WWSB

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WWSB
kW
HAAT234 m (768 ft)
Transmitter coordinates27°33′21″N 82°21′48″W / 27.55583°N 82.36333°W / 27.55583; -82.36333
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.mysuncoast.com

WWSB (channel 40) is a

Manatee County community of Rye, about 5 miles (8 km) east-southeast of Parrish. The station also operates a news bureau in Venice, Florida
.

Even though WWSB broadcasts on

UHF channel 24 and its virtual channel is 40, the station is branded as ABC 7 because of its channel on most cable
systems in the market.

Broadcast coverage

Due to this station's transmitter location and the changeover from analog to digital transmission, its coverage area expands as far north as southern Pasco and western Polk counties, south to Punta Gorda, and east to Avon Park and Sebring giving some over-the-air viewers a choice of two or three ABC affiliates depending on the location.

As a result, WWSB is technically a secondary ABC affiliate particularly for the eastern side of Tampa Bay. The city of

Hardee County
.

WWSB has faced an uphill battle gaining carriage on cable and satellite providers in some cases. While

Verizon FiOS added the station to its Hillsborough and Pasco County systems in October 2006 and eventually to its entire West Central Florida service area, as the system expanded. Those achievements greatly increased WWSB's coverage area and its overlap with WFTS-TV (channel 28).[4]
In December 2013, non-duplication rules enforced by ABC and cable companies threatened to remove WWSB from all Verizon FiOS systems due to the presence of WFTS-TV. WFTS worked with WWSB to retain local and syndicated programming on the provider, while blocking only the duplicated network programming, allowing WWSB to remain on FiOS.

History

Final channel 40 logo used from 2001 to 2004.

The station first

Pinellas County (home to St. Petersburg). For much of the 1970s, it was not uncommon to see WXLT's billboards in Tampa, St. Petersburg or Largo. In the 1970s, WXLT also cleared some CBS and NBC programming not carried by their respective Tampa Bay stations, WTVT (channel 13) and WFLA-TV (channel 8). In 1972, for example, when The Joker's Wild
debuted on CBS, it was preempted on WTVT but carried by WXLT.

The

call letters were changed to the current WWSB on August 31, 1986. That same year, Robert Nelson sold the station to Calkins Media (formerly Southern Broadcast Corporation). On cable, WFTS (now the area's primary ABC affiliate after a market realignment triggered by Fox's purchase of WTVT) was not carried south of the Sarasota area while WWSB was not largely available on cable north of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge
until Verizon FiOS added WWSB to all of its area lineups. The latter was due to contractual conditions drawn up in the early 1990s by WTSP and later WFTS.

On September 27, 1994, WWSB received an affiliation termination notice from ABC, likely related to the network's

forced change to WFTS. Had the station not successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to keep its affiliation, the 23-year-long ABC affiliation would have ended on April 2, 1995.[5]

On November 5, 2001, the station relocated its operations from its longtime studios on Lawton Drive to its current location in the Rosemary District of Sarasota. In March 2004, the station dropped all mentions of its over-the-air signal on UHF channel 40 and rebranded as "ABC 7" in reference to its cable channel position on

Wauchula system carries it on channel 2 and its Port Charlotte
system offers WWSB on channel 10, since its home market's ABC station WZVN-TV is carried on channel 7.

WWSB has been digital-only since February 1, 2009.[6][7][8][9]

The station and its former sports director, Don Brennan, have been featured on a "webisode", along with an actual episode, of the ABC/TBS show Cougar Town, which is set in a fictional community in Sarasota County.[10]

On April 11, 2016, it was reported that Calkins would exit the broadcasting industry and sell its stations to Raycom Media.[11] The sale was completed on April 30, 2017.[12][13][14] On June 25, 2018, Gray Television announced its intent to acquire Raycom for $3.65 billion.[15][16][17] The sale was completed on January 2, 2019.[18]

Programming

Syndicated programming

In previous years, WWSB carried generally the same syndicated programs as the other Tampa Bay stations, despite the overlap in signals, such as

CBS Television Distribution to remove the shows from WWSB, which replaced both shows with a double run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
at 7 and 7:30 p.m. (because of Millionaire's cancellation in 2019, the time slots are now occupied by an expanded newscast).

Locally produced programming

Animal Outtakes

Animal Outtakes is a locally produced

animated/live action educational program about pets and animals hosted by Marsha Panuce.[19]

Black Almanac

Black Almanac is a locally produced

African Americans face in the community, and has aired since 1972, making it the longest-running locally-produced public affairs program in the Southeastern United States.[20]

The Suncoast View

The Suncoast View is a locally produced talk show based on the ABC talk show The View. It airs weekdays at 9 a.m. and is hosted by Stephanie Roberts (who also serves as the show's moderator), Joey Panek, and Linda Carson. It premiered on September 8, 2014, at 4 p.m.[21]

News operation

WWSB presently broadcasts 43+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7+1⁄2 hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station's news department focuses its coverage on Sarasota and Manatee counties with occasional coverage of Charlotte County. The station also includes DeSoto and Hardee counties in its viewing area. In addition to its main studios, WWSB has a reporter covering southern Sarasota County and to a lesser extent, Charlotte County.

During the station's early days, WXLT's news coverage focused on local news and events, but to improve ratings, later expanded to "blood and guts" journalism focusing mainly on crime stories.

Academy Award-winning 1976 film, Network,[24] and would be dramatized in the 2016 film, Christine.[25]

Notable former on-air staff

  • Christine Chubbuck – anchor (1971–1974; committed suicide on live television)
  • CTV News Channel
    )
  • Kevin Negandhi – weekday sports anchor (1999–2002, 2004–2006; currently at ESPN)
  • Turner Sports
    ; died in 2016)

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of WWSB[26]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
40.1 720p
16:9
 WWSB-HD Main WWSB programming / ABC
40.2 480i Circle Outlaw
40.3 QVC2
QVC2
40.4 The365
The365

See also

References

  1. ^ Lindley, David (August 29, 1986). "Channel 40-TV changing name, boosting staff". The Bradenton Herald. Bradenton, Florida. p. A-15. Retrieved October 5, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WWSB". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "Uplink Activity » 9/21/17 at 3:01am ET (V14) – 3 changes seen".
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 15, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ "Station cut from ABC roster" – Adweek Western Edition, October 17, 1994
  6. ^ "List of Digital Full-Power Stations" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  7. ^ FCC document: "APPENDIX B: ALL FULL-POWER TELEVISION STATIONS BY DMA, INDICATING THOSE TERMINATING ANALOG SERVICE BEFORE ON OR FEBRUARY 17, 2009."
  8. ^ "WWSB: "ABC 7 engineers explain this weekend's Analog/Digital TV switch", 1/30/2009". Archived from the original on February 5, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
  9. ^ "WWSB: "Switch to Digital TV delayed until June", 2/5/2009". Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
  10. ^ "Don Brennan on Cougar Town". Archived from the original on August 8, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
  11. ^ "Calkins Selling 3 TVs, Exiting Broadcasting". TVNewsCheck. April 11, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  12. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  13. ^ "ABC7 Now Owned by Raycom Media". MySuncoast.com. Raycom Media. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  14. ^ "Raycom Media Acquires WWSB and WTXL". Raycom Media. Archived from the original on May 8, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  15. ISSN 0099-9660
    . Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  16. ^ Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  17. ^ Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  18. ^ "Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions", Gray Television, January 2, 2019; Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  19. ^ "Animal Outtakes".
  20. ^ http://www.mysuncoast.com/station/staffDisplay.cfm?staID=33. Retrieved May 28, 2007. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ^ "ABC 7 announces new local show: "Suncoast View"". Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  22. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.manship2.lsu.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 26, 2004. Retrieved June 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. ^ Quinn, Sally (August 4, 1974). "Christine Chubbuck: 29, Good-Looking, Educated. A Television Personality. Dead. Live and in Color (PDF)" (PDF). Washington Post. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 26, 2004.
  24. ^ Empire: "Television will eat itself in Sidney Lumet's searing satire", October 1, 2008; via allbusiness.com. Source mistakenly mentioned Chubbuck as an anchor for a Cleveland television station.
  25. ^ Friend, David (November 9, 2016). "Rebecca Hall on bringing humanity to TV reporter's on-air suicide in 'Christine'". Sudbury.com/The Canadian Press. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  26. ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WWSB". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.

External links

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