WTVJ WSCV 004.jpg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

WTVJ (channel 6) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Fort Lauderdale–licensed WSCV (channel 51), a
flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...
of Telemundo. Both stations share studios on Southwest 27th Street in
Miramar Miramar is a place name of Spanish and Portuguese origin. It means "sea-view" or "sea sight" from ''mirar'' ("to look at, to watch") and ''mar'' ("sea"). It may refer to: Places Africa * Miramar, Port Elizabeth, see St Dominic's Priory School ...
, while WTVJ's transmitter is located in
Andover, Florida Andover is a neighborhood in Miami Gardens, Florida. It was formerly a census-designated place. The population was 8,489 at the 2000 census. Transmitters for several Miami television stations are located in Andover. Geography Andover is located a ...
.


History


Florida's first television station

The station first signed on the air on March 21, 1949, at 12:00 p.m. WTVJ was the first television station to sign on in the state of Florida, and the 16th station in the United States. Originally broadcasting 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 4, the station was founded by Wometco Enterprises (founded by Mitchell Wolfson and Sidney Meyer), a national
movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
chain that was headquartered in Miami. The station's original studio facilities were located in the former Capitol Theater on North Miami Avenue in Downtown Miami, which was the first theater operated by Wometco when the company was founded in 1926. The station was a primary CBS affiliate, but also carried programming from the other three major broadcast networks of that era (
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 ...
, NBC and DuMont). During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. WTVJ was the only commercial television station in the Miami market until Fort Lauderdale-based WFTL-TV (channel 23) signed on the air on December 24, 1954, operating as an NBC affiliate. However, WFTL had no success whatsoever in competing against WTVJ, in part because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning capability until the All-Channel Receiver Act went into effect in 1964. NBC continued to allow WTVJ to cherry-pick programs broadcast by the network until WCKT (channel 7, now
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 WSVN) signed on in July 1956 and WFTL went dark (that station's former channel 23 allocation is now occupied by Univision owned-and-operated station WLTV-DT). Channel 4 shared ABC programming with WCKT, by way of an arrangement with the network to allow both stations to cherry-pick programming. Although ABC had a full-time affiliate in WITV (channel 17), due to the aforementioned lack of UHF penetration at that time, this arrangement continued until WPST-TV (channel 10, now WPLG) signed on in August 1957. WTVJ also served as the de facto CBS affiliate for West Palm Beach, until WTVX (channel 34, now a CW affiliate) signed on in 1966. WTVJ served as the producing station for CBS' '' Jackie Gleason Show'' after Gleason moved the program from New York City to
Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
in 1964.


Acquisition by KKR

Wometco founder and president Mitchell Wolfson died in 1983. Though it had been theorized that a proper
succession plan Succession planning is a process and strategy for replacement planning or passing on leadership roles. It is used to identify and develop new, potential leaders who can move into leadership roles when they become vacant. Succession planning in di ...
had been written up, Wolfson never disclosed it to his heirs or executives, nor in any of his estate planning. The remaining Wolfson heirs had no desire to keep the company in the family, and it quickly unraveled, making it a ripe takeover target. Investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. took over Wometco in 1984 in a $1 billion deal, the largest corporate buyout in history to that date. KKR sold most of Wometco's entertainment assets to the latter company's chief operating officer Arthur Hertz in 1985. With the cash from this sale, KKR then purchased Storer Broadcasting's station properties, shortly after the Federal Communications Commission raised the television station ownership limit from seven stations (with no more than five located on the VHF band) to twelve. As with many of its 1980s acquisitions (including RJR Nabisco), it held a
vulture capitalism Vulture capitalists are investors that acquire distressed firms in the hopes of making them more profitable so as to ultimately sell them for a profit. Due to their aggressive investing nature, and the methods they use to make firms more profitabl ...
strategy of flipping the stations to a new owner after several years, not intending to run them as long-term investments. In 1986, KKR opted to put WTVJ and the Storer stations on the market. The firm had plans to sell channel 4 for a record price of close to $500 million (as part of a $1.85 billion group deal with six of the Storer stations), although the station was actually worth far less. CBS saw a chance to acquire an owned-and-operated station in the fast-growing Miami market. However, it lost a bidding war to television syndication company
Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) ...
. CBS, however, tried to block the deal; Lorimar produced '' Dallas'', ''
Knots Landing ''Knots Landing'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of ''Dallas'', it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of ...
'', ''
Falcon Crest ''Falcon Crest'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired for nine seasons on CBS from December 4, 1981, to May 17, 1990. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the California ...
'', and other shows for the network and did not want them controlling the clearance rights of those particular programs. Thus, CBS threatened to pull its affiliation with WTVJ if the Lorimar deal went through, which would force the station to become an independent. Lorimar then walked away from the group deal in May 1986. CBS then made an offer to buy WTVJ for $170 million, which was far below KKR's asking price of at least $270 million.Interview with Alan Perris at Archive of American Television
/ref>


Acquisition by NBC

Over the next few months, the only offers to buy WTVJ came from companies that owned large groups of independent stations, such as Tribune Broadcasting,
Pappas Telecasting Companies Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations r ...
and
Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...
/
United Television BHC Communications, Inc. was the holding company for the broadcast property of Chris-Craft Industries. BHC stands for "broadcasting holding company". History The firm was originally incorporated in 1977 as BHC, Incorporated by Chris-Craft I ...
. These and other companies wanted to convert WTVJ into an independent station or a Fox affiliate, for a price far lower than KKR's asking price. The only way that KKR could make such a large profit was to sell WTVJ to another network, as some potential buyers had no interest in keeping CBS while the only ones that could purchase the station for the asking price were ABC and NBC. CBS did not believe that KKR would sell WTVJ to another network, so it returned with a very low offer. KKR turned CBS's offer down almost out of hand and then approached the other networks. ABC was not interested, since it was more than satisfied with its longtime affiliate, WPLG. However, NBC was very interested because its longtime affiliate, WSVN, heavily preempted the network's daytime lineup—including programs that the network aired in the noon timeslot, in favor of running a local newscast—as well as an occasional prime time show. NBC was far less tolerant of preemptions than CBS and ABC at the time and was particularly annoyed at losing valuable advertising in such a fast-growing market. This had not been a problem at first since most of the programs that were preempted by WSVN aired on West Palm Beach-based
WPTV WPTV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Stuart-licensed news-formatted independent station WHDT (channel 9); Scripps al ...
, which provided at least grade B signal coverage to nearly the entire Miami–Fort Lauderdale market, and had been available on cable in the area for decades. In the few cases where WPTV and WSVN both turned down an NBC program, the network usually arranged for other stations in the area to carry its programming. However, by 1985, WPTV had been dropped from most Miami cable systems to make way for new cable channels (partly due to limited headend channel capacity), resulting in some NBC programs that were preempted by WSVN being unavailable to some viewers. NBC realized that purchasing its own station with less restrictive ownership laws would guarantee that its entire network schedule would be cleared. Hence, it made an offer almost as high as Telepictures did a few months before, and in 1987, KKR agreed to sell WTVJ to NBC for $270 million. NBC assumed control of WTVJ in mid-September 1987. However, both WTVJ's and WSVN's respective affiliation contracts with CBS and NBC did not expire until December 31, 1988. As a result, NBC faced the prospect of having to run WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for over a year. This did not sit well with either NBC or CBS, and both approached WSVN's parent Sunbeam Television about ending the station's NBC affiliation contract early. However, Sunbeam balked; its owner,
Edmund Ansin Edmund N. Ansin (March 9, 1936July 26, 2020) was an American billionaire and co-founder of Sunbeam Television. He was credited with being an innovator in the television news industry, breaking away from the conventional mold that had been used b ...
, did not want to lose NBC's strong lineup of sports programming that year, including the Major League Baseball World Series and the
Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
. Sunbeam also made an unsuccessful play to take the CBS affiliation. NBC did strip nearly all CBS branding from channel 4 and began airing nearly all NBC programs that were preempted by channel 7. In turn, this resulted in WTVJ preempting some CBS programs, with the affected shows airing instead on WCIX. CBS then formally approached channel 6, despite the fact that it would have provided a much weaker signal to Fort Lauderdale than that provided by WTVJ or WSVN. WCIX's transmitter was located near Homestead, southwest of downtown Miami, giving Fort Lauderdale only a weaker, "Grade B" signal. Accordingly, West Palm Beach's longtime ABC affiliate, WPEC, was persuaded by CBS to switch to the network in order to ensure full coverage in Fort Lauderdale and northern Broward County. In August 1988, CBS announced that it would purchase WCIX from the TVX Broadcast Group, which itself had purchased the station from Taft in 1987. WTVJ ended its 40-year affiliation with CBS on January 1, 1989, and became the third station in Miami to have carried programming from NBC. CBS moved the rest of its programs over to WCIX, while WSVN became the new Fox affiliate for South Florida; most of WCIX's syndicated programs, such as most of its cartoons and sitcoms—with exceptions such as ''
I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...
'', '' Family Ties'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and a few others—went to WDZL (channel 39, now CW affiliate WSFL-TV). In a bit of irony, WTVJ also continued to preempt NBC's noon offerings in favor of carrying a local newscast. That timeslot would be given back to the network's affiliates in 1991. Shortly after the switch, the station debuted an image campaign based on the Bobby McFerrin song " Don't Worry, Be Happy", that lasted until 1993.


Move to channel 6

On July 14, 1994, after the
E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
signed a deal with ABC that renewed the network's affiliations with WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit (which were both heavily targeted by CBS to replace two
stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
that were slated to switch to Fox) and caused three other
stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
to switch to the network, Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) signed a long-term deal with CBS, in which three Westinghouse-owned stations ( one that was aligned with ABC and two that also were aligned with NBC) would become CBS affiliates, joining two other stations owned by the company that were already affiliated with that network. ( Westinghouse would later acquire CBS one year later in August 1995, turning all of the Group W radio and television stations into CBS owned-and-operated television and radio stations.) One of the stations involved in the affiliation agreement was Philadelphia's longtime NBC affiliate, KYW-TV. CBS decided to sell off its longtime O&O in that market, WCAU-TV, but later discovered that an outright sale of that station would have forced it to pay taxes on the proceeds from the deal. This led to a deal that was struck on November 21, 1994, between CBS and NBC, in which CBS sold the channel 6 transmitter facility and license to NBC as compensation for the loss of KYW-TV and Westinghouse's other NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston. In return, CBS received the stronger channel 4 transmitter facility, license, and cash as compensation for the loss of WCAU ( KCNC-TV in Denver and
KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...
in Salt Lake City
hich was acquired by NBC earlier that year Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
were both purchased by, and ended up switching to CBS as a result of this deal). In April 1995, WTVJ dropped all references to its channel 4 allocation outside of news programming in preparation for the channel swap. Newscasts continued to be branded as ''Channel 4 News'' until the move to channel 6; however, it rebranded as "WTVJ NBC" for all other purposes, using a logo that featured only the NBC peacock logo with the WTVJ call letters (rendered in the
Univers Univers () is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a Grotesque (typeface classification), neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteen ...
typeface) placed below it. At 1 a.m. on Sunday, September 10, 1995, WTVJ and WCIX swapped channels. WTVJ's entire intellectual unit (calls, shows, NBC network, and staff) moved from channel 4 to channel 6, while the intellectual unit of WCIX, which changed its calls accordingly to
WFOR-TV WFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WBFS-TV (channel 3 ...
, moved to channel 4. However, both stations retained their respective existing studio facilities. Due to the manner in which the transfer was structured, the two stations were required to swap licenses in addition to their transmitting facilities. As a result, WTVJ legally operated under the old WCIX license until the end of the analog broadcasting era. This move led to WPTV picking up market share of NBC programming in Broward County from WTVJ, as WTVJ moved its transmitter from its longtime home on the Broward– Dade county line to WCIX's former transmitter in Homestead (about south of Miami). WPTV's signal in Fort Lauderdale is actually closer to city-grade than WTVJ's (though it still transmits a Grade B signal in the area). WTVJ inherited the two translators used by WCIX in Broward County, W27AQ in Pompano Beach and W58BU in
Hallandale Hallandale Beach (formerly known simply as Hallandale) is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, the son of a Swedish worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. As of the 20 ...
, and a third, W19BJ in Sunrise, was activated alongside the switch. In April 1998, WTVJ sold its Capitol Theatre studios to the General Services Administration for $11.6 million, which planned to build a courthouse on the space where the building was located. Three months later, it was announced that the station had purchased a plot of land located off the intersection of I-75 and Miramar Parkway in Miramar, with plans to build a 64,000 square foot studio facility for the station; WTVJ moved into the newly constructed complex in 2000.


Aborted sale to Post-Newsweek

On March 19, 2008, NBCUniversal announced that it was putting WTVJ up for sale for an estimated asking price of $350 million. On July 18,
Post-Newsweek Stations Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chic ...
entered into an agreement to buy the station for $205 million; the purchase would have created a
duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
between WTVJ and Post-Newsweek-owned WPLG. Normally, FCC ownership rules prohibit the ownership of two of the four highest-rated television stations in a single market in terms of overall audience share. Under ordinary circumstances, this would preclude a duopoly between two " Big Three" stations; however, according to Nielsen, WPLG ranked in first place and WTVJ ranked sixth overall in total-day viewership during the May 2008 sweeps period, allowing the possibility of a purchase (WTVJ's sixth-place ranking was due to several factors including the station's own programming weaknesses at the time and the strong ratings performance of WLTV). Incidentally, this would have resulted in a rare instance in which the senior partner in one duopoly became the junior partner in another, as NBC had owned both WTVJ and WSCV. Had the sale gone through, WTVJ would have consolidated its operations with WPLG at that station's Hallandale Beach Boulevard studios in
Pembroke Park Pembroke Park is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States. The town took its name from its location along Pembroke Road. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,260. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to ...
. Post-Newsweek would have also acquired all of WTVJ and WSCV's new
high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
production equipment that was installed in the stations' Miramar studios. Despite
formal petition
that was filed with the FCC against the proposed sale, the sale was approved by the
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
on October 6, 2008. However, the sale was canceled on December 23, 2008, citing poor economic conditions and the lack of FCC approval.


WTVJ today

On March 21, 2009, WTVJ celebrated its 60th anniversary and aired a half-hour special called ''WTVJ: The First 60 Years'', which highlighted the station's history since its March 21, 1949 sign-on. On January 6, 2017, WTVJ and fellow NBC stations
WFLA-TV WFLA-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside St. Petersburg–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WTTA (channe ...
in
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
and WDIV-TV in Detroit were admonished by the FCC along with seven other stations for failure to comply fully with the sponsorship disclosure requirements of its
political advertising In politics, campaign advertising is the use of an advertising campaign through the media to Social influence, influence a political debate, and ultimately, voters. These ads are designed by political consulting, political consultants and polit ...
rules. The stations were cited for such violations as not identifying the officials of the sponsoring organizations, not noting the issue that non-candidate spots addressed, and identifying a sponsor by an acronym rather than its full name.


Programming

As of September 2022, syndicated programming on WTVJ currently includes '' Access Hollywood'', '' Dateline'' (in its syndicated package; first-run episodes of the series are also broadcast on the station through NBC), and '' The Kelly Clarkson Show'', among others. The three shows are distributed by
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (a.k.a. NUSS), formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution (a.k.a. NUTD), Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUnive ...
. WTVJ was also responsible for the production of the national lifestyle program ''
iVillage Live iVillage, Inc. was a mass media company that operated the ”most popular female-oriented sites” on the internet in the 1990s. In addition to ivillage.com, the company operated iVillage UK, Astrology.com, GardenWeb, and the NBC Digital Health ...
'', originally distributed exclusively to NBC owned-and-operated stations (with some NBC affiliates adding the show in its second season) from its debut in 2006; the production was moved to Chicago through their sister station WMAQ-TV in 2007 until its cancellation on March 28, 2008. Since September 2021, WTVJ is one of ten NBC-owned stations (including WNBC in New York,
KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona-licens ...
in Los Angeles,
KNTV KNTV (channel 11), branded as NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's NBC network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Sta ...
in San Francisco, WVIT in Hartford, WMAQ-TV in Chicago,
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 station, owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Televis ...
in Dallas, KNSD in San Diego, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., and WCAU in Philadelphia, which was also a former CBS affiliate) which distribute programming either nationally and/or regionally.


Sports programming

In
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
, WTVJ became the primary home station for the
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
's Miami Dolphins (via NBC's rights at the time to air AFC games), succeeding WSVN in this capacity. Before, WTVJ only provided CBS coverage of Dolphins games played at home against an NFC team. The station also provided coverage of the Dolphins' Super Bowl VIII victory, as well as Super Bowls II and X which were hosted at the Miami Orange Bowl, plus Super Bowl XXIII which was played at Joe Robbie Stadium. This continued until
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
when WFOR-TV gained the rights to most games thanks to CBS' acquisition of the AFC broadcast package. The station now airs Dolphins games when they appear on NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football Sunday Night Football may refer to: * ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006 * ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN * ...
''. WTVJ also aired the Florida Marlins' (now the
Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The franc ...
) first World Series triumph in
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, when NBC had limited broadcast rights to Major League Baseball's postseason. The station also broadcast all Miami Heat games aired through NBC's broadcast contract with the NBA from 1990 to 2002, and all
Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...
games aired through NBC's broadcast contract with the NHL from 2006 to 2021.


News operation

WTVJ presently broadcasts 38 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 35 minutes each weekday; three hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays). During weather segments, WTVJ uses two
Doppler weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern wea ...
systems, "TITAN" and " VIPIR". The VIPIR Radar is branded on-air as "Live First Alert Doppler."


Founding years

Soon after WTVJ signed on, the station hired Ralph Renick, who had just graduated from the University of Miami, as its first anchor and news director. Renick would serve as the face of WTVJ for nearly 36 years and became best known for his catchphrase at the end of every newscast, "Good night, and may the good news be yours." At the same time, the station also hired Bernie Rosen and Bob Weaver. One of the nation's first-ever television news meteorologists, Weaver reported the weather for the station for more than five decades. Rosen, who went on to run the station's award-winning sports department for more than three decades, was the last original employee still working at the station. On February 6, 2008, Rosen was presented with the prestigious Golden Circle Award from the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...
, honoring Rosen for his more than 50 years of service to the South Florida television community. While many of South Florida's veteran television personalities have received the Silver Circle Award for marking 25 years in the business, the Golden Circle Award has been given only once before in South Florida, in 2004 when it went to Bob Weaver, also a lifelong WTVJ employee. After retiring in 2013, Rosen he remained with the station on a part time basis until his death in 2020.


1990s

During the early 1990s, WTVJ tried several different formats to accompany or add to their existing newscasts; these included a news/lifestyle hybrid show called ''South Florida at 4:30'', anchored by Ana Azcuy and Ed O'Dell; a 5:30 newscast with separate anchors (Teresa Rodriguez and Steve Abrams) at both the main studio and a Fort Lauderdale studio for news coverage from that part of the area; and an hour-long 5:00 show called ''4 News Now'' anchored by Tony Segreto that was focused on breaking news and long-form stories; ''4 News Now'' was the longest-lived of these efforts, lasting until the spring of 1994 when the 5:00 hour was reverted to a normal newscast and a half-hour 4:30 broadcast was added. In August 1992, when
Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged ...
struck South Florida, WTVJ was the only station to provide non-stop coverage of the storm with the assistance of meteorologist
Bryan Norcross Bryan S. Norcross (born November 24, 1950) is a television meteorologist, hurricane specialist, and contributor in the United States. He works for Fox Weather in New York City, the free ad-supported streaming television weather service, and serv ...
; WTVJ's coverage of the hurricane earned the station several local Emmy Awards in 1993. Most of WTVJ's archival footage from 1949 to 2004 (as well as footage from other Florida television stations) is stored at the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives in downtown Miami. In 1997, WTVJ and the ''
South Florida Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...
'' began co-producing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast on then- WB affiliate WDZL. The program was broadcast from a secondary set at WTVJ's studio facility. The program ended its run after eleven years on August 31, 2008, as the now-WSFL's owner Tribune Broadcasting opted not to renew its news share agreement with the station.


2000s

On September 10, 2007, WTVJ debuted the first 7 p.m. newscast in the market (airing only on weeknights), a format that NBC extended to several of its other owned-and-operated stations including WNBC in New York and KNSD in San Diego. At the same time, WTVJ dropped its 5 p.m. newscast, opting to fill the timeslot with ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' instead (this lasted until May 2011, when the station reinstated the 5 p.m. newscast, while concurrently canceling the 7 p.m. program). On March 5, 2008, WTVJ became the first television station in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market and the fourth station in South Florida to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On October 1, 2011, WTVJ debuted weekend morning newscasts, airing from and 9–10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, restoring newscasts in that daypart after its previous weekend morning newscasts were canceled in the late 2000s as part of the NBCU 2.0 budget cuts.


Recent years

On May 14, 2012, WTVJ debuted a half-hour midday newscast at 11:00 a.m.; it also launched a new entertainment and lifestyle program called ''NBC 6 in the Mix'' that follows the newscast, which is similar in format to sister station WSCV's ''Acceso Total'', which airs in the same timeslot; both programs replaced an hour-long local talk/lifestyle program called ''Live Miami at 11 a.m.'' On July 18, 2012, WTVJ debuted a brand new set designed by Clickspring Design, and the new "Look F" graphics package designed by NBC ArtWorks that is used by the other NBC-owned stations. Additionally, WTVJ dropped most references to Miami in its branding, rebranding itself "NBC 6 South Florida". On June 13, 2016, WTVJ debuted its 4:00 p.m. newscast, becoming the third station in Miami–Fort Lauderdale to do so, which competes against WPLG, who began airing its 4:00 p.m. newscast in January 2014, and WSVN, who began airing a 4 p.m. newscast in September 2006. In addition, WTVJ began using "Look N" graphics designed by NBC ArtWorks that is used by the other NBC-owned stations. The station also dropped the South Florida name and rebranding it as NBC 6 once again. In March 2019, WTVJ canceled its half-hour 9:00 a.m. newscast on Sundays; two public affairs programs, ''Voices with Jawan Strader'' and ''Impact with Jackie Nespral'' replaced it in that period but they included a quick news update in between both shows. On August 31, 2020, WTVJ moved its midday newscast and its lifestyle/talk show ''6 in the Mix'' to 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. respectively, while ''Access Daily'' moved to 11:00 a.m. ''
Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'' meanwhile retained its network recommended slot at 1:00 p.m. On July 22, 2021, WTVJ debuting its brand new set for first time in nine years, and they also switched the graphics and music themes respectively; the "Look N" package had replaced it with the "Look S" graphics package designed by NBC ArtWorks that is used by the other NBC-owned and Telemundo-owned stations, and the music theme had replaced them with "NBC 2021 News Theme", which is commissioned for sister station KNBC in Los Angeles. On January 20, 2022, WTVJ launched a new 24-hour streaming channel made exclusively for NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock, dubbed "NBC South Florida News" featuring the simulcasts and encores of the station's newscasts as well as the station's original content made for the channel. The new streaming channel comes following the announcement they would have a simultaneous rollout of streaming news channels with its sister stations in Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia beginning on that date, with channels in New York and Los Angeles following suit on March 17. Prior to the launch of the streaming channel, the station had a curated playlist made available on the streaming service since its April 2020 launch.


=Notable current on-air staff

= * Jorge Andres – sports anchor * John Morales (
AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...
Certified Broadcast Meteorologist/Certified Consulting Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) – chief meteorologist *
Jackie Nespral Jackie Nespral (born April 21, 1966) is an American television anchor for WTVJ, the NBC owned and operated station in Miami. Early years and education Nespral was born in Florida. both her parents are Cuban. She grew up in the Little Havana ar ...
– anchor


=Notable former on-air staff

= * David Bloom – reporter (1991–1993); later at NBC News; died in 2003 *
Joel Connable Joel Connable (February 5, 1973 – November 6, 2012) was an American television host, news anchor, and reporter for KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington. He also worked as a travel journalist, running a travel website and a company called Travel T ...
– reporter (2005–2009); later president of Travel TV News Inc.; died in 2012 *
Kevin Corke Kevin Corke is an American journalist and is presently a White House Correspondents' Association for Fox News in Washington D.C. Corke has covered four U.S. administrations (Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden). Previously, he was a national news corres ...
– anchor/reporter (2009–2011); now at Fox News) * Katie Couric – reporter (1984–1986); later co-anchor of NBC's '' Today'', anchor of '' CBS Evening News'', host of syndicated talk show, and global news anchor for Yahoo News and ABC News *
Paul Deanno Paul Deanno is a Meteorologist for WMAQ-TV in Chicago, IL. Previously, Deanno worked as the Chief Meteorologist for KPIX-TV in San Francisco and also worked as a meteorologist at KOMO-TV in Seattle, KYW-TV in Philadelphia, KENS in San Antonio, KRE ...
– chief meteorologist (2003–2009); now at
KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW ...
* Jose Diaz-Balart – anchor/reporter (1988–1996; 2003–2010), also anchor for Telemundo; now at MSNBC and Saturday anchor at '' NBC Nightly News'') *
John Hambrick John James Hambrick (June 21, 1940 – September 10, 2013) was an American broadcast journalist, reporter, actor, voice over announcer and TV documentary producer. Career Broadcast journalist Hambrick began his television career in 1963 at KR ...
– anchor/reporter (1985–1990); later at WCIX; died in 2013 * Larry King – sports reporter (1964–1971); later host of '' Larry King Live'' at CNN, host of '' Larry King Now'', and '' Politicking with Larry King''; died in 2021 *
Bob Mayer Robert Mayer may refer to: * Robert Mayer (ice hockey) (born 1989), Swiss ice hockey goaltender * Robert Mayer (philanthropist) (1879–1985), German-born British philanthropist * Robert Mayer (politician) (born 1957), president pro tem of the Misso ...
– anchor/reporter (1969–2010) *
Frank Mottek Frank Mottek is an American broadcast journalist known as “The Voice of Business News in Los Angeles” for his business reports on radio and television stations in Los Angeles, and hosting business news shows including "Mottek On Money." His br ...
– anchor/reporter (1991–1992); now at KNX (AM) * Chris Myers – sports anchor (1980–1982); now at Fox Sports *
Bryan Norcross Bryan S. Norcross (born November 24, 1950) is a television meteorologist, hurricane specialist, and contributor in the United States. He works for Fox Weather in New York City, the free ad-supported streaming television weather service, and serv ...
– meteorologist (1990–1996); now at Fox Weather * Nancy Humphries (O'Dell) – anchor/reporter (1993–1995); later co-host of '' Access Hollywood'' until 2009 and host of ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
'' until 2019 *
Micah Ohlman Micah D. Ohlman (born May 4, 1972) is an American journalist. He has co-anchored the weekday editions of the KTLA News @ 6pm, 6:30pm and 10pm. A Los Angeles native, Ohlman was born in Torrance, graduated from William S. Hart High School in Newh ...
– anchor/reporter (2000–2002); now at
KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
*
Jerry Penacoli Jerry Penacoli (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and entertainment reporter, and served as a host with the US syndicated magazine show ''Extra (U.S. TV program), Extra'' for 20 years. Reporting career Before going national, Penacoli serve ...
– host of '' PM Magazine''; later correspondent for '' Extra'' *
Lonnie Quinn Lonnie William Quinn (born August 9, 1963 in Cheshire, Connecticut) is the lead weather anchor on WCBS-TV in New York City. Quinn used to serve as weather anchor for ''CBS This Morning Saturday'' and currently appears on the CBS Evening News. He ap ...
– meteorologist (2002–2007); now at WCBS-TV *
Ralph Renick Ralph Apperson Renick (August 9, 1928 – July 11, 1991) was a pioneer American television journalist for Miami's WTVJ, channel 4 (now channel 6), Florida's first television station. He was WTVJ's first and longest running news anchor and the driv ...
– anchor (1949–1985); later at WCIX; died in 1991 * Joe Rose – sports anchor (1992–2014); retired *
Rick Sanchez Rick Sanchez is one of the two eponymous characters from the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon and voiced by the former, Sanchez is a misanthropic alcohol ...
– host/anchor (2003–2004); now at RT America *
Kerry Sanders Kerry Sanders is an American journalist. He is a correspondent for NBC News.NBC News * Charlie Van Dyke – now a radio and television announcer, WTVJ served as one of his television station clients from 1984 to 1989, and again from 2005 to 2016 (now at WPTV-TV) * Bob Weaver – meteorologist (1949–2003); died in 2006 *
Chuck Zink Charles DeWayne Zink (February 4, 1925 – January 5, 2006) was an American television personality and film actor, best known for playing the character ''Skipper Chuck'' who hosted the popular South Florida children's television series ''Pop ...
– host of ''
Skipper Chuck ''Popeye Playhouse'' is a children's television show which aired weekday mornings on the United States, American television station WTVJ in South Florida from 1957 in television, 1957 until 1979 in television, 1979. It was hosted by its producer an ...
'' (1957–1979); died in 2006


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: The station 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 ...
on its second digital subchannel from 2004 to 2008, when the network began winding down operations and became an automated local weather channel known as NBC Plus. On February 25, 2009, WTVJ became the last NBC O&O to carry Universal Sports, airing it on digital subchannel 6.3; it was removed on January 1, 2012, when Universal Sports transitioned into a cable and satellite-only network. In early 2011, WTVJ's 4.2 digital subchannel switched its programming from NBC Plus to a 24-hour news and lifestyle network carried only on NBC's O&Os called NBC Nonstop (under the branding "NBC Miami Nonstop"; NBC Nonstop relaunched as
Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s. The network origina ...
on December 20, 2012); the subchannel also carried a weeknight 9 p.m. newscast, which was eventually cancelled.


Analog-to-digital conversion

WTVJ ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 6, 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 station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 31. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6. After the transition, the station moved its main transmitter from the former WCIX tower site in Homestead to a facility on the Broward–Dade county line, bringing WTVJ's signal on par with the other Miami television stations for the first time in fourteen years. 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 ...
, WTVJ kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 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 ...
. After the programming loop was completed on June 26, the station ran a pre-recorded video of long time news anchor Bob Mayer introducing a black-and-white film clip of
Ralph Renick Ralph Apperson Renick (August 9, 1928 – July 11, 1991) was a pioneer American television journalist for Miami's WTVJ, channel 4 (now channel 6), Florida's first television station. He was WTVJ's first and longest running news anchor and the driv ...
uttering his closing phrase, "Good night... and may the good news be yours." marking the end of analog television on WTVJ.


Former translators

The WTVJ signal was previously relayed on three other translators, W44AC (channel 44) in
Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, W58BU (channel 58) in Hallandale (from a transmitter in Pembroke Park) and W52BB (channel 52) in
Big Pine Key Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...
. Prior to the digital television transition, W58BU (which originally was assigned the W61AA calls until late 1992) was necessary as WTVJ's former analog transmitter in Redland, located southwest of downtown Miami, was located farther south than other Miami area television stations. As a result, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Broward County received a grade-B signal from the station's analog transmitter. After WTVJ discontinued its analog signal on June 26, 2009, W58BU remained on the air for nearly two years afterward; however, with WTVJ's digital transmitter now located in the same area as other major television stations in the market, the need for W58BU was diminished. The translator was shut down on April 5, 2011; NBC surrendered its license, with the FCC formally deleting it on June 2.


Out of market coverage

WTVJ is one of two NBC stations carried by REV TV, a cable system serving The Bahamas; the other being
KING-TV KING-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Everett-licensed independent station KONG (channel 16). Both stations share studios at the Home Plate ...
in Seattle.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wtvj TVJ Television channels and stations established in 1949 NBC Owned Television Stations Cozi TV affiliates Wometco Enterprises National Football League primary television stations 1949 establishments in Florida Orange Bowl