WTVT

Coordinates: 27°49′8″N 82°14′26″W / 27.81889°N 82.24056°W / 27.81889; -82.24056
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
WTVT-TV
)
For other television stations with this branding, see Fox 13.

WTVT
kW
HAAT436 m (1,430 ft)
Transmitter coordinates27°49′8″N 82°14′26″W / 27.81889°N 82.24056°W / 27.81889; -82.24056
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.fox13news.com

WTVT (channel 13) is a

Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, WTVT maintains studios on Kennedy Boulevard on Tampa's west side, and its transmitter is located in Riverview
.

History

CBS affiliation

The station first signed on the air on April 1, 1955, becoming the third television station in Tampa Bay (after

construction permit to build a station on channel 13 to the now-defunct Tampa Times newspaper, which owned WDAE radio (then at 1250 AM, now at 620 AM). However, the FCC reversed its decision and awarded the license to the Tison group, which intended to open a studio facility in nearby St. Petersburg. The Times appealed the FCC's decision, but lost. Although it appears that the station's call letters stand for "Television Tampa", they actually stand for the initials of Walter Tison and his wife, Virginia. Like many other stations located on "unlucky" channel 13, WTVT used a black cat
as its mascot for several years.

In 1956, the Tampa Television Company merged with the

Fort Worth
, but the "TVT" base callsign was only a coincidence).

The station's remote broadcast facilities were chosen for network pool coverage of

splashdowns (in 1961 and 1962, respectively).[2][3]
The mobile unit recorded the recoveries on videotapes that were flown to the mainland.

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

In 1987, Gaylord sold the station to

Saturday morning cartoons and aired the weeknight edition of the CBS Evening News on a half-hour tape delay at 7 p.m. WTVT did not carry the CBS daytime dramas Capitol or The Bold and the Beautiful and instead aired The Young and the Restless
at 1 p.m. on a half-hour delay. This was due to the popularity of its one hour midday newscast that dates back to the 1970s.

As a Fox station

Further information: 1994–1996 United States broadcast television realignment

On December 18, 1993,

affiliate with twelve of the company's major network affiliates, effective that fall.[5]

WTVT affiliated with Fox on December 12, 1994, ending its 39-year affiliation with CBS. This resulted in a three-way affiliation swap that resulted in the market's second Fox affiliate,

reality shows
.

Albeit with a three-month interruption due to CBS losing the NFC rights (the games instead aired on WFTS for the first three months of Fox's NFC telecasts as a lame duck affiliate), the switch allowed WTVT to retain its status as the "home" station for the

Fox's contract with Major League Baseball, the station has also aired select Tampa Bay Rays games since the team's inaugural season in 1998, including the team's 2008 and 2020 World Series
appearances.

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]

News operation

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 in 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.

Monsanto controversy

In 1997,

recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a milk additive that had been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration but also blamed for a number of health issues. Wilson and Akre planned a four-part investigative report on Monsanto's use of rBGH, which prompted the company to write to Fox News Channel president Roger Ailes in an attempt to have the report reviewed for bias and because of the "enormous damage that can be done" as a result of the report.[16]

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]

Current on-air staff

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

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of WTVT[22]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
13.1 720p
16:9
 WTVT-DT Fox
13.2 480i MOVIES! Movies![23]
13.3
4:3
 Buzzr Buzzr
13.4 16:9 HEROES Heroes & Icons
13.5 NOSEY Nosey
13.6 FOX WX Fox Weather
32.3 480i 16:9 Estrell Estrella TV (WMOR-DT3)
  Broadcast on behalf of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

WTVT shut down its analog signal, over

VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[24] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12,[25] using virtual channel
13.

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTVT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "FOX 13 memories from the Cape". MyFox Tampa Bay. January 28, 2009. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  3. ^ a b WTVT Eyewitness News History Promos 1992
  4. ^ CBS, NBC Battle for AFC Rights // Fox Steals NFC Package, Chicago Sun-Times (via HighBeam Research), December 18, 1993.
  5. ^ Carter, Bill (May 24, 1994). "FOX WILL SIGN UP 12 NEW STATIONS; TAKES 8 FROM CBS". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
  6. ^ Lowry, Brian (July 18, 1996). "New World Vision : Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  7. ^ Mulaire, Sharon (June 28, 2009). "Billy Mays' Final Interview". Fox 13 My Fox Tampa Bay. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  8. ^ "Disney Buys Big Chunk Of Fox In $66.1B Deal". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  9. ^ "Murdoch: New Fox Interested In More Stations". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  10. ^ WTVT Fox Tampa 5PM Open
  11. ^ E.W. Scripps Company Press Release. April 1, 2009 The E.W. Scripps Company and Fox Television Stations to share newsgathering resources
  12. ^ Fox, Scripps to Pool News in 3 Markets, TVNewsCheck, April 1, 2009.
  13. ^ Next To News Share: Tampa, L.A., TVNewsCheck, June 2, 2009.
  14. ^ Michael P. Hill for Newscast Studio, March 2009 Fox O&Os to centralize graphics
  15. ^ Eric Deggans for Tampa Bay Times, August 11, 2010 Tampa Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13 gets new general manager, as current GM heads to Atlanta[dead link]
  16. ^ Reason: "The Strange Case of Steve Wilson," John Sugg, May 2006 issue.
  17. ^ "Reporter wins suit over firing". Sptimes.com. August 19, 2000. Retrieved October 28, 2011. [dead link}
  18. ^ New World Communs. of Tampa, Inc. v. Akre, 866 So. 2d 1231(2003)
  19. ^ a b Reason, May 2006.
  20. ^ a b c New World Communs. of Tampa, Inc. v. Akre, 866 So. 2d 1231(2003)
  21. ^ Prepared Statement: Steve Wilson and Jane Akre, April 2, 1998. URL accessed April 8, 2010.
  22. ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WTVT". Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  23. ^ Fox O&Os, Weigel Launch Movies! Digi-Net, Broadcasting & Cable, January 28, 2013.
  24. ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  25. ^ CDBS Print

External links

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