text:
WPLG

WPLG (channel 10) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Berkshire Hathaway as its sole broadcast property. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembroke Park, and its transmitter is located in Miami Gardens, Florida.

WPLG signed on the air as WLBW-TV on November 20, 1961, as the replacement for WPST-TV, which was forced off the air by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) following the revelation of bribery undertaken with one of the commissioners to secure that station's license. L. B. Wilson, Inc., was found to be the only bidder for the original channel 10 license not to have engaged in coercive action, and was thus awarded a temporary permit to begin telecasting. While WPST-TV's license was revoked in July 1960, WLBW-TV had to wait for nearly a year to finally sign on using entirely different facilities, but hired multiple former WPST-TV staffers and picked up the ABC affiliation WPST-TV held. Sold to Post-Newsweek Stations in 1969, WLBW-TV was renamed WPLG the following year in honor of Philip Leslie Graham. Led by on-air talent including Ann Bishop, Dwight Lauderdale, Bryan Norcross, Michael Putney and Calvin Hughes, WPLG's news department emerged in the 1970s as a leader in local television ratings and has maintained that position ever since. WPLG has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2014, when Post-Newsweek (renamed Graham Media Group) divested it, but continues to maintain infrastructure and logistical ties to its previous ownership.

Prior history of channel 10
The first station to broadcast on channel 10 in the Miami market was WPST-TV, owned by Public Service Television, the broadcasting subsidiary of National Airlines (NAL). WPST-TV was the second ABC affiliate in the Miami market, having assumed it from UHF station WITV. WPST-TV first signed on the air on August 2, 1957, from a transmitter tower and facilities purchased from Storer Broadcasting when their UHF outlet, WGBS-TV, was taken dark. A gala grand opening celebration for a purpose-built studio facility on Biscayne Boulevard took place on January 17, 1958. The same day, Drew Pearson's syndicated newspaper column alleged unethical behavior among FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack and Miami attorney Thurman A. Whiteside, working on behalf of National Airlines, who bribed the commissioner to help obtain the broadcast license.

Investigations by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight and a rehearing on the WPST-TV license award by retired judge Horace Stern revealed a pattern of influencing behavior among three of the four bidders for the license, as well as lobbyists and legislators aligned with the bidders after learning of Mack's vote. Mack resigned his position and was later arrested with Whiteside on three counts of influence peddling, fraud and conspiracy. Stern, who was acting as an independent examiner on the FCC's behalf, recommended on December 1, 1958, that WPST-TV's license be revoked. The FCC agreed on July 14, 1960, revoking the license and awarding a temporary four-month operating permit to Cincinnati-area broadcaster L. B. Wilson, Inc., the only bidder for the license not to be implicated in the scandal, effective immediately on WPST-TV's closure.

L. B. Wilson, Inc. had been one of the four applicants for the channel in 1953. Owner of radio station WCKY in Cincinnati, its namesake was L. B. Wilson of that city, who wintered in Miami Beach. He died of a heart attack on October 28, 1954, in a Cincinnati hotel suite; this was credited with weakening the credibility of his business's application. Wilson's will split his stake in the business. One half went to his widow, Constance, and was voted on by three executives: Charles H. Topmiller, who had worked for Wilson for 24 years; Jeannette Heinze, Wilson's secretary of 23 years; and Thomas A. Welstead, manager of WCKY's office in New York City. The other went to Wilson's brother, Hansford; the three executives and another employee; and three friends, one of whom was Sol Taishoff, the publisher of Broadcasting magazine.

A new channel 10
As the temporary license granted to L. B. Wilson, Inc. was basically a "license by default", replacement station WLBW-TV was quickly assembled by company president Charles Topmiller, who took over for the company's namesake upon his 1954 death (and which the call sign was selected in tribute). Separate studio facilities and transmitter towers needed to be secured due to NAL founder/CEO George T. Baker refusing to sell any of WPST-TV's assets, valuing the studio building at more than five times the market value. WPST-TV was originally given a date of September 15, 1960, to vacate the airwaves and allow for WLBW-TV to take to the air, but a series of appeals filed by Baker delayed the process substantially, with the FCC temporarily suspending the order. WLBW-TV was given authority to transmit a test pattern during the overnight hours, doing so starting in November 1960, operating on a standby basis employing a minimum of staffers.

After Baker exhausted his appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court denying a writ of certiorari to Judge E. Barrett Prettyman's ruling affirming the FCC's revoking order on October 9, 1961, the commission imposed a new deadline of 3 a.m. on November 20, 1961. WPST-TV's last day of operations on November 19 featured an on-air editorial delivered by Baker decrying the FCC's verdict and rejected the allegations levied against the station. Baker's editorial was reprinted in newspapers the very next day alongside a "statement of policy" advertisement taken out by WLBW-TV. The marquee outside the former WPST-TV studios continued to be turned on every night for nearly 18 months after closure as a sign of defiance by Baker, only turning it off after agreeing to sell the building. The former WPST-TV transmitter site was repurchased by Storer and later reused for WAJA-TV. Despite this severe license discontinuity and little connection between the two other than the ABC affiliation, what is now WPLG claims the National Airlines station's history as its own. The first program to be seen on the new WLBW-TV was a short dedication led by Topmiller and short talks by a priest, a rabbi, and a minister. The studio facilities proved cramped from the start: in reviewing the first day of activities, which included a debate among Miami mayoral candidates, news and kids' shows, The Miami News television critic Kristine Dunn noted that WLBW-TV already needed "more studio space, more storage space and more office space". Some of the faces seen on WPST-TV moved to the new station, including Bill Bayer (whose public affairs program Important became Miami Press Conference after the change). Molly Turner, who had previously hosted a mid-morning interview show on WPST-TV, was hired by WLBW-TV to host a daily variety show modeled after The 50/50 Club with Ruth Lyons, a popular program in Cincinnati. It was also the first station in Miami to feature a weather girl, Virginia Booker.

However, with an initial operating authority to run for four months, L. B. Wilson, Inc., had to fend off competitors nearly immediately. In February 1962, the FCC opened the door to competing applications against Wilson's bid for a full-term license for WLBW-TV. In addition to Wilson, former WPST-TV owner Public Service Television applied (only to have its bid deemed unacceptable for filing), as did a group of former WPST-TV employees organized as the South Florida Television Corporation; Civic Television, headed by Charles Crandon; and the Miami Television Company, whose stakeholders included a string of local civic leaders. FCC hearing examiner H. Gifford Irion gave the nod to South Florida Television in his initial decision, issued at the end of 1963, because of its experience and civic participation; but in July 1964, the full FCC opted to set aside the examiner's choice and awarded a full-term license to Wilson on a 4–1 vote.

With its long-term prospects more secure, WLBW-TV began to plan for the future. In 1964, it began airing local color programming from film and tape. In 1965, the station acquired a parcel of land at Biscayne Boulevard and NE 39th Street to construct a purpose-built, color-equipped facility with two studios. Construction began that fall, and the studio formally opened in March 1967, allowing the station to broadcast local programs, including the dance show Saturday Hop, in color. The station became known as "Colorvision 10".

Post-Newsweek ownership
In March 1969, L. B. Wilson, Inc., announced the $20 million sale of WLBW-TV and WCKY radio—which it had owned for 40 years—by the Washington Post Company for $20 million. It was the first broadcasting purchase for the Post since acquiring WJXT in Jacksonville in 1953. The FCC approved in September 1969, and one of the Wilson ownership's last acts was to deliver $250,000 in bonus checks to WLBW and WCKY employees with a year or more of tenure. News of Post-Newsweek's first changes came at the very end of the year. On March 16, 1970, the station's call letters were changed to the current WPLG—the calls were chosen in honor of Philip L. Graham, husband of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who committed suicide in 1963. Similarly to L. B. Wilson, Graham also had local ties to the area: the oldest son of Ernest R. Graham, he had been a longtime resident of Miami and was the brother to eventual Florida senator Bob Graham.

WPLG adopted its current "10" logo, which features four stripes of differing colors within the "0" that represent a sunset, in 1982.

On January 1, 1989, the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market underwent a three-way network affiliation swap that saw longtime CBS affiliate WTVJ (channel 4) becoming an NBC owned-and-operated station; longtime independent station and charter Fox affiliate, WCIX (channel 6) becoming a CBS owned-and-operated station; and longtime NBC affiliate WSVN (channel 7) taking the Fox affiliation from WCIX. WTVJ and WCIX later swapped channel positions on September 10, 1995, as compensation for an affiliation deal involving Group W, with WCIX moving to channel 4 as WFOR-TV and WTVJ moving to channel 6. Neither transaction affected WPLG, which retained its ABC affiliation as well as its channel 10 allocation. As a result, it is the only television station in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market that has retained the same network affiliation throughout its history. Possibly because of this consistency, WPLG remains one of the highest-rated stations in South Florida. In 2004, WPLG began branding itself as "Local 10" under the branding standardization adopted by Post-Newsweek for its stations.

From April 2007 to May 2009, WPLG was South Florida's most-watched English-language television station according to Nielsen; this can partially be attributed to its availability on Comcast's West Palm Beach system, which in turn had a potentially negative effect on the ratings for that market's ABC affiliate, WPBF. However, Comcast dropped WPLG from its West Palm Beach area systems on April 13, 2011. After the May 2009 ratings period, the station switched to a single anchor format for its evening newscasts; WPLG's total-day viewership fell behind CBS-owned WFOR, which took the #1 position among the market's English-language stations. However, WPLG remains tied with WSVN for second/third.

On July 18, 2008, Post-Newsweek Stations announced that it would purchase WTVJ for $205 million. The purchase would have created a duopoly between WTVJ and WPLG—duopolies involving two "Big Three" stations ordinarily would be prohibited under the FCC's media ownership rules, which do not allow duopolies involving two of a market's four highest-rated stations in terms of audience share; however during the May 2008 Nielsen ratings period, WPLG ranked in first place and WTVJ ranked sixth in total-day viewership, allowing the possibility of a purchase. Under the proposal, WTVJ would have merged its operations with WPLG at the studio facility (which was under construction at the time) on Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembroke Park. However, the sale was cancelled on December 23, 2008, with NBC Universal and The Washington Post Company citing poor economic conditions and the lack of approval by the FCC.

On March 28, 2009, WPLG relocated its studio facilities from 3900 Biscayne Boulevard to the new Pembroke Park facility. As a result of this relocation, all of the South Florida market's "Big Three" network stations are based outside of the Miami city limits.

Sale to Berkshire Hathaway
In 2013, the Washington Post Company sold the Washington Post to Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos; the company retained most of the other non-newspaper assets, including the Post-Newsweek broadcast outlets, and renamed itself Graham Holdings.

On March 12, 2014, Graham Holdings announced that it would sell WPLG to the BH Media subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway in a cash and stock deal. Berkshire Hathaway and its chairman, Warren Buffett, had been longtime stockholders in Graham Holdings; the sale of WPLG included a large majority of Berkshire Hathaway's shares in Graham Holdings. To maintain continuity following the consummation of the purchase, BH Media entered into agreements with Post-Newsweek Stations (renamed Graham Media Group in July 2014) to continue providing the station with access to its centralized digital media, design, and traffic services after the sale's completion. The sale was finalized on June 30.

Notable preemptions and deferrals
WPLG carries the entire ABC programming schedule, including the ABC affiliate-exclusive Saturday morning syndicated block Weekend Adventure. However, until the network dropped the program on August 28, 2010 (following Saban Entertainment's repurchase of the franchise from ABC's corporate parent The Walt Disney Company), the station ran the ABC Kids airings of Power Rangers on a week-delayed basis, airing it on Saturdays from 5 to 6 a.m. due to the station's three-hour weekend morning newscast (which at the time had aired from 7 to 10 a.m.). Around the same time, it also aired the 9–10 a.m. hour of the ABC Kids block from noon to 1 p.m. (then ABC's recommended timeslot to air Power Rangers). The latter scheduling continues in use even after the network replaced ABC Kids with Weekend Adventure on September 3, 2011.

In 2004, WPLG, along with then–sister station KSAT-TV, was one of the many ABC affiliates to refuse to air an uninterrupted Veterans Day broadcast of the 1998 movie Saving Private Ryan.

Dr. Phil on WPLG
In 2004, WPLG announced it had won a bidding war to air Dr. Phil and Judge Judy starting in 2006. However, the station had a contractual stipulation not to air Dr. Phil in direct competition with The Oprah Winfrey Show, also produced by Harpo Productions. WPLG's only option was to cancel its 5 p.m. newscast, forgoing its time slot to Dr. Phil, preceded by Judge Judy at 4 p.m. This became the station's final decision.

Initially slow out of the gate, the change ended up being successful as WPLG ranked No. 1 in the 5 p.m. time slot, beating out its competitors' 5 p.m. newscasts, and was able to lure viewers into its 6 p.m. newscast. This change was so successful that other local stations in the Miami and West Palm Beach markets started airing syndicated programming in place of local newscasts, such as WPTV, WTVJ, and WPBF. But by 2011, Dr. Phil's ratings had slipped and WPLG announced that the show would move back to WFOR, replacing Oprah which had just ended its 25-year run.

Sports programming
WPLG airs contests involving the NBA's Miami Heat via the network's contract with the league. The station has aired the Heat's 2006, 2011–14, 2020, and 2023 NBA Finals appearances, including the team's 2006, 2012 and 2013 championship victories.

The station also airs select Miami Hurricanes football games as part of ABC's rights to college football telecasts. This included the team's national championship in 2001 by winning the 2002 Rose Bowl.

WPLG also broadcasts select Florida Panthers contests beginning in 2021 through ABC's contract with the NHL. This included the team's victory in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.

Since 2022, the station has also aired the Miami Grand Prix using a simulcast of Sky Sports F1.

News operation
WPLG presently broadcasts $54 1/2$ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with $8 1/2$ hours each weekday and six hours each on Saturdays and Sundays) – the highest of any ABC affiliate in the nation – and produces an additional 16 hours of local newscasts for Scripps-owned CW affiliate WSFL-TV each week (with three hours each weekday and 30 minutes each on Saturdays and Sundays). In regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, as of June 2021, it is the highest local newscast output of any station in the Miami market (with a combined $70 1/2$ hours each week) after surpassing Fox affiliate WSVN (which runs $63 1/2$ hours of newscasts each week). In addition, the station produces the hour-long political discussion program This Week in South Florida, which debuted in 1990 and airs Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m.. From the show's inception until his retirement on December 18, 2022, the program was hosted by senior political reporter Michael Putney. Glenna Milberg, who has co-moderated the show since 2014, became the sole leader of the program upon Putney's retirement.

In 1979, WPLG deployed the first helicopter in the Miami market used for newsgathering, known as "Sky 10". The station became well known from 1976 to 1982 for its popular anchor team of Glenn Rinker, Ann Bishop, sports anchor Chuck Dowdle and meteorologist Walter Cronise. In 1982, the station adopted the Eyewitness News format for its newscasts, which was used until its news branding was changed to the generic Channel 10 News in 2001; that year, Rinker left for another position in Orlando and was replaced as evening co-anchor by Mike Schneider. Schneider and Bishop remained paired as the station's lead anchor team until 1986, when Schneider left to become the 5:30 and 11 p.m. co-anchor at CBS flagship station WCBS-TV in New York City and was replaced by general assignment reporter Dwight Lauderdale (who had been working at WPLG since 1976); Lauderdale's appointment as anchor made him the first African-American to anchor a nightly newscast in the South Florida market, and he remained the station's primary evening co-anchor until his retirement in 2008.

By 1985, WPLG had surpassed rival WTVJ (channel 4, now on channel 6) in the ratings and would dominate the ratings for over ten years. Ann Bishop would continue to serve as co-anchor for the station's evening newscasts until 1995, when she moved to a part-time position at the station until she died from colon cancer in 1997. Don Noe joined WPLG in 1979 and was one of Miami's most popular chief meteorologists (Walter Cronise having moved to the morning newscasts) up until his retirement in 2007; Chuck Dowdle, meanwhile, had left by 1986 for fellow ABC station WSB-TV in Atlanta; his slot was filled by Khambrel Marshall, who later moved to WFOR and then to WPLG's former sister station in Houston, KPRC. Since 1993, WPLG has used several versions of Gari Media Group's "The One and Only" news music package, which took its name from a longtime slogan originally used by the station from 1979 to 1999 and was revived in 2014.

On March 28, 2009, in conjunction with the station's relocation to its Pembroke Park studios, WPLG became the third Miami station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On August 22, 2011, WPLG debuted an hour-long newscast at 5 p.m., which replaced Dr. Phil after it moved back to WFOR-TV; the station had produced an early evening newscast in that timeslot previously until it was replaced by Dr. Phil in 2004. On January 13, 2014, WPLG added an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m. weekdays, which competes against an existing hour-long newscast in that slot on WSVN. On April 27, 2014, WPLG expanded This Week in South Florida to one hour, retaining its 11:30 a.m. timeslot on Sundays. On August 13, 2018, WPLG added a half-hour 3 p.m. weekday newscast and later in fall, it expands to full hour.

On March 10, 2021, it was announced that WPLG will start producing newscasts (under the Local 10 News branding) for WSFL-TV, allowing the latter to restore news content in some form to the station after the discontinuation of NewsFix in September 2018. Local 10 News on WSFL-TV began on June 1, 2021, with a two-hour extension of their weekday morning newscast from 7 to 9 a.m., and a nightly newscast during the 10 p.m. hour.

Notable current on-air staff

 * Calvin Hughes – anchor
 * Max Mayfield – Hurricane Specialist
 * Will Manso – sports director; also heard during coverage of University of Miami football on WQAM (560 AM)
 * Michael Putney – senior political reporter; also host of This Week in South Florida

Notable former on-air staff

 * Ernie Anderson – station announcer
 * Morry Alter – host of The Morry Story (1980s)
 * Jack Barry – host of local game show Hole in One in 1962 (later hosted The Joker's Wild; deceased)
 * Ann Bishop (1970–1995; deceased)
 * Susan Candiotti (now a national correspondent for CNN)
 * Jimmy Cefalo – sports anchor (now a radio show host and Radio Play by Play Voice of the Miami Dolphins)
 * Liz Cho (now at WABC-TV in New York City)
 * Bertha Coombs (now with CNBC)
 * Victoria Corderi (now with NBC News)
 * Roy Firestone (later with ESPN)
 * Megan Glaros (most recently at WBBM-TV in Chicago until 2020)
 * Carlos Granda (now at KABC-TV in Los Angeles)
 * Larry King (deceased)
 * Steve Kroft (1977–1980; retired correspondent for CBS News' 60 Minutes)
 * Dwight Lauderdale (1976–2008; now retired)
 * Bryan Norcross – Hurricane Specialist (1983–1990 and 2018–2022; now with Fox Weather)
 * Charles Perez – anchor/reporter (now at WLOS in Asheville, North Carolina)
 * Walter Perez – reporter (now at WPVI-TV in Philadelphia)
 * Rob Schmitt (now at Newsmax)
 * Richard Schlesinger (now at CBS News)
 * Mike Schneider – 6 and 11 p.m. anchor (now with NJ PBS as anchor and managing editor of NJ Today)
 * Jon Scott – anchor (1983–1988; now anchor at Fox News Channel)
 * Molly Turner
 * Lisa Willis – reporter, fill-in anchor, 2001. Now retired from TV.

Subchannels
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signal of Fox affiliate WSVN:

WPLG previously carried LATV on its second digital subchannel; the Spanish language network was replaced by MeTV on April 24, 2012. On January 24, 2013, Post-Newsweek Stations entered into an affiliation agreement to carry the Live Well Network on digital subchannels of WPLG and its then-Orlando sister station WKMG-TV; both stations added the network in April 2013.

Analog-to-digital conversion
WPLG ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 10, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 9 to channel 10 for post-transition operations. Three other local stations (WSVN, WPXM-TV and WLTV-DT) also moved their digital signals to their former analog channel allocation, requiring viewers to rescan their digital tuners. WPLG and WSVN are the only Miami stations that continue to broadcast on the VHF band.

ATSC 3.0
{{legend|#ffe8d0|Subchannel broadcast with digital rights management}}

Out of market coverage
WPLG is one of four Miami-based TV stations that are viewed via cable in The Bahamas.

title: WPLG


text:
KPRC-TV

KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (I-69/US 59) in the Southwest Management District (formerly Greater Sharpstown), and its transmitter is located near Missouri City, in unincorporated northeastern Fort Bend County. Houston is the second-largest television market (after WXIA-TV in Atlanta) where the NBC station is not owned and operated by the network.

History
The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1949, as KLEE-TV. It was Houston's first television station and the second one to sign on in Texas, three months behind Fort Worth station WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV) and over eight months ahead of Dallas station KBTV (now WFAA). It was originally owned by hotelier W. Albert Lee and carried programming from all four networks of the day - NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont. After a year of difficulty, Lee sold the station to the Hobby family, owners of the Houston Post and Houston's oldest radio station, KPRC (950 AM) and KPRC-FM (99.7, now KODA at 99.1). The Hobby Family took control on June 1, 1950, and changed the television station's call sign to match its radio stations on July 3. Although it appears that the call letters stand for "Post-Dispatch Radio Company", they actually stand for "K(C)otton Port Rail Center", a nod to Houston's role in the cotton trade.

After the Hobbys took over, channel 2 became a primary NBC affiliate due to KPRC radio's longstanding affiliation with the NBC Red Network. Due to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-imposed freeze on new station licenses, channel 2 remained the only television station in Houston for four more years. CBS moved its affiliation to KGUL-TV (channel 11, now KHOU) in 1953 and KTRK-TV (channel 13) took over the ABC affiliation when it signed on one year later. DuMont ceased operations in 1956, though it was briefly affiliated with now-defunct KNUZ-TV (channel 39, frequency now occupied by KIAH). Because of its affiliation with NBC, KPRC-TV was the first station in Houston to broadcast a program in color and was subsequently the first to broadcast its entire schedule in color.

In March 1953, the station operated its first permanent studio located on 3014 Post Oak Road, which later became the Lakes on Post Oak near the Galleria shopping complex in Uptown Houston. The studio building was along the street frontage, while the KPRC radio transmitter site was in the rear of the lot. The station became the source of controversy after some television viewers in the United Kingdom claimed to receive its signal on September 14, 1953, three years after the original signal was transmitted. However, this was actually a hoax. Over the years, the Hobby family bought several other television stations, including KVOA-TV in Tucson, KCCI in Des Moines, WTVF in Nashville, WESH in Orlando, and KSAT-TV in San Antonio.

In March 1972, KPRC-TV moved into a new state-of-the-art studio facility in the Sharpstown area (then part of unincorporated Harris County) where it operated from for 45 years. Built on property originally lent to Houston Baptist University, KPRC-TV chose the site to build its new facilities in large part due to its location on the feeder road of the Southwest Freeway. The building housed three studios which were suspended from the ground to reduce vibration, and when viewed from space via satellite map, the building resembled a film camera.

In 1983, the Hobbys sold the Houston Post to MediaNews Group, while the family's broadcast holdings were reorganized as H&C Communications, with KPRC-AM-TV remaining as the flagship stations. (KPRC-FM was sold in 1958.) After 40 years under Hobby family ownership, KPRC-TV was sold to The Washington Post Company on April 22, 1994; an attempt to sell the station to Young Broadcasting in 1992 was unsuccessful. (The Houston Post was then bought by the Hearst Corporation and absorbed into its Houston Chronicle, with the last edition printed on April 18, 1995.) In 2004, KPRC-TV was rebranded "Local 2". In January 2015, KPRC-TV dropped the "Local" and began simply calling itself "Channel 2". In December 2015, KPRC-TV broke ground on a new studio, behind the old studio in the employee parking lot, on the same Sharpstown site. While the old studio was 90000 sqft, the new studio would have only 65000 sqft. The new studios were dedicated in April 2016, and the previous 45-year-old studios were demolished.

Since October 1994, KPRC-TV has used the familiar "Lone Star 2" logo, which was modified in 2004 for HD. The "two" in KPRC-TV's current logo is vertically parallelogrammed and similar to former logos used by KCBS-TV in Los Angeles (1994) and WMAR-TV in Baltimore (1998) but with the CBS and ABC logos (respectively) in place of the NBC one; neither logo uses the Texas star.

The film and video archives of KPRC have been partially digitized by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and approximately 250 clips can be viewed on their website.

Programming
Since its inception KPRC-TV has been an NBC affiliate, and in part because of NBC's affiliation the station was the first in Houston to broadcast in color.

From 1969 to 1998, KPRC-TV produced the longest-running syndicated television program in Texas, The Eyes of Texas, a lifestyle program which focused on segments relating to Texas culture and life (the program continues to air locally on PBS member station KUHT, channel 8). KPRC-TV was also one of the first stations to air telethons, raising $28,000 for the American Cancer Society in 1950. It carried the MDA Labor Day Telethon every Labor Day from 1970 to 2012 (KPRC's status as an MDA "Love Network" affiliate ended in 2013, when the telethon discontinued its syndicated distribution model and moved to ABC as a short-form program rebranded as the MDA Show of Strength, where it aired locally on KTRK-TV until the program ended after 2014).

Historically, KPRC-TV was the original Houston affiliate for the nighttime syndicated editions of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, both of which had their roots as NBC daytime game shows, from their respective 1983 and 1984 debuts until the game shows moved to rival KHOU in 1986. (The latter was picked up by KTRK in 2015.) From 1986 to 1993, KPRC-TV filled Wheel's 6:30 p.m. slot with various syndicated revivals of Hollywood Squares, Family Feud and You Bet Your Life before settling on Entertainment Tonight in 1993. The station also gained a reputation from the 1980s well into the early 2000s for airing various syndicated tabloid talk shows that often fit the pejorative definition of "Trash TV". Indeed, KPRC-TV was the original Houston affiliate for Geraldo, which the station carried from its 1987 debut until complaints from viewers and even station management over its content led KPRC-TV to drop the show in 1990 (Geraldo moved to KTXH, then later to KTRK). After Post-Newsweek acquired the station, KPRC-TV nonetheless began broadcasting more syndicated talk shows in the afternoon including ones hosted by Montel Williams, Maury Povich, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer, as well as infotainment news programs such as A Current Affair, Hard Copy, Extra, Access Hollywood and Inside Edition. Many of these shows eventually moved to other stations due to ratings declines and the overexposure of their genres, as well as the gradual expansion of NBC's Today (which KPRC-TV has historically aired in its entirety) from two to three hours in 1999, and eventually four hours by 2007.

On August 23, 2016, KPRC-TV began airing a daily lifestyle and entertainment program called Houston Life and featured Jennifer Broome and Derrick Shore as hosts. Houston Life focuses on lifestyle and feature segments in and around Houston. This resulted in KPRC-TV bumping the long-running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives from its network-recommended 1 pm. Central Time slot to 2 pm, where it replaced the canceled Meredith Vieira Show. Broome was replaced by former KPRC reporter and weekend anchor Courtney Zavala in 2018; Zavala departed KPRC in 2023 and was replaced by Tessa Barrera who also co-hosts The Rod Ryan Show on KTBZ-FM.

Network preemptions
While KPRC-TV generally airs NBC's programming lineup in pattern, this has not always been the case. Despite NBC historically being less tolerant of preemptions than other networks, KPRC-TV has at times preempted programming particularly in late night and daytime hours. While NBC has become more tolerant of preemptions than in previous years, it prefers that its affiliates clear the entire schedule whenever possible.

Following its acquisition by Post-Newsweek, various programs have been preempted by KPRC-TV over the years in a pattern similar to that of its Detroit sister station, WDIV-TV. Most notorious of all, the station dropped Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1994 to 1996, leaving Houston as the largest market in the country to not air the program, with reruns of various tabloid talk shows including the aforementioned Ricki Lake and Jenny Jones, tabloid news programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood, and even a repeat of KPRC-TV's 10 p.m. newscast often filling the void. While Late Night did return to KPRC-TV in 1996, the station continued to delay its broadcast as far back as 2:40 a.m. (even truncating the broadcast of its overnight news program, NBC Nightside, in the process).

This fact was not lost on O'Brien, who visited Houston (making impromptu stops at Houston's central bus terminal and the Astrodome) to watch an episode of his own show with Houstonians in a classic remote piece. KPRC-TV's mail servers were flooded with emails from O'Brien's fans in response. KPRC-TV responded by moving the show to 12:35 a.m. in 1998, and finally to its network-recommended (for the Central Time Zone) 11:35 p.m. slot in 2005, where Late Night, now hosted by Seth Meyers, continues to air. Channel 2 also delayed A Little Late with Lilly Singh (and its predecessor, Last Call with Carson Daly) in late nights (recently at 1:35 am) until August 13, 2021, when NBC gave that timeslot back to its affiliates; the station now airs a rebroadcast of the 10 p.m. news at 12:37 a.m.

When Passions debuted on NBC in 1999, KPRC-TV (along with Detroit sister station WDIV-TV) were the only NBC affiliates that preempted the soap opera until 2002, even though Passions ' predecessor Another World was cleared by KPRC for most if not all of its entire run. Around this time, KPRC, WDIV and Bonneville International–owned NBC affiliate KSL-TV in Salt Lake City declined to air Sunset Beach; respectively, Sunset Beach aired on KTXH (channel 20), WKBD and KOOG (the former two were UPN affiliates and the latter was a WB affiliate). KNWS-TV (channel 51, now KYAZ), which had also picked up another preempted NBC daytime program, the talk show Leeza during the late 1990s, would pick up Passions in 2001 before the program moved to KPRC-TV in 2002 at 3:05 am. Following the expansion of Today to three hours in 1999, Maury (which previously filled the 9 a.m. hour) aired in place of Passions until KPRC-TV placed the latter program in its network-recommended 2 p.m. timeslot in August 2004 (with Maury moving to KHWB [channel 39, now KIAH] at the same time), but the issue became moot when the program was canceled in September 2007.

During the 2000s, KPRC-TV was also among a handful of NBC affiliates that did not air Poker After Dark during its entire run, and likewise did not carry the short-lived Face the Ace in August 2009 (along with WDIV and Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV), preempting both prime time airings with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital programs. As is the case with Detroit's WDIV, NBC's current overnight lineup (a rebroadcast of the fourth hour of Today on weekdays; LXTV 1st Look and Open House NYC on weekends) also does not air in Houston.

Sports programming
Beginning in 1965, the American Football League signed a broadcast deal with NBC. As a result, KPRC-TV became the primary station for regular season games of the Houston Oilers, one of the league's eight founding teams; this continued after the AFL became the American Football Conference of the National Football League in 1970. Local Oilers broadcasts ended after the 1996 NFL season, when the team relocated to Nashville and eventually became the Tennessee Titans, though Oilers games would continue to be prioritized for broadcast during the 1997 season, which also turned out to be the last for NBC as the primary broadcaster of Sunday afternoon AFC games. During the team's final years in Houston, the Oilers failed to sell out many home games, subjecting them to in-market television blackouts under league rules at the time in addition to preemption from radio broadcasts locally.

Since 2006, the station is also involved with Houston's current NFL team, the Texans (who began play in 2002), in that the station airs games when they are featured on NBC's Sunday Night Football, as well as broadcasting a Sunday morning pregame show during the season on Sunday afternoon game days.

In addition to Oilers/Texans games, KPRC-TV has aired Houston Astros games via NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from 1962 to 1989. KPRC-TV also served as the team's over-the-air flagship station from 1973 to 1978. Channel 2 also aired Houston Rockets games via NBC's broadcast contract with the NBA from 1990 to 2002, including the team's championship victories in 1994 and 1995.

However, KPRC-TV has been known for motorsports preemptions. In 2001, a contract with the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant (which predated NBC's acquisition of partial NASCAR broadcast rights) did not allow for the program to be rescheduled, resulting in the preemption of the Firecracker 400, then televised on NBC under an alternating basis with Fox (which in return carried the Daytona 500 held at the same track). In 2013, KPRC also preempted coverage of NBC's inaugural Formula 1 telecast of the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix (which aired locally at 6:30 a.m. due to time differences between the U.S. and Monaco) with infomercials and local news. That incident led to Fox owned-and-operated station KRIV posting on social media that they would air that year's Coca-Cola 600 live with the tag, "We've been promoting the race as live, and we'll show it live."

In September 2007, the first half-hour of the NFL Kickoff game between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts was shown on KPRC-TV with default audio in Spanish rather than English. KPRC inadvertently aired the secondary audio program feed provided by Telemundo (owned by NBC parent company NBCUniversal).

News operation
KPRC-TV presently broadcasts $39 1/2$ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with $6 1/2$ hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays). The station also carries Sports Sunday, which has been a staple of the station since its days as a locally owned station in the 1980s, at 10:20 p.m. following its late Sunday newscast, as well as Houston Newsmakers (a local Sunday morning talk show similar in format to NBC's Meet the Press) at 10:30 a.m.

Appropriate for a station with roots in a newspaper, KPRC-TV has long been a very news-intensive station, and in particular one with a history of innovation in television journalism. In its early years under the stewardship of news director Ray Miller, KPRC-TV often led the local news ratings with such notable personalities as Miller and fellow anchors Steve Smith and Larry Rasco. KPRC-TV was the first station in Houston to use weather radar for its weather reports, to use videotape for field reporting, to have a fully staffed news bureau in Austin, to hire female and African American reporters, and to hire a Hispanic news anchor for an English-language newscast. The station's first female anchor was Sara Lowrey, who had co-anchored the 6 p.m. news with Rasco. In 1973, after Smith departed for KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh (at the time, a larger market than Houston), the station hired former KHOU anchor Ron Stone and paired him with weatherman Doug Johnson and sportscaster Bill Worrell (who had formerly co-anchored the news with Rasco) for its evening newscasts, then known as Big 2 News (Smith would eventually return to Houston as the lead anchor at KHOU in 1975). In addition to Stone, other news anchors for Big 2 News included Cindy Martin, former ABC News correspondent George Caldwell (later George Sells) and New York anchorwoman Anna Bond. Three KHOU personalities, news anchor Bob Nicholas (in 1979), along with sportscaster Ron Franklin and news anchor Bill Balleza (both in 1980) would follow Stone to KPRC-TV. On September 15, 1980, KPRC-TV rebranded their newscasts from Big 2 News (which was used since 1969) to Channel 2 News (presented on air as 2News). During this time, KTRK overtook KPRC-TV and became the dominant news station in Houston, even though KPRC-TV would continue to fare a strong second from the late 1970s well into the early 1990s as KHOU began to struggle with management and ownership issues during this period. From 1985 to 1992, the station's newscasts were branded as ChannelTwoNews, broadcasting round-the-clock news updates throughout the day, including during NBC prime time shows. For several years during the early 1990s, updates also aired during the overnight hours with producers and other newsroom personnel serving as anchors. During this time, national voiceover announcer Charlie Van Dyke served as the station's image announcer, with KPRC-TV personality Don Armstrong serving as the local promo announcer.

With anchors such as Stone, Balleza, Nicholas, Jan Carson, Linda Lorelle, and Dan O'Rourke, weathermen Johnson and Ted Shaw, and sports anchors Ron Franklin, Craig Roberts and Lisa Malosky, the station's newscasts often competed for and even placed first at times. In the fall of 1994, shortly after Post-Newsweek Stations bought KPRC-TV, its newscasts were retitled as News 2 Houston with a somewhat more tabloid presentational style (in contrast to its more traditional format under local ownership) similar to that of its Detroit sister station, WDIV-TV. Two years later, KPRC-TV constructed a new newsroom within one of its three studios, using the newsroom as a backdrop that was similar to the "newsplex" set used by Miami Fox affiliate WSVN, itself a former NBC affiliate which became a ratings leader in that market after losing its NBC affiliation and switching to a similar tabloid-style format. This set was referred to as the "News Center" and was used on-air until 2006, even though the physical newsroom continued to exist until the move to its current facilities in 2017. In addition, KPRC also added longtime WSVN voiceover Scott Chapin as promotional announcer during the late 1990s.

In 1996, KPRC-TV debuted a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast. During this time, KPRC-TV won more awards and continued to avidly compete in the ratings with KTRK as well as a resurgent KHOU, even occasionally beating KTRK at 10 p.m. on the strength of NBC's "Must See TV" programming of the 1990s. Notable personalities who rose to prominence in the News 2 Houston era included Dominique Sachse (who started as a traffic reporter before moving to an anchor role on the morning news), chief meteorologist Frank Billingsley (who left his position as KTRK's weekend meteorologist to succeed Doug Johnson as evening weather anchor), and investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski (whose reports resulted in numerous awards for the station). News anchors for KPRC in the 1990's included Brett Lea (who had anchored at KPRC-TV's former sister station under H&C Communications ownership, WTVF in Nashville), future Chicago news anchor Rob Johnson and Khambrel Marshall, a former sportscaster for KPRC's then-sister station WPLG-TV and news anchor at WCIX/WFOR-TV in Miami.

In 2004, KPRC-TV retitled its newscasts as Local 2 News, putting the station in line with its fellow Post-Newsweek stations which adopted similar branding and perhaps to avoid confusion with News 24 Houston, a 24-hour local cable news channel owned by Time Warner Cable and Belo (then-owner of KHOU) which shut down just weeks before KPRC-TV's transition was complete. However, by this time the station had gone into a period a decline both in terms of quality and ratings. At one point, KPRC-TV's 5 p.m. newscast even reportedly finished in fifth place, behind English-language newscasts on KHOU and KTRK-TV, a Spanish-language newscast on Univision station KXLN (channel 45), and even syndicated reruns of The Simpsons on Fox station KRIV (channel 26) which at one point even led all Houston newscasts airing in that timeslot. Despite a strong lead-in from Dr. Phil, KPRC-TV also continued to decline at 4 p.m. and in both the morning and evening hours as NBC's ratings began to enter a steep decline following the ending of several of its 1990s-era staples such as Friends and Frasier, with the station even dropping Dr. Phil at one point and not even clearing the show for another Houston station to pick up. KPRC-TV was also hit with a 2006 boycott by civil rights activist Quanell X and other African American leaders following the demotion of African American anchors Linda Lorelle and Khambrel Marshall from its evening broadcasts. In response to the controversy, KPRC-TV hired longtime KHOU anchor Jerome Gray, who is African American, to anchor its early evening newscasts as well as serve as a managing editor, and moved former anchor Khambrel Marshall to executive producer, with Marshall eventually moving back on-air as a weekend meteorologist and host of Houston Newsmakers.

Overall, by early 2007, KPRC-TV was in third place behind KHOU and KTRK. However, since Nielsen Media Research began using Local People Meters in the Houston market in October 2007, KPRC-TV began to see gains in most timeslots, while its competition saw declines. KPRC-TV's morning and late-evening newscasts made the most gains in 2007, competing for second place with KHOU. On July 19, 2008, during its 6 p.m. newscasts, KPRC-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition in the run up to NBC's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. On August 24, 2009, KPRC-TV expanded its morning newscast to an additional half-hour at 4:30 am. By 2012, the station's 6 p.m. newscast had ratings gains, boasting its highest viewership in November and December, as well as significant increases in all other time periods; the 10 p.m. broadcast also grew, besting KTRK for first in the timeslot for several consecutive months that year. KPRC-TV retitled its newscasts back to Channel 2 News in 2015.

In January 2020, Bill Balleza retired from KPRC-TV. Two months later, Kris Gutierrez, who was previously with KPRC-TV from 2003 to 2007, rejoined KPRC-TV as Balleza's replacement. Gutierrez, in between his stints for KPRC-TV, was a Fox News Channel correspondent and an anchor for WBBM-TV in Chicago, as well as for NBC owned-and-operated station KXAS-TV in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. In January 2021, KPRC-TV's newscasts were retitled as KPRC 2 News. Dominique Sachse departed from KPRC-TV on October 29, 2021. Three days later, the station announced that former KPRC reporter and weekend anchor Daniella Guzman (who had anchored at NBC owned-and-operated stations WMAQ-TV in Chicago and KNBC in Los Angeles) will succeed Sachse; Guzman returned to KPRC-TV on January 12, 2022. Gutierrez departed from KPRC-TV in February 2022 and was later succeeded (officially on June 20) by Keith Garvin, a former ABC News correspondent who had joined KPRC-TV in August 2012 as news anchor and reporter.

Notable current on-air staff

 * Melanie Camp – correspondent for Houston Life (2022–present)
 * Daniella Guzman – weekday anchor (was previously with KPRC-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor from 2006 to 2012)

Notable former on-air staff

 * Mark Alford – reporter and weekend anchor (1995–1998; later with WDAF-TV in Kansas City, now elected to the United States House of Representatives in MO's 4th congressional district)
 * Gayle Anderson – "2 On Your Side" reporter/midday anchor (1986–1991; now at KTLA in Los Angeles)
 * Dr. Charles "Chuck" Berry – House Physician for Big 2 News (1977-1980s, deceased)
 * Bill Enis – sports director (1960s–1973, deceased)
 * Ron Franklin – sports director (1980–1987; formerly play-by-play announcer for ESPN; deceased)
 * Joanne Herring – host of The Joanne King Show (1974–1979; now retired)
 * Wes Hohenstein – weekday morning meteorologist (2003–2006; now at WNCN in Raleigh)
 * Kay Bailey Hutchison – known on-air as Kay Bailey, Channel 2's first female reporter (1967–1972; later a Republican Senator from Texas)
 * Tom Jarriel – worked behind the scenes in the news department as a reporter for a number of years (formerly of ABC News, now retired)
 * Rob Johnson – (1995–1998; later with WBBM-TV in Chicago, now a communications consultant with TechCXO)
 * Tony Kovaleski – investigative reporter (1997–2001; now an investigative reporter at KMGH-TV in Denver; 2010 Alfred I. duPont Columbia Silver Baton award winner)
 * Tim Lake – weekend anchor and reporter (1987–1992; later went to WCAU and was that station's 6 and 11 p.m. anchor; now at WTEN in Albany)
 * Linda Lorelle – anchor (1989–2006; later freelanced with KRIV, worked in real estate and now CEO and Executive Producer of Lorelle Media)
 * Byron Miranda – Meteorologist (later with WMAQ-TV in Chicago; now at WPIX in New York City)
 * Sylvia Perez – reporter/anchor (?–1989; formerly with WLS-TV, now with WFLD)
 * John Quiñones – reporter/anchor (1975–1978; now a correspondent with ABC News)
 * Jacob Rascon – weekend anchor and reporter (2017–2021; now with KTRK-TV, also son of KTRK-TV anchor Art Rascon)
 * Jacque Reid – reporter/anchor (1997–2000, now on WNBC as host of New York Live)
 * Janet Shamlian – weekend anchor (1995–1997; now correspondent for CBS News)
 * Ron Stone – anchor (1972–1992, deceased)
 * Spencer Tillman – sports reporter/anchor (1987–1997; first hired during the offseason period when he was playing with the Houston Oilers, later moved to WABC-TV in New York and then CBS Sports, now at Fox Sports)
 * Charlie Van Dyke – announcer (1982–1993)
 * Bill Worrell – news anchor/sportscaster (1970–1980; became sports commentator for the Houston Astros and Houston Rockets, now retired)
 * Chris Wragge – sports director (1998–2004; also covered sports for NBC and USA Network simultaneously, later anchor of CBS' The Early Show, now news anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City)
 * Paula Zahn – anchor (1981–1983, formerly with CNN and CBS News)
 * Marvin Zindler – reporter (1950–1954; later investigative reporter at KTRK-TV, deceased)

In popular culture
In 1958, Reader's Digest published an article on how one afternoon in 1953, a signal showing KLEE's station ID supposedly appeared on TV sets throughout England—three years after the station was sold and changed to KPRC-TV. Although quickly revealed as a hoax to sell TV sets in the UK, it remains a long-standing urban legend.

In the 1980–82 NBC soap opera Texas, which was set primarily in Houston, the series made several mentions of fictional television station "KVIK", run by one of the show's characters. A brief view of the exterior of KPRC-TV's studio facility, which was marked with a "KVIK" sign out front, can be seen during a later version of the show's opening title sequence. One episode of the series features a scene in which two characters are conversing while walking down a second-floor hallway at "KVIK" (which was filmed at the KPRC building) that overlooks the first-floor lobby.

Subchannels
The station's signal is multiplexed:

{{legend|#DFEBF6|Broadcast on behalf of another station}}

KPRC-TV had carried This TV from the start of 2009 until May 28, 2018, on its second subchannel, being one of the network's longest-tenured affiliates before leaving This TV on that day. KPRC 2.2 then became the new home of MeTV in the Houston market, taking over that role from KUBE-TV 57.4. (This TV moved to the newly created 57.7 and Cozi TV swapped to 57.4). On March 29, 2021, MeTV moved to KYAZ channel 51.1. KYAZ was acquired by Weigel Broadcasting in December 2020 and became a MeTV owned-and-operated station. Start TV moved from KPRC 2.4 to 2.2 on the day of the switch.

Analog-to-digital conversion
KPRC-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 35, using virtual channel 2. On that date, tropospheric ducting resulted in KPRC-TV's digital signal being receivable as far away as Alexandria, Louisiana, where KPRC-TV virtual channel 2.1 was seen in place of KALB-TV's virtual channel 5.1 on digital receivers (both stations transmit their digital signals on UHF channel 35).

As part of the SAFER Act, KPRC kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Prior to the digital transition, KPRC-TV was the only Houston station on the VHF dial whose cable channel position did not match its over-the-air analog channel. Due to interference from the low-band VHF terrestrial signal, Comcast Xfinity carried KPRC-TV in analog SD on channel 12. It is carried on digital HD on channels 612 and 1002. Other cable systems on the outer edges of the Houston media market carry KPRC-TV on cable channel 2. It is also available on cable in Lufkin–Nacogdoches and Bryan–College Station.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: KPRC-TV


text:
Culture of Western Sahara

The people of Western Sahara speak the Ḥassānīya dialect of Arabic, also spoken in northern Mauritania, and Spanish. They are of mixed Arab, African (including Berber descent), many consider themselves to be Arab. Most claim that they descend from the tribe called Beni Hassan, an Arab tribe, who immigrated to the Western Saharan desert in the 14th century. The Sahrawis are Muslims of the Sunni sect and the Maliki law school. Their interpretation of Islam has traditionally being quite liberal and adapted to nomad life (i.e. generally functioning without mosques).

The clan- and tribe-based society underwent a massive social upheaval in 1975, when a large portion of the population fled fighting in the country and settled in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, breaking up families and clans. The Polisario Front, which runs the camps, has attempted to modernize their society, placing a public emphasis on education, the eradication of tribalism and the emancipation of women. The role of women in camps was enhanced by their shouldering of the main responsibility for the camps and government bureaucracy during the war years, as virtually the entire male population was enrolled in the Polisario army.

Education was also assisted by refugee life. While teaching materials are still scarce, the "urbanization" of the refugee camps and the abundance of free time for camp dwellers (after the situation normalized circa 1977) greatly increased the effectiveness of literacy classes. The Polisario Front claims presently that nearly 90% of refugees are literate, the number having been less than 10% in 1975, and several thousands have received university education in foreign countries as part of aid packages (mainly Algeria, Cuba, and Spain).

The Moroccan government considerably invested in the social and economic development of Western Sahara with special emphasis on education, modernisation and infrastructure. El Aaiún in particular has been the target of heavy government investment, and has grown rapidly. Several thousands Sahrawis study in Moroccan universities. Literacy rates are estimated at some 50% of the population.

To date, there have been few thorough studies of the culture due in part to the political situation. Some language and culture studies, mainly by French researchers, have been performed on Sahrawi communities in northern Mauritania.

Gender relations
In Sahrawi ethnic groups, the concept of beauty is embodied through the practice of fattening. Before marriage, girls intentionally overeat and perform limited physical activity for 40 days in order to be attractive for their soon-to-be husbands. Women will repeat this process if they want to gain weight after marriage. It is believed that traditional clothing of these ethnic groups require a heavier body in order to be attractive.

Dress
Clothing worn by the Sahrawis include the daraa robe. Women wear the melhfa headscarf.

title: Culture of Western Sahara


text:
Transocean

Transocean Ltd. is an American drilling company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Vernier, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

In 2010, Transocean was found partially responsible (30% of total liability) for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulting from the explosion of one of its oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Like other companies involved in the petroleum industry, Transocean has experienced a number of other notable industrial accidents including oil spills and worker injury.

The primary business of Transocean is contracts with other large companies in the oil and gas industry. In 2019, Royal Dutch Shell accounted for 26% of the company's revenues, while Equinor accounted for 21% of the company's revenues, and Chevron accounted for 17% of the company's revenues.

History
Transocean was formed as a result of the merger of Southern Natural Gas Company, later Sonat, with many smaller drilling companies.

In 1953, the Birmingham, Alabama-based Southern Natural Gas Company created The Offshore Company after acquiring the joint drilling operation DeLong-McDermott from DeLong Engineering and J. Ray McDermott. In 1954, the company launched Rig 51, the first mobile jackup rig, in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1967, the Offshore Company went public. In 1978, SNG turned it into a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1982, it was changed to Sonat Offshore Drilling Inc., reflecting a change in its parent's name. William C. O'Malley, an executive at Sonat's headquarters in Birmingham, was named the company's first Chief Executive Officer in 1992. In 1993, Sonat spun off the majority of its ownership in the company. Sonat sold its remaining 40% stake in the company during a secondary public offering in late 1995.

In 1996, the company acquired Norwegian group Transocean ASA for US$1.5 billion. Transocean started in the 1970s as a whaling company and expanded through a series of mergers. The new company was called Transocean Offshore. The new company began building massive drilling operations with drills capable of going to 10,000 feet (as opposed to 3,000 feet at the time) and operating two drill operations on the same ship. Its first ship, Discoverer Enterprise, cost nearly US$430 million and was 834 ft. The Enterprise class drillship is the largest of the drilling ships.

In 1999, Transocean merged with Sedco Forex, the offshore drilling subsidiary of Schlumberger in a $3.2 billion stock transaction in which Schlumberger shareholders received shares of Transocean.

Sedco Forex had been formed from a merger of two drilling companies, the Southeastern Drilling Company (Sedco), founded in 1947 by Bill Clements and acquired by Schlumberger in 1985 for $1 billion and French drilling company Forages et Exploitations Pétrolières (Forex) founded in 1942 in German-occupied France for drilling in North Africa. Schlumberger first got a foothold in the company in 1959 and then assumed total control in 1964, and renamed it Forex Neptune Drilling Company.

In 2000, Transocean acquired R&B Falcon Corporation, owner of 115 drilling rigs, in a deal valued at $17.7 billion. With the acquisition, Transocean gained control of what at the time was the world's largest offshore operation. Among R&B Falcon's assets was the Deepwater Horizon. R&B Falcon had acquired Cliffs Drilling Company in 1998.

In 2005, the company's Discoverer Spirit rig set a world record for the deepest offshore oil and gas well of 34189 ft.

In 2007, the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a case against Transocean, alleging violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The case alleged that Transocean paid bribes through its freight forwarding agents to Nigerian customs officials. Transocean later admitted to approving the bribes and agreed to pay US$13,440,000 to settle the matter.

In 2007, the company merged with GlobalSantaFe Corporation in a transaction that created a company with an enterprise value of $53 billion. Shareholders of GlobalSantaFe Corporation received $15 billion of cash as well as stock in the new company for their shares. Robert E. Rose, who was non-executive chairman of GlobalSantaFe, was made Transocean's chairman. Rose had been chairman of Global Marine prior to its 2001 merger with Santa Fe International Corporation.

In 2008, the company moved its headquarters to Switzerland, resulting in a significantly lower tax rate.

In September 2009, its Deepwater Horizon rig established a 35050 ft well, the deepest well in history – more than 5,000 feet deeper than its stated design specification.

In 2010, Transocean was implicated in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulting from the explosion of one of its oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that was leased to BP.

In 2011, the company acquired Aker Drilling, which owned 4 harsh environment rigs used for drilling near Norway.

In 2012, the company sold 38 shallow water rigs and narrowed its focus on high-specification deepwater rigs.

In 2013, the company was added to the S&P 500 index.

In February 2015, CEO Steven Newman quit following a $2.2 billion quarterly loss.

Effective on 30 March 2016, the company delisted its shares from the SIX Swiss Exchange, at which time its shares were removed from the Swiss Market Index.

Effective on January 30, 2018, the company completed its acquisition of Songa Offshore.

In December 2018, the company acquired Ocean Rig.

Accidents and incidents
Transocean was rated as a leader in its industry for many years. However, since the company's 2007 merger with GlobalSantaFe, Transocean's reputation has suffered considerably, according to EnergyPoint Research, an independent oil service industry rating firm. From 2004 to 2007, Transocean was the leader or near the top among deep-water drillers in "job quality" and "overall satisfaction." In 2008 and 2009, surveys ranked Transocean as last among deep-water drillers for "job quality" and next to last in "overall satisfaction." In 2008 and 2009, Transocean ranked first for in-house safety and environmental policies, and in the middle of the pack for perceived environmental and safety record. The Deepwater Horizon explosion and massive oil spill, starting in April 2010, further hurt its reputation. "Transocean is dominant, but the accident has definitely tarnished its reputation for worker safety and for being able to manage and deliver on extraordinarily complex deepwater projects," said Christopher Ruppel, an energy expert and managing director of capital markets at Execution Noble, an investment bank.

Transocean Leader accident (2002)
On 2 March 2002, a Scottish man was killed in an accident aboard the Transocean Leader drilling rig operated for BP, located about 138 kilometers (86 miles) west of Shetland, Scotland.

Galveston Bay explosion (2003)
On 17 June 2003, one worker was killed, four others were hospitalised and 21 were evacuated after an explosion on a Transocean gas drilling rig in Galveston Bay, Texas.

Maintenance citation on Transocean Rather (2005)
On 24 August 2005, the UK Health and Safety Executive issued a notice to Transocean saying that, it had failed to maintain its "remote blowout preventor control panel … in an efficient state, efficient working order and in good repair." On 21 November 2005, Transocean was found to be in compliance for this matter.

Sinking of Bourbon Dolphin supply boat and Transocean Rather accident (2007)
On 12 April 2007, the Bourbon Dolphin supply boat sank off the coast of Scotland while servicing the Transocean Rather drilling rig, killing eight people. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the incident, and the commission's report found a series of "unfortunate circumstances" led to the accident "with many of them linked to Bourbon Offshore and Transocean."

2008 fatalities
In 2008, two Transocean workers were reportedly killed on the company's vessels.

Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion (2010)
On 20 April 2010, a fire was reported on a Transocean-owned semisubmersible drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon was a RBS8D design of Reading & Bates Falcon, a firm that was acquired by Transocean in 2001. The fire broke out at 10:00 p.m. CDT UTC−5 in US waters of Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig was 41 mi off the Louisiana coast. The US Coast Guard launched a rescue operation after the explosion which killed 11 workers and critically injured seven of the 126-member crew.

Deepwater Horizon was completely destroyed and subsequently sank.

As the Deepwater Horizon sank, the riser pipe that connected the well-head to the rig was severed. As a result, oil began to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. Estimates of the leak were about 80,000 barrels per day – for 87 days.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency on 29 April, as the oil slick grew and headed toward the most important and most sensitive wetlands in North America, threatening to destroy wildlife and the livelihood of thousands of fishermen. The head of BP Group told CNN's Brian Todd on 28 April that the accident could have been prevented and focused blame on Transocean, which owned and partly manned the rig.

Transocean came under fire from lawyers, representing the fishing and tourism businesses that were hit by the oil spill, and the United States Department of Justice for seeking to use a Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 to restrict its liability for economic damages to $26.7 million.

During Congressional testimony, Transocean and BP blamed each other for the disaster. It emerged that a "heated argument" broke out on the platform 11 hours before the accident, in which Transocean and BP personnel disagreed on an engineering decision related to the closing of the well. On 14 May 2010, US President Barack Obama commented, "I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle… executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton [the firm responsible for cementing the well] falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."

Transocean later claimed that 2010, the year in which the disaster occurred, was "the best year in safety performance in our company’s history". In a regulatory filing, Transocean said, "Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate." They used this justification to award employees about two-thirds of the maximum possible safety bonuses. In response to broad criticism, including from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the company announced that its executives would donate the safety portion of the bonuses to a fund supporting the victims' families.

Offshore drilling leak off the Brazilian coast (2011)
The offshore drilling facility "Sedco 706", operated by Transocean under contract from Chevron, began to leak in November 2011 while working on the "Frade" oil field. Oil began leaking from the seabed at a depth of approximately 1100 to 1200m. Damage included an oil slick (oil floating on the ocean surface) covering an area of approximately 80 km2 and growing. This put the oil at a distance of about 370 km from Rio de Janeiro, but other beautiful beaches are much closer (estimated 140 km). The Brazilian government sued Transocean and attempted to force the company to cease operations in Brazil, but a settlement was reached without a finding of fault or liability.

Transocean Winner grounding on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland (2016)
In the early hours of Monday 8 August 2016, the semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Winner ran aground near Dalmore in the Carloway district of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The rig had been under tow by the tug Alp Forward in winds of galeforce, when the tow line broke. The rig subsequently drifted ashore at Dalmore and became stuck fast on rocks at 07.30 BST. Continuing poor weather meant that a damage inspection by salvors has been practically impossible, as personnel require to be airlifted on to the rig, in spite of it being close to the shore. The rig was carrying approximately 280 tons of diesel, to power its generators, of which 53 tons is thought to have leaked into the sea, and dispersed or evaporated in rough conditions. Environmental monitoring of plant and animal life is on-going, particularly in view of the economically important fish farming operations in nearby Loch Ròg.

title: Transocean


text:
Air Force Island

Air Force Island is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located along the southwestern coast of Baffin Island and measures 1720 km2 in size.

The first written record of the island's existence was in 1948, as were neighbouring Prince Charles Island and Foley Island, by a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) crew member, Albert-Ernest Tomkinson, navigating an Avro Lancaster. The island was named in recognition of the RCAF's role in surveying the Arctic Archipelago.

title: Air Force Island


text:
User:ManetherinBlade

Hello, I'm Manetherin Blade, a high school student in South Carolina, USA. I enjoy Shaolin Kempo karate, swingdancing, and hiking. --The leopard watches in satisfaction. 04:07, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: User:ManetherinBlade


text:
User talk:Ruziklan

Hi - since nobody else has yet, let me break in your talk page and say welcome to the Wikipedia. I do hope you'll stick around, and in particular (to be completely selfish for a moment) I hope you'll write some stuff on chess problems - it's an area I've been trying to write a bit about, but I'm far from an expert, and I'm sure you can do a far better job than me. It's rather hard to know what level to pitch the articles at, given that we're meant to be a general encylopedia rather than a specialist publication, but it's certainly an area that deserves better and fuller coverage than it has right now. Anyway, I hope you have fun here, whatever you end up doing. If you need help with anything, feel free to add a question to the bottom of the Help desk, or, if you prefer, ask me on my talk page - I'm always happy to show-off my vast knowledge ;)

Incidentally, perhaps you've already found it but there is also a Slovak Wikipedia which you might find interesting. --Camembert 04:07, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Category:International Judges of Chess Compositions
Should be Category:International Judges of Chess Compositions added to your user page? Or, even better, article Juraj Lörinc to be written? --AndrejJ 07:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Disambiguation Talk Request
This is a form message being sent to all WikiProject Disambiguation participants. I recently left a proposed banner idea on the WikiProject Disambiguation talk page and I would appreciate any input you could provide. Before it can be approved or denied, I would prefer a lot of feedback from multiple participants in the project. So if you have the time please join in the discussion to help improve the WikiProject. Keep up the good work in link repair and thanks for your time. Nehrams2020 21:53, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

WikiSk template
Hello,

I have recently founded a template which can be used on their user pages by those, who contribute to the Slovak Wikipedia as well. If you do and if you are interested, you can have a look at Template:User wikisk. Jan.Kamenicek 22:46, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Fairy chess
Please see Fairy chess. --AndrejJ 20:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

 * Please see: Grasshopper (chess). --AndrejJ 16:03, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Fairy chess pieces
I have seen in my watchlist that you have removed Category Fairy chess pieces from article Fairy chess pieces. I would say it is not good idea. As is clear from the article Fairy chess pieces, there are many different fairy chess pieces existing, many of them used in over-the-board played chess variants and many used in fairy chess problems. Although most of them do not deserve own article, some of the most important surely do deserve own article, because of their properties, history, specificities, interesting points, etc. (e.g. grasshopper, nightrider, pao, lion, berolina, to name just a few most important ones) Please, reconsider that. --Ruziklan 21:54, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi, the reason why I removed it, is that the Category only contained one element, namely Fairy chess pieces. And a category with only one article in it, doesn't look good. I appreciate some of the fairy chess pieces deserve their own article, but up until this point, they have not been created. I personally was going to nominate the category for deletion. Since you feel strong about it, I won't, but somebody else might. So feel free to add the category back to the article Fairy chess pieces to prevent this. Also remember that we can delete the category for now, and create it again once a few of the dedicated fairy chess pieces articles (such as grasshopper, nightrider, pao, lion, berolina, ...) have been created. All the best Voorlandt 22:15, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Slovak Wikipedians' notice board
Hi. You might be interested in checking out the brand new Slovak Wikipedians' notice board. All Wikipedians interested in Slovakia or subjects somehow related to Slovakia are invited to use this noticeboard as a tool for better organizing their activities, making announcements to others with similar interests, and discussing any actual issues related to their work on Wikipedia. You are welcome to add this notice board to your watchlist, so that you could see when it is updated and thus take part in any projects, initiatives, and improvements relating to articles about Slovakia. Also, you are welcome to report your own articles here so they could be peer-reviewed and expanded by other contributors. Tankred 16:00, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

List of Slovaks
Ján Andrej Segner original name is Johann Andreas Segner. He was a German. Rudolf Vrba was a Jewish ancestry, but if he lived Slovakia's area after 1918 then I removed him mistaken from this article.Nmate (talk • contribs)  —Preceding comment was added at 11:35, 6 April 2008 (UTC) But both have important ties to Slovakia as you have undoubtedly noted and their inclusion was in line with 3 inclusion criteria. --Ruziklan (talk) 11:39, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Johann Andreas Segner lived in the 18th century and Slovakia was not exist in that time. I removed from it the Hungarians and Germans who lived on Slovakia's area before 1918. Zipernowsky was not a Slovak ancestry presumably because he was born in Vienna, and w is not exist in the Slovak alphabet. He may was a Polish ancestry.The Great-Moravian's Slovak ancestry is strongly dubious also.

What does it mean the ancestry word for you? Ancestry as from this territory also? But this country was not exist before 1918.I felt it is anachronism if these people would reckon to Slovaks. Nmate (talk • contribs)

 * Uhm, have you "removed from it the Hungarians and Germans who lived on Slovakia's area before 1918"? In that case you have not made your removal fully as you surely can find many more people with this qualification. --Ruziklan (talk) 12:42, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You made a major edit during ongoing discussion
We already discussed that German person on the talk page when you made that huge edit without much reply or any real addressing of the issues. Hobartimus (talk) 12:34, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
 * There is no discussion ongoing. As far I can judge from long-time watching, some people just regularly revert any changes made to the list. I have made huge edit, but with listing changes and giving chance to discuss it point by point. You have just reverted it. OK, you have right to do that and I do not care anymore. I am off, I have other business to do. --Ruziklan (talk) 12:38, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Contrary to your claim there is a discussion, on the talk page. I don't know what's your criteria for discussion is but I'm reading everything you write there (the thread you started about Johann) on the talk page and made quite a few replies there already sometimes in a very timely fashion, let's continue there. Hobartimus (talk) 12:47, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks
Ruziklan, hi, I just wanted to say that I know you are usually just an occasional editor on Wikipedia, but I have definitely noticed that you have been putting a lot of work into helping resolve these Hungarian-Slovak disputes. I have been especially impressed with how you have been setting a good example of civility, being very positive, and putting a lot of energy into discussions with other editors. So I just wanted to say, "Good job," and to encourage you to keep doing what you've been doing. I hope you spend even more time on Wikipedia in the future! :) --Elonka 04:40, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Unfortunately I am afraid I will cease following the Hungarian-Slovak disputes in detail very soon. As is easily seen in my editing history, my editing is quite seldom, a few edits monthly, with ocassional flurry of many edits in a few days. That is when I get really hooked, but the rest of my life forces me to stop it. :-)
 * In any case, I am very happy someone impartial and Wikipedia-policies-skilled and really interested has stepped into this matter and invests his energy into sorting things out. Fortunately, my main area of interest, both on and off Wikipedia, namely chess composition, is not so controversial. :-) --Ruziklan (talk) 18:33, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi
I left you a (possibly crucial) question at Articles for deletion/Ľudovít Lehen. Cheers. --Dweller (talk) 14:36, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Slovak National Party
Hi, Elonka archived the thread on the main discussion page, but your latest proposal/phrasing there was acceptable to me where you said this. After this Tankred jumped in seemingly misunderstanding the discussion talking as if we were still talking about the picture /including the picture in the article. Could you include the sentence in the article/ write a few words if you changed your mind. Hobartimus (talk) 21:09, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
 * All right, done as agreed, thank you for reminding me. --Ruziklan (talk) 21:48, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot
SuggestBot predicts that you will enjoy editing some of these articles. Have fun!

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. Your contributions make Wikipedia better -- thanks for helping.

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please tell me on SuggestBot's talk page. Thanks from ForteTuba, SuggestBot's caretaker.

P.S. You received these suggestions because your name was listed on the SuggestBot request page. If this was in error, sorry about the confusion. -- SuggestBot (talk) 04:07, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to WikiProject Chess
Hi Ruziklan, and welcome to the WikiProject Chess ! We are always eager to see new members joining. Please do not hesitate to ask for help on the talk page of the project for any chess-related question you may have. Happy editing !

Unreferenced BLPs
Hello Ruziklan! Thank you for your contributions. I am a bot notifying you on behalf of the the unreferenced biographies team that 1 of the articles that you created  is currently tagged as an Unreferenced Biography of a Living Person. The biographies of living persons policy requires that all personal or potentially controversial information be sourced. In addition, to ensure verifiability, all biographies should be based on reliable sources. If you were to bring this article up to standards, it would greatly help us with the current Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs article backlog. Once the article is adequately referenced, please remove the unreferencedBLP tag. Here is the article:

Thanks!--DASHBot (talk) 22:59, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Palo Macho -

Congratulations
... on your recent chess achievements! --AndrejJ (talk) 18:09, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Andrej. If only I had enough time for everything I'd like to do, including editing Wikipedia. I have just noticed I had not made any significant edit here for a quite long time... --Ruziklan (talk) 00:34, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 3
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Ladislav Salai, Jr., you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Chess player (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 21:29, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Slovakian help needed
Hello Ruziklan, I'm contacting you because we need some Slovakian translators to help with the deployment of the new VisualEditor on sk.wikipedia. There are help pages, user guides, and description pages that need translating, as well as the interface itself. The translating work is going on over on MediaWiki: Translation Central. I also need help with a personal message for the Slovakian Wikipedians. If you are able to help in any way, either reply here, or head over to TranslationCentral. Thanks for your time, PEarley (WMF) (talk) 16:25, 26 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you for inviting me. Unfortunately, I contribute to Wikipedia only once in a while now due to time constraints. I do not expect to have free time for that till November given status of my other voluntary projects. If the work is not done until then, I might consider. --Ruziklan (talk) 17:32, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Ruziklan, thanks for the reply. I understand your time constraints.  Best regards, PEarley (WMF) (talk) 17:43, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:58, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Běla Kolčáková moved to draftspace
An article you recently created, Běla Kolčáková, does not have enough sources and citations as written to remain published. It needs more citations from reliable, independent sources. (?) Information that can't be referenced should be removed (verifiability is of central importance on Wikipedia). I've moved your draft to draftspace (with a prefix of " " before the article title) where you can incubate the article with minimal disruption. When you feel the article meets Wikipedia's general notability guideline and thus is ready for mainspace, please click on the "Submit your draft for review!" button at the top of the page. Mccapra (talk) 19:16, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Concern regarding Draft:Běla Kolčáková
Hello, Ruziklan. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:Běla Kolčáková, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Draft space is not an indefinite storage location for content that is not appropriate for article space.

If your submission is not edited soon, it could be nominated for deletion under CSD G13. If you would like to attempt to save it, you will need to improve it. You may request userfication of the content if it meets requirements.

If the deletion has already occured, instructions on how you may be able to retrieve it are available here.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 20:02, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Běla Kolčáková

Hello, Ruziklan. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Běla Kolčáková".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been deleted. If you plan on working on it further and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Liz Read! Talk! 19:24, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ruziklan


text:
James McGrath (Canadian politician)

James Aloysius McGrath, (January 11, 1932 – February 28, 2017) was a  politician and the eighth lieutenant governor of Newfoundland, Canada.

Life
As a young man, McGrath was a member of the Responsible Government League which opposed Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada. Nevertheless, upon the dominion's joining confederation in 1949, McGrath left to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He returned to Newfoundland in 1953 and became sales manager with radio station CJON. In 1955, he became secretary of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party association. In 1956, he ran unsuccessfully for the party in the provincial election.

His daughter Robin McGrath is a poet and novelist.

Federal politics
He entered federal politics the next year, and won a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for St. John's East. In 1962, McGrath became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys, and served in that position until he was defeated along with the Diefenbaker government in the 1963 election.

McGrath regained his seat in the 1968 election, and remained in parliament through five subsequent elections.

When the Progressive Conservatives formed the government following the 1979 election, Prime Minister Joe Clark advised the Governor General to appoint McGrath Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. McGrath returned to the opposition bench when Clark's minority government was defeated in the 1980 election.

McGrath was not included in the Cabinet when the Tories returned to power in the 1984 election under Brian Mulroney. Instead, McGrath was appointed chairman of the Special Committee on the Reform of the House of Commons. The report he authored led to a number of procedural changes, including the introduction of election by secret ballot for the position of Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons. Its recommendations also led to the formation of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians, established in 1996. McGrath also served as chairman of the Standing Committee on Human Rights.

Retirement
In August 1986, McGrath left politics to accept an appointment as Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland. He retired from the position in 1991.

Death
McGrath died at home on February 28, 2017.

title: James McGrath (Canadian politician)