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'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.
| Contents |
| History |
| Today |
| New Set |
| Monsanto controversy |
| Newscasts |
| Weekdays |
| Weekends |
| Key personalities |
| Current Personalities |
| Former Personalities |
| External links |
| References |
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 Broadcasting. In the early 1990s Gillett restructured, changing its name to SCI Broadcasting. In 1993 SCI 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
FOX13 logo for all newscasts since February 2006
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:' 12:00-12:30 p.m.
:Anchor: Denise White
:Weather: Howard Shapiro
★ 'Your Turn' (local debate/discussion show) 12:30-1:00 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: Beth Ames
★ ' ''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)
Key personalities
Current Personalities
John Wilson and Kelly Ring on the new set
Former Personalities
★ 'Landis Wilkinson'(1955-1956), anchor '(retired)' ★ 'Jack Cosgrove' (1955-1958), chief photographer '(retired)' ★ 'Marvin Scott' (1955-1968), general assignment reporter '(deceased)' ★ 'Guy Bagli' (1955-1957), sports anchor/director '(deceased)' ★ 'Wayne Fariss' (1955-1958), anchor, news director '(retired)' ★ 'Jerry Krumbholz' (1955-1960), booth news announcer ★ 'Charlie Stump' (1955-1957), chief meteorologist ★ 'Roger Sharp' (1956-1957), news anchor '(deceased)' ★ 'Cy Smith' (1956-1980s), reporter, editorial researcher/writer '(retired)' ★ 'Roy Leep' (1957-1997), chief meteorologist '(retired)' ★ 'Sol Fleischman' (1957-1974), sports anchor/director '(deceased)' ★ 'Ed Herbert' (1957-1958), anchor, reporter ★ 'Crawford Rice' (1958-1960), anchor/news director, (1978-79), general manager '(retired)' ★ 'Arch Deal' (1958), general assignment reporter/anchor ★ 'Joe Loughlin' (1959-1962), anchor/news director ★ 'Don Harris' (1958-1968), general assignment reporter '(deceased)' ★ 'Earl Wells' (1960-1967), general assigment reporter ★ 'Tom Dunn' (1962-1964), reporter/anchor '(deceased)' ★ 'Hugh Smith' (1963-1991), anchor '(retired)' ★ 'Andy Hardy' (1963-1996), sports anchor '(deceased)' ★ 'Ray Dantzler' (1963-1986), reporter, news director, station general manager (deceased) ★ 'Nelson Medina' (1963-1967), meteorologist '(retired)' ★ 'Tony Zappone' (1965), (1976-1982), news correspondent ★ 'Bob Walker' (1965-1980s), stringer, hard news '(deceased)' ★ 'Chip Collins' (1965-1966), St. Petersburg anchor ★ 'Jule McGee' (1967-present), reporter, chief photographer, news operations manager,etc. ★ 'Ray Blush' (1967-1982), reporter, Project 13 chief, news director ★ 'Bob Fellows' (1968-1984) general assignment, feature reporter '(deceased)' ★ 'Bruce Hutchcraft' (1968-1980) reporter, farm reports (noon) '(deceased)' ★ 'Walter "Flash" Jarocki' (1972-1980s) reporter/photographer, Tarpon Springs '(deceased)' ★ 'Leslie Spencer', anchor (1970s-1990s) ★ 'Scott Shuster', noon anchor (1972-1975) ★ 'John Hayes', (1972-1980), Tallahassee bureau chief, assignment editor '(retired)' ★ 'Deanna Lawrence', reporter/anchor (1970s-1990s) (producer, "What's Right with Tampa Bay") ★ 'Dayle Green', reporter, host "Black Contact" (1971-1978) ★ 'Carl Nichols' (1969-1972), meteorologist '(now at WDTN)' ★ 'Bob Breck' (1971-1973), meteorologist '(now at WVUE)' ★ 'Pete Johnson' (1973-1980) sports anchor/reporter ★ 'Leslie Schissell' (1972-1981), general assignment reporter, Tallahassee bureau chief ★ 'Sara Golinveaux' (1973-1976), general assignment reporter, Tallahassee bureau ★ 'Tim Smith' (1974-1980), general assignment reporter ★ 'John Ferrugia' (1975-1978), anchor/reporter '(now at KMGH)' ★ 'Pat Colmenares' (1975-1979), host, Pulse Plus at Noon '(deceased)' ★ 'Bill Kowal' (1974-1978), meteorologist | ★ 'Bob Stone' (1975-1978), sports anchor '(deceased)' ★ 'Jim Dick' (1977-1979), reporter, weekend anchor (now at WRN Radio, Madison, WI) ★ 'Larry Elliston' (1977-1991), general assignment reporter; Project 13 staff ★ 'Phil Dean' (1977-1980s), anchor, reporter ★ 'Bonnie Ginzburg' (1978-1981), reporter, weekend anchor '(now at PBS)' ★ 'Ann Carlon' (1978-1979), sports reporter, weekend sports anchor ★ 'Ron Bailey' (1979-1980), weekend sports anchor ★ 'Jim West' (1978-1986), anchor/reporter, news director ★ 'John Nicholson' (1978-1981), 11pm anchor ★ 'Alan Wendt', reporter (1978-1993) ★ 'Don Piccolo', relief sports anchor (1978-1979) ★ 'Rod Challenger' (-1978), anchor ★ 'Bill Keneely' (1980-1982), meteorologist '(now at The Weather Channel)' ★ 'Ron Jackson' (1983-1988), sports reporter, weekend sports anchor ★ 'Jack Harris' (1984-1989) "Pulse PLUS!" host. '(now at WFTS and WFLA-AM)' ★ 'Terry Casey' (1985-1989), 6/11pm news commentary ★ 'Kelly Craig' (1985-1990), 6 & 11pm anchor '(now at WTVJ)' ★ 'Greg Starddard' (1987-1989, reporter, assignment editor', left for KFMB-TV San Diego' ★ 'Kerry Sanders' (1987-1992), reporter '(now at NBC News)' ★ 'Sharyl Atkisson' (1988-1991), reporter '(now at CBS News)' ★ 'Mike McCall' (1988-1993), overnight meteorologist '(now at WCTV)' ★ 'Theresa Varga' (late 1980s-early 1990s), meteorologist ★ 'Liz Brunner' (late 1980s-1994), anchor/host '(now at WCVB)' ★ 'Hagit Limor', consumer reporter (late 1980s-1994) '(now at WCPO)' ★ 'Stan Jayson' (1991-2001), reporter ★ 'Jerry Lambert' (1992-1995), reporter '(now at WICS)' ★ 'Ken Krawley' (1992-1996), investigative reporter ★ 'Brian Goff' (1995-2006), morning/noon reporter '(retired)' ★ 'Jessica Yellin' (2000-2002), reporter '(now at CNN)' ★ 'Steve Wilson', investigative reporter, '(now at WXYZ)' ★ 'Karen King', morning anchor ★ 'Stacy Strazis', "Good Day, Tampa Bay" (1994-1997) ★ 'Karen Borta' (?-1995), anchor/reporter '(now at KTVT/KTXA)' ★ 'Dave Monsees', reporter (mid 1990s) ★ 'Bob Barnard', reporter (mid 1990s-1997) '(now at WTTG)' ★ 'Amani Channel' (Late 1990s-2006), anchor '(now at the Black Family Channel)' ★ 'Cathy Unruh', reporter (1991-1999) '(now at WEDU as a talk show host)' ★ 'Eric Chilton' (1997-2003), morning meteorologist '(now at WFMY)' ★ 'Kara Cox' (late 1990s), traffic reporter ★ 'Suzanne Huffman' (1980s), education reporter ★ 'Glenn Selig' (1995-2007), reporter |
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
★
★ 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
1. Jane Akre
2. http://www.foxbghsuit.com/
3. New World Communs. of Tampa, Inc. v. Akre, 866 So. 2d 1231(2003)
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