WTLV (channel 12) 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 ...

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 largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by

Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...

alongside Orange Park–licensed

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 ...

affiliate

WJXX WJXX (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Orange Park, Florida, United States, serving the Jacksonville area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate WTLV (channel 12). Both stations share studios ...

(channel 25). Both stations share studios on East Adams Street (near TIAA Bank Field) in downtown Jacksonville, while WTLV's transmitter is located on Anders Boulevard in the city's Killarney Shores section.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1957, as WFGA-TV (which stood for "We're Florida and Georgia"). Founded by the Florida-Georgia Television Company, it was originally a primary NBC affiliate with a secondary affiliation with ABC. It was the first television station in the United States that was designed for color broadcasting, and many of the country's color commercials were filmed at the station. Two years later, WFGA donated tower space, money and transmitting facilities to the market's National Educational Television (NET) member station WJCT (channel 7, now a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

member station). In 1958, WFGA was selected "Newsfilm Station of the Year" by the

National Press Photographers Association The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is an American professional association made up of still photographers, television videographers, editors, and students in the journalism field. Founded in 1946, the organization is based in at ...

. On October 11, 1958, channel 12 became the first television station to air a live launch from

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

– Thor-Able's successful launch of the

Pioneer I Pioneer 1 (also known as Able 2) was an American space probe, the first under the auspices of NASA, which was launched by a Thor-Able rocket on 11 October 1958. It was intended to orbit the Moon and make scientific measurements, but due to a g ...

lunar probe. The station also provided the remote facilities, and supplied video and audio for all three major networks (ABC, NBC and CBS). This earned WFGA-TV the exclusive spot for NBC's space coverage. WFGA lost the ABC affiliation to WJKS (channel 17, later WJWB and now CW affiliate

WCWJ WCWJ (channel 17) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Graham Media Group alongside independent station WJXT (channel 4). Both stations share studios at 4 Broadcast Place on the ...

), when it signed on in September 1966; as a result, channel 12 became an exclusive NBC affiliate. WTLV Slide, 1972

On December 16, 1971, the station changed its call letters to WTLV. In 1975, the station was purchased by

Harte-Hanks Communications Harte Hanks is a global marketing services company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Harte Hanks services include analytics, strategy, marketing technology, creative services, digital marketing, customer care, direct mail, logistics, and ful ...

. On March 31, 1980, WTLV swapped affiliations with WJKS, joining ABC, which at the time was the most-watched of the then- three major U.S. broadcast television networks. In December 1987, the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Greensboro, North Carolina, sister station

WFMY-TV WFMY-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Phillips Avenue in Greensboro, an ...

. The deal was finalized in February 1988. On April 3 of that year, WTLV reversed the 1980 affiliation swap with WJKS, returning to NBC in what the network called one of its most successful affiliation switches ever. By this time, NBC had once again become the highest-rated broadcast network. This swap brought WTLV in line with sister stations

WXIA-TV 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 en ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

KARE-TV KARE (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an NBC affiliate. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Olson Memorial Highway ( MN 55) in Golden Val ...

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

and

KPNX KPNX (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Mesa, Arizona, United States, serving the Phoenix area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios at the Republic Media building on Van Buren Street i ...

in Phoenix, which had recently renewed their NBC relationships.

Duopoly with WJXX

After 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 jurisdiction ...

(FCC) legalized television station duopolies on November 15, 1999, the Allbritton Communications Company announced the following day that it would sell ABC affiliate

(channel 25) to Gannett, creating a duopoly with WTLV. Normally, duopolies between two "big four" affiliates or even "big three" affiliates would not be allowed because they usually constituted the top four stations in a market. FCC regulations do not allow common ownership of any two of the four highest-rated stations in a market based on total-day viewership. However, WJXX had ranked as the fifth highest-rated station in the market, often trailing WJWB (which had gone from one of ABC's weakest affiliates to becoming one of

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 broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

's strongest) and

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''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate WAWS (channel 30, now

WFOX-TV WFOX-TV (channel 30) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with Fox and Telemundo. It is owned by Cox Media Group, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WJAX-TV (channel 47) under a joint sales ag ...

), in addition to WJXT and WTLV. Once the sale was finalized on March 17, 2000, Gannett's purchase of WJXX became the first instance where a single company owned two television stations that both had affiliations with a "big three" television network (all of Jacksonville's "big four" network affiliates ended up under the control of two media companies by 2002), when WJAX (then WTEV-TV)—which is operated alongside Cox Media Group's WFOX—replaced WJXT as the market's CBS affiliate. As part of the purchase, the company integrated WJXX's operations into WTLV's Adams Street facility and launched a joint news operation known as ''

First Coast News First Coast News is the newsroom of television stations WTLV (channel 12) and WJXX (channel 25), the NBC and ABC affiliates in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is owned with the stations by Tegna Inc. The First Coast News brand was fi ...

''. However, most of the on-air personnel were holdovers from WTLV. The studios of the newly created duopoly were also renovated. Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a

dispute Dispute may refer to: * an act of physical violence; combat * Controversy ** Lawsuit ** Dispute resolution * Dispute (credit card) * ''La Dispute'', a 1744 prose comedy by Pierre de Marivaux * La Dispute (band) La Dispute is an American pos ...

against

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...

s. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it was affecting advertising revenues for its Jacksonville television stations. Gannett threatened to pull them both from the satellite provider should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WTLV and WJXX were retained by the latter company, named Tegna. On May 30, 2017, WTLV was fined $55,000 by the FCC for airing Jacksonville Jaguars promos that included the

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and both ...

tones.

News operation

When WFGA-TV began broadcasting, the station's first news director was Harold Baker, who had served in the same position at WSM

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. Baker would anchor the station's 6 p.m. news for 17 years and direct the nascent channel 12 newsroom for 19 years in total, winning the station major national journalism awards. It settled in as a consistent second-place finisher to WJXT in local news, though it worked to close the gap, particularly after its acquisition by Gannett in 1988. After being acquired by Harte-Hanks in 1975, WTLV began producing the market's first hour-long evening newscast, branded as ''Action News''; channel 12 began producing Jacksonville's first midday newscast at noon soon afterwards. WTLV's ''Action News'' launched the city's first morning newscast, ''Good Morning Jacksonville'', in the early 1980s. Some of the first shows featured Pamela Rittenhouse and current ''First Coast News'' chief meteorologist Tim Deegan. Beginning in 1995, WTLV also aired a weekly television show called ''Monday Night Live'', which aired at 7:00 p.m. every Monday evening during the NFL season, and was hosted by sports director

Dan Hicken Daniel Patrick Hicken has been a television sports news anchor in Jacksonville, Florida for over thirty years for two different broadcasting groups. Career Hicken graduated from the University of Florida. His first job in television was an inte ...

and

John Jurkovic Ivan "John" Jurkovic (born August 18, 1967) is a former American football player currently employed as a broadcaster. He grew up in Calumet City, Illinois. Jurkovic played professionally as a defensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers, Jack ...

Notable staff

Nick Gregory Nick Gregory (born April 24, 1960) is an American meteorologist and pilot. He is the chief meteorologist for WNYW in New York City. His first weather forecast for WNYW aired on December 26, 1986. Career A native of New Rochelle, New York, Gregory ...

– meteorologist (early 1980s); now chief meteorologist at WNYW * Curt Menefee – sports anchor (1991–1992); now co-host of '' Fox NFL Sunday'' *

Harmon Wages Harmon Leon Wages (born May 18, 1946) is an American former college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons during the 1960s and 1970s. He played college football for the ...

– sports anchor (late 1980s); retired

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Digital subchannel 12.2 originally carried

NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital broadcast and cable television network owned as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard d ...

until the network ceased operations in November 2008; branded as ''First Coast News Weather Plus'', it subsequently became a locally originated weather channel as part of the NBC Plus automated weather service. In April 2009, WTLV moved ''First Coast News Weather Plus'' to WJXX on a newly created second digital subchannel of that station. WTLV then began carrying Universal Sports over digital subchannel 12.2, which was subsequently replaced with The Country Network (now

ZUUS Country The Country Network is an American cable, streaming and broadcast television network that specializes in broadcasting country music videos and exclusive original music-based content; its playlist of videos extends from the 1990s through the pres ...

) in January 2012, after Universal Sports ended operations as a digital multicast network and transitioned to a

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...

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 ...

network. In the fall of 2013, the subchannel became an affiliate of Soul of the South Network.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 12, 2009, WTLV terminated its analog signal, on

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 12, 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 VHF channel 13. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WTLV'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's ...

as 12. As part of the

SAFER Act In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...

, WTLV kept its analog signal on the air until June 27 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...

References

External links

*
Photos of WTLV's news set

WFGA-TV Original Sign-On
* WTLV-TV Transmitter: {{DEFAULTSORT:Wtlv NBC network affiliates Tegna Inc. Antenna TV affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Court TV affiliates Comet (TV network) affiliates Charge! (TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1957 TLV Wometco Enterprises 1957 establishments in Florida Former Gannett subsidiaries