WTTA

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Template:Infobox Broadcast WTTA is a WB-affiliated television station in Tampa, Florida. It broadcasts on channel 38, and is shown on Bright House and Knology cable channel 6, on Comcast cable channel 11 in Sarasota County, and on Comcast cable channel 29 in Hardee County. It operates a 10:00 news program. The station mainly runs syndicated shows, along with WB programming. WTTA is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. WTTA's affiliation with the WB will end in September 2006, when the WB and UPN merge into the CW Network; WTOG has been confirmed as the Tampa-St. Petersburg area's CW station, which meant that WTTA was forced to be independent, until the formation of My Network TV; which WTTA joined along with 16 other Sinclair stations (more may join over the spring and summer).

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History

WSUN-TV channel 38, unrelated to the present-day WTTA, was Tampa Bay’s first television station, beginning to broadcast in 1953. During its first year the station was an independent station. Then in 1954, Peninsular Telephone (a forerunner of Verizon in Tampa Bay) established a microwave network, and made WSUN-TV the first station in the world to get its programming via microwave. The station originally got its programming from all four networks, but eventually affiliated with ABC after WFLA and WTVT signed on in 1955, and after DuMont shut down. In September 1965, WSUN-TV became independent again, after a court battle which gave the ABC affiliation to WLCY-TV (now WTSP). WSUN struggled as an independent, with its broadcasting hours and programming quality dwindling. It ended up competing again by 1969, after the deeper-pocketed WTOG signed on in December 1968. In February 1970 WSUN-TV signed off for good. WSUN's license eventually expired without renewal.

In the late 1980s Channel 38 was given the new name of WTTA. In 1991, WTTA 38 began its regular broadcasting schedule, mainly of syndicated shows passed over by other stations, barter programming, uncleared network shows, and infomercials. Due to the station's low budget, weekend programming tended to consist entirely of infomercials. WTTA also presented a televised version of WRBQ's morning radio program, the "Q Morning Zoo", until that station changed to country music in the early 1990s.

WTTA was originally scheduled to sign on in the fall of 1990, with programming from the "Star Television Network" (which offered a mix of old programming and infomercials under the TV Heaven name). In September 1990, there was also an ad for "TV Heaven 38" in the Tampa-Sarasota edition of TV Guide magazine, but not only was the station not ready yet, but Star was in financial trouble (it went dark January 16, 1991).

In December of 1994 WTTA would acquire stronger programming from WFTS which was (and still is) owned by Scripps Howard and dropping Fox and most of its syndicated shows for ABC programming. In an unrelated deal Fox would affiliate with WTVT in a group deal with New World excluding Kids shows from Fox. CBS would move from WTVT to WTSP and ABC moved from WTSP to WFTS. AT that point WTTA picked up Fox Kids programming and a dozen off network sitcoms that WFTS no longer had time to air.

In 1998, WTTA’s owner, Bay Television, entered into a management agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which in years to come would become one of the nations largest broadcast companies. (It should be known that the owners of Bay Television are David Smith, J Duncan Smith, Frederick Smith, Robert Smith, and Robert Simmons -- all but Simmons controled most of the shares of Sinclair, making WTTA more of a Sinclair-owned station, rather than a locally-owned one. [1]) Also in 1998, WTTA became the Tampa Bay affiliate for The WB Television Network in a group deal with Sinclair stations. WTTA runs syndicated sitcoms and first run talk/court/reality shows, cartoons on weekends, along with sports programming and infomercials. It ran cartoons from WB during the week until January of 2006 when WB discontinued the weekday kids block.

In August of 2003 WTTA launched its news program: WB38 News at 10pm. Local news originates from WTTA's Tampa studios, with national news, sports and weather originating from Sinclair's headquarters in Baltimore. This makes it one of a few WB stations to offer news. There were rumors that A.H. Belo Corporation would buy WTVZ-TV and sister station WTTA from Sinclair Broadcast Group. As of 2006, this has not occurred.

Meanwhile Sinclair announced that it shut down WTTA's news operations effective March 31, 2006, replacing it with syndicated programming.

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