FOX 13 (WTVT) Tampa Bay, Florida

FOX13 (WTVT) Tampa Bay, Florida

WTVT, channel 13, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station in Tampa, Florida, United States. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of the News Corporation. WTVT's studios are located on West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

The station first started broadcasting on April 1, 1955 as a CBS affiliate owned by Tampa Bay radio veteran Walter Tison and his Tampa Television Company. It was the third station in Tampa Bay, behind WSUN-TV (channel 38, frequency now occupied by WTTA) and WFLA-TV (channel 8). WTVT is also the second-oldest surviving station in the market, behind WFLA. The station's call letters stand for the initials of Walter Tison and his wife, Virginia. Like many other stations located on "unlucky" channel 13, WTVT used a black cat as its mascot for several years.

In December 1993, the Fox Broadcasting Company won the broadcast rights to air games from the NFL's National Football Conference beginning with the NFL's 1994 season, taking the rights from CBS. As a result, Fox sought for more affiliates on the VHF band, and signed a long term deal with New World, switching most of its stations, including WTVT, to Fox. WTVT switched to Fox in December 1994, ending its CBS affiliation after 39 years. This resulted in a three-way affiliation swap that resulted in former Fox affiliate WFTS (channel 28) affiliating with ABC as part of a deal between the station's owner, the E. W. Scripps Company and ABC, while longtime ABC affiliate WTSP (channel 10) became a CBS affiliate.

The switch allowed WTVT to continue broadcasting the majority of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers games, as they were (and still are) part of the NFC. However, largely due to the team's losing record at the time, Buccaneers home games were rarely shown locally. Once the Buccaneers began to build a winning team in the late 1990s, along with a new look and stadium, blackouts decreased and sellouts increased, thus increasing the number of games shown on WTVT. After changing networks, WTVT increased its local news programming to almost 50 hours each week. At one point, WTVT aired more hours of local news than any other station in the country. It chose not to renew the more expensive syndicated programming it had run while a CBS affiliate, running cheaper first-run syndicated talk and reality shows instead.

Fox bought most of the New World stations in 1997, making WTVT a Fox owned-and-operated station. Under Fox ownership, the station added more higher-profile syndicated shows and a few off-network sitcoms to its lineup, and changed its on-air branding to "Fox 13". WTVT is the third station in Tampa Bay to be affiliated with Fox, as WTOG was affiliated with the network first before reverting to an independent station in 1988. However, WTVT still uses "New World Communications of Tampa Bay" as the copyright tag at the end of the station's newscasts.

In June 2009, WTVT interviewed late television pitchman Billy Mays shortly before his death. His interview, which was conducted at the Tampa International Airport, is believed to have been his final appearance on live television.  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia