WFLA-TV
FCC | |
Facility ID | 64592 |
---|---|
ERP | 41 kW |
HAAT | 465.3 m (1,527 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 27°50′33″N 82°15′44″W / 27.84250°N 82.26222°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WFLA-TV (channel 8) is a
History
Channel 8 first signed on the air on February 14, 1955, with a live broadcast of the
Due to an FCC regulation in effect at the time that stated that TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different owners had to have differing callsigns, the station's callsign was changed to WXFL on January 19, 1983, after WFLA-AM and -FM were sold (WFLA and WFLZ are currently owned by iHeartMedia). At the time, Federal Communications Commission cross-ownership regulations forced Media General to sell the radio stations; however, the company was granted a permanent waiver permitting it to keep The Tampa Tribune and the television station. Channel 8 reverted to its original WFLA-TV call letters on January 1, 1989. That same year, it surged to first place in the Tampa Bay ratings and has stayed there for most of that time, led by one of the most popular anchor teams in the country. For one day in May 1999, UPN affiliate WTOG (channel 44) housed the operations for WFLA-TV, after a power outage occurred at the station's main studios in Downtown Tampa.[citation needed]
WFLA and
On August 20, 2014, Media General announced that it would acquire MyNetworkTV affiliate WTTA (channel 38) from Sinclair Broadcast Group. The deal made WTTA a sister station to WFLA.[5][6]
On January 27, 2016, it was announced that what was then known as the Nexstar Broadcasting Group would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. WFLA and WTTA became part of the newly minted Nexstar Media Group on January 17, 2017.[7][8]
Programming
WFLA mostly clears the entire NBC programming lineup, but it airs the fourth hour of Today at noon instead of the network's recommended 10 a.m. time slot which is occupied by the local lifestyle program, Daytime (see below).
Daytime
WFLA-TV produces Daytime, a lifestyle and entertainment program which airs weekday mornings at 10 am; the program features regular correspondents and contributors for various topics. In 2003, WFLA and Daytime caused controversy after The New York Times reported of its "pay for play" practices. The article revealed that businesses were charged several thousand dollars to appear on the show, effectively making their segments "paid segments". Many people saw this as payola, a practice that is illegal under an FCC ruling.[9][10] After much dispute, WFLA agreed to identify each paid segment as such to avoid an intervention from Congress.[11]
Original hosts Debra Schrills and Brian Fasulo left the show in 2005.
Sports programming
Since 2006, channel 8 airs any
News operation
This section needs expansion with: further information on the history of WFLA's news department. You can help by adding to it. (October 2010) |
WFLA presently broadcasts 42 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays). Arch Deal and Bill Henry were the prominent faces of WFLA's newscasts in the 1960s. Deal's tenure was abruptly cut short in 1975, when he suffered injuries from a parachute accident. Bob Koop served as the evening anchor from 1977 to 1979. Longtime anchorman Bob Hite came to the anchor desk in 1979. The station began using a helicopter for newsgathering called "Eagle 8" in October 1985.
Bill Ratliff, who was brought in to anchor the evening newscasts in 1982 and had been morning and noon anchor since 1985, retired from WFLA on June 25, 2009;[16] Ratliff (who was previously a political contributor at WTSP) died on May 8, 2012. WFLA began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition in early September 2007. Following Bob Hite's November 2007 retirement after 30 years, Keith Cate assumed anchor duties of the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts along with veteran anchor Gayle Sierens, who herself retired in May 2015.
In the midst of a market shake-up in December 1994, which saw three Tampa area stations swapping network affiliations (CBS affiliate WTVT switching to Fox; ABC affiliate WTSP, channel 10, switching to CBS; and Fox affiliate WFTS-TV, channel 28, switching to ABC), WFLA was one of the few major stations in the market that did not change its network affiliation. As a result, it became the highest-rated station in the market, a position formerly held by WTVT, which saw its ratings drop after switching from CBS to Fox. However, since NBC's ill-fated prime time experiment with The Jay Leno Show from September 2009 to January 2010, WTVT regained the top spot.
In the February 2012 sweeps period, WFLA was the clear ratings winner for early morning, evening, and late news. It was also the only station in the market to gain an audience for its late newscast despite NBC's lackluster ratings performance at the time. On July 30, 2012, WFLA debuted a new weeknight 7 p.m. newscast; the first such program in that timeslot in the Tampa market since WFLA produced a similar newscast for WXPX-TV (channel 66) from 2000 to 2002.[17] On August 26, 2013, WFLA launched an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast. Concurrent with the addition, WFLA dropped its 11:30 a.m. newscast on August 23 (the second time WFLA discontinued its midday newscast in its history, although it retains a noon newscast on Saturdays and Sundays), however, management stated that a midday newscast may return to the station's weekday schedule in September 2014.[18] However, it was less than 3 years later in May 2016, when WFLA reintroduced a new one-hour midday newscast at 11 a.m.
At the start of 2015, WFLA assumed production of WTTA's news updates, Great 38 News Now. Previously, the news updates, which debuted eleven days before Media General's acquisition of WTTA, were produced by that station's former sister in
On August 4, 2021, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor declared "Steve Jerve Day," in honor of WFLA's longtime meteorologist, who would retire two days later after 23 years at the station.[19]
Notable current on-air staff
- Keith Cate – anchor
- Jen Leigh – anchor
- Maggie Rodriguez – co-host of Daytime[15]
Notable former on-air staff
- Dick Crippen – sports director (1981–1999; was most recently with Spectrum Sports until its December 2017 shutdown)
- Arch Deal – anchor (1950s–1975; later at WRBQ-FM until 1992, died March 13, 2020)
- Rich Fields – meteorology intern (2000–2002; later with The Price Is Right as announcer, then with KCBS/KCAL in Los Angeles, and with WTSP)
- Chris Hansen – reporter (1981–1983; later with NBC News; later host of the weekday syndicated program, Crime Watch Daily)[20]
- Jack Harris – host (NewsWatch 8 at Noon, 1990–1992; Harris & Company/Harris Live, 1992–2000)
- John Muller – reporter (1989–2001; now with WPIX in New York City)
- Byron Pitts – reporter (1988–1990; now with ABC News)
- WHDH-TV)
- Gayle Sierens – anchor (1977–2015; now retired)
- Tony Zappone – news correspondent (1965–1977)
Controversy and criticism
Silencing Christians
On June 27, 2009, WFLA aired an hour-long documentary, Silencing Christians, which dealt with the
Prior to the telecast, the station was swamped with numerous phone calls and e-mails against WFLA's broadcast of the program.[22] After it aired, the station logged hundreds of phone calls and over 1,000 e-mails protesting the broadcast.
General manager Mike Pumo refused to elaborate on the decision, other than the show's content did not "raise the red flag" during pre-screening. Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida, considered the show hate speech, saying, "I think this program is a piece of homophobic propaganda and it has no place on a major network like NBC" despite the fact that NBC is merely the network that WFLA is affiliated with.[22]
On July 15, 2009, 70 to 100 protesters gathered outside of WFLA's studios to protest against the special and the station's attitude towards the community. The station, however, remained firm on its decision to show the program.[23][24]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
8.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WFLA HD | Main WFLA-TV programming / NBC |
8.2 | 480i | Charge! | Charge! | |
8.3 | 4:3 |
Antenna | Antenna TV |
WFLA-TV carried
Analog-to-digital conversion
WFLA-TV shut down its analog signal, over
References
- ^ a b "Digital TV Market Listing for WFLA". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WFLA-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "U.S. News". ABC News.
- ^ "Media General Taps WorldNow CMS". NetNewsCheck. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
- ^ "Media General, LIN Sell Stations In 5 Markets". TVNewsCheck. August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ Malone, Michael (August 20, 2014). "Media General, LIN Divest Stations in Five Markets". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ "Nexstar Broadcasting Group Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Media General for $4.6 Billion in Accretive Cash and Stock Transaction". Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
- ^ Lieberman, David (January 17, 2017). "Nexstar Completes $4.6B Acquisition Of Media General".
- ^ O'Brien, Bobbie (December 2, 2003). "TV's Version of Payola Draws FCC Interest". All Things Considered. NPR.
- ^ Crabtree, Susan (November 5, 2003). "McCain, FCC seek input on payola". Variety.
- ^ Eggerton, John (November 9, 2003). "WFLA-TV Will ID Paid Segments". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
- ^ "Newspaper Archives – tampabay.com – St. Petersburg Times".
- ^ "Me-TV Beefs Up Roster With 10 New Stations". tvnewscheck.com.
- ^ 14 Years of Cyndi Edwards on 'Daytime' NewsChannel 8 (WFLA-TV). September 22, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
- ^ a b Maggie Rodriguez named co-host of Daytime NewsChannel 8 (WFLA-TV). February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
- ^ "Anchor Bill Ratliff will leave WFLA-TV in June". Archived from the original on April 20, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
- ^ "After calls about an online job description, WFLA-Ch. 8 admits it plans a 7 p.m. newscast". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ WFLA – Ch. 8 announces 4 p.m. newscast, moving Dr. Oz to 3 p.m. weekdays Tampa Bay Times, July 24, 2013.
- ^ "Tampa Mayor Castor declares Aug. 4, 2021 Meteorologist 'Steve Jerve Day'". WFLA.com. WFLA-TV. August 4, 2021.
- ^ "Chris Hansen Biography". NBC News. July 11, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
- ^ "A brief introduction to Christianity – SilencingChristians.com". silencingchristians.com.
- ^ a b Tampa Tribune: "'Silencing Christians' paid program draws protest calls, e-mails", 6/27/2009.
- ^ "Demonstrators protest anti-gay-rights program aired by WFLA-Ch. 8". Tampa Bay Times.
- ^ Tampa Tribune: "Gay-/rights groups protest outside News Channel 8", 7/16/2009.
- ^ Me-TV Beefs Up Roster With 10 New Stations, TVNewsCheck, September 15, 2011.
- ^ "Antenna TV is temporarily leaving the Tampa area. On 9/1/21, you can find Antenna TV on WFLA 8.2". Antenna TV page. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2021 – via Facebook.
- ^ "List of Digital Full-Power Stations" (PDF).
- ^ http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/09/wfla-will-wait-until-june-shut-down-analog-tv-sign/ [dead link]
- ^ "CDBS Account Login". fcc.gov.
- ^ "FCC document: "Appendix B: All full-power television stations by DMA, indicating those terminating analog service before on or February 17, 2009."" (PDF).
External links
- Official website
- Photos of WFLA's news set
- Facility details for Facility ID 64592 (WFLA) in the FCC Licensing and Management System