WJAX-TV (channel 47) 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 ear ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Hoffman Communications, which maintains a joint sales agreement (JSA) with

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...

, owner of

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with prog ...

affiliate WFOX-TV (channel 30), for the provision of certain services. The stations share studios on Central Parkway, while WJAX-TV's transmitter is located on Hogan Road, both in Jacksonville's Southside section.

History

The station was the brainchild of John Stone Thigpenn who, while working as an announcer at

Christian radio Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk prog ...

station WBIX (1010 AM, now WJXL) during May 1977, read

Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, former presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocates a conservative Christian ...

's "Shout it From the Housetops," Robertson's personal account of how he founded the

Christian Broadcasting Network The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series ''The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing '' Superbook'' a ...

. Thigpenn, who gained faith to create a similar venture in Jacksonville, mentioned on the air that he wanted to start a Christian television station in the Jacksonville market. Within minutes of this announcement, listener Janice Paulk from Fernandina Beach called to ask who she should make a check out to in support of the effort. Thigpenn suggested the name "Christian Television of Jacksonville," knowing he could later formally create a business license and banking account under that name. Three days later, a check for $1,000 was received from Paulk. Further inspired by such a generous donation, Thigpenn contacted his friend Russell Linenkohl,

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

of the local Full Gospel Businessmen's Association. Linenkohl suggested teaming up with other Christian business leaders to jointly discuss how best to proceed. Included in that group were physicians already known by Thigpenn, Stephen Gyland and Douglas Fowler. Other businessmen being recommended were local bankers Richard Martin, Rufus Kite Powell and Thomas McGehee. The group agreed to hold a public meeting to invite citizen comments regarding the endeavor. At the end of this public meeting, the attendees voted to appoint the head table to form a selection committee tasked with appointing and forming a Board of Directors for Christian Television of Jacksonville. Before the public meeting, Thigpenn had already contacted the Broadcast Bureau of the

Federal Communications Commission 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 jurisd ...

(FCC) to discover that two UHF channel allocations (channels 30 and 47) were available for use in Jacksonville. He also discovered that two entities were already competing for the channel 30 frequency. The group decided to avoid the time and expense of litigating a challenge for that allotment and opted to file for a license to operate a station on channel 47. Thigpenn, who did not share the same community prominence as the other appointing members, agreed to act as a silent partner to the newly appointed Board of Directors for Christian Television of Jacksonville. He subsequently headed up the Community Ascertainment requirement as one of several exhibits needed by the FCC as part of the license application process. While Christian Television of Jacksonville received the

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...

and eventual

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

from the FCC, it did not garner the expected financial donations from the community to sustain its operating costs. The board then decided to transfer the ownership to Thomas McGehee, who was serving as the board's president. McGehee and his brother Frank McGehee formed

North Florida North Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida comprising the northernmost part of the state. Along with South Florida and Central Florida, it is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regi ...

Television Incorporated, which was awarded the license transfer by the FCC.New CBS affiliate has garage-studio roots
''

The Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...

'', June 17, 2002. Thigpenn was appointed to the new board and was listed as a principal on the newly granted license. After all the planning and financing, the station officially signed on the air on August 1, 1980 as WXAO-TV (standing for the

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

for "

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

, the

Alpha and Omega Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi ...

"). It first broadcast from studio facilities located on University Boulevard/ SR 109 on Jacksonville's Southside. It was the first

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

in Jacksonville. Thigpenn served as the station's first news director during its first four years on the air. The station intended to be a family-friendly alternative to the network programs on the market's commercial television stations; it carried religious programs from the PTL Satellite Network, the Christian Television Network and the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

, as well as

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

programs including

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

, westerns and a few classic

sitcom A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...

s. WXAO was the first television station in Jacksonville to broadcast on a 24-hour schedule. However, it never generated very high viewership. Gradually, the station abandoned most of its religious programming and transitioned to a general-entertainment independent format. On June 27, 1983, the station changed its call letters to WNFT. At that point, it began running more movies and drama series. By 1989, it was airing a blend of cartoons, recent off-network sitcoms and drama series, and movies. The McGehees sold WNFT to Krypton Broadcasting in 1990 for approximately $3 million;Kerr, Jessie-Lynne

Florida Times-Union, July 14, 2006, "Mac Papers co-founder was civic, religious leader" Krypton owned two other stations with similar formats,

WTVX WTVX (channel 34) is a television station licensed to Fort Pierce, Florida, United States, serving the West Palm Beach area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CBS affiliate WPEC (channel 12) and two ...

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 Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and WABM in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. Krypton filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and sold its stations to separate owners over the next year. In October 1994, WNFT was sold to RDS Broadcasting, which entered into a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

with Clear Channel Communications (now

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

), owner of Fox affiliate WAWS (channel 30). WNFT integrated its operations into that station's studio facilities on Central Parkway; the two stations pooled resources and programming, while running the strongest syndicated programs (including cartoons and sitcoms) on WAWS. Meanwhile, WNFT restructured its schedule to focus largely on older cartoons,

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, sitcoms and drama series. It became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network ( UPN) when the network launched on January 16, 1995. The station changed its call letters to WTEV-TV (which had previously been used by present-day ABC affiliate WLNE-TV in New Bedford, Massachusetts as a CBS affiliate) on March 4, 1996. During the late 1990s, WTEV began decreasing its reliance on classic sitcoms, cut back on cartoons, and began to focus more of its programming inventory on

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

and

reality shows Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

. Clear Channel would buy the station outright in 2000, creating the second television duopoly in the Jacksonville market.

Joining CBS

On April 23, 2002, CBS signed an affiliation agreement with Clear Channel for WTEV-TV to become the new CBS affiliate for the Jacksonville television market. The network's longtime affiliate, WJXT (channel 4), chose not to renew its affiliation agreement with the network after CBS supplied the station's owner, Post-Newsweek Stations (now the Graham Media Group), with a list of demands that included the payment of reverse compensation to the network (instead of receiving payments, as was the case in the past) to continue carrying CBS programming and limiting preemptions of CBS programming to events where breaking news and severe weather coverage necessitate it. WTEV officially became a CBS affiliate on July 15, 2002, with WJXT opting to become an independent station. In addition, this triggered an affiliation switch in Gainesville where WGFL, once a WB affiliate, became a CBS affiliate. At the time, WAWS assumed the UPN affiliation on a secondary basis (airing it on a tape delay from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.) and acquired several syndicated sitcoms that WTEV no longer had room on its schedule to air (coincidentally, both CBS and UPN were owned by the original Viacom at the time). WTEV also began carrying most

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

regular season games through CBS' broadcast rights to the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

's American Football Conference division, along with many high-profile college football games through the network's contract with the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

, including the annual

Florida–Georgia football rivalry The Florida–Georgia football rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the University of Florida Gators and the University of Georgia Bulldogs, both members of the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conferenc ...

game held at

EverBank Field TIAA Bank Field is an American football stadium located in Jacksonville, Florida, that primarily serves as the home facility of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) and the headquarters of the professional wrestling prom ...

on the first Saturday of November. With WTEV obtaining the CBS affiliation, the situation resulted in the first instance where two broadcasting companies controlled the Big Four network affiliates in one market (the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.WJXX (channel 25) and NBC affiliate WTLV (channel 12)), as well as making Jacksonville one of the only United States television markets with all six major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and at the time, UPN and

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...

) having affiliations with only five stations in a six station-market (which remains the case in the present day with UPN and WB successors

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

and

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 ...

) and one of the few where an analog-era VHF station has no network affiliation while all the other stations in the market do. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its television stations to Newport Television, a newly formed television station group controlled by

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including le ...

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented private equity investme ...

. Since WTEV was also included in the deal, this would have violated FCC rules preventing common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market as defined by total-day ratings. Clear Channel had bought WTEV when it was a low-rated UPN affiliate, but by this point had surpassed WJXT and WCWJ (channel 17) in total-day viewership. As a result, the FCC granted Newport Television a temporary waiver for the acquisition of WTEV and WAWS. With that, the company was able to complete its purchase of the station group on March 14, 2008. As a result, the FCC granted Newport Television a temporary waiver to acquire WAWS and WTEV, provided that Newport sell one of the two stations within six months of the sale's consummation. After the group deal closed on March 14, 2008, Newport had originally planned to sell off WAWS to another company while retaining ownership of WTEV. Actionnewslogo

However in May 2008, it agreed to sell the license assets of WTEV and five other Newport stations to High Plains Broadcasting due to ownership conflicts in the affected markets; the purchase was finalized on September 15 of that year. As the deal was a sale in name only, Newport continued to operate the stations (and thus, WTEV effectively remained a sister outlet to WAWS) after the sale closed on September 15. It effectively made High Plains Broadcasting a

front company A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

or "

shell corporation A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or ...

" for Newport Television similar to the existing relationships between the Nexstar Broadcasting Group and

Mission Broadcasting Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2011. All but ...

and the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

and

Cunningham Broadcasting Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation is an owner of broadcast television stations in the United States. The company currently owns fifteen stations – eight affiliated with Fox, three affiliated with The CW, two affiliated with ABC, and two affil ...

. This arrangement also placed WTEV in the unusual position of being the junior partner in a virtual duopoly with a Fox affiliate (the Big Three station normally serves as the senior partner in most virtual or legal duopolies involving a Fox affiliate and a Big Three-affiliated station). On July 19, 2012, Newport Television announced the sale of WAWS and WTEV-TV to

, in a four-station deal that also involved the

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

sister duopoly of KOKI-TV and KMYT-TV. The sale to Cox placed WAWS and WTEV under common ownership with the company's radio station cluster in Jacksonville (WOKV (

690 AM 69 may refer to: * 69 (number) * A year, primarily 69 BC, AD 69, 1969, or 2069 *69 (sex position) Arts and media Music * ''69'', a 1988 album by A.R. Kane * "'69", a song by Deep Purple from ''Abandon'' * Major 6 add 9, a jazz chord * "Summer ...

and 106.5 FM, now WXXJ), WFYV-FM (104.5, now WOKV-FM), WJGL (96.9), WXXJ (102.9, now

WEZI Victoria Wezi Mhone (born 25 May 1992), known in music circles as Wezi or Wezi HeartSound, is a Zambian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 2016 after releasing her debut EP-Uhai which won her the 2016 new artist of the year at the Zambi ...

) and WAPE-FM (95.1)) as well as Cox's

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 r ...

duopoly of ABC affiliate WFTV and independent station WRDQ. Due to the very same rules that forced the license of WTEV to be transferred to a separate licensee back in 2008, Cox acquired WAWS outright and transferred WTEV's license assets to Bayshore Television, LLC, which then turned over WTEV's operations to Cox under a joint sales agreement. The FCC approved the transaction on October 24, and it was finalized on December 3. On August 26, 2014, Cox announced their intention to change WTEV's call letters to WJAX-TV, contingent on FCC approval, through a request made in July. In an email to ''

'', general manager Jim Zerwekh stated that the change would better associate the station with Jacksonville. Concurrently with the change to WJAX-TV, sister station WAWS was renamed WFOX-TV. The change took effect on September 7, 2014. The WJAX call letters were also used in Jacksonville on

1220 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1220 kHz: 1220 AM is a Mexican clear-channel frequency. XEB-AM, XEB Mexico City is the dominant list of broadcast station classes, Class A station on 1 ...

; the two stations were not related, as WJAX radio was owned by Jones College. On February 27, 2018, it was announced that Bayshore Television would sell WJAX-TV to Hoffman Communications for $1.2 million. Cox would continue to operate the station. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 17, 2018, and was completed on May 8. In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting's stations (including the JSA with WJAX-TV). Although the group planned to operate under the name Terrier Media, it was later announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and retain the Cox Media Group name. The sale was completed on December 17, 2019.

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

programs broadcast by WJAX-TV (as of September 2022) include ''

Family Feud ''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. It features two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. The show has had three separate runs, the ...

'', '' Tamron Hall'', ''

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

'', and '' The Doctors'' among others.

Sports programming

Since its 2002 affiliation switch to CBS, then-WTEV-TV became the official broadcaster of most

regular-season games due to the network's contract involving AFC teams. The first Jaguars game to air on the station as the new CBS affiliate was the team's Week 1 home game versus the Indianapolis Colts on September 8, 2002. WJAX simulcast

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

's broadcast of the Jaguars game in London against the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

in October 2015, per NFL rules requiring simulcasting on over-the-air stations in the markets of the participating teams. It was the first ever streaming-exclusive broadcast of an NFL game.

News operation

WJAX-TV presently broadcasts 30 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, two hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces the sports highlight programs ''Action Sports Jax Primetime'', which airs weekend evenings at 11:30 p.m. (the station also produces a half-hour version of the program for WFOX-TV after its 10:00 p.m. newscast on weekends) and ''Friday Night Blitz'', which airs Fridays at 11:15 p.m. The stations utilize

Doppler radar A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object's motion has altered the fr ...

data from the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

Forecast Office near

Jacksonville International Airport Jacksonville International Airport is a civil-military public airport 13 miles (21 km) north of Downtown Jacksonville, in Duval County, Florida. It is owned and operated by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. History Construction sta ...

. In the late 1990s, WAWS began producing a half-hour early evening newscast for WTEV titled ''UPN 47 News at 6:30'', which aired Monday through Fridays; the 6:30 broadcast was canceled in June 2002, a couple of weeks prior to the affiliation switch. Once WTEV became a CBS affiliate in July 2002, the station expanded its local news programming, adding a full slate newscasts at 5:30 a.m. (effectively "moving" over from WAWS), noon, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. on Monday through Fridays, along with weekend evening newscasts. WAWS's existing news department essentially took over primary newscast production for the station. Initially, WTEV maintained certain primary personnel (such as news anchors) that would only appear on the newscasts on channel 47. In addition, newscasts used separate on-air branding and graphics packages, with WTEV's newscasts being conducted from the duopoly's newsroom in order to distinguish the two outlets and retain separate on-air identities. In the late 2000s, WTEV's weekday morning newscast began to be simulcast on WAWS. Corresponding with the change, ''Action News This Morning'' was expanded to two hours (from 5:00 to 7:00), with a two-hour extension of the program (from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m.) eventually being added on WAWS. WAWS would later break away from the unified brand and introduce its own separate graphics and music package, and logo based on those originated in the mid-2000s on Fox's

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

s on September 19, 2010. On April 13, 2009, WTEV and WAWS began utilizing a single on-air identity for their respective newscasts, branding their news programming collectively as ''

Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...

'', presumably done as a way to compete with the ''First Coast News'' operation of rivals WTLV and WJXX. With the overhaul came the introduction of new sets (with WAWS maintaining a separate set for its nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast), on-air graphics, weather center and website. On January 31, 2010, WTEV/WAWS became the second television news operation in the Jacksonville market to begin broadcasting their local newscasts in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

(after WJXT, which upgraded on January 14, 2009; WTLV/WJXX upgraded their newscasts to HD the day after WAWS/WTEV's conversion to high definition newscasts). In 2010, WAWS/WTEV began airing a half-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast for channel 30 at 4:30 a.m. (WTEV continues to start its morning newscast at 5:00 a.m. as it carries the '' CBS Morning News'' in the 4:30 slot on a half-hour tape delay). On May 28, 2014, Cox Media Group management fired five WAWS/WTEV anchors—weeknight anchors Mark Spain, Tera Barz and Paige Kelton (the latter of whom had been with the news department since its 1997 establishment on WAWS), and morning anchors Lynnsey Gardner and Mike Barz—in a restructuring of its news staff; all five anchors are expected to leave the stations on or around September 1. The layoffs drew criticism from Jacksonville city council president Bill Guilford stating that Cox Media Group "exercised bad judgment" in cutting the five anchors.

Notable current on-air staff

* Phil Amato – anchor * Mike Buresh ( AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist

Notable former on-air staff

Mike Barz Mike Barz (born ''Michael Barszcz''; April 9, 1970) is an American broadcaster who was weekday morning news anchor at WFOX-TV and WJAX-TV in Jacksonville, Florida. He was a morning news anchor at WFLD, the Fox affiliate in Chicago, Illinois from 20 ...

– anchor * Mark Spain – anchor

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

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 ...

: On April 1, 2014, Cox Media Group signed an affiliation agreement to carry the digital multicast movie network

GetTV getTV is an American Digital subchannel#Commercial networks, digital multicast television network owned by the Sony Pictures Television Networks subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. Originally formatted as a movie channel, movie-oriented serv ...

on WTEV-TV; the station began carrying the network in the summer of 2014 on subchannel 47.2, replacing

Live Well Network Localish (formerly Live Well Network, stylized as LOCALISH) is a lifestyle TV network owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, part of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Localish's 24/7 channel streams on Hulu Liv ...

."Four Cox Media Group Stations Get GetTV,"
from ''Broadcasting & Cable'', April 1, 2014. Sometime in 2020, GetTV on 47.2 was replaced by

Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s. The network origina ...

, which has been airing on

WRCZ-LD WRCZ-LD, virtual and UHF digital channel 35, is a low-powered Grit-affiliated television station serving Jacksonville, Florida, United States that is licensed to Ocala. The station is owned by the DTV America Corporation, which also owns W ...

35.3.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 12, 2009, WJAX-TV (as WTEV-TV) terminated its analog signal, on

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 47, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
/ref> The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WJAX-TV's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver' ...

as 47.

References

External links

* {{Jacksonville Television channels and stations established in 1980 1980 establishments in Florida JAX-TV Cox Media Group CBS network affiliates Cozi TV affiliates Decades (TV network) affiliates