Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
, United States, and WTTK (channel 29), licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are
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 eart ...
s affiliated with
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 ...
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
WXIN
WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington-licensed CBS affiliate WTTV, channel 4 (and its Kokomo-licensed s ...
(channel 59). The stations share studios on Network Place (near 71st Street and I-465) in northwestern Indianapolis. WTTV's transmitter is located on State Road 252 in Trafalgar, while WTTK's transmitter sits on West 73rd Street on the northern outskirts of Indianapolis.
WTTK operates as a full-time
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 radioi ...
of WTTV; it was originally used to bring WTTV's programming to areas of
central Indiana
The geography of Indiana comprises the physical features of the land and relative location of U.S. State of Indiana. Indiana is in the north-central United States and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Michigan to the north and no ...
that had marginal to non-existent reception of the main WTTV signal (including Kokomo,
Muncie
Muncie ( ) is an incorporated city and the seat of Delaware County, Indiana. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the legendary Delaware Chief.http://www.delawarecountyhistory.org/history/docs/lenape-villages.pdf It is located in ...
and
Lafayette
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757â ...
). However, post-digital transition with the transmitter's relocation into Marion County, it nearly duplicates the signal contours of ABC affiliate
WRTV
WRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Meridian Street north of downtown Indianapolis, and its transm ...
WISH-TV
WISH-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Marion-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WNDY-TV (channel 23) and low-power, ...
(channel 8),
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
WTHR
WTHR (channel 13) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power, Class A MeTV affiliate WALV-CD (channel 46). Both stations share studios on North Meridian ...
(channel 13),
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 ...
affiliate
WNDY-TV
WNDY-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Marion, Indiana, United States, serving the Indianapolis area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Indianapolis-licensed CW affiliate ...
(channel 23), and WXIN; there is significant overlap between the coverage areas of both WTTV and WTTK's signals otherwise. WTTK is a straight
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...
of WTTV; on-air references to WTTK are limited to
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 jurisdicti ...
(FCC)-mandated hourly
station identification
Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in th ...
s during newscasts and other programming, along with tuning recommendations for over-the-air viewers to the north of Indianapolis. Despite Kokomo being WTTK's
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American br ...
, there has never been any physical office or employees located in that area.
History
Early history
The station first signed on the air on
November 11
Events Pre-1600
* 308 – At Carnuntum, Emperor ''emeritus'' Diocletian confers with Galerius, ''Augustus'' of the East, and Maximianus, the recently returned former ''Augustus'' of the West, in an attempt to end the civil wars of the ...
, 1949, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 10. It was the second television station to sign on in the state of Indiana, debuting almost 6½ months after WFBM-TV (now WRTV) signed on in May 1949. It has made the claim to being Indiana's oldest "continuously operating" television station because WFBM-TV had experienced a transmitter failure which took it off the air for an extended period of time shortly after WTTV signed on. Owned by
Sarkes Tarzian
Sarkes Tarzian (October 5, 1900 – October 7, 1987) was an Ottoman-born American engineer, inventor, and broadcaster. He was ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire. He and his family immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States i ...
, a Bloomington-based radio manufacturer and broadcaster, the station originally operated as a primary
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate with secondary affiliations with ABC and the DuMont Television Network. It also aired programming from CBS on occasion.
WTTV originally transmitted its signal from its studio just south of downtown Bloomington, shared with sister station WTTS (1370 AM, now WGCL), which went on the air in March 1949. Sarkes Tarzian built a new studio and transmitter on the north end of the Tarzian factory property on Bloomington's south side in 1952. Also that same year the release of the FCC's ''Sixth Report and Order'', which ended a four-year suspension of television station permit and license awards, also saw a reallocation of VHF channel assignments across the United States—including in Bloomington, where WTTV was forced to move from channel 10 to the newly assigned channel 4. The switch took effect on February 21, 1954, and as a result, WTTV's transmitter was moved to a tower near Cloverdale, and the power was increased to 100,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s. The station's former channel 10 allocation was moved to
Terre Haute
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
and awarded to
WTHI-TV
WTHI-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS, Fox, MyNetworkTV and The CW Plus. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station has studios on 8th and Ohio Streets in downtown Terre Hau ...
, which signed on in July 1954.
In its early years, instead of buying most of the expensive items needed to run a television station, Tarzian had his own engineers and technicians design and build the items needed. For example, an overhead microphone boom cost approximately $300. Tarzian employees built one for less than $30. When Tarzian decided to start broadcasting network programs, establishing a coaxial cable link from
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
would prove impractical, so Tarzian built his own
microwave relay
Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally limi ...
system from Cincinnati to Bloomington.
The station lost the ABC affiliation after WISH-TV signed on in July 1954. In 1956, the station lost the NBC affiliation to WFBM-TV; WTTV rejoined ABC after WISH-TV took a primary affiliation with CBS. That same year, it relocated its studio facilities to a site at Bluff Road on the south side of Indianapolis, although the station retained its studios on the Tarzian property in Bloomington as an auxiliary site for many years afterward. In the late 1950s, the station began producing some of its local programs in
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...
; WTTV would convert to full color broadcasts in the fall of 1965, after it purchased color-capable camera equipment.
The station activated its current tower in Trafalgar, the tallest structure in Indiana at above ground level, in 1957; WTTV was joined on the tower by a new radio station, Bloomington-licensed WTTV-FM (92.3 FM, now
WTTS
WTTS is an FM radio station serving Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States, licensed to Trafalgar, Indiana, and broadcasting at 92.3 FM. The station's format is classified as adult album alternative or "triple A." WTTS u ...
) in 1960. The transmitter facility is located farther south than Indianapolis' other major television stations due to FCC regulations that require a station's transmitter site be located no more than from its
city of license
In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American br ...
—in this case, Bloomington, which is south of Indianapolis. WTTV only provided a grade B ("rimshot") signal to the city's northern suburbs and could not be seen at all in the far northern portions of the market. As a result, most of these areas only got a clear signal from channel 4 when
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
arrived in central Indiana in the late 1960s. Because of this rule, when WTTV regained the ABC affiliation, WLBC-TV in
Muncie
Muncie ( ) is an incorporated city and the seat of Delaware County, Indiana. Previously known as Buckongahelas Town, named after the legendary Delaware Chief.http://www.delawarecountyhistory.org/history/docs/lenape-villages.pdf It is located in ...
(channel 49, allocation now occupied by
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member stationWIPB) served as the ''de facto'' ABC affiliate for the northern part of the market.
As an independent station
On October 30, 1957, WTTV became an independent station after losing the ABC affiliation to upstart WLWI (channel 13, now
WTHR
WTHR (channel 13) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power, Class A MeTV affiliate WALV-CD (channel 46). Both stations share studios on North Meridian ...
). In its early years as an independent, WTTV began running a
test pattern
A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off).
Used since the ear ...
at 2 p.m. until regular programming began at 4 p.m. The station initially ran older
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 ...
and low-budget syndicated programs as well as some of its own locally produced programming. By the 1970s, WTTV began signing on by 6 a.m. and stayed on the air until at least 2 a.m. In addition to local programming, WTTV aired plenty of movies during the early afternoon hours and in prime time. It also aired
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 ...
, which were mixed in with locally produced children's programs in the afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m. as well as off-network
sitcom
A sitcom, a 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 troupe may use ...
s in the evenings.
As cable expanded in the Midwest during the 1970s, WTTV became a regional superstation. At its height, it was available on nearly every cable system in Indiana outside the
Chicago metropolitan area
The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and h ...
, which contained
Northwest Indiana
Northwest Indiana, nicknamed The Region after the Calumet Region, comprises Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2020 ...
. It was also carried in large portions of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
,
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
and Lexington. Due to the syndication exclusivity rule, it disappeared from most cable systems outside Indiana (except for the Kentucky side of the
Evansville
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
market) in the late 1980s.
Sarkes Tarzian sold WTTV to Teleco for $26.5 million in September 1978 (while retaining the radio stations, which are still owned by Tarzian as of 2020); the station was then sold to the Tel-Am Corporation in March 1984. In December 1978, ''
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...
'' reported that NBC was considering either WTTV or WTHR as potential replacement affiliates for WRTV, which was in the process of switching from NBC to ABC. NBC ultimately reached an agreement to shift the affiliation to outgoing ABC affiliate WTHR, effective June 1, 1979. By the mid-1980s, WTTV began airing more cartoons and first-run syndicated
talk show
A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...
s during the daytime hours, as well as an increased number of recent off-network sitcoms during the evening. The station also began broadcasting 24 hours a day of programming by that time. Although it was one of the strongest independent stations in the country, WTTV opted against affiliating with the upstart Fox network in 1986—one of the few long-established independents to do so. This was mainly because most of the markets in its large cable footprint had enough stations to provide Fox affiliates of their own, making the prospect of being a multi-state Fox affiliate unattractive to channel 4. The Fox affiliation in the Indianapolis market instead went to eventual sister station WXIN (channel 59), which became a charter affiliate of the network when it launched on October 6 of that year.
In 1987, Tel-Am purchased the construction permit for WWKI-TV (channel 29) in Kokomo, north of Indianapolis, from B.G.S. Broadcasting. B.G.S., who also owned WWKI radio (100.5 FM) until 1986, had concluded that there were not nearly enough viewers in north-central Indiana for WWKI-TV to be viable as a standalone station, and its merger with WTTV allowed channel 29 to come on the air. On May 1, 1988, Tel-Am signed channel 29 on as WTTK, a full-time
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 radioi ...
of WTTV, to improve its over-the-air coverage in northern portions of the market that could not receive the WTTV signal. Tel-Am filed for bankruptcy in 1987;
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...
-based Capitol Broadcasting Company purchased WTTV and WTTK in July 1988, after an attempt to sell the station to locally-based
Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which h ...
fell through. The stations were then sold to
River City Broadcasting
River City Broadcasting L.P. was a major television and radio station operator in mid-sized markets in the United States, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Overview
The firm was formed in 1989 as a partnership between Barry Baker and Larry Marcus, b ...
in 1991. The station carried PTEN programming through that entity's full existence.
From UPN to The WB
WTTV became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
) when the network launched on January 16, 1995. In April 1996, River City Broadcasting merged with 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, ...
in a $1.2 billion deal. However, due to FCC regulations at that time which prohibited the common ownership of two full-power commercial television stations in the same market, Sinclair had to obtain a cross-ownership waiver to retain ownership of WTTV/WTTK and the company's existing Indianapolis station, inTV affiliate WIIB (channel 63, now
Ion Television
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented en ...
owned-and-operated stationWIPX-TV), which the company eventually sold to DP Media two years later.
In 1997, Sinclair signed a deal with
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 ...
to affiliate with several UPN-affiliated and independent stations that the company either managed or owned outright. While WTTV was not included in the original deal, Sinclair subsequently notified UPN that it was not interested in renewing the station's affiliation, leading network sister company
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group (sometimes abbreviated as PSG) was a company that controlled a group of American broadcast television stations. The company existed from 1991 until 2001.
History
Paramount Communications, the then-parent company of Par ...
to strike a deal to buy WB charter affiliate
WNDY-TV
WNDY-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Marion, Indiana, United States, serving the Indianapolis area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Indianapolis-licensed CW affiliate ...
(channel 23), though Paramount pledged at the time to keep WNDY a WB affiliate through the expiration of its contract in January 1999. WTTV temporarily returned to being an independent station when its contract with UPN expired on January 16, 1998, (preview of subscription content) filling its prime time schedule with movies; on January 22, WNDY began to carry UPN programming in addition to The WB. WTTV then replaced WNDY as the market's WB affiliate on April 6, 1998, and changed its on-air branding to "WB 4 Indiana"; channel 23 then became a full-time UPN affiliate.
As The WB pushed for market exclusivity for its local affiliates as the network increased its national distribution beyond the Tribune Company's television stations and the superstation feed of its
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
affiliate (and Tribune flagship station) WGN-TV, Sinclair decided to wind down carriage agreements that the station had with cable providers located outside of the Indianapolis market. The station remained available on cable systems on the Indiana side of the Terre Haute market until 2017, when the station was pulled after WTTV's CBS affiliation took effect. CW programming now airs in that market via WTHI-DT3, which launched in the fall of 2017 (WTHI is also the market's CBS affiliate via its primary channel).
On April 19, 2002, Sinclair Broadcast Group sold WTTV and WTTK to
Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United St ...
for $125 million, creating the market's first television duopoly under current FCC regulations with Fox affiliate WXIN; the purchase was finalized on July 24 of that year (Tribune held an ownership interest in The WB at the time; however, WTTV could not technically be considered an owned-and-operated station since
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
held a 78% majority interest in the network).
Although WTTV was the longer-established of the two stations, Tribune chose to keep the Fox affiliation on WXIN due in part to WTTV's then-weaker analog signal in the northern part of the market. Additionally, the NFL on Fox, until the 2014 implementation of Fox/
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 ...
National Football League
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 ...
's American Football Conference (AFC), so the need for Fox to have an analog-era VHF affiliate in the market was less important than if it was an NFC market. WTTV merged its operations with those of WXIN in 2004, when the latter moved its operations into new facilities at 6910 Network Place at the Intech Park office development on the city's northwest side. The old WTTV facility on Bluff Road remained abandoned until being razed in 2016.
CW affiliation
On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and
CBS Corporation
The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and ...
(which
split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertai ...
from Viacom in December 2005) and announced that they would dissolve The WB and UPN (which CBS had acquired one month earlier in December 2005 following its split from the original Viacom), and combine the respective programming of both networks to create a new "fifth" network,
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
. The network signed a ten-year agreement with Tribune to affiliate with 16 of the 19 WB-affiliated stations that the company had owned at the time, including WTTV/WTTK; WTTV/WTTK became the market's CW affiliate when the network launched on September 18, 2006; its on-air branding was also changed to "CW 4". In August 2008, the station rebranded as "Indiana's 4" as part of a corporate effort by Tribune to strengthen the local branding of its stations and reduce the dependence on the use of references to The CW in its stations' branding in part due to the network's weak national ratings.
Affiliation switch with WISH-TV
On August 11, 2014, CBS and Tribune Broadcasting announced that WTTV would become Indianapolis' CBS affiliate beginning on
January 1
January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the yea ...
, 2015. The deal, which was part of an agreement that also renewed the CBS affiliations on Tribune-ownedstations infour
other markets
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), ...
, including
WTKR
WTKR (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by E. W. Scripps Company alongside Portsmouth-licensed CW affiliate WGNT (channel 27). ...
, which was owned by Dreamcatcher Broadcasting and operated by Tribune through a shared services agreement (SSA), was driven by CBS' desire for reverse
retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commer ...
compensation from its affiliates; WISH-TV had been in negotiations to renew its agreement with the network, but station management reportedly balked at CBS' demands. This led to CBS reaching a deal with WTTV, which Tribune was eager to land since the network holds the broadcast television rights to the AFC, which includes rights to most of the Indianapolis Colts' regular season games. This marked the second time that WTTV has taken a network affiliation away from WISH, the first being when it took the ABC affiliation in 1956.
After initially announcing plans to move The CW to its second digital subchannel, Tribune announced on December 22, that it would instead sell the CW affiliation in the market to WISH-TV's owner,
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...
(which finalized its merger with that station's longtime owner,
LIN Media
LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in In ...
, three days earlier); as a result, WISH effectively swapped affiliations with WTTV and became a CW affiliate. The first CBS program to air on WTTV was a repeat of Indianapolis native David Letterman's talk show, the '' Late Show'', which aired at 12:15 a.m. on January 1; Letterman concluded his run on the show in May.
WTTV became the third television station in Indianapolis to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally been aligned with WFBM-TV (now WRTV) beginning in 1949, before moving to WISH in 1956. WTTV became one of the few stations in the United States, and the second in Indianapolis (after WRTV) to have served as a primary affiliate of all three heritage broadcast networks. It is also the only American television station to have carried affiliations with each of the " Big Three" networks (excluding the "Big Four" era's
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 ...
), three of the four "netlets" (excluding
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 not counting the PTEN programming service) and have independent status on its primary channel all at different periods through its history.
In preparation for the move to CBS, WTTV unveiled a separate website in November 2014, after three years of being relegated to a section of WXIN's website. At the same time, the station announced that it would change its branding from "Indiana's 4" to "CBS 4" (with branding similar mostly to CBS owned-and-operated stations in Denver,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
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 ...
and
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
and unveiled a logo (seen above) that is also similar to
KCNC-TV
KCNC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street (between ...
's KCBS-style logo) upon affiliating with the network.
Sale to Nexstar Media Group
After a failed attempt by Sinclair Broadcast Group to acquire Tribune Media, Nexstar Media Group—which had subsumed Media General's WISH and WNDY in 2017—announced in December 2018 that it would acquire the company. Due to FCC ownership rules and scrutiny, Nexstar was required to divest two of the stations: the company ultimately elected to sell WISH and WNDY to the owner of
Bayou City Broadcasting
Bayou City Broadcasting, LLC was a broadcasting company founded in December 2007 and was owned by DuJuan McCoy. The company was based in The Woodlands, Texas. It is defunct as of September 2020 due to its acquisition by Entertainment Studios.
Hi ...
, in favor of retaining WTTV and WXIN. The sale was completed on September 19, 2019.
Subchannel history
WTTV-DT2/WTTK-DT2
WTTV-DT2 is an independent television station, which operates as a second digital subchannel of WTTV and WTTK. Over-the-air, it broadcasts in standard definition on channel 4.2 over WTTV and channel 29.2 over WTTK. Branded as Indiana's 4.2, the subchannel is available on
Comcast Xfinity
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...
digital channel 252; although it maintains an independently programmed general entertainment format, the subchannel is not currently available on
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 ser ...
The Tube Music Network
The Tube Music Network, Inc., or The Tube, was an American digital multicast television network. The network was a fully owned subsidiary of The Tube Media Corp., an independent company that was founded by David Levy in 2003. The Tube focused cl ...
in the fall of 2006, as part of the network's group affiliation deal with Tribune Broadcasting; after The Tube shut down on October 1, 2007, the subchannel switched to a standard definition simulcast of WTTV/WTTK's main channel to provide a quality signal for cable providers before they began instead to downscale the HD feed into standard definition. In November 2009, the 4.2/29.2 subchannel became an affiliate of
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 f ...
(which Tribune later acquired a 50% ownership interest in November 2013).
After Tribune agreed to affiliate WTTV with CBS, the station originally announced plans to shift its existing CW affiliation to WTTV/WTTK's second digital subchannel upon the switch. This would have made Indianapolis the largest market where The CW is carried as a subchannel-only affiliation, a title held from the network's 2006 launch by Cincinnati, where CBS affiliate
WKRC-TV
WKRC-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to MyNetworkTV affiliate WSTR-TV (channel 64) under a lo ...
(which, ironically, is now owned by former WTTV/WTTK parent Sinclair Broadcast Group) carries the network on its second subchannel, until May 2017, when
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
CBS affiliate
KFMB-TV
KFMB-TV (channel 8) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with CBS, The CW, and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tegna Inc., it has studios on Engineer Road in the Kearny Mesa section of San Diego, and its transmitt ...
began carrying The CW over its DT2 feed. On December 7, 2014, This TV moved from WTTV's 4.2 subchannel to a newly created 59.3 subchannel on WXIN, with 4.2 simulcasting the station's primary feed pending the planned move of CW programming to the subchannel.
After Tribune chose to sell the CW affiliation rights for the Indianapolis market to Media General and swap affiliations with WISH-TV, WTTV then announced that it would instead program the 4.2 subchannel as an independent station. This saved Tribune the burden of acquiring prime cable carriage for the subchannel, losing any available viewership for The CW's programming, or having to enter into carriage negotiations with AT&T U-verse, Dish Network and
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
to add the subchannel in the first place, as digital subchannels are traditionally not carried on IPTV or satellite providers unless affiliated with a major broadcast network. As a result, to fulfill programming contracts, most of WTTV's existing syndicated programming inventory (including talk shows, drama series and sitcoms) that could no longer air on the station's main schedule due to the heavy schedule of network programming it committed to air via its new CBS affiliation, programming that was considered "downmarket", and its new slate of local news programming was moved to digital channel 4.2/29.2 when the subchannel was converted into a general entertainment format on January 1, 2015, along with other syndicated shows not carried by WTTV prior to the switch. The "Indiana's 4" branding and logo used by WTTV as a CW affiliate from 2008 to 2014 was also adopted for use by the subchannel.
In the fall of 2021, the channel's branding was changed to "The Dot" without numerical demarcation, to remove any confusion with channel 4.1, and acknowledging the channel is rarely found in the one or two-digit tier of a pay television lineup.
WTTV-DT3/WTTK-DT3
On October 20, 2015, Tribune Broadcasting reached an agreement with former WTTV owner Sinclair Broadcast Group to carry the latter group's
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
-focused multicast network
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
on its stations in Indianapolis,
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
and
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. When the network launched on October 31, 2015, WTTV debuted a digital subchannel on virtual channel 4.3/29.3 to serve as an affiliate of Comet. On March 2, 2020, 29.3 became a Cozi TV affiliate while 4.3 continued as a Comet affiliate, separating the two channels' programming.
Programming
WTTV clears the entire CBS schedule; this differs from WISH-TV, which preempted select programs from the network and passed them to sister station WNDY from 2005 to 2014.WTTV's CBS-era schedule /ref> , syndicated programs broadcast on WTTV include ''
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 ...
'', ''
The People's Court
''The People's Court'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality sty ...
'', and ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...
'' (this show had previously aired first-run episodes on WISH-TV and WTTV as a CBS affiliate until the series ended). Syndicated programming on WTTV-DT2, which is programmed as an independent station, includes '' Friends'', ''
America's Court with Judge Ross
''America's Court with Judge Ross'' is an American syndicated court show produced by Entertainment Studios (ES). The program features former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Ross presiding over nontraditional/dramatized small ...
'', ''
Mike & Molly
''Mike & Molly'' is an American television sitcom created by Mark Roberts on CBS. It premiered on September 20, 2010, and aired 127 episodes over six seasons. The series stars Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy as the eponymous Mike and Molly ...
Two and a Half Men
''Two and a Half Men'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. Originally starring Charlie Sheen in the lead role alongside Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones, t ...
'' (these programs had previously aired on WTTV as a CW affiliate).
Sports programming
For over half a century, WTTV was central Indiana's home for
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
games from the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
, with a focus on games involving
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
and
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...
. Until the late 1990s, it produced telecasts of Hoosiers and Boilermakers games, earning it the nickname of "Indiana's Sports Station." In fact, many cable providers in Indiana began carrying WTTV simply so viewers across the state could watch the Hoosiers and Boilermakers. Due to cost-cutting measures in the 1990s, channel 4 shuttered its in-house productions and opted instead for syndication deals with Raycom Sports and
ESPN Plus
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Com ...
. WTTV also presented other Big Ten football and men's basketball telecasts on Saturdays, until the station lost the rights to those games when the conference launched the Big Ten Network in August 2007. From 2007 to 2013, WTTV aired basketball games from the "old"
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
, presumably due to the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...
's large following in the area. WTTV regained some rights to Big Ten basketball upon its switch to CBS.
WTTV also previously served as the flagship station for Indianapolis Colts NFL preseason games in the past until 2011, when WISH/WNDY took over the rights. WTTV traditionally produced statewide boys' and girls' high school basketball tournament finals and
Indiana High School Athletic Association
The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the arbiter of interscholastic competition among public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Indiana. It monitors a system that divides athletically-competing high schools in Indiana ...
converted its basketball tournament from a single-class to a multi-class format in 1997, WTTV chose not to renew those rights citing a decline in ratings (the broadcasts subsequently moved to WNDY-TV (channel 23) and then to
WHMB-TV
WHMB-TV (channel 40) is a religious independent television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It is owned by the Family Broadcasting Corporation (formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting and later World Harvest Broadcasting). WHMB's ...
(channel 40)); a new agreement with the IHSAA returned these events to WTTV in the fall of 2010. The IHSAA moved the tournaments to Fox Sports Indiana (now
Bally Sports Indiana
Bally Sports Indiana (BSIN) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. The channel broadcasts local professional and high school sports coverage throughout the state of Ind ...
) in the 2013–14 season.
WTTV also served as the television flagship for the Indiana Pacers from the team's days in the original American Basketball Association (except in 1984–85, when those rights were held by present-day sister station WXIN due to Pacers owner
Melvin Simon
Melvin Simon (October 21, 1926 – September 16, 2009) September 18, 2009 was an American businessman and ...
's part-ownership of the station) to 2006. WTTV lost the rights to the Pacers telecasts after the 2005–06 season, when the NBA team moved their local game telecasts to Fox Sports Indiana.
In August 2008, WTTV debuted ''Hoosier High School Sports Overtime'', a weekly half-hour program devoted to Indiana high school athletics that airs Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m.; it is hosted by WXIN sports anchor Jeremiah Johnson. In November of that year, the station also began running ''Hoosier High School Sports Classics'', a two-hour program that features rebroadcasts of past Indiana high school football and basketball state championship games, interspersed with present-day interviews of coaches and athletes that were involved; it aired on Sundays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
With the switch to CBS, WTTV became the ''de facto'' home station of the Colts, due to CBS' contract to carry a schedule mainly made up of American Football Conference games and ''
Thursday Night Football
''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...
'', and a deal between Tribune Broadcasting and the team making the station and WXIN exclusive broadcast partners. This means both stations air Colts preseason games, team programming and coach's shows; advertising within Lucas Oil Stadium is also included in the deal. Additionally, both stations carried the Super Bowl from 2019 to 2021, with WTTV carrying CBS coverage of Super Bowl LIII, WXIN airing Fox's coverage of
Super Bowl LIV
Super Bowl LIV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2019 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football Conferenc ...
and CBS airing Super Bowl LV. (CBS and NBC switched Super Bowl coverage in 2021 and 2022; this was so that NBC would not have to worry about airing the
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
(which begin nine days before Super Bowl LVI) against CBS' coverage of the Super Bowl. Thus, CBS aired Super Bowl LV in 2021 and NBC aired Super Bowl LVI in 2022.) Between CBS' AFC rights and Fox's NFC rights, the only time the Colts would not play on a Tribune station would be if they were scheduled for an ''
NBC Sunday Night Football
''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...
'' telecast, which would air on WTHR, or
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
's ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...
'', which has traditionally aired on
WRTV
WRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Meridian Street north of downtown Indianapolis, and its transm ...
. The first Colts game to air on WTTV as a CBS affiliate was the team's first-round playoff victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on January 4, and it carried two more games in the 2014 NFL season before the Colts lost to the Patriots in the
AFC Championship
The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference (AFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...
on January 18, 2015. Beginning in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
, the ''Thursday Night Football'' games are aired on WXIN, due to Fox carrying the package as part of a contract lasting through 2021 (''Thursday Night Football'' is now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video starting with the 2022 season).
WTTV, through
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 ...
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
does not carry the tournament's semifinals and final), which has traditionally ranked among the highest-rated programs in the market during tournament season due to Indiana's traditional status as a college basketball hotbed and as the home base for the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
. Lucas Oil Stadium holds a regular slot in the Final Four rotation (including the 2015 and 2021 tourneys). WTTV, as previously stated, also carries Big Ten games picked up by CBS, including the conference tournament, which is held every other year at
Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Gainbridge Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It opened in November 1999 to replace Market Square Arena. The arena is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and ...
.
By coincidence, in addition to trading the CW to WISH-TV, Tribune Media has also taken a large role in programming that station since the switch of CBS to WTTV, along with sister station WNDY, via rights deals for the two stations to carry professional Chicago sports over those two stations which are broadcast by WGN-TV in Chicago, including baseball's Cubs and
White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...
and Blackhawks hockey to replace WGN America's former carriage of those sports in the area, as Indianapolis is claimed as Chicago team territory by
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
and the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
.
Since 2018, WTTV serves as the main headquarters for Australia's
10 Sport
''10 Sport'' (known as ''Ten's World of Sport'' from 1992 until 1996) is the brand that all sporting events broadcast on Network 10, an Australian free-to-air commercial television network. Sports streamed on Paramount+ in Australia since Au ...
during
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
coverage. All reports for the Australian broadcast network regarding the event are based from WTTV since the integration of 10 Sport into CBS in late 2017.
Newscasts
WTTV presently broadcasts 25½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours each weekday, one hour on Saturdays and 1½ hours on Sundays which includes ''IN Focus'' airing at 8:30 a.m.); in addition, WTTV airs ''Colts 365'' on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. Unlike most CBS affiliates and most Nexstar-owned stations that maintain news operations (including in-market sister station WXIN), WTTV does not air any local newscasts on weekend mornings. Combined with WXIN, however, the Nexstar Indianapolis stations broadcast a combined 88 hours of local news programing.
In 1950, WTTV began operating an in-house news department; after losing its ABC affiliation in 1957, it became one of the few independent stations outside of the ten largest television markets that had a functioning news department. In 1979, the station began airing the first prime time newscast in the Indianapolis market, when it moved its nightly evening news program to 10:00 p.m. (predating WXIN's first and shorter-lived prime time news effort by five years). Capitol Broadcasting abruptly shut down WTTV's news department on November 1, 1990, due to financial problems, with the last 10:00 newscast airing the night before on
October 31
Events Pre-1600
* 475 – Romulus Augustulus is proclaimed Western Roman Emperor.
* 683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and is burned down.
* 802 – Empress Irene is deposed and banished to Lesbos. Co ...
; 34 staffers were laid off as a result.
The station replaced the newscast in the 10:00 p.m. slot with syndicated programming for the next few months, before it entered into a news share agreement with ABC affiliate WRTV in April 1991 to produce a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast – titled ''WRTV 6 News at Ten'' and later ''6 News at Ten'' – which debuted that fall. After Tribune bought the station, WTTV terminated the news share agreement with WRTV, so as to not compete with new sister station WXIN's longer-established 10:00 p.m. newscast; the WRTV-produced newscast was discontinued on December 31, 2002, with channel 4 filling the 10:00 p.m. slot with syndicated programming thereafter.
Upon becoming a sister station to WXIN, WTTV began carrying that station's prime time newscast during instances where Fox's MLB playoff game telecasts run into the 10:00 p.m. timeslot (not using a ''News at Ten'' logo on-air in place of the ''Fox 59 News'' branding, unlike what Hartford sister station
WCCT-TV
WCCT-TV (channel 20), branded on-air as CW 20, is a television station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Hartford-license ...
does during broadcasts of sister station
WTIC-TV
WTIC-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Waterbury-licensed CW affiliate WCCT-TV ...
's newscasts). On January 2, 2008, the station began simulcasting the 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. block of WXIN's weekday morning newscast; the 5:00 a.m. hour of the program began to be simulcast on WTTV on March 31, 2008. The simulcast was briefly discontinued on September 18, 2009, before returning the following month on October 12; the simulcast – by then, running only from 4:30 to 6:00 a.m. – was moved to WTTV/WTTK's This TV-affiliated second digital subchannel on September 13, 2010, later expanding to include the full six-hour broadcast from 4:00 to 10:00 a.m. along with the three-hour weekend morning newscast; the simulcast was discontinued again in September 2013. The only locally produced programming on WTTV/WTTK that was close to a news product after the simulcast moved from the stations' main channel was the business showcase ''Indy's MarketPlace'' (or ''Indiana's Market''), which aired weekdays at 8:00 and 11:30 a.m.; the program ended on September 10, 2010.
Other than simulcasts and default carriage of WXIN's newscasts due to
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
programming delays, WTTV did not carry traditional local newscasts produced specifically for itself from the 2002 cancellation of the WRTV-produced newscast to its switch to CBS; it was one of only five Tribune-owned stations that did not carry daily newscasts (alongside
WNOL-TV
WNOL-TV (channel 38) is a television station in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Amer ...
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...
,
WDCW
WDCW (channel 50), branded on-air as DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independen ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and
WSFL-TV
WSFL-TV (channel 39) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXM-TV (channel 35), also licensed to Miami. WS ...
in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
) of any kind.
However, with the announcement of the CBS affiliation's move to WTTV, the station announced plans to launch newscasts separate from those on WXIN with its own on-air staff (similar to, though also differing in structure from the shared news operation of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
sister duopoly
KTVI
KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV (channel 11). Both stations share studios o ...
/
KPLR-TV
KPLR-TV (channel 11) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). Both station ...
, the latter of which maintains separate anchors from KTVI for certain newscasts), which is housed out of the two stations' shared facility on Network Place. This makes WXIN/WTTV the first known duopoly (legal or virtual) involving a Big Three affiliate and a Fox station, in which the two stations maintain separate news departments and newscasts in competing timeslots (the presence of two separate, but jointly based news departments controlled by one company structured in this manner is more common with duopolies involving stations affiliated with two of the Big Three networks). There is a considerable amount of sharing between WTTV and WXIN in regards to news coverage, video footage and the use of reporters; though both outlets maintain their own primary on-air personalities (such as news anchors and meteorologists) that only appear on their respective station.
In December 2014, WTTV announced the hirings of its weekday morning, noon and evening anchor teams, which include weeknight anchors Debby Knox (who had previously retired from WISH in 2013) and Bob Donaldson (who also continued to serve in his longtime role as anchor of WXIN's 10:00 p.m. newscast, before relegating his anchor duties exclusively to WTTV until January 2016), morning anchors Marianne Lyles (formerly of
WISN-TV
WISN-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, it is the second-oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations behind f ...
in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
) and Tim Doty (formerly of Grand Rapids sister station
WXMI
WXMI (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive (near M-37) ...
), and meteorologists Chris Wright (formerly of WISH, WTHR and WXIN) and Lindsay Riley (formerly of
KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division along ...
in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
- Fort Worth). The newscasts launched with WTTV's CBS affiliation on January 1, 2015; while it does hinder both stations, WTTV and WXIN each produce newscasts that run concurrently in most traditional timeslots, except on weekend mornings (as WTTV carries the
CBS Dream Team
CBS Dream Team (suffixed with ...It's Epic! before October 3, 2020) is an American programming block that is programmed by Hearst Media Production Group (formerly Litton Entertainment), and airs weekend mornings on CBS under a time-lease agree ...
lineup), weekdays at noon and weekends at 6:00 p.m. (as WXIN airs syndicated programming in both periods, with sports programming periodically airing in the latter slot on either station). Since relaunching its news department, WTTV has waged a spirited battle for second place (behind long-dominant WTHR) in the local news ratings against WRTV, WISH-TV and sister station WXIN.
Notable former on-air staff
* Frank Edwards – host of ''Stranger Than Science'', a locally produced program on UFOs and the paranormal from 1955 to 1959 and 1961 to 1962 (died 1967)
*
Hilliard Gates
Hilliard Gates (December 14, 1915 – November 21, 1996) was an American sportscaster who was widely regarded as the founding father of Indiana sports broadcasting and the leading sportscaster in Indiana for decades.
Early days
Born Hilliard ...
– longtime
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
men's basketball announcer and reporter (deceased)
*
Barbara Stock
Barbara Stock (born May 26, 1956) is an American former actress, best known for roles as Susan Silverman in ABC crime drama series '' Spenser: For Hire'' (1985–1988), and as Liz Adams in CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas'' (1990–1991); she al ...
– host of the talk show ''Mid-Morning'' (best known for her role as Susan Silverman on the detective drama '' Spenser: For Hire'')
Other locally produced programming
From the 1960s to the early 1980s, WTTV was known in Central Indiana for its local programming, including children's shows ''Janie'' (previously titled ''Popeye and Janie'') and ''Cowboy Bob's Corral'' (previously titled ''Chuckwagon Theatre'', both starring Bob Glaze in the role of Cowboy Bob). Late night horror movies during this timeframe were presented by
Sammy Terry
Sammy Terry is a television horror host based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The role was originated by Robert "Bob" Carter in 1962, and Carter's son Mark Carter took over the role from his father in 2010.
Bob Carter (1929–2013) was a televisio ...
, a ghoulish vampire character portrayed by Bob Carter. The station frequently ran local advertising including from Dave Mason Buick, featuring the catchphrase "Old Dave needs the money"; Mason was often shown in the stands during coverage of the Marion Countyfair. In the late 1980s, the station produced a film noir-styled mystery show titled ''Hide & Sneak'', which was related to a
scratch-off
A scratchcard (also called a scratch off, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchum, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win, instant game, instant lottery, scratchie, lot scrots, or scritchies) is a card designed for competitions, often made of ...
game distributed at local supermarkets. Solving the mystery presented in one of the skits led to prizes. Each episode aired only once, however, because of its time-sensitive nature.
In 1989, WTTV obtained the local rights to the Hoosier Lottery's daily drawings and its companion game show, ''
Hoosier Millionaire
''Hoosier Millionaire'' is an American television lottery game show which aired on television stations in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky from October 28, 1989, to November 19, 2005. At its peak, it was among the highest-rated lottery game shows in ...
''; the station lost the lottery rights to WNDY-TV in September 1995; WTTV regained the rights to the lottery in 1999, partnering with WRTV in the production of the Hoosier Lottery's daily drawings to fulfill requirements of channel 4's contract with the lottery commission, which required the evening drawings to air during local newscasts.
In August 2008, Clear Channel-owned radio station
WFBQ
WFBQ (94.7 FM, "Q95") is a radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, owned by iHeartMedia. The studios are located at 6161 Fall Creek Road on the northeast side of Indianapolis. The transmitter and antenna are located on the northwe ...
(94.7 FM) formed a partnership with the Tribune Company to produce a television broadcast of the nationally syndicated radio program ''
The Bob & Tom Show
''The Bob & Tom Show'' is a syndicated US radio program established by Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold at radio station WFBQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 7, 1983, and syndicated nationally since January 6, 1995. Originally syndicated by Premier ...
'' (hosted by
Bob Kevoian
Robert James "Bob" Kevoian (born December 2, 1950) is a retired American radio host of the nationally syndicated radio show ''The Bob & Tom Show'' together with his partner, Tom Griswold. The show is broadcast from WFBQ's studios in Indianapolis ...
and
Tom Griswold
Thomas "Tom" Bruce Griswold (born April 22, 1953) co-hosts the radio show ''The Bob & Tom Show'' together with Chick McGee, Kristi Lee, and Josh Arnold. Co-host Bob Kevoian retired at the end of 2015. This comedy-based early morning program is ...
); the pre-recorded hour-long program – featuring highlights taken from that day's radio broadcast – aired on WTTV and co-owned Chicago-based cable superstation WGN America, in an effort by Tribune to bring back programming distributed by the company on its stations. The program debuted on November 3, 2008; WGN America dropped the program on September 10, 2010.
Technical information
WTTV subchannels
WTTV'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 ...
:
WTTK subchannels
WTTK's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed digital signals of other Indianapolis television stations:
ATSC 3.0 lighthouse
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, the following changes occurred on WTTV and WTTK.
* 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 ...
, WTTV kept its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the National Association of Broadcasters. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 48.CDBS Print /ref> Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, digital television receivers display the station'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 ...