stations called The Light Fantastic, before working as a photographer for the Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer.
66-THE MONEY MAZE: While hosting a weekday variety show on WKRC-TV, Nick Clooney flew to New York on weekends to host a national game show, The Money Maze, broadcast on ABC from December 1974 to June 1975. A year later he was named Channel 12 anchor.
67-KIT ANDREWS: The Washington State University graduate came to WKRC-TV in 1981 from a Spokane station and quickly settled in as morning anchor, before being promoted to evening news co-anchor with Braun in 1991. She was moved back to a day shift when Cammy Dierking was named Braun’s co-anchor in 2010. She retired in 2014 after 33 years. Here’s her goodbye to viewers:
68-UNSINKABLE DELTA QUEEN: For the city’s bicentennial in 1988, WKRC-TV aired a one-hour special on the Delta Queen hosted by Rob Braun and Debra Silberstein and produced by Jim Delaney
69-JOHN LOMAX: The beloved Good Morning Cincinnati anchor, who died in March just 10 months after he retired, didn’t plan on working here 39 years when he arrived from a Knoxville station in 1983. “I came here thinking this station was a steppingstone to my next job, that I'd head somewhere else in the country after a few years. I fell in love with the place and never really wanted to leave," he told me a week before he retired. Coworkers called him the “heart and soul” of WKRC-TV. Lomax called himself “one of the last ‘80s kids” — the talented young journalists hired under Clooney (Andrews, Ain, Janson, Magnus, Ciccarone, Little, Dixon). As those coworkers moved on, Lomax became the wise and generous newsroom mentor for professional and personal matters, earning him “The Godfather” nickname.
70-NEW WKRP: When the syndicated WKRP revival came out, WKRC-TV grabbed the right to air The New WKRP In Cincinnati 1991-93 with original cast members Gordon Jump, Frank Bonner and Richard Sanders plus Mykelti Williamson, Michael Des Barres, French Stewart, Lightfield Lewis and Tawny Kitaen.
71-JEN DALTON: Before doing traffic and Alert Center reports, Jen Dalton hosted Cinema 64 weekend movies on WSTR-TV with Bob Herzog from 2000 to 2005.
72-BRAUN QUITS: Both Rob Braun and Cammy Dierking left the station when their contracts expired in 2019, a year after they were ordered to read a commentary from owner Sinclair Broad cast Group about media companies using “their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda, to control exactly what people think." Braun wanted to rewrite it, but was told he could not do so. So he left in 2019 saying some of Sinclair’s ways were “hard to swallow” with corporate edicts that “required (us) to read them as puppets, and that just didn’t sit well."
73-BOB JONES: Radio newsman Bob Jones was one of many Channel 12 news anchors when WCPO-TV’s Schottelkotte dominated the late news ratings. Jones moved down the hall from WKRC-AM radio to the TV anchor desk from 1968 to 1972. He was replaced by anchorman Glen Hanson.
74-KYLE INSKEEP: The departures of Braun and Dierking led to the promotion of Kyle Inskeep and Paula Toto to main co-anchors in March 2020 after a nationwide search. Inskeep was hired in 2018 to replace Brad Johansen as Toti’s co-anchor at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., and to anchor Local 12’s 10 p.m. news on WSTR-TV. The 2012 Butler University graduate spent a year in the NBC News Washington, D.C., bureau as a 2012 Tim Russert Fellow before working at stations in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Ind.
75-PAULA TOTI: Newsroom veteran Paula Toto joined WKRC-TV as the weekend anchor and general assignment reporter in 1997 from Columbus, where she worked for both WBNS-TV and WCMH-TV. Born in New York and raised in California, Toti majored in communication studies at California State University-Sacramento. In addition to working at TV stations in Cleveland, Richmond, Va., and Green Bay, she has experience as a stockbroker and hosted a nightly businesses segment in Columbus.
For more photos and Channel 12 history check out my “70 Reasons To Celebrate WKRC-TV's 70th Birthday” from five years ago.
