WTVT

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WTVT" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

WTVT (channel 13) is a

Through its CBS affiliation, WTVT carried Super Bowl XVIII, which was hosted at Tampa Stadium, in 1984.

In 1987, Gaylord sold the station to

On December 18, 1993,

News Corporation bought New World outright in July 1996;^[6] the purchase was finalized on January 22, 1997, making WTVT the first owned-and-operated station of a major network in the Tampa Bay area. Although New World no longer exists as a separate company, WTVT continues to use "New World Communications of Tampa Bay" as the copyright tag at the end of the station's newscasts. Shortly after the purchase was announced, the station changed its branding from "Channel 13" to "Fox 13"—retaining the numerical "13" logo it had used since 1989 as a CBS affiliate (the font for that number has since been utilized by sister station WFLD in Chicago upon its rebranding in 2012, as well as the "13" itself used by former sister station WHBQ-TV in Memphis and PBS member station KERA-TV in Dallas). Under Fox ownership, the station added more higher-profile syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms to its lineup.

In June 2009, WTVT interviewed late television pitchman Billy Mays shortly before his death. His interview, which was conducted at the Tampa International Airport, is believed to have been his final appearance on live television.^[7]

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of WFTS-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy WTVT's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WTVT as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation.^[8][9]

WTVT presently broadcasts 72+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12 hours each weekday, 6+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and six hours on Sundays). In regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output of any television station in both the Tampa Bay market and the entire state of Florida.

Under Gaylord Broadcasting ownership, the company poured significant resources into channel 13's news operation. In 1958, WTVT became the second station in the country to introduce daily editorials, and was also the first station in the country^[3] to run an hour-long news block, consisting of 45 minutes of local news (under the title Pulse) combined with the then-15-minute network newscast. By 1962, WTVT had overtaken WFLA-TV as the highest-rated station in the Tampa Bay market, retaining that position for over 25 years. This was largely because of the longevity of many of the station's personalities. For instance, Roy Leep was the station's weatherman from 1957 until his retirement on November 26, 1997, and Hugh Smith was the station's main anchor from 1963 to 1991, spending most of that time doubling as its news director.

Channel 13 dropped the Pulse moniker from its newscasts in 1989 in favor of Eyewitness News. The Eyewitness News moniker was retained during the early years of the Fox era^[10] before being dropped in 1997.

After WTVT became a Fox affiliate in December 1994, the station adopted a news-intensive schedule, increasing its news programming output from about 30 hours a week to nearly 45 hours. Like most former Big Three affiliates that joined Fox during the 1990s, it maintained a news schedule similar to the one it had as a CBS affiliate. The station retained all of its existing newscasts. However, it expanded its weekday morning newscast from one to 3+1⁄2 hours (with two hours added from 7 to 9 a.m. to make up for the loss of CBS This Morning), bridged the weeknight 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts into a two-hour early evening news block (by expanding its half-hour 6 p.m. newscast to one hour) and moved the 11 p.m. newscast to 10 p.m. and expanded it to a full hour (originally titled Channel 13 Eyewitness News Prime Time at Ten, later renamed as Fox 13 10:00 News upon Fox purchasing the station). on December 12, 2005, WTVT debuted a new 11 p.m. newscast called News Edge at 11:00, returning a newscast to that timeslot since the station was still affiliated with CBS. At one point, WTVT had the largest local newscast output of any television station in the country.

In April 2009, Fox entered into a Local News Service agreement with the E. W. Scripps Company in which Fox's owned-and-operated stations in Tampa, Detroit and Phoenix would share news video and helicopter footage with Scripps-owned stations in those markets for use in their own reports.^[11] Locally, WTVT began pooling video with WFTS as part of the agreement; however the stations otherwise maintain separate news departments.^[12] Gannett-owned WTSP was added to the LNS agreement that June.^[13] Prior to the agreement, WTVT had been the only station in the Tampa market to use two news helicopters: a Bell 206 called "SkyFox" and a Robinson R44 called "SkyFox 2", which was used whenever "SkyFox" was grounded due to mechanical reasons. When warranted, both helicopters were used to cover significant news stories. WTVT, WFTS and WTSP now utilize only one helicopter (WFTS' "Action Air One") to cover news events (rival station WFLA covers news events by utilizing its own helicopter, "Eagle 8").

In the summer of 2009, Fox Television Stations opened a graphics hub at the WTVT studios to distribute graphics for Fox's owned-and-operated stations.^[14][15]

Starting with the 5 p.m. newscast on June 30, 2009, WTVT became the fourth and final station in the Tampa Bay market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

This section may lend create a more balanced presentation. Discuss and resolve this issue before removing this message. (October 2018)

In 1997,

WTVT did not run the story, and later argued in court that the report was not "breakthrough journalism". Wilson and Akre then claimed that the station's actions constituted the news broadcast telling lies, while WTVT countered looking only for fairness, and wanted to air a hard-hitting story with a number of statements critical of Monsanto.[17] Wilson and Akre stated that they rewrote the report over 80 times over the course of 1997, and WTVT decided to exercise "its option to terminate their employment contracts without cause",^[18] and did not renew their contracts in 1998. WTVT later ran a report about Monsanto and rBGH in 1998, and the report included defenses from Monsanto.^[19]

After Wilson and Akre's contracts were not renewed, they filed a lawsuit concerning WTVT's "news distortion" under Florida's whistleblower laws, claiming their termination was retaliation for "resisting WTVT's attempts to distort or suppress the BGH story".^[20] In a joint statement, Wilson claimed that he and Akre "were repeatedly ordered to go forward and broadcast demonstrably inaccurate and dishonest versions of the story", and "were given those instructions after some very high-level corporate lobbying by Monsanto (the powerful drug company that makes the hormone) and also ... by members of Florida's dairy and grocery industries".^[21] The trial commenced in the summer of 2000 with a jury dismissing all of the claims brought to trial by Wilson, but siding with one aspect of Akre's complaint, awarding her $425,000 and agreeing that Akre was a whistleblower because she believed there were violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and because she planned on reporting the station to the Federal Communications Commission. Reason magazine, referring to the case, noted that Akre's argument in the trial was that Akre and Wilson believed news distortion occurred, but that they did not have to prove this was the case.^[19]

An appeal was filed, and a ruling in February 2003 came down in favor of WTVT, who successfully argued that the FCC policy against falsification was not a "law, rule, or regulation", and so the whistle-blower law did not qualify as the required "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102.... Because the FCC's news distortion policy is not a "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute."^[20] The appeal did not address any falsification claims, noting that "as a threshold matter... Akre failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute", but noted that the lower court ruled against all of Wilson's charges and all of Akre's claims with the exception of the whistleblower claim that was overturned.^[20]

• Certified Broadcast Meteorologist
  Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist; weeknights
• Mark Wilson – weeknight 6 and 10 p.m. anchor

The station's signal is

WTVT shut down its analog signal, over

• Official website
• WTVT Historical Site A historical site dedicated to WTVT's former CBS affiliation