WJAX-TV
FCC | |
Facility ID | 35576 |
---|---|
ERP | 1,000 kW |
HAAT | 291 m (955 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 30°16′51.9″N 81°34′12.2″W / 30.281083°N 81.570056°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WJAX-TV (channel 47) is a
History
The station was the brainchild of John Stone Thigpenn who, while working as an announcer at
Further inspired by such a generous donation, Thigpenn contacted his friend Russell Linenkohl, president of the local Full Gospel Businessmen's Association. Linenkohl suggested teaming up with other Christian business leaders to jointly discuss how best to proceed. Included in that group were physicians already known by Thigpenn, Stephen Gyland and Douglas Fowler. Other businessmen being recommended were local bankers Richard Martin, Rufus Kite Powell and Thomas McGehee. The group agreed to hold a public meeting to invite citizen comments regarding the endeavor. At the end of this public meeting, the attendees voted to appoint the head table to form a selection committee tasked with appointing and forming a board of directors for Christian Television of Jacksonville.
Before the public meeting, Thigpenn had already contacted the Broadcast Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to discover that two UHF channel allocations (channels 30 and 47) were available for use in Jacksonville. He also discovered that two entities were already competing for the channel 30 frequency. The group decided to avoid the time and expense of litigating a challenge for that allotment and opted to file for a license to operate a station on channel 47. Thigpenn, who did not share the same community prominence as the other appointing members, agreed to act as a silent partner to the newly appointed board of directors for Christian Television of Jacksonville. He subsequently headed up the Community Ascertainment requirement as one of several exhibits needed by the FCC as part of the license application process.
While Christian Television of Jacksonville received the
After all the planning and financing, the station officially signed on the air on August 1, 1980, as WXAO-TV (standing for the
Krypton filed for
Joining CBS
On April 23, 2002, CBS signed an affiliation agreement with Clear Channel for WTEV-TV to become the new CBS affiliate for the Jacksonville television market.
With WTEV obtaining the CBS affiliation, the situation resulted in the first instance where two broadcasting companies controlled the
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its television stations to
However in May 2008, it agreed to sell the license assets of WTEV and five other Newport stations to High Plains Broadcasting due to ownership conflicts in the affected markets; the purchase was finalized on September 15 of that year.
On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of WAWS and WTEV-TV to
On August 26, 2014, Cox announced their intention to change WTEV's call letters to WJAX-TV, contingent on FCC approval, through a request made in July. In an email to
On February 27, 2018, it was announced that Bayshore Television would sell WJAX-TV to Hoffman Communications for $1.2 million. Cox would continue to operate the station.[16] The deal was approved by the FCC on April 17, 2018,[17] and was completed on May 8.[18]
In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting's stations (including the JSA with WJAX-TV).[19][20] Although the group planned to operate under the name Terrier Media, it was later announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and retain the Cox Media Group name.[21] The sale was completed on December 17, 2019.[22]
Programming
Sports programming
Since its 2002 affiliation switch to CBS, then-WTEV-TV became the official broadcaster of most Jacksonville Jaguars regular-season games due to the network's contract involving AFC teams. The first Jaguars game to air on the station as the new CBS affiliate was the team's Week 1 home game versus the Indianapolis Colts on September 8, 2002.
WJAX simulcast Yahoo!'s broadcast of the Jaguars game in London against the Buffalo Bills in October 2015, per NFL rules requiring simulcasting on over-the-air stations in the markets of the participating teams. It was the first ever streaming-exclusive broadcast of an NFL game.[citation needed]
News operation
WJAX-TV presently broadcasts 30 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces the sports highlight programs Action Sports Jax Primetime, which airs weekend evenings at 11:30 p.m. (the station also produces a half-hour version of the program for WFOX-TV after its 10 p.m. newscast on weekends) and Friday Night Blitz, which airs Fridays at 11:15 pm. The stations use
In the late 1990s, WAWS began producing a half-hour early evening newscast for WTEV titled UPN 47 News at 6:30, which aired Monday through Fridays; the 6:30 broadcast was canceled in June 2002, a couple of weeks prior to the affiliation switch. Once WTEV became a CBS affiliate in July 2002, the station expanded its local news programming, adding a full slate newscasts at 5:30 a.m. (effectively "moving" over from WAWS), noon, 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m. on Monday through Fridays, along with weekend evening newscasts.[23] WAWS's existing news department essentially took over primary newscast production for the station. Initially, WTEV maintained certain primary personnel (such as news anchors) that would only appear on the newscasts on channel 47. In addition, newscasts used separate on-air branding and graphics packages, with WTEV's newscasts being conducted from the duopoly's newsroom to distinguish the two outlets and retain separate on-air identities.
In the late 2000s,[when?] WTEV's weekday morning newscast began to be simulcast on WAWS. Corresponding with the change, Action News This Morning was expanded to two hours (from 5 to 7 a.m.), with a two-hour extension of the program (from 7 to 9 a.m. eventually being added on WAWS. WAWS would later break away from the unified brand and introduce its own separate graphics and music package, and logo based on those originated in the mid-2000s on Fox's owned-and-operated stations on September 19, 2010. On April 13, 2009, WTEV and WAWS began using a single on-air identity for their respective newscasts, branding their news programming collectively as Action News, presumably done as a way to compete with the First Coast News operation of rivals WTLV and WJXX. With the overhaul came the introduction of new sets (with WAWS maintaining a separate set for its nightly 10 p.m. newscast), on-air graphics, weather center and website.
On January 31, 2010, WTEV/WAWS became the second television news operation in the Jacksonville market to begin broadcasting their local newscasts in
Notable current on-air staff
- Phil Amato – anchor
- Certified Broadcast MeteorologistSeal of Approval) – chief meteorologist
Notable former on-air staff
- Mike Barz – anchor
- Mark Spain – anchor
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
47.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WJAX-HD | CBS |
47.2 | 480i | WJAX-CZ | Cozi TV | |
47.3 | WJAX-CC | Catchy Comedy |
On April 1, 2014, Cox Media Group signed an affiliation agreement to carry the digital multicast movie network
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, WJAX-TV (as WTEV-TV) terminated its analog signal, on
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WJAX-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ a b New CBS affiliate has garage-studio roots, The Florida Times-Union, June 17, 2002.
- ^ Kerr, Jessie-Lynne: [1] Florida Times-Union, July 14, 2006, "Mac Papers co-founder was civic, religious leader"
- ^ TV-47 to become new CBS affiliate, The Florida Times-Union, April 23, 2002.
- ^ CBS dumped by local affiliate, The Florida Times-Union, April 4, 2002.
- ^ Stations confirm changes, The Florida Times-Union, May 10, 2002.
- ^ "CBS Announces 3:30 p.m. Kickoff for Florida-Georgia Game on November 2". GatorZone. May 22, 2013. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
- ^ "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Clear Channel Communications. Archived from the original on April 25, 2007. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
- ^ "Newport stations drift to High Plains". Television Business Report. May 21, 2008. Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
- ^ "Application Search Details". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
- ^ Newport Sells 22 Stations For $1 Billion, TVNewsCheck, July 19, 2012.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Dixon, Drew (August 26, 2014). "Home to Jacksonville's Action News, WTEV & WAWS will soon change call letters". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
- Florida Times-Union. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- ^ "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. February 27, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. May 8, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
- ^ "Apollo Global Management Acquires Cox's Television Stations Plus Radio & Newspapers In Dayton". RadioInsight. February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- ^ Jessell, Harry A. (March 6, 2019). "Cox TV Valued At $3.1 Billion In Apollo Acquisition". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia LLC. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
- ^ Jacobson, Adam (June 26, 2019). "It's Official: Cox Radio, Gamut, CoxReps Going To Apollo". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- ^ Venta, Lance (December 17, 2019). "Apollo Global Management Closes On Its Acquisition Of Cox Media Group". RadioInsight. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
- ^ New CBS affiliate sets its news anchor lineup, The Florida Times-Union, June 25, 2002.
- ^ Gurbal Kritzer, Ashley (May 28, 2014). "Action News slashes marquee anchors in Jacksonville". Jacksonville Business Journal. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
- ^ Chapman, David (June 3, 2014). "Gulliford's letter criticizes dismissal of television anchors". Jacksonville Daily Record. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
- ^ "RabbitEars.Info". rabbitears.info.
- ^ "Four Cox Media Group Stations Get GetTV," from Broadcasting & Cable, April 1, 2014.
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations