Originally signed on the air on September 15, 1962 at 4pm as WOKR (for "We're OKRochester"), a primary ABC affiliate on VHF channel 13, and was owned by Channel 13 of Rochester, Inc., was composed of the Flower City Television Corporation, the Rochester Educational Television Association, the Genesee Valley Television Company, Star TV, Inc., Community Broadcasting, Inc., Heritage Radio and Television Broadcasting Company, Main Broadcasting Company, Federal Broadcasting Systems, Citizens Television Corporation, Rochester Broadcasting, Inc., and Rochester Telecasters, Inc., all of whom were equal shareholders until March 1970, when Flower City bought out its partners.
1964–1969[]
Alternate version
1969–1976[]
1976–1979[]
Flower City sold the station to Post Corporation, a media conglomerate based in the Fox Cities region of Wisconsin in 1977.
1979-1982[]
"Still the One!"
1982–1995[]
1982–1986[]
"Hello Rochester" (1982)
WOKR 13 News 24 Newsroom bumper (1985)
George N. Gillett Jr. purchased the Post Corporation stations in 1984 transferring it into Gillett Holdings, Inc.
1986–1995[]
The 1982 logo became italicized.
"You'll Love It" ID (1985-1986)
"Together" ID (1986–1987)
"Something's Happening" ID (1987-1988)
WOKR-TV sports bumper (1987)
NewsCenter 13 Update bumper (1987)
"America's Watching" (1990)
WOKR-TV's NewsSource 13 "First at Five" promo (1991)
Hughes Broadcasting Partners (Paul Hughes and Veronis, Suhler & Associates) purchased the station in 1991. Hughes then sold WOKR to Portland, Maine–based Guy Gannett Communications in 1995, who later sold channel 13 to the Hunt Valley, Maryland–based Sinclair Broadcast Group (owner of Fox affiliate WUHF, channel 31) in 1998. Since they already owned WUHF, they spun channel 13 off to The Ackerley Group in April 1999.
On January 10, 2005, at 1:42 in the morning, channel 13 signed off-the-air for the last time as WOKR and returned to the air at 4:59 that same day as WHAM-TV. The WOKR call letters then moved to sister station WUCL (now WAWR) in Remsen, New York (now Air 1 affiliate WAWR; in 2015, when the Remsen station dropped the calls, a radio station in Rochester picked up the WOKR calls and returned them to the market, swapping them with Canandaigua sister station WRSB in 2017). This was part of a strategy that Clear Channel would use the older callsign for an existing TV station they co-owned with the radio stations, the others were in San Antonio and Syracuse.
WHAM-TV Clear Channel bumper from 2005
2010–present[]
The station's updated logo features the "circle 13" design (derivative of the circle 7 logo) similar to fellow ABC affiliates WTVG in Toledo, Ohio and owned-and-operated station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas.
2010–2014[]
Designer:
Hothaus Creative
Typography:
Helvetica Neue
Launched:
September 13, 2010
On September 13, 2010, WHAM-TV became the first station in Rochester to broadcast newscasts in high definition.
1Owned by Tennessee Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under an outsourcing agreement. 2Nominally owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under an LMA. However, trusts belonging to members of Sinclair's founding Smith family control almost all of Cunningham's stock. 3Operated by Nexstar Media Group under an LMA. 5Owned by Manhan Media and managed by Sinclair. 6Owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 7Owned by Mercury Broadcasting Company and operated by Sinclair. 8Owned by Deerfield Media and operated by Sinclair under an LMA. 9Owned by Roberts Media, but operated by Sinclair. 10Owned by Mitts Telecasting and operated by Sinclair. 11Owned by Granite Broadcasting Corporation and operated by Sinclair through a JSA and SSA. 12Owned by New Age Media and operated by Sinclair under an MSA. 13Owned by MPS Media, but operated by New Age Media under an LMA. 14Owned by Main Street Sports Group 15Co-owned with Yankee Global Enterprises, The Blackstone Group, Amazon, RedBird Capital and Mubadala Investment Company. 16Co-owned with Chicago Cubs. 17Owned by Palm Television, L.P. and operated by Cunningham Broadcasting under an LMA. 18Operated by Marquee Broadcasting under an SSA. 19Owned by Standard Media, but operated by Sinclair under an SSA.
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