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WTTV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WTTV / WTTK | |
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| WTTV: Bloomington / Indianapolis, Indiana WTTK: Kokomo, Indiana |
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| Branding | CW 4 |
| Channels | Analog: WTTV: 4 (VHF) WTTK: 29 (UHF) Digital: WTTV: 48 WTTK: 54 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | Tribune Company |
| Founded | WTTV: November 11, 1949 WTTK: February 13, 1985 |
| Call letters meaning | WTTV:W Tarzian TeleVision (after Sarkes Tarzian, former owner) WTTK: WTTV Kokomo |
| Former callsigns | WTTV: None WTTK: WWKI-TV (1985-87) |
| Former channel number(s) | WTTV: 10 (1949-1954) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1949-54) NBC / DuMont (1949-56) (Channel 4 studios were located in Bloomington until 1956) br>[1] Independent (1956-95) UPN (1995-98) WB (1998-2006) |
| Website | thecw4.com |
WTTV, channel 4, is the CW affiliate for Indianapolis, Indiana. It is licensed to Bloomington and owned by the Tribune Company. It shares a studio in Indianapolis with sister station WXIN (channel 59), the market's Fox affiliate, at 6910 Network Place on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Its transmitter is located on State Road 252 in Trafalgar, Indiana. The station also serves as the default CW affiliate for the Indiana side of the Terre Haute market, which does not have a CW affiliate of its own.
WTTV simulcasts its programming on a satellite station, WTTK (channel 29) in Kokomo, Indiana (50 miles north of Indianapolis), which allows it to serve the northern areas of the market as well as the neighboring Lafayette area. WTTK's transmitter is located on State Road 213 near Windfall, Indiana in northern Tipton County.
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WTTV began operation on November 11, 1949; on channel 10 as Indiana's second television station, after WFBM-TV (channel 6, now WRTV). The station was owned by Sarkes Tarzian, a Bloomington-based radio manufacturer, and was an NBC affiliate with secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations.[2] In 1957, the station activated its current tower in Trafalgar (Geographical coordinates: ). At 1,171 feet (357 meters), it is the tallest structure in Indiana.
WTTV moved from channel 10 to channel 4 on February 21, 1954. It dropped ABC two months later after WISH-TV (channel 8) signed on. In 1956, NBC moved its affiliation to WFBM-TV, and WTTV became an independent station. At that point, the station signed on air weekdays at 2:00 p.m., and showed a test pattern until 4:00 p.m., when its programming began. The station initially ran old movies and low budget syndicated shows as well as producing some of its own local programming.
Throughout the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, WTTV was known in Central Indiana for its local programming, including children's shows Janie (previously Popeye and Janie) and Cowboy Bob's Corral (previously Chuckwagon Theatre, both starring Bob Glaze as Cowboy Bob). By then, WTTV was on the air by 6am and stayed on until at least 2am. In addition to local programming, WTTV aired plenty of movies in the early afternoon and prime time slots. They also aired cartoons both mixed in with locally produced children's shows in the afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m. In the evenings, WTTV aired off-network sitcoms. Horror movies were presented late-nights by Sammy Terry, a ghoulish vampire character portrayed by Bob Carter. The station frequently ran local advertising included Dave Mason Buick, "Old Dave needs the money", who was often shown in the stands during coverage of the Marion County Fair. During the 1970s, WTTV became a regional superstation available on many cable systems in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, though it disappeared from cable systems outside Indiana in the mid-1980s. Although it was one of the strongest independent stations in the country, it remained an independent station when Fox debuted in 1986; the network opted to affiliate with future sister station WXIN.
By the mid 1980s, WTTV added more cartoons during the day, as well as airing more recent off-network sitcoms during the evening. The station was on 24 hours a day by then as well. During the day, WTTV began airing first-run syndicated talk shows. In 1989, Sarkes Tarzian bought WWKI-TV (channel 29) in Kokomo, and made the station a full-time satellite of WTTV as WTTK. Channel 29 had signed on in 1987. WTTV's tower is located farther south than the other major Indianapolis stations due to FCC regulations requiring that a station's transmitter be no farther than 15 miles from its city of license (in this case, Bloomington, which is 50 miles south of Indianapolis). As a result, it only provided a grade B ("rimshot") signal to Indianapolis' northern suburbs until the purchase of channel 29.
The station was sold to River City Broadcasting in 1991 and became a charter UPN affiliate in 1995. It came under the ownership of the Sinclair Broadcast Group following the group's merger with River City. The station became a WB affiliate in 1998 after swapping affiliations with WNDY-TV. It disappeared from most cable systems outside the Indianapolis market in the late 1990s, but is still available on cable on the Indiana side of the Terre Haute market.
In 2002, the station was sold by Sinclair to Tribune, making WTTV and WXIN sister stations. WTTV's 10pm newscast, produced by WRTV, was promptly cancelled by Tribune as it would compete against WXIN's own 10pm news. Although WTTV was longer established, Tribune kept Fox programming on WXIN due to WTTV's weaker signal in the northern part of the market.
The station also referred to itself as "Indiana's Sports Station" for years, having been Indianapolis' home of Big Ten basketball - with a focus on Indiana University and Purdue University - since the 1950s, via both in-house productions and later syndication deals with Raycom Sports and ESPN Plus. In fact, many cable systems in Indiana began carrying WTTV simply to get the Hoosiers and Boilermakers.
WTTV also presents other Big Ten football and men's basketball matchups on Saturdays, but when the Big Ten's cable/satellite channel launches in August 2007, all college sports are expected to leave the station.
WTTV traditionally broadcast the boys' and girls' state high school basketball "Final Fours" and football class championship games; however, after the Indiana High School Atheltics Association converted its basketball tournament from single-class to multi-class in 1997, WTTV chose not to renew those rights due to declining ratings.
WTTV also served as the TV flagship for the Indiana Pacers since the team's days in the original ABA, except for a period in the mid-'80s when WXIN held those rights. However, the Pacers left WTTV beginning in the 2006-2007 season [3], as the Pacers decided to go with cable-only local telecasts, via Fox Sports Net Indiana (the Indiana-branded feed of FSN Midwest). With the departure of the Pacers, it is expected that beginning in 2008 sports programming (with the exception of Indianapolis Colt's preseason games) will completely leave WTTV. A factor of this is possibly due to The CW's reluctance to allow preemptions in prime time during the week.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WTTV was announced as one of the network's charter affiliates.
From 1950 until 1990, WTTV operated a news department.
The station like WRTV Channel 6 in Indianapolis has increased airtime to infomercials. However, on January 2, 2008, that has changed when WTTV began simulcasting the four hours of WXIN's morning news, in addition to airing WXIN's 10 p.m. newscast when Fox programming or sports delays the news on WXIN. There is no "News at Ten" logo in place of "FOX 59 News".
- Doug Rafferty, anchor 1974-1991 (went to WGME Portland, ME, now semi-retired)
- Paul Poteet (had a mustache), meteorologist (now at WRTV)
- Barbara Stock (host of the talk show "Mid-Morning", best known as Susan Silverman on the detective drama "Spenser: For Hire")
- Eric Halvorson (reporter, now anchor at rival WISH)
- Chuck Marlowe (longtime sports director, now retired)
- Sammy Terry late night horror movie show host
- Bob Glaze "Cowboy Bob", longtime children's show host and producer of many local programs on WTTV.
 Logo used before 1989 when it became TTV4 |
 Logo used from 1989-98. |
 First logo used as a WB affiliate, from 1998-2002. |
New "CW4" Logo, used 2006-present. |
- WTTV Website
- What Columbus Watched... - History of television in central Indiana, from the perspective of a Columbus, Indiana resident
- Sammy Terry's official web site
- Tribune Company: Press Release: Tribune Completes Acquisition of WTTV-TV (WB4), Indianapolis - July 24, 2002
- WTTV Television Tower in the Structurae database
- Listing 1026127 in the FCC Antenna Structure Registration database
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Local television stations Local cable television channels |
| See also Broadcast television in the Lafayette, IN and Terre Haute markets |
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WTTV 4/WTTK 29 (Bloomington/Kokomo/Indianapolis) - WAZE-LP 17 (Evansville) - WPTA-DT 24.2 (Fort Wayne) - WCWW-LP 25 (South Bend) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, My Network TV, NBC, PBS, Religious and Other stations in Indiana |
Categories: Television stations in Indianapolis | Television stations in Lafayette, IN | Television stations in Terre Haute | Television stations in Indiana | CW network affiliates | Tribune Broadcasting | Channel 4 TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1949