WTEV-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WTEV-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = CBS 47 (general)
CBS 47 News (newscasts)
analog = 47 (UHF)
digital = 19 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = CBS
network =
founded =
airdate = August 1, 1980
location = Jacksonville, Florida
callsign_meaning = TEleVision
former_callsigns = WXAO-TV (1980-1983)
WNFT (1983-1996)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = High Plains Broadcasting, Inc.
"(operated by Newport Television through an LMA)"
licensee =
sister_stations = WAWS
former_affiliations = independent (1980-1995)
UPN (1995-2002)
effective_radiated_power = 5000 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 299 m (analog)
291 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35576
coordinates = coord|30|16|36.4|N|81|33|57|W|type:landmark_scale:2000 (analog)
coord|30|16|51.8|N|81|34|11.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000 (digital)
homepage = [http://www.cbs47.com/ www.cbs47.com]

WTEV-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the First Coast of Florida. Licensed to Jacksonville, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 47 and a digital signal on UHF channel 19. WTEV's transmitter is located in Kilarney Shores. The station is owned by High Plains Broadcasting, and operated by Newport Television as part of a duopoly with the area's Fox affiliate WAWS. The two stations share studios located on Central Parkway in the Beechwood section of Jacksonville. WTEV is known on-air as "CBS 47"".

History

WTEV first signed on as WXAO-TV on August 1, 1980. Originally, the station was mostly religious with some secular shows. Religious shows aired for about 12 hours a day and secular shows for about 5 or 6 hours. The secular shows included cartoons, westerns, and a few classic sitcoms.

The station was originally locally owned and known by the legal name of "WXAO, Incorporated". Gradually, the station abandoned most of its religious programming. In 1983, the station changed its call letters to WNFT. At that point, the station began running more movies and drama shows.

By 1989, WNFT was airing a blend of cartoons, recent off-network sitcoms, movies, and drama shows. That year, WNFT was sold to Krypton Broadcasting which also owned two other stations with similar formats: WTVX in West Palm Beach and WABM in Birmingham.

Krypton filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and sold each station to a separate owner within the following year. WNFT was sold to RDS Broadcasting which entered into a local marketing agreement with Clear Channel Communications who owned the area's Fox affiliate WAWS. WNFT moved into WAWS's facilities and the two stations pooled resources and programming. WAWS then began to run more popular cartoons and sitcoms along with Fox programming and talk / reality shows. Meanwhile, WNFT's new schedule focused largely on older cartoons, movies, sitcoms, and drama shows.

In January 1995, WNFT became one of the charter affiliates of UPN. The station changed its call letters to the current WTEV later that year. Those calls were originally used by channel 6 in New Bedford during their first stint as an ABC affiliate. That station later became a CBS affiliate as WLNE-TV and returned to ABC in 1995.

In the late-1990s, WTEV moved away from most classic sitcoms, cut back on cartoons, and began to focus more on talk and reality shows. Also, a weeknight 6:30 p.m. newscast produced by WAWS was added. Clear Channel would buy WTEV outright in 2001.

In April 2002, "The Florida Times-Union" reported that WTEV would become a CBS affiliate. The former CBS affiliate, WJXT, moved to news-intensive independent programming after 53 years of being the area's CBS affiliate. This change was the result of not being able to come to a new affiliation agreement with CBS.

WTEV officially became a CBS affiliate on July 15, 2002. At that time, UPN programming (including cartoons) and most syndicated sitcoms moved to WAWS. That station became a secondary UPN affiliate and aired that network's programming from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

After the affiliation switch, WTEV expanded its newscast production from WAWS's existing news department. The 6:30 p.m. newscast was dropped (it had been off the air for a couple of weeks before the switch) and replaced by a full slate of weekday morning ("moved" over from WAWS), Noon, evening, and late newscasts.

On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to Newport Television, a holding company majority-owned by Providence Equity Partners.cite web |url=http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1943
title=Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners |accessdate=2007-11-21 |format= |work=Clear Channel Communications ] Since WAWS was also included in the deal, this would violate Federal Communications Commission rules preventing common ownership of two of the four largest stations in a single market (Clear Channel had acquired WTEV when it was a low-rated UPN affiliate, and WTEV has since passed WJXT and WCWJ in the sign-on to sign-off ratings). As a result, the FCC granted Newport Television a temporary waiver for the acquisition of WTEV and WAWS. With that, Newport Television was able to complete its purchase of the stations group on March 14, 2008.

Newport Television originally planned to keep WTEV and sell WAWS to another owner. However, in May of 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell WTEV and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc.cite news|url=http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/7670.html|title=Newport stations drift to High Plains|date=2008-05-21|work=Television Business Report|accessdate=2008-09-28] The sale closed on September 15, 2008cite web|url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1264514|title=Application Search Details|work=CDBS Public Access|publisher=Federal Communications Commission|accessdate=2008-09-28] ; Newport continues to operate WTEV under a shared services agreement.

Newscasts

WTEV has continuously ranked behind WJXT channel 4 and WTLV's and WJXX's "First Coast News" broadcasts ever since the station gained its CBS affiliation in July 2002. A contributing factor to this is WJXT's powerful lead-in to its 5 p.m. newscast, "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Another factor would be the duopoly "First Coast News" organization, which sustains both NBC and ABC affiliations.

In an effort to receive better ratings, WTEV hired Mark Spain, previously the anchor of "First Coast News at 7" on rival station WJXX. He debuted as the new anchor for "CBS 47 News at 6" and "Fox 30 News at 10" on August 27, 2007. Ironically, the station had hired "First Coast News" traffic reporter Michelle Jacobs just weeks earlier. Ironically even more, in October, 2008, Michelle feturn to "First Coast News".

WTEV and WAWS share a news department, anchor team, meteorologists, a sports department, and reporters. Up until August 2007, WAWS maintained a separate anchor team for its 10 p.m. weeknight broadcast. However, WAWS still upholds different production elements such as a separate news set, graphics, and music.

The two stations share a weather radar known as "First Alert Doppler". It is operated by the National Weather Service and is located at their Local Forecast Office near Jacksonville International Airport.

News team

Anchors
*Céline McArthur - weekday mornings (also investigative reporter)
*Kristen Cosby - weekdays at Noon (also reporter)
*Dawn Lopez - weekdays at 5, 5:30, and 11 p.m.
*John O'Connor - weekdays at 5, 5:30, and 11 p.m.
*Paige Kelton - weekdays at 6 p.m. (and 10 p.m. on WAWS)
*Mark Spain - weekdays at 6 p.m. (and 10 p.m. on WAWS)
*Karl Torp - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m. (also reporter)

"First Alert weather team"
*Mike Buresh - Chief seen weeknights
*Jamie Warriner - weekday mornings and at Noon

Sports
*Brian Sexton - Sports Director/Weeknights
*Brent Martineau - weekends (also weekday sports reporter)

Reporters
*Leslie Coursey - weekday mornings and Noon
*Matt Saffer - mobile reporter
*Michelle Jacobs - weekday morning and evening traffic repoter
*Cathi Carson - investigative reporter
*Michael Tolbert

References

*May 2007 Nielsen Ratings

External links

* [http://www.cbs47.com/ Station Website]
* [http://www.fox30online.com/ WAWS Website]
* [http://menujoy.com/wtev/ Archive Website for former WTEV in New Bedford, Massachusetts]
*TVQ|WTEV
*BIA|WTEV|TV|TV