News 13 (also officially known as Spectrum News 13 as of September 24, 2017) is an American
cable news
Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television.
In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...
television channel
A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...
owned by
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
. The channel provides
24-hour rolling news coverage focused primarily on
Central Florida
Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the Gr ...
, specifically
Brevard,
Flagler,
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
,
Marion Marion may refer to:
People
*Marion (given name)
*Marion (surname)
*Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion"
*Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992)
Places Antarctica
* Mario ...
,
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
,
Osceola
Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...
,
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
,
Sumter Sumter may refer to:
People Given name
* Sumter S. Arnim (1904–1990), American dentist
* Sumter de Leon Lowry Jr. (1893–1985), United States Army general
Surname
* Rowendy Sumter (born 1988), Curaçaoan footballer
* Shavonda E. Sumter ( ...
, and
Volusia
Volusia County (, ) is located in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Florida, stretching between the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2020 census, the county was home to 553,543 people, an increase of 11.9% from the 2 ...
counties.
History
The channel originally launched in October 29, 1997 as Central Florida News 13; it was originally partnered with the
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
to help with 24-hour newsgathering operations and the channel was originally operated by
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
, which relinquished cable television franchise rights in the
Orlando metropolitan area
The Orlando metropolitan area, commonly referred to as Greater Orlando, Metro Orlando, Central Florida as well as for U.S. Census purposes as the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, is a metropolitan area in the ...
to
Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks, LLC also simply known as Bright House, was an American telecom company. Prior to its purchase by Charter Communications, it was the tenth-largest multichannel video service provider and the 6th largest cable internet prov ...
in 2001. On December 14, 2010, the channel was added to Bright House's system in the Tampa Bay area, on
digital channel 1213; the channel is offered in addition to the provider's local news channel in the area,
Bay News 9.
![Bright House News 13 at KSC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Bright_House_News_13_at_KSC.JPG)
On November 1, 2011 Central Florida News 13 launched a
high definition simulcast feed and began airing its newscasts in the format. As part of the upgrade, the channel installed a new
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
system, and unveiled a slightly modified graphics package.
The channel unveiled a major branding overhaul on August 27, 2013, the most significant in the channel's history. It shortened its name from "Central Florida News 13" to simply News 13 (its website domain was accordingly changed cfnews13.com to mynews13.com); the channel also adopted a logo based on that used by its sister channel in the Tampa Bay region known as Bay News 9 and introduced a new news music ("Primetime News" by Non-Stop Music, which has been used by Bay News 9 since its September 1997 launch) and graphics package, the latter of which is designed to fit
16:9 television sets. Its longtime slogan "All Local, All The Time." was also dropped in favor of the succinct "News. Weather. Now.". The logo has been designed by the network's in-house team. The network had expanded away with its newscasts with original programming. Also that day, they launched ''News 13 24/7'', but with the name change, it kept the ''News 13'' branding, when the network ran that channel.
On April 1, 2015,
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
announced that it would be acquiring Bright House Networks, alongside its merger with Time Warner Cable. The acquisition, which was valued at around $71 billion, was completed on May 18, 2016. To reflect this change in ownership, News 13 underwent another name change, going from "News 13" to Spectrum News 13.
On June 12, 2016 during the
Orlando nightclub shooting
On , 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old man, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. Orlando Police officers shot and killed him after a three-hour standoff.
In a 9- ...
, News 13 received a call from the perpetrator,
Omar Mateen
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen born Omar Mir Seddique; (November 16, 1986 – June 12, 2016) was an American mass murderer and domestic terrorist who murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fl ...
. He told News 13 at 2:45 a.m., "I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter." He then said he was carrying out the shooting on behalf of
ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
and began speaking rapidly in Arabic. Mateen also said the shooting was "triggered" by a U.S.-led bombing strike in Iraq that killed
Abu Wahib
Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi al-Dulaimi (1986 – May 6, 2016), better known as Abu Waheeb ("''Father of Waheeb''"; Arabic: أبو وهيب), was a leader of the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Anbar, Iraq. He killed three Syr ...
, an ISIL military commander, on May 6, 2016.
Programming
News 13 carries weather forecast segments in ten-minute intervals, under the brand "Weather on the Ones" (which is also used by the sister regional news channels of
Charter Spectrum
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
). During the
Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year from June through November when tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean, referred to in North American countries as hurricanes, tropical storms, or tropical depressions. In addition ...
, News 13 provides tropical weather updates twice each hour. It also airs regular traffic reports that immediately follow the weather segments, called "Real Time Traffic", each weekdays between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. News 13 also provides coverage of the rocket launches occurring at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
and
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...
. News 13 is also an affiliate of the national and international video news service
CNN Newsource
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
.
Notable personalities
Notable current personalities
*
Dick Batchelor – political analyst
*
Lou Frey
Louis Frey Jr. (January 11, 1934 – October 14, 2019) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1969 until 1979. He represented Florida's 5th congressional distric ...
– political analyst
Notable former personalities
*
Vinnie Politan – anchor/reporter; now at
WXIA
WXIA-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL (channel 36). Both stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north e ...
*
Jessica Yellin
Jessica Sage Yellin (born February 25, 1971) is an American journalist. Focused primarily on politics, she was the White House press corps, Chief White House Correspondent for CNN in Washington, D.C. from 2011 to 2013. Described as "one of the ...
– anchor/reporter; now national political correspondent at
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
Affiliated channels
Central Florida News 13 en Español
On March 11, 2011, Bright House Networks announced that it would merge Central Florida News 13 and Bay News 9's respective Spanish-language news channels into a single regional channel, InfoMás. The regional network was launched on July 12, 2011.
See also
*
Bay News 9 – a similar regional news channel owned by Charter Communications that serves the Tampa Bay area
*
Spectrum Sports (Florida)
Spectrum Sports (formerly known as ''Bright House Sports Network'') was an American regional sports network serving the Tampa Bay and Orlando metropolitan areas of Florida, that was owned by cable television provider Charter Communications whi ...
– co-owned regional sports network serving Central Florida
*
WSNN-LD
WSNN-LD, virtual channel 39 (UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 26), is a low-power broadcasting#Television, low-powered television station city of license, licensed to Sarasota, Florida, Sarasota, Florida, United States. Owned ...
– a similar regional news channel owned by
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
that serves the Sarasota area
References
External links
www.mynews13.com- News 13 official website
{{Advance Publications
1997 establishments in Florida
24-hour television news channels in the United States
Advance Publications
Charter Communications
English-language television stations in the United States
Television channels and stations established in 1997
Television stations in Florida