WINK-TV (channel 11) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed to
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...
, United States, serving as the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate for
Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy.
Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are generally ...
. It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a handful of TV stations today to have locally-based ownership. Fort Myers Broadcasting also provides certain services to three
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
-licensed stations under a
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreement (SSA) with Sun Broadcasting:
CW affiliate
WXCW
WXCW (channel 46) television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of The CW. It is locally owned by Sun Broadcasting alongside two low-power stations: Univision affiliate WUVF-LD (channe ...
(channel 46),
low-power Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
affiliate
WUVF-LD
WUVF-LD, virtual channel 2 (UHF digital channel 18), is a low-powered Univision- affiliated television station serving Fort Myers, Florida, United States, that is licensed to Naples. Locally owned by Sun Broadcasting, it is sister to two other ...
(channel 2), and low-power
Azteca América
Azteca América (, sometimes shortened to Azteca) is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by INNOVATE Corp., which acquired the network from the Azteca International Corporation subsidiary of TV Azteca.
Headquartere ...
affiliate
WANA-LD
WANA-LD, virtual and UHF digital channel 16, is a low-power television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States. Locally owned by Sun Broadcasting, it is sister to two other Naples-licensed stations: CW affiliate WXCW (channel 46) a ...
(channel 18). The stations share studios on Palm Beach Boulevard (
SR 80) in northeast Fort Myers, while WINK-TV's transmitter is located north of
Fort Myers Shores, near the
Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...
–
Lee county line.
History
The station began broadcasting on March 23, 1954, owned by the family of taxicab magnate and
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...
founder
Mickey McBride along with WINK radio (
1240 AM
The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1240 kHz: 1240 AM is a regional (Class B) frequency outside the coterminous 48 United States (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, & U.S. Virgin Islands), and ...
, later used on
1200 AM; and
96.9 FM
The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 96.9 MHz:
Argentina
* 9 digital in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos
* Bar in Alta Gracia, Córdoba
* Bien Argentina in Luján, Buenos Aires
* blu in Rio Cuarto, Córdoba
* LRM7 ...
). WINK-TV was the first television station in
Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy.
Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are generally ...
and is the fifth-oldest surviving station in the state. Although the call letters appear to be an outgrowth of its CBS affiliation, in fact they were simply carried over from its radio sister, which adopted them in 1944—seven years before the
CBS Eye made its first appearance. It carried programming from the four major networks of its era: CBS,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
DuMont in the first two decades of its existence. However, it has always been a primary CBS affiliate.
Channel 11 lost DuMont when that network ended operations in 1956. In December 1968, WINK-TV finally gained a local competitor when
WBBH-TV
WBBH-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is the flagship television property of locally-based Waterman Broadcasting, which provides certa ...
signed on and took the NBC affiliation. The two stations continued to share ABC until WEVU-TV (now
WZVN-TV
WZVN-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Montclair Communications, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Waterman ...
) signed on in 1974. However, viewers could watch the full ABC and NBC schedules via stations from
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
–
Fort Lauderdale
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
,
West Palm Beach
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
–
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, which were and continue to be available with outdoor antennas.
WINK-TV was a major beneficiary of a quirk in the
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
's plan for allocating stations. In the early days of broadcast television, there were twelve
VHF channels available and 69 UHF channels (later reduced to 55 in 1983). The VHF bands were more desirable because they carried longer distances. Since there were only twelve VHF channels available, there were limitations as to how closely the stations could be spaced.
After the FCC's ''Sixth Report and Order'' ended the license freeze and opened the UHF band in 1952, it devised a plan for allocating VHF licenses. Under this plan, almost all of the country would be able to receive two commercial VHF channels plus one noncommercial channel. Most of the rest of the country ("1/2") would be able to receive a third VHF channel. Other areas would be designated as "UHF islands" since they were too close to larger cities for VHF service. The "2" networks became CBS and NBC, "+1" represented
non-commercial educational
A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...
stations, and "1/2" became ABC (which was the weakest network then usually winding up with the UHF allocation where no VHF was available).
However, Fort Myers is sandwiched between Miami–Fort Lauderdale (channels
2,
4,
6,
7 and
10) and West Palm Beach (channels
5 and
12) to the east and
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...
(channels
3,
8,
10, and
13) to the north. This created a large doughnut in southwest Florida where there could be only ''one'' VHF license. WINK-TV was fortunate to gain that license, and as a result was the only local station that provided a clear picture to outlying portions of the market until cable television arrived in the mid-1970s. Although there was no station on channel 9 in the immediate area, it was occupied in
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
, which was too close to Fort Myers to reallocate.
The station has identified almost exclusively with its call letters since the mid-1980s. This is due in large part to the extremely high penetration of cable and
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
in Southwest Florida—one of the highest in the nation. Cable and satellite are all but essential for acceptable television reception in much of the market, even in the digital age.
On October 20, 2007, WINK-TV became the first television station in Southwest Florida to begin broadcasting in
high definition. In January 2008, several programming changes were made on WINK-TV. It began airing ''
The Early Show
''The Early Show'' is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from ...
'' (which was replaced by ''
CBS This Morning
''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...
'' in January 2012, which in turn was replaced by ''
CBS Mornings
''CBS Mornings'' is an American morning television program which is broadcast on CBS. The program debuted on September 7, 2021, and airs live every weekday from 7:00a.m. to 9:00a.m. It is hosted by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, and Nate Burleson, ...
'' in September 2021) in its entirety after CBS began requiring all of its affiliates to air the full two-hour broadcast of the program.
During the landfall of
Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian was a large and destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that was the deadliest hurricane to strike the state of Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. Ian caused widespread damage across western Cuba and the southeast Unit ...
on September 28, 2022, the station's studio in downtown Fort Myers was inundated by storm surge flooding from nearby Billy Creek, knocking WINK-TV, WXCW and their sister radio stations off the air. On September 30, WINK-TV returned to the air from a makeshift studio at its transmitter site, though using WXCW's main channel to broadcast the WINK-TV schedule.
Controversy
On September 28, 2022, WINK-TV staff endured extensive criticism on social media after meteorologist Dylan Federico filmed and tweeted a young cat struggling outside the studio during Hurricane Ian. After extensive criticism focused on the station sharing the video without attempting to help the cat, the staff ultimately attempted to bring the animal inside but failed. The fate of the animal was unknown. Following additional criticism, staff deleted their original tweets featuring the video and Federico disabled responses and chose to hide critical responses on his account.
Programming
Syndicated programs broadcast on WINK-TV include ''
Live with Kelly and Ryan
''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
'', ''
TMZ on TV
''TMZ on TV'' (also known as ''TMZ on Fox'' and simply as ''TMZ'' or ''TMZTV'') is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007 (its major carriage is among television stations owned ...
'', ''
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
'', ''
Inside Edition
''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is no ...
'', and ''
Rachael Ray
Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program ''Rachael Ray'', and the Food Network series '' 30 Minute Meals''. ...
''.
News operation
WINK-TV presently broadcasts 46 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7½ hours each weekday, 3½ hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). WINK-TV operates two news bureaus: the
Charlotte County Bureau in the ''
Charlotte Sun'' newsroom in
Charlotte Harbor and the
Collier County
Collier County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 375,752; an increase of 16.9% since the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Ev ...
Bureau in Naples. The
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
have held
spring training
Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...
in Fort Myers since 1993, and WINK-TV shares its coverage of the team with fellow CBS station
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (channe ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. WINK-TV is one of two Fort Myers stations carried by Xfinity in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and
Wauchula. It is the only Southwest Florida-based station carried on Xfinity's
Sebring system.
On May 26, 2011, WINK-TV debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, one of many added on television stations around the United States on that date to replace ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show
''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...
'', which ended its 25-year run the day before. On June 11, 2011 WINK-TV debuted a 90-minute morning newscast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. WINK-TV also added a half-hour late morning newscast at 10 a.m. on September 6, 2011 (which was later dropped). On September 16, 2013, WINK-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast a half-hour early to 4:30 a.m. and expanded the extension of that program on WXCW by one hour to 7 to 10 a.m. In January 2015, WINK-TV expanded the 6:30 p.m. newscast to weekends on WXCW.
Notable former staff include
Hoda Kotb
Hoda Kotb ( ; arz, هدى قطب, ''Hudā Quṭb''; ; born August 9, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News morning show ''Today'' and co-host of its entertainment ...
(1989–1991),
Trey Radel
Henry Jude Radel III (born April 20, 1976) is an American radio personality, political commentator, author, actor, and former member of the United States House of Representatives. Radel’s show airs on the Florida-based station WFSX-FM, a FOX New ...
and
Kerry Sanders
Kerry Sanders is an American journalist. He is a correspondent for NBC News.[multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...]
:
WINK-TV operates the Naples–Fort Myers market's
Antenna TV
Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...
affiliate on its DT2 subchannel (as of March 1, 2019), replacing a standard definition simulcast of the primary/CBS feed that had been airing over that subchannel since 2016, that simulcast having replaced an affiliation with a
24/7 Weather service that aired over WINK-DT2 between 2012 and 2015. As of March 4, 2019, WINK-DT2 also carries the
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
programming service on weeknights, filling in programming for all time slots outside of the MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the Antenna TV schedule; the March 2019 relaunch of WINK-DT2 as a dual Antenna TV/MyNetworkTV affiliate restored in-market access to the MyNetworkTV programming service to southwest Florida for the first time since Comcast's July 1, 2015 closure of former cable-exclusive dual MyNetworkTV/
This TV
This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media
Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...
affiliate,
WNFM-TV
"WNFM" was a MyNetworkTV-network affiliate, affiliated cable television, cable channel serving Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Naples, Florida, United States. The call signs in North America, call sign is fictional as the channel was not bro ...
.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WINK has been digital-only since February 17, 2009.
[http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf ] It moved its digital signal to UHF channel 50 in mid-2011.
References
External links
WINK-TV official websiteBroadcast Center , Fort Myers Broadcasting Co. , Sun Broadcasting, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wink-Tv
CBS network affiliates
MyNetworkTV affiliates
Antenna TV affiliates
INK-TV
Television channels and stations established in 1954
1954 establishments in Florida