WFTS-TV

WFTS-TV, virtual channel 28 (UHF digital channel 17), branded as ABC Action News, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States and serving the Tampa Bay area. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of a duopoly with Bradenton-licensed Ion Television owned-and-operated station WXPX-TV (channel 66). WFTS-TV's studios are located on North Himes Avenue on Tampa's northwest side, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

WFTS-TV
Tampa–St. Petersburg, Florida
United States
CityTampa, Florida
ChannelsDigital: 17 (UHF)
Virtual: 28
BrandingABC Action News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerE. W. Scripps Company
(Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC)
WXPX-TV
History
First air date
December 14, 1981 (1981-12-14)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 28 (UHF, 1981–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 29 (UHF, until 2020)
Call sign meaning
"Family Television Station"[2]
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID64588
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT469 m (1,539 ft)
Transmitter coordinates27°50′33″N 82°15′44″W
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.abcactionnews.com

History

A channel 28 construction permit was first issued to Lucille Frostman, involved in the construction of WSMS-TV in Fort Lauderdale, in 1966,[3] for a station which would have been called WTSS-TV,[4] which was never built and deleted in 1971.[5]

Applications for a new channel 28 station in Tampa were received again in 1977, with the Christian Television Network the first to bid,[6] followed by a group proposing a Spanish-language station;[7] Family Television Corporation of Tampa, also of a Christian orientation;[8] and Suncoast Telechoice, associated with subscription television equipment manufacturer Blonder Tongue Labs.[9]

Christian Television dropped out, amended its application to specify channel 22 at Clearwater, and won a construction permit for WCLF in February 1979.[10] The other two parties dropped out in settlement agreements in early 1981,[11] and Family received a construction permit in March.[12] Family stockholders included T. Terrell Sessums, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and former state senate president Louis A. de la Parte Jr.[12]

As an independent station

WFTS first signed on the air on December 14, 1981,[13] operating as a family-oriented independent station with cartoons, off-network dramas, classic movies and religious programs.[14] Its call letters originally stood for "Family Television Station".[2]

In 1984, after having launched the station for just $6 million[15] and turning a profit in the first year,[16] Family sold the station to Capital Cities Communications for more than $30 million.[15] The deal gave Capital Cities its first station in Florida and its first (and only) independent, as well as bringing the group to its then-maximum of seven stations.[15] Under Capital Cities, the station added more off-network sitcoms and reduced the number of religious programs and drama series on its schedule, improving ratings against established Tampa Bay independent WTOG.[17]

In March 1985, Capital Cities stunned the broadcasting industry with its announced purchase of ABC—a network that was ten times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time. In addition to WFTS-TV, Capital Cities owned four ABC and two CBS affiliates (which would change to ABC after the merger).[18] The combination of Cap Cities and ABC exceeded the new ownership limit of 12 stations and the 25% national reach limit, so the companies opted to sell WFTS; WXYZ-TV, the ABC-owned station in Detroit; and Cap Cities-owned ABC affiliates in Buffalo and New Haven, Connecticut;[19] WFTS and WXYZ-TV were sold to Scripps.[17]

Scripps continued the general-entertainment format on WFTS, running cartoons, sitcoms, movies and drama series. WFTS became the Tampa Bay market's Fox affiliate in 1988, after it was dropped by WTOG.[20] Just like channel 44, the station continued to program itself as an independent until 1993, when Fox started its week-long programming schedule. It began to identify on air as "Fox 28" in 1992 and soon after briefly identified its call letters as standing for "Fox Television Station".

As an ABC affiliate

On May 23, 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation agreement with Fox, that resulted in twelve of New World's stations, including Tampa Bay's longtime CBS affiliate WTVT (channel 13), being tapped to switch to the network. Among the stations making the switch were longtime CBS affiliates WJBK-TV in Detroit and WJW-TV in Cleveland.[21] Not wanting to be relegated to the UHF band, CBS heavily wooed Detroit's longtime ABC affiliate, WXYZ, as well as Cleveland's longtime ABC affiliate, WEWS-TV. Both were owned by Scripps, who told ABC that it would switch WXYZ and WEWS to CBS unless ABC affiliated with three of its stations: WFTS, KNXV-TV in Phoenix (which was also slated to lose its Fox affiliation to New World-owned CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV), and WMAR-TV in Baltimore. Scripps insisted on including WFTS and KNXV in the deal, even though a news department was in construction at KNXV and no movement had yet occurred to build one in Tampa.

The ABC affiliation, confirmed on June 15,[22] set off a mad dash. WFTS had already been planning a new studio facility in the vicinity of Tampa Stadium, and with the ABC tie-up confirmed, management scrambled to hire a news director.[23] With the station's new facility not to be ready until late 1995, the news department initially operated from former facilities of the Home Shopping Network in Clearwater.[24]

Another consequence of WFTS replacing WTSP (channel 10) in ABC's affiliate lineup was that it had a more centrally located transmitting facility, which then-ABC president Bob Iger cited as a positive in the switch.[25] That meant that the network would no longer have had a coverage gap between Tampa and Fort Myers, which had been filled by WWSB-TV in Sarasota since its 1971 sign-on. Coinciding with the Scripps-ABC pact, ABC notified WWSB that it would be terminating its affiliation;[23] though no reason was given by the network, WWSB cited conversations with ABC officials who described it as essential to the broader deal and petitioned to deny channel 28's license renewal.[26] The Sarasota ended up winning its battle with ABC and signed a new affiliation contract in March 1995.[27]

On December 12, 1994, WFTS became the market's ABC affiliate; that day, it launched local news and broke ground on the Tampa studio.[28] Most of WFTS's syndicated programs were then acquired by WTVT[29] and WTTA, which also aired Fox Kids in the market.[30]

WFTS was briefly the local over-the-air broadcast partner of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club, airing four Lightning games produced by the Sunshine Network during the 2002–03 season.[31] WFTS aired the Lightning's victory in the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, their first in franchise history. Beginning with the 2021–22 NHL season, select Lightning games will return to the station as part of the NHL's split contract with the network.

In November 2004, WFTS became one of three Florida television stations, and one of the many Scripps-owned ABC affiliates, that preempted Saving Private Ryan.[32]

On September 24, 2020, a consortium made up of Scripps and Berkshire Hathaway announced the purchase of Ion Media, including local Ion Television station WXPX-TV (channel 66) and the company's technical operations center in Clearwater.[33]

News operation

WFTS-TV presently broadcasts 45 hours, 5 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 35 minutes each weekday; 4 hours, 5 minutes on Saturdays; and 3 hours, 5 minutes on Sundays). WFTS currently uses Weather Services International's Titan HD weather system for its forecasts. WFTS is one of ten television stations that airs consumer reports from John Matarese of ABC-affiliated sister station WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. The station also serves as the graphics development hub for the Scripps stations, with the group's 2009, 2012 and 2020 packages design language being developed at the station (rival WTVT serves a similar purpose for the Fox Television Stations group).

During its days as an independent station and then as a Fox affiliate, WFTS presented hourly news and weather updates, featuring a person reading the day's headlines or the current forecast. During the station's first few months on the air, the newsbreaks were provided by WNSI-AM (1380, now WWMI) in an audio-only format, over a News Check slide. Later on, news updates began to feature on-camera newsreaders at WFTS's studios. By the late 1980s, the news and weather updates were titled 28 Newsbreak or 28 Weatherbreak. These news updates were discontinued in December 1994 upon the station's switch to ABC.

WFTS launched a full-scale news department and began airing regular long-form newscasts on December 12, 1994, branded as 28 Tampa Bay News. The newscasts initially originated from Telemation studios in Clearwater, since WFTS's studios on Tampa's east side (at the corner of I-4 and Columbus Drive) were not large enough to house a full-sized newsroom or a news set. The station's news department then moved to its new studio facilities on Himes Avenue, across from Raymond James Stadium, in 1996. The station, which initially aired half-hour newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. nightly when the news department began operations, gradually added a two-hour morning newscast from 5–7 a.m., a half-hour noon newscast, and an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast (the latter of which created 90-minute block of news from 5–6:30 p.m.).

The newscast title was changed to 28 News briefly in 2002, before being changed again to ABC Action News later that year due to viewer confusion with the "ABC 28" branding. The universal Action News branding for newscasts and general promotion is also shared with NBC-affiliated sister station KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. In the fall of 2005, the station expanded its weekday noon newscast to one hour, following the cancellation of the ABC soap opera Port Charles. On July 28, 2007 beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast, WFTS-TV became the first television station in the Tampa Bay market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition;[34] WFTS surprisingly beat out rivals WTVT and WTSP who were both rumored to be competing to launch the first high definition newscast in Tampa Bay. WFTS was the first Tampa Bay station to broadcast its weather segments in true high definition in October 2007, rival WFLA-TV (channel 8) soon followed.

Until December 2009, WFTS was one of two stations in the market to have two women regularly anchor an evening newscast: Wendy Ryan and Linda Hurtado anchored the station's 5 p.m. news broadcast; while Denise White and Kathy Fountain anchored the 5 p.m. newscast on WTVT (Fountain retired on December 30, 2009, leaving Ryan and Hurtado as the only all-female anchor team in Tampa Bay; this changed again in the summer of 2010 when Jamison Uhler joined WFTS from WCAU-TV in Philadelphia as 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. co-anchor). On April 25, 2012, WFTS launched ABC Action News Now, an exclusive newscast and weather station available mainly to smartphone and tablet users and designed with a program schedule designed with those devices in mind, rather than a traditional "news wheel" schedule seen on most news/weather-only subchannels. During severe weather and breaking news events, the channel is also carried on-air over 28.2 and local cable television providers in lieu of Laff.

Since its launch, WFTS' news department has been a solid competitor in the Tampa Bay market. It has spent most of the new millennium in a spirited four-way battle for first place with longer-established WFLA-TV, WTVT and WTSP. This stands in contrast to other former Fox stations had switched to ABC, NBC or CBS at the time as a result of Fox's affiliation deal with New World Communications. Many of them have had no success competing with long-standing (mostly VHF) news stations, and some of them shuttered their news departments altogether as a result. On December 3, 2015, longtime evening anchor Brendan McLaughlin announced his departure from WFTS on December 18; with this, Denis Phillips is the only member of WFTS's current on-air news staff that has remained with the station since the news department's launch.

In November 2012, WFTS overtook all other local stations in all evening and late news ratings in the demographic of Adults 25–54.[35] This marked the first time ever WFTS won at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. in the key demographic during one ratings period.

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP short name Programming[1]
28.1720p16:9WFTS-HDMain WFTS-TV programming / ABC
28.2480iWFTS D2Bounce TV
28.3WFTS D3Grit
28.4WFTS D4Court TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WFTS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[38] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 29,[39] using PSIP to display WFTS-TV's virtual channel as 28 on digital television receivers.

Broadcast, cable and satellite carriage

In addition to its main signal coverage area, WFTS' signal can also be viewed in portions of Citrus, Sumter, Sarasota, DeSoto, Highlands, Orange, Osceola and Lake counties.

The station is not available in Comcast's Venice service area (in southern Sarasota County) due to the presence of WWSB (channel 40), an ABC station formed as the signal of WTSP, the Tampa–St. Petersburg market's previous ABC affiliate, provided insufficient over-the-air coverage in the Sarasota area. As a result, WFTS is not available to over 91,000 cable subscribers.[40]

References
  1. "Digital TV Market Listing for WFTS". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  2. Scott, Kelly (August 3, 1981). "New TV station to gear its programing to family viewing". St. Petersburg Times. p. 5D. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  3. Bryan, Stewart (May 27, 1966). "New TV Station Planned For Tampa". Tampa Times. p. 6-B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  4. "New TV Station Moving". The Tampa Times. June 9, 1967. p. 2-A. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  5. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 8, 1971. p. 56. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  6. Brown, Ben (July 16, 1977). "Local Experiment Produces Fast-Paced Children's Show". Tampa Tribune. p. 1. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  7. "Two groups seek TV license". Tampa Times. August 8, 1977. p. 5-C. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  8. Hall, John. "Second Christian group seeks Channel 28". St. Petersburg Times. p. 9B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  9. Stafford, Charles (September 21, 1977). "UHF applicants propose wide range of TV programing". St. Petersburg Times. p. 8D. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  10. Hemmingway, Susan (February 9, 1979). "Christian corporation receives approval for television station". Tampa Times. p. 1-E. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  11. Dudley, Bruce (February 14, 1981). "Firm Drops Fight For TV Station". Tampa Tribune. p. 2-B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  12. Hill, Steve; Dudley, Bruce (March 10, 1981). "New UHF Station To Offer Bay Area 'Wholesome' Shows". Tampa Tribune. pp. 1A, 4A. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  13. Otto, Steve (December 14, 1981). "Channel 28 makes its debut today". Tampa Times. p. 4B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  14. Brooks, Wiley (October 11, 1981). "New Look On Tampa Screens". Tampa Tribune. pp. 1E, 9E. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  15. Vick, Karl (April 16, 1984). "WFTS-Ch. 28 being sold today to conglomerate". St. Petersburg Times. pp. 1B, 9B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  16. Vick, Karl (March 28, 1984). "Speculation mounts over sale of WFTS". St. Petersburg Times. p. 2D. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  17. Vick, Karl (July 27, 1985). "Ch. 28 sells for $40-million". St. Petersburg Times. p. 5B. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  18. Vick, Karl (March 22, 1985). "Sale of ABC complicates life for independent Channel 28". St. Petersburg Times. pp. 1D, 4D. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  19. "Ch. 28 among 4 TV stations for sale in ABC merger plan". St. Petersburg Times. New York Times. May 14, 1985. p. 16A. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  20. Froelich, Janis D. (July 19, 1986). "Fox switching stations". St. Petersburg Times. p. 7D. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  21. "Fox Gains 12 Stations in New World Deal". Chicago Sun-Times. May 23, 1994. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  22. Stevenson, Jennifer L. (June 16, 1994). "ABC switching channels in bay area". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1A, 17A. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  23. Belcher, Walt (June 17, 1994). "TV stations focus on change". Tampa Tribune. pp. 1, 10. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  24. Belcher, Walt (December 13, 1994). "Big switch helps spark the big hype". Tampa Tribune. p. 5 BayLife.
  25. Stevenson, Jennifer L. (July 19, 1994). "ABC president happy with Ch. 28". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1D. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  26. Barry, Rick (July 27, 1994). "Scripps denies pact to strip WWSB of affiliation". Tampa Tribune. p. 6 Florida/Metro. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  27. Barry, Rick (March 9, 1995). "TV station wins fight to stay with ABC". Tampa Tribune. p. 2 Florida/Metro. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  28. Yant, Monica (December 9, 1994). "This just in: Ch. 28 will have news". St. Petersburg Times. pp. 1B, 11B. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  29. Harmon, Rick (December 12, 1994). "Syndicated shows shuffled in affiliate deal". Tampa Tribune. pp. BayLife 1, 5. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  30. Yant, Monica (November 22, 1994). "Channel 38 makes play with kids' programs". St. Petersburg Times. pp. 1B, 7B.
  31. Harmon, Rick (October 11, 2002). "Peckham, Taylor Already In Midseason Form". Tampa Tribune. p. Sports 2. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  32. "Tampa, Fla., ABC affiliate among those pre-empting violent war movie broadcast". Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. November 12, 2004. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  33. Cimilluca, Dana. "E.W. Scripps Agrees to Buy ION Media for $2.65 billion in Berkshire-Backed Deal". Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  34. "WFTS-TV First in Tampa to broadcast news in High Definition".
  35. Deggans, Eric (November 28, 2012). "ABC Action News comes out on top in evening and late night November sweeps ratings". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
  36. "Elaine Quijano Bio". CBS News. February 2, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  37. "Steele Sage bio". ESPN. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  38. List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  39. CDBS Print
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