WTVT
WTVT | |
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Tampa / St. Petersburg, Florida | |
Branding | FOX 13 FOX 13 News |
Slogan | The Most Powerful Name in Local News We've Got You Covered |
Channels | Analog: 13 (VHF) Digital: 12 (VHF) |
Affiliations | Fox Broadcasting Company |
Owner | Fox Television Stations Group (TVT License, Inc.) |
Founded | April 1, 1955 |
Call letters meaning | Walter Tison, Virginia Tison (original owner and his wife) |
Former affiliations | CBS (1955-94) |
Website | www.myfoxtampabay.com/ |
WTVT is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It's an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 13 and its digital signal on VHF channel 12. WTVT's transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida. WTVT and sister station WOFL of the bordering Orlando market commonly share reporters and footage, as other station groups do.
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History
The station first started broadcasting on April 1, 1955 as a CBS affiliate. It was the third station in Tampa Bay, behind WSUN-TV (channel 38, now WTTA) and WFLA-TV (channel 8). WTVT is also the second-oldest surviving station, behind WFLA.
Originally, the Federal Communications Commission awarded the channel 13 license to the Tampa Times, a now-defunct newspaper which owned WDAE radio (then on 1250 AM). However, the FCC reversed itself and awarded the station to the Tampa Television Company headed by Tampa Bay radio veteran Walter Tison, who intended to open a studio in nearby St. Petersburg. The Times appealed the FCC's decision, but lost. WTVT's call letters stand for the initials of Walter Tison and his wife, Virginia Tison. 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 Oklahoma Publishing Company of Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Publishing's broadcast subsidiary, the WKY Television System, would later be known as Gaylord Broadcasting, named for the family who owned the company.
The Gaylords beefed up channel 13's news operation. In 1958, WTVT became the second station in the country to introduce daily editorials, and was also the first Florida station to run an hour-long news block, comprising of 45 minutes of local news (under the title Pulse 13) combined with the then-15-minute network newscast. By 1962, WTVT had overtaken WFLA-TV as the number-one 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 1997, and Hugh Smith was the station's main anchor from 1963 to 1991, spending most of that time doubling as news director. Channel 13 dropped the Pulse 13 moniker from its newscasts in 1989, renaming them as Eyewitness News.
In 1987 WTVT was sold to Gillett Communications. In the early 1990s Gillett restructured, changing its name to GCI Broadcast Services, Inc. In 1993 GCI filed for bankruptcy, and its stations (including WTVT) were sold to New World Communications. By that time, WTVT was pre-empting CBS This Morning for a locally-produced morning news show, as well as pre-empting all but one hour of Saturday cartoons.
In late 1993, the Fox Broadcasting Company won the rights to air the games of the National Football Conference of the National Football League from CBS, beginning in 1994. As a result, Fox began looking for more VHF affiliates, and signed a long term deal with New World, switching most of its stations, including WTVT, to Fox. WTVT dropped its CBS affiliation in December 1994, becoming a Fox affiliate. The former Fox affiliate, WFTS (channel 28), affiliated with ABC as part of a deal between ABC and WFTS' owners, the E.W. Scripps Company. The longtime ABC affiliate, WTSP (channel 10), then became a CBS affiliate.
After changing networks, WTVT began to broadcast almost 50 hours of local news a week. At one point, WTVT aired more hours of local news than any other station in the country. It chose not to renew the more expensive syndicated programming it had run while a CBS affiliate, running cheaper first-run syndicated talk and reality shows instead.
Fox bought most of the New World stations in 1997, making WTVT a Fox owned-and-operated station. Under Fox ownership the station added more high-budget syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms to its lineup, and changed its brand to FOX 13. WTVT is the third station in Tampa Bay to be affiliated with Fox, as WTOG had it first before reverting to independent status in the late 1980's.
WTVT was the first TV news station in Florida to use radar in its weather presentation, and has made many advancements with the technology. Its newest advancement is SkyTower VIPIR, combining the already existing SkyTower radar system with VIPIR technology, which is also used by competitor WFLA-TV and the cable-only news channel Bay News 9. On May 25, 2006, the station's radar was made even more powerful and is now "SkyTower HD VIPIR." [1] WTVT was also one of the first to use computer graphics in weather forecasts in the late-1970s, originally called "Weathervision" (no relation to the weather reporting company of the same name). The station also has the most meteorologists on a news team (in the market), with five meteorologists, and the only station (in the nation) with all of them American Meteorological Society certified.
Today
WTVT is the only station in the market to have two women regularly anchoring a newscast; Denise White and Kathy Fountain anchor the 5:00 news.
WTVT began to adopt its current logo, which is similar to that of the Fox News Channel, in December 2005 as part of NewsEdge at 11:00, although they did not completely switch to it until February 2006. The station was the first Fox O&O to use this logo style, which is gradually being adopted by its sister stations in other markets.
WTVT and WFLA are chief competitors for the number one newscast in the Tampa Bay Area. WTVT currently has the number one spot for Good Day Tampa Bay between 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and has the number one newscast in the 5 to 6 p.m. timeslot. NewsEdge at 11:00 is statistically tied with WFTS for the lowest rated newscast for that time period, although WTVT does have a 10:00 p.m. newscast with significantly higher ratings without any competition in the market. [2]
New Set
Starting in March 2007, WTVT began upgrading their main studio. The new set debuted on April 23rd.
Some aspects of the set include a 6' by 8' rear projection screen, a new anchor desk, a whole new weather center, and an area for the Lightning Round and a second anchor desk. There are also several plasma televisions behind the main news desk in the newsroom. Not all of the studio is complete yet. The Your Turn area is still under construction and will be complete in the next few weeks.[3] There is also a new area dedicated to updating and maintaining their website, which is also currently under construction.
Monsanto controversy
In 1997 Fox's WTVT fired journalists Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson for "refusing to include knowingly false information in their report concerning the Monsanto Corporation's production of RBGH, a drug designed to make cows produce more milk than what is natural."[1] They sued Fox under Florida's whistleblower law. In August 18, 2000, the jury unanimously determined that Fox "'acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH.' In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination.[2].
However, FOX appealed to an appellate court and won in 2004, after the court declared that the FCC policy against falsification that FOX violated was just a policy and not a "law, rule, or regulation", and so the whistle blower law did not apply. The Florida appellate court agreed with WTVT's (Fox) argument "that the FCC's policy against the intentional falsification of the news -- which the FCC has called its "news distortion policy" -- does 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."[3]
Newscasts
Weekdays
- Good Day Tampa Bay: 5:00-9:00 a.m.
- Anchors: Nerissa Prest (5-7 a.m), Tom Curran (5-7 a.m.), Anne Dwyer (7-9 a.m.), Russell Rhodes (7-9 a.m.)
- Weather: Dave Osterberg
- Traffic: Jennifer Epstein
- FOX13 News at Noon: 12:00-12:25 p.m.
- Anchor: Denise White
- Weather: Howard Shapiro
- Your Turn (local debate/discussion show) 12:25-1:00 p.m.
- Host: Kathy Fountain
- FOX13 5:00 News: 5:00-5:30 p.m.
- Anchors: Denise White, Kathy Fountain
- Weather: Paul Dellegatto
- FOX13 5:30 News: 5:30-6:00 p.m.
- Anchors: Frank Robertson, Cynthia Smoot
- Weather: Paul Dellegatto
- Sports: Chip Carter
- FOX13 6:00 News: 6:00-7:00 p.m.
- Anchors: John Wilson, Kelly Ring
- Weather: Paul Dellegatto
- Sports: Chip Carter
- FOX13 10:00 News: 10:00-11:00 p.m.
- Anchors: John Wilson, Kelly Ring
- Weather: Paul Dellegatto
- Sports: Chip Carter
- NewsEdge at 11:00: 11:00-11:35 p.m.
- Anchor: Mark Wilson
- Weather: Paul Dellegatto
- Sports: Chip Carter
- NewsEdge Reporter: Gloria Gomez
Weekends
- Good Day Tampa Bay Weekend: 6:00-9:00 a.m.
- Anchors: Bill Murphy, Laura Moody
- Weather: Andy Johnson
- Traffic: Various
- FOX ThirTEEN Magazine: (Teen produced newscast) 10:30-11:00 a.m. (Saturdays)
- FOX13 6:00 News: 6:00-7:00 p.m. :
- Anchors: Lloyd Sowers, Deborah Bowden
- Weather: Jim Weber,
- Sports: Chris Field (Saturday), Chip Carter (Sunday)
- FOX13 10:00 News: 10:00-11:00 p.m.
- Anchors: Lloyd Sowers, Deborah Bowden
- Weather: Jim Weber
- Sports: Chris Field (Saturday), Chip Carter (Sunday)
Personalities
Current Personalities
Anchors
- Kelly Ring, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor
- John Wilson, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor (Sons are WTVT NewsEdge anchor Mark Wilson, and notable actor Patrick Wilson)
- Mark Wilson, NewsEdge at 11 anchor
- Kathy Fountain, host of "Your Turn" and anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast
- Denise White, noon and 5 p.m. anchor
- Cynthia Smoot, 5:30 p.m. anchor
- Frank Robertson, 5:30 p.m. anchor (married to WTVT anchor Kathy Fountain)
- Nerissa Prest, Good Day Tampa Bay weekday 5-7 a.m. anchor (4/23/07)
- Tom Curran, Good Day Tampa Bay weekday 5-7 a.m. anchor
- Anne Dwyer, Good Day Tampa Bay weekday 7-9 a.m. anchor
- Russell Rhodes, Good Day Tampa Bay weekday 7-9 a.m. anchor
- Bill Murphy, Good Day Tampa Bay weekend anchor/weekday reporter
- Laura Moody, Good Day Tampa Bay weekend anchor
- Deborah Bowden, weekend 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor/reporter
- Lloyd Sowers, weekend 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor/reporter
Meteorologists
- Paul Dellegatto, weekday evening meteorologist (Chief)
- Dave Osterberg, Good Day Tampa Bay meteorologist
- Howard Shapiro, weekday noon meteorologist
- Jim Weber, weekend evening meteorologist
- Andy Johnson, Good Day Tampa Bay weekend meteorologist
Sports
- Chip Carter, sports director
- Chris Field, sports anchor
- Kevin O'Donnell, sports anchor
Reporters
- Eric Seidel, Consumer Lawyer
- Gloria Gomez, NewsEdge at 11 reporter
- Doug Smith, investigative reporter (also fills in for anchors)
- Dr. Joette Giovinco ("Dr. Jo"), medical reporter
- Nancy Perla, general assignment reporter
- Ray Collins, Sarasota/Manatee County reporter (also fills in for anchors)
- Jennifer Epstein, Good Day Tampa Bay Traffic Analyst
- Liane Jackson, Good Day Tampa Bay reporter
- Geoff Simon, financial advisor
- Charley Belcher, Charley's World and entertainment reporter
- Tanya Arja, general assignment reporter
- Chris Chmura, general assignment reporter
- Warren Elly, general assignment reporter
- Jim Hill, general assignment reporter
- April Kellogg, general assignment reporter
- Steve Nichols, Pinellas County reporter
- Craig Patrick, general assignment reporter (also fills in for anchors)
- Nancy Perla, general assignment reporter
- Ken Suarez, Polk County reporter
- Randy Powers SkyFOX pilot/reporter
Former Personalities
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External links
- WTVT FOX 13
- History of WTVT
- WTVT Historical Site A historical site dedicated to WTVT's former CBS affiliation.
- Website about Monsanto controversy
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVT
- WTVT images/video @ Florida News Center Contains an image and video archive of the intros, teasers and other on-air segments that WTVT uses; both past and present.
References
- ^ Jane Akre
- ^ http://www.foxbghsuit.com/
- ^ New World Communs. of Tampa, Inc. v. Akre, 866 So. 2d 1231(2003)
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WSVN 7 (Miami) - WTVT 13 (Tampa) - WPGX 28 (Panama City) - WFLX 29 (West Palm Beach) - WAWS 30 (Jacksonville) - WOFL 35 (Orlando) - WFTX 36 (Cape Coral) - WTLH 49 (Bainbridge / Tallahassee) - WOGX 51 (Ocala / Gainesville) |
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida |