WTTA
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| WTTA | |
|---|---|
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| St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida | |
| Branding | MyTV Tampa Bay |
| Channels | Analog: 38 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Bay Television, Inc. (LMA with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.) |
| First air date | June 21, 1991 |
| Former affiliations | independent (1991-1998) The WB (1998-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 1410 kW (analog) 720 kW (digital) 1 megawatt (after 2009) |
| Height | 438 m (analog) 443 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 4108 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.mytvtampabay.com |
WTTA is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Tampa, Florida. Licensed to St. Petersburg, it broadcasts on channel 38, and is shown on Bright House and Knology cable channel 6, on Comcast cable channel 11 in Sarasota County, and on Comcast cable channel 29 in Hardee County. The station mainly runs syndicated shows, along with MyNetworkTV programming. WTTA is owned by Bay Television, but is managed by the Sinclair Broadcast Group through an outsourcing agreement. However, Bay Television is effectively a subsidiary of Sinclair (see below).
WTTA runs syndicated sitcoms and first run talk/court/reality shows, cartoons on weekends, along with sports programming and infomercials.
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[edit] History
Channel 38 had previously been home to WSUN-TV, the first television station in the Tampa Bay area. It began operating in May, 1953. Then in 1954, Peninsular Telephone (a forerunner of GTE) established a microwave connection, enabling WSUN-TV to be the first television station in the United States to receive programming via microwave. The station took programs from all three networks, but settled into an ABC affiliation after WFLA and WTVT signed on in 1955. At about the same time, the FCC allocated a short-spaced channel 10 to nearby Largo. A bitter legal struggle was launched between five applicants for channel 10. Naturally, the City of St. Petersburg, which owned WSUN-TV, was worried. They understood that they would probably lose their ABC affiliation if channel 10 went on the air, since theirs was a less desirable UHF station. Rahall Communications finally put channel 10 on the air in July, 1965, as WLCY-TV (now WTSP) and, effective September 1 of that year, was awarded the ABC affiliation through a court order. In 1966, shortly after the affiliation change, the City of St. Petersburg sold WSUN-TV and WSUN radio to Hy Levinson, a Detroit broadcaster and owner of that city's WCAR radio. ([1]) WSUN-TV never recovered from the loss of network programming, a situation made worse when WTOG, a new independent owned by a company with deeper pockets, signed on in November 1968. WSUN-TV quit the air permanently in February, 1970. (It is said that, in its final days, the station showed only a "live shot" of a clock on an office wall.)
In 1986, a local group won a new license for channel 38. WTTA was originally scheduled to sign on in the fall of 1990, with programming from the "Star Television Network" (which offered a mix of old programming and infomercials under the TV Heaven name). In September 1990, there was also an ad for "TV Heaven 38" in the Tampa-Sarasota edition of TV Guide magazine, but not only was the station not ready yet, but Star was in financial trouble (it went dark January 16, 1991).
In 1991, WTTA began its regular broadcasting schedule, mainly of syndicated shows passed over by other stations, barter programming, uncleared network shows, and infomercials. Due to the station's low budget, weekend programming tended to consist entirely of infomercials. WTTA also presented a televised version of WRBQ's morning radio program, the "Q Morning Zoo", until that station changed to country music in the early 1990s.
In December 1994, Fox programming moved from WFTS-TV to WTVT, as part of a group deal with WTVT's then-owners, New World Communications, however it did not pick up Fox Kids. (Independent station WMOR-TV now airs the current 4Kids TV block on Sunday mornings.) At the same time, the E.W. Scripps Company, owners of WFTS-TV, cut an affiliation deal with ABC, which resulted in WFTS selling most of its syndicated shows to WTTA. Meanwhile, CBS would move from WTVT to WTSP-TV (the previous ABC affiliate).
In 1998, WTTA’s owner, Bay Television, entered into a management agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which in years to come would become one of the nation's largest broadcast companies. Bay Television is owned by David Smith, J. Duncan Smith, Frederick Smith, Robert Smith, and Robert Simmons. The Smith brothers also control Sinclair, making Bay Television a de facto subsidiary of Sinclair. [2]) Also in 1998, WTTA became the Tampa Bay affiliate for The WB in a group deal with Sinclair stations. It ran cartoons from WB during the week until January 2006 when WB discontinued the weekday kids block.
In January 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge into the CW Television Network. Tampa Bay's UPN station, WTOG, which is owned by CBS, was confirmed as Tampa Bay's CW station. WTTA's future was uncertain until Sinclair announced that WTTA, along with most of Sinclair's WB and UPN affiliates, would affiliate with My Network TV. Its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida. The station branded as "MyTV Tampa Bay" a week before the station began to air MNTV programming.
There were rumors that Fox would buy WTTA and create a duopoly with WTVT (as well as make WTTA a My Network TV O&O), as of 2008, this has not occurred.
On Monday September 3, 2007 at 7:30am, WTTA began airing the controversial "Live Prayer with Bill Keller". Keller had been bounced from station to station in the Tampa Bay area and landed on WTTA after a sudden departure from WTOG. The show would move to WXPX in November 2007, after WTTA imposed new restrictions regarding live programming.
[edit] Newscast history
[edit] WB38 News at Ten (2003-2006)
In August 2003 WTTA launched its news program: WB38 News at 10pm. Local news originates from WTTA's Tampa studios, with national news, sports and weather originating from Sinclair's headquarters in Baltimore. This had made WTTA one of a few WB stations to offer news. The newscast was shut down on March 31, 2006 due to poor ratings. It was replaced with syndicated programming.
2003-2006 Personalities
- Susan Casper, Anchor (now at WFTS as a general assignment reporter/fill-in anchor)
- David Klugh, Anchor
- Summer Smith, Anchor (now at Bay News 9 as a general assignment reporter/fill-in anchor)
- Mike Nabors, Sportscaster
- Chris Garrido, Sportscaster
- Megan Glaros, Meteorologist (now at WPLG as a meteorologist)
- Wendy Brockman, Anchor
- Dawn Pellas, Reporter (went to WFTS as a freelance reporter, now no longer there)
- Tara (Feather) Donovan, Reporter (now Director of Resource Development, United Way of Manatee County)
- Jason Goodwin, Reporter (now at Fox News Edge (affiliate service) as a producer)
- Diolinda Vaz, Reporter (now media consultant, Boston)
- Rodney Tims, Reporter
[edit] NewsChannel 8 at 10 (2007-)
On October 8, 2007, evening news programming returned to WTTA. Sinclair and Media General-owned WFLA-TV entered into a news share agreement to debut "News Channel 8 at 10" on WTTA featuring anchors Peter Bernard and Katie Coronado with weather coverage from Mace Michaels or Leigh Spann. [3] [4] The news share agreement is similar to those established at Sinclair stations in Raleigh, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Ohio, Flint, Michigan and Las Vegas, Nevada.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WTTA
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WTTA-TV
- mcsittel.com: 1990s DX screengrabs from Tallahassee -- includes a 1992 WTTA ID
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