WTVT
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Template:Infobox Broadcast WTVT is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company (although on its newscasts its copyright tag continues to refer itself as owned by New World Communications, as does its sister station WAGA of Atlanta, Georgia). It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 13, and its digital signal on VHF channel 12. WTVT is an atypical FOX station as it focuses on news coverage and not off-network sitcoms and syndicated shows like many other FOX stations. The station has more news than any other station in the area, as Fox does not air a network evening newscast. The station also has the most meteorologists on a news team, with 5 meteorologists, and the only station with all of them AMS certified.
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History
The station began broadcasting on April 1, 1955 as a CBS affiliate. It was the third station in Tampa Bay (behind WSUN-TV and WFLA-TV) and is the second-oldest surviving station (behind WFLA). The FCC originally awarded the license to the Tampa Times, a now-defunct newspaper that owned WDAE-AM 620. However, a few months later, the FCC reversed itself and awarded the station to a group headed by Tampa Bay radio veteran Walter Tison. Tison intended to open a studio in St. Petersburg--a first for the area. After the Times appealed and lost, WTVT finally went on the air two months after WFLA. The station's calls don't stand for "We're TeleVision in Tampa, but for the initials of Tison and his wife, Virginia. A year later, Tison's group, Tampa Television Company, merged with the Gaylord family's Oklahoma Publishing Company of Oklahoma City, who owned the station for 31 years. Like many stations located on "unlucky" channel 13, WTVT used a black cat as its mascot for several years.
The Gaylords, with their newspaper background, immediately beefed up the news operation. In 1958, WTVT became the second station in the country to introduce daily editorials. That same year, it became the first Florida station to run an hour-long news block (45 minutes of local news combined with the then-15-minute CBS Evening News). By 1962, WTVT had overtaken WFLA, also owned by a newspaper (the Tampa Tribune) as the highest-rated station in Tampa Bay, a position it held for over a quarter-century. This was largely because many of its personalities stayed at the station for a long time. For instance, Roy Leep was the station's weatherman from 1957 until 1997. Hugh Smith was the station's main anchor from 1963 to 1991, most of that time as news director. Its news operation was called "Pulse 13" from 1958 until the late 1980s, when it was renamed Eyewitness News.
In 1987, Gaylord sold WTVT to Gillett. Gillett became SCI Broadcasting in the early 1990s, and its stations (including WTVT) were sold to New World Communications in 1993. By 1993, WTVT was pre-empting CBS News This Morning for local newscasts, as well as all but one hour of Saturday cartoons.
In 1994, New World arranged for most of its stations to affiliate with Fox. As a result, WTVT dropped its CBS affiliation (which went to WTSP), and picked up the Fox affiliation from WFTS. (Fox Kids went to WTTA, then ended up on WMOR-TV.) The station began to air 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. News became WTVT's focus, as the station chose not to renew the more expensive syndicated programming it run during its CBS affiliation, and ran 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 (O&O). Under Fox ownership, the station added more high-budget syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms to its lineup.
WTVT was the first TV news station to use radar in its weather presentation, and has made many advancements with the technology. Its newest advancement is SkyTower VIPIR, combining the already existent and powerful SkyTower radar system with VIPIR technology, which is also used by competitor WFLA.
WTVT began to adopt its current logo, which is similar to that of the Fox News Channel, in December 2005 as part of a new 11:00 newscast, although it 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.
Monsanto Controversy
In 1996, WTVT, still owned by New World, hired investigative reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre - a husband and wife team. Shortly after they were hired, they produced an exposé report that alleged that the artificial growth hormone Posilac, produced by Monsanto, was present in Florida's milk supply and that supermarkets were selling it to consumers. Posilac was suspected of causing several forms of cancer. However by early 1997, when the report was scheduled to air, WTVT had been bought by Fox and Monsanto's lawyer threatened Fox with "dire consequences" if they allowed WTVT to air the report. Fox tried for months to make changes to the story, according to Wilson and Akre.
Eventually the pair was fired, and they successfully sued under Florida's whistle blower law and were awarded a $425,000 settlement. However, Fox appealed and won, after the court declared that 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. Fox did not dispute that that it tried to force Akre to broadcast a false story, but argued that broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports. In 2004 FOX countersued Akre and Wilson for trial fees and costs.
Wilson is now an investigative reporter with Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ.
Newscasts/Locally Produced Programming
Weekdays
- Good Day Tampa Bay: 5:00-9:00AM (Anchors: Anne Dwyer (5-9 am), Tom Curran (5-7 am), & Russell Rhodes (7-9 am), Weather: Dave Osterberg, Traffic: Tim Harper)
- FOX13 News at Noon: 12:00-12:30PM (Anchor: Denise White, Weather: Howard Shapiro)
- Your Turn (local debate/discussion show) 12:30-1:00PM (Host: Kathy Fountain)
- FOX13 5:00 News: 5:00-5:30PM (Anchors: Denise White & Kathy Fountain, Weather: Paul Dellegatto)
- FOX13 5:30 News: 5:30-6:00PM (Anchors: Frank Robertson & Cynthia Smoot, Weather: Paul Dellegato, Sports: Chip Carter*)
- FOX13 6:00 News: 6:00-7:00PM (Anchors: John Wilson & Kelly Ring, Weather: Paul Dellegatto, Sports: Chip Carter*)
- FOX13 10:00 News: 10:00-11:00PM (Anchors: John Wilson & Kelly Ring, Weather: Paul Dellegatto, Sports: Chip Carter*)
- NewsEdge at 11:00: 11:00-11:35PM (Anchor: Mark Wilson, Weather: Paul Dellegatto, Sports: Chip Carter, NewsEdge Reporter: Gloria Gomez)
*excluding Fridays; Chris Field anchors sports on Fridays.
Weekends
- Good Day Tampa Bay Weekend: 7:00-9:00AM (Anchor: Bill Murphy, Weather: Andy Johnson, Traffic: A.J. Mica)
- FOX Thirteen Magazine: (Teen produced newscast) 10:30-11:00AM (Saturdays)
- FOX13 6:00 News: 6:00-7:00PM (Anchors: Lloyd Sowers & Deborah Bowden, Weather: Jim Weber, Sports: Chris Field (Saturday), Chip Carter (Sunday))
- FOX13 10:00 News: 10:00-11:00PM (Anchors: Lloyd Sowers & Deborah Bowden, Weather: Jim Weber, Sports: Chris Field (Saturday), Chip Carter (Sunday))
NewsEdge at 11:00
NewsEdge at 11:00 is an 11:00-11:35 PM newscast on WTVT hosted by Mark Wilson (with Lloyd Sowers or Frank Robertson filling in if Wilson is off). It is described as a fast-paced, Fox News Channel-type news show, with shorter report segments, and a more tabloid-feel. The newscast is split in to multiple parts, which mainly are: "Top Stories", "48 Hour Forecast", "FOX Up Front", "FloridaEdge", "NationalEdge", "FOX Focus", "WeatherEdge", "SportsEdge", and "The Lightning Round". "The Lightning Round is a 5-minute debate/opinion segment which features the host, the meteorologist, and the sports anchor, along with a "special guest" debating somewhat controversial news topics. Fox Television Stations Group, which owns WTVT, is using Tampa as the test market for this 11:00pm newscast format. If successful, the plan is to have all Fox owned and operated stations producing news at 11:00 PM. Similar to this, sister stations KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth, WITI in Milwaukee, and KSAZ in Phoenix currently have a 10 PM newscast as a Fox O&O in the Central and Mountain Time Zones.
Screenshots
 Mark Wilson |
 Lightning Round |
Logos
 WTVT logo used in the early 1960s |
 WTVT logo used in 1976 to celebrate America's bicentennial. |
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 WTVT logo used in the early 1990s. |
 Variation of WTVT's early-1990s logo, from 1996. |
 WTVT's Eyewitness News logo, from 1996. |
 WTVT logo used from 1997 until the start of February 2006. |
 Present logo used for NewsEdge at 11 starting December 2005, and the whole station in February 2006 |
Syndicated Programming
Key Personalities
Image:WTVTanchors.PNG Image:NewsEdge2.PNG
- Chip Carter, sports director
- Paul Dellegatto, chief meteorologist
- Kathy Fountain, host of "Your Turn" during the noon and anchor of the 5pm newscast
- Bill Murphy, "Good Day Tampa Bay" weekend anchor, host of locally popular "One Tank Trips" segment.
- Kelly Ring, 6pm and 10pm anchor
- John Wilson, 6pm and 10pm anchor, Trivia: (Sons are WTVT weekend anchor Mark Wilson, and notable actor Patrick Wilson)
- Denise White, noon and 5pm anchor
- Cynthia Smoot, 5:30pm anchor
- Frank Robertson, 5:30pm anchor (married to WTVT anchor Kathy Fountain)
- Anne Dwyer, "Good Day Tampa Bay" weekday anchor
- Tom Curran, "Good Day Tampa Bay" weekday 5-7 a.m. anchor
- Russell Rhodes, "Good Day Tampa Bay" weekday 7-9 a.m. anchor
- Dave Osterberg, "Good Day Tampa Bay" meterologist
- Mark Wilson, NewsEdge at 11 anchor
- Gloria Gomez, NewsEdge at 11 reporter
- Doug Smith, investigative reporter
- Dr. Joette Giovinco ("Dr. Jo"), medical reporter
- Deborah Bowden, reporter, weekend 6pm and 10pm anchor
- Lloyd Sowers, reporter, weekend 6pm and 10pm anchor