WTCN-CA

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WTCN-CA
station_
station_slogan = Just More Fun!
station_branding = My 15 (cable slot)
analog = 43 (UHF)
digital = WTVX-DT 50.3 (UHF)
affiliations = MyNetworkTV
founded = January 11, 1991
location = West Palm Beach, Florida
callsign_meaning = Treasure Coast Network
former_callsigns = W16AR
owner = Four Points Media Group
licensee = West Palm Beach Television Licensee Corporation
former_channel_numbers = 16 (1991-2001)
15 (2001)
14
former_affiliations = Independent (1991-2005)
The WB (2005-2006)
sister_stations = WTVX
WWHB-CA
effective_radiated_power = 150 kW (analog)
704 kW (digital, via WTVX-DT3)
HAAT = 282.9 m (analog)
438.3 m (digital, via WTVX-DT3)
facility_id = 70865
coordinates = coord|27|1|32|N|80|10|43|W|type:landmark (analog)
coord|27|7|20.6|N|80|23|19|W|type:landmark_scale:2000 (digital, via WTVX-DT3)
homepage = [http://www.wtcn.com wtcn.com]

WTCN-CA, channel 43, is the Class A MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida. Its transmitter is located at the western boundary of Johnathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County (southwest of Juniper Island). Owned by the Four Points Media Group, WTCN-CA is sister station to CW affiliate WTVX and Azteca América affiliate WWHB-CA. All three stations are operated out of WTVX's studios on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in West Palm Beach. The station's syndicated lineup includes: "King of the Hill", "Girlfriends", "Roseanne", "The Cosby Show", and "That '70s Show".

There are no newscasts or sports on this station. WTCN can be seen on Comcast cable channel 15 and this is reflected on its on-air branding, "My 15". Currently, it is not available on DirecTV or DISH Network. As a result of its low-powered status, the station does not broadcast a digital signal of its own. However, there is a digital signal of WTCN that is offered on WTVX's third digital subchannel. This broadcasts from WTVX's transmitter that is located south of Fort Pierce and I-95 in Martin County.

taff

*Jim Dreistadt - National Sales Manager
*Noelle Frederickson - Promotions and Marketing Manager
*Donna Alessi - Office Manager
*Jackie Caruso - Human Resource and Local Sales Manager

History

The station began broadcasting on January 11, 1991 as an independent and had the call letters W16AR. It was located on channel 16 and was licensed to Stuart. ["Owner Signing Off at Local TV station", by Bob Betcher, 'Stuart News', June 5, 1996] Retired businessman August Gabriel began the station with $200,000 and three employees. ["Stuart TV Pushing For Cable Access" by Paul D. Martin, "The Palm Beach Post", May 12, 1991] ["August Gabriel", by Nisha Pulliam, "The Palm Beach Post", August 30, 1993] From October 1996 until February 1997, the station briefly produced a local morning show known as "Good Morning Treasure Coast" that was hosted by Tom Teter. Ed Birchfield also briefly hosted a 7 PM "Treasure Coast News" program from February to July 1997. ['Stuart's WTCN Moves Its Daily Show to Evenings', by Bob Betcher, 'Stuart News', February 2, 1997] ["Lack of Local Sponsors Drives Local Newscast Off Air", by Bob Betcher, "Stuart (FL) News", July 8, 1997]

The station moved to channel 15 in 2001 and again to channel 14 in 2002. ["Stuart's WTCN on the move again - to Channel 14" by Bob Betcher, "Stuart News"/"Port St. Lucie News", May 26, 2002] It added a repeater station on channel 53 in order to reach West Palm Beach. ["Stuart's WTCN Has Expanded Into PB County", "Fort Pierce (FL) Tribune", August 15, 2001] At some point, the station received the present calls of WTCN-CA and changed to its current channel 43 location. The WTCN call letters were originally used by two stations in Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota that are now WCCO and KARE. Bill Brothers, who had been operating WTCN through a local marketing agreement since 1997, purchased the station for an undisclosed price in 2001. ["Channel 15 Expanding Signal Reach Into Broward County", by Bob Betcher, "Stuart News", July 3, 2001] In 2005, Viacom bought WTCN and sister station WWHB from Bill Brothers for $7.7 million. ["WTCN's Brothers Cashes Out As Viacom Beefs Up Station", by Bob Betcher, "Stuart News", April 17, 2005] Viacom moved the station's studios to West Palm Beach and improved its signal. ["WTCN Moving To West Palm, Likely Will Become WB Station", by Bob Betcher, "Stuart News"/"Port St. Lucie News", June 26, 2005] At some point during the first 6 months of that year, WTCN began airing Kids' WB when the area's primary UPN and secondary WB affiliate WTVX stopped airing it. WTCN-CA became affiliated with The WB, its first full network affiliation, in the fall of 2005. ["WTCN To Become Latest WB Affiliate", "Fort Pierce (FL) Tribune", August 9, 1999] Until that point, WTVX aired programming from The WB after UPN primetime.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN networks announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WTVX, which was a full-powered station, was announced as becoming an affiliate of the new network. The CW began broadcasting on September 18. On February 22, FOX announced that they would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to FOX, would be operated by FOX Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. At the time of the announcement of creating MyNetworkTV, it was unknown if there would be an affiliate in the Treasure and Gold Coasts.

When MyNetworkTV launched on September 5, 2006, WTCN became an affiliate of the network. The station's website, was re-located at "wtcn.com" and was formatted with promotions for MyNetworkTV. The current MyNetworkTV logo for WTCN-CA has a 43 in it unlike its previous WB logo. However, the 43 label was in station logos before the WB affiliation. The "wtcn.com" URL address now redirects to its own separate section of the WTVX website since Four Points acquired the station. In 2006, WTCN placed sixth in the Nielsen ratings in the Palm Beach market with 0.4% of the audience. ["WPTV Wins Ratings Gold" by Tom Jicha, "South Florida Sun-Sentinel" (Fort Lauderdale, FL), March 3, 2006] On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June of 2007. [http://keyetv.com/info/local_story_062222649.html] As of January 10, 2008, Four Points officially became the owner of the stations. During CBS ownership, WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB had some internal operations based at WFOR-TV's studios in Miami. On February 25, 2008, the master controls for Four Points' entire West Palm Beach television cluster were relocated to the hub facility at KUTV in Salt Lake City.

References

External links

* [http://www.34cwtv.com/content/wtcn/default.aspx WTCN-CA "My 15"]
* [http://www.34cwtv.com WTVX "The CW West Palm"]
* [http://www.mynetworktv.com MyNetworkTV]
*TVQ|WTCN-CA