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WTVJ
Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Branding	NBC 6
Slogan	South Florida's News Leader
Channels	Analog: 6 (VHF) Digital: 31 (UHF)
Translators	W44AC Key West W58BU Hallandale
Affiliations	NBC (secondary 1949-56 and 1987-88, sole affiliate since 1989) NBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Owner	NBC Universal
Founded	March 21, 1949
Call letters meaning	Assigned By FCC
Sister station(s)	WSCV
Former channel number(s)	4 (1949-1995)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949-1989) ABC secondary (1949-1957) DuMont (1949-1956)
Transmitter Power	100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital)
Height	549 m (analog) 311 m (digital)
Facility ID	63154
Transmitter Coordinates	25°32′24″N, 80°28′6.3″W (analog) 25°58′8.3″N, 80°13′19.2″W (digital)
Website	www.nbc6.net

WTVJ is the NBC-owned-and-operated television station for South Florida. Licensed to Miami, the station broadcasts an analog signal on VHF channel 6 from a transmitter located in Redland. WTVJ broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter located near Dolphins Stadium in north Miami-Dade county. Owned by NBC Universal, the station is sister to South Florida's Telemundo-owned-and-operated station WSCV. The two stations share studios that are located at Peacock Plaza in Miramar. WTVJ is known on-air as "NBC 6".

WTVJ's audio signal can also be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial in most parts of South Florida. This is because the audio signal of channel 6 is located at 87.75 MHz. This frequency assignment applies to all channel 6 television stations in countries using the NTSC-M standard. During hurricane season, WTVJ promotes the radio signal as an additional way to follow the station's hurricane coverage.

WTVJ offers NBC Weather Plus on digital channel 6.2 as well as Comcast digital cable channel 250.

In addition to its main transmitter, WTVJ also operates two translators:

• W44AC, channel 44 in Key West and W58BU, channel 58 in Hallandale (with transmitter in Pembroke Park).

"W58BU" is necessary because of WTVJ's transmitter location in Redland which is 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Miami. WTVJ's transmitter is located farther south than the other Miami television stations that results in a weak signal to Fort Lauderdale and the rest of Broward County.

WTVJ had operated a third translator, W52BB channel 52, in Big Pine Key. [1] However, there are no FCC records of this station. [2]

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts 3 News Team 4 Station Alumni 5 External links

WTVJ went on the air at Noon on March 21, 1949. It was Florida's first television station and the 16th in the country. Originally broadcasting on channel 4, WTVJ was owned by Wometco Enterprises, a national movie theater chain headquartered in Miami. The original studios were located in the former Capitol Theater in Downtown Miami, which was Wometco's first theater when the company was founded in 1926. The station carried programming from all four major networks but was a primary CBS affiliate.

WTVJ was the only commercial station in Miami until December 24, 1954, when WFTL-TV signed on from Fort Lauderdale as an NBC affiliate. However, WFTL had no success whatsoever against WTVJ, in part because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning. NBC continued to allow WTVJ to cherry-pick NBC programming until WCKT (now WSVN) signed on in 1956 and WFTL went dark. (By this time, WFTL had been purchased by Storer Broadcasting and changed its call letters to WGBS-TV. Storer owned the station as an independent until it went dark sometime in 1956.) It continued to share ABC with WCKT until 1957 when WPST (now WPLG) signed on. It also doubled as the CBS affiliate for West Palm Beach until WTVX (now a CW affiliate) signed on in 1966.

WTVJ served as the producing station for CBS's Jackie Gleason Show after the comedian moved the program from New York City to Miami Beach in 1964.

Soon after WTVJ signed on, it hired Ralph Renick, who had just graduated from the University of Miami, as its first anchorman and News Director. Renick would be the face of WTVJ for nearly 36 years 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 weather for the station for more than 5 decades. Rosen, who went on to run the station's award winning sports department for more than three decades, is the only remaining original employee still working at the station. He is now in his 58th consecutive year at WTVJ.

Wometco founder and president Mitchell Wolfson died in 1983 and a long-rumored secret plan to run the company after his death was never found. 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 deal worth one billion dollars, the largest corporate buyout ever to that date. In 1985, the FCC raised the television station ownership limit from seven VHF stations and any number of UHF stations to twelve stations regardless of frequency. KKR sold most of Wometco's entertainment assets to Wometco chief operating officer Arthur Hertz in 1985. With the cash from this sale, KKR bought Storer Broadcasting. It bought the stations because values were rising rapidly and the goal was to sell the stations in a few years.

In 1986, KKR opted to sell WTVJ and the Storer stations to separate owners. It had plans to sell WTVJ for a record price of close to half a billion dollars, although the station was actually worth far less. CBS saw a chance to get an owned and operated television station in the fast-growing Miami market. However, it lost a bidding war to television syndication firm Telepictures (now part of Warner Bros. Television). CBS then suggested that it intended to purchase WCIX (now WFOR-TV), South Florida's Fox affiliate owned by Taft Broadcasting of Cincinnati. Such a deal would have made WTVJ the area's Fox affiliate. Although CBS only made a half-hearted bid for WCIX, Telepictures realized that the value of its purchase would be significantly depreciated with the loss of CBS. Also, while it was a major force in television syndication in its own right, Telepictures did not anticipate having to buy an additional 15 hours per day of programming (Fox had just debuted and would not air a full week's worth of programming for seven years). It walked away from the deal later in 1986, and sold off its only other television station, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, to Renaissance Broadcasting.

Over the next few months, the only offers for WTVJ came from companies that owned large groups of independent stations, such as Tribune Broadcasting, Pappas Telecasting Companies, and Chris-Craft Industries / United Television. These and other companies wanted to make WTVJ 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 the only potential buyers who had no interest in keeping CBS while paying the asking price were ABC and NBC. A major network had never bought a station affiliated with another network.

CBS did not believe that KKR would not sell WTVJ to another network, so it returned with a very low offer. KKR turned the CBS 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, pre-empted whatever shows NBC aired weekdays from 10 AM to Noon, as well as an occasional primetime show. NBC was far less tolerant of pre-emptions than CBS and ABC, and was particularly annoyed at losing valuable advertising in such a fast-growing market. NBC realized that buying its own station with less restrictive ownership laws would guarantee that all of its shows would air. 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, giving Florida its first owned and operated television station.

NBC assumed control of WTVJ in mid-September of 1987. However, both WTVJ's and WSVN's existing affiliation contracts lasted 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 NBC and CBS, and both approached WSVN's owner, Ed Ansin, about ending his station's NBC affiliation early. However, Ansin refused because he wanted to air NBC's strong lineup that year, which included the Summer Olympics, the MLB World Series, along with the many hit shows airing on NBC at that time. He also wanted to take the CBS affiliation at the beginning of 1989. NBC did strip nearly all CBS branding from the station, and began pre-empting some low rated CBS shows on WTVJ. Those pre-empted CBS shows aired on WCIX.

CBS then formally approached WCIX, 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, 20 miles southwest of Downtown Miami. This gave Fort Lauderdale only a Grade B signal which was weaker than all of the other television stations in the market. Accordingly, CBS persuaded longtime ABC affiliate WPEC in West Palm Beach to change its affiliation to CBS, so that it could continue to get a city-grade signal in Broward County. In the spring of 1988, CBS announced that it was purchasing WCIX from the TVX Broadcast Group, who had purchased the station in 1987 as Taft was restructuring to become Great American Broadcasting.

The changeover occurred on January 1, 1989. WTVJ ended its 40-year affiliation with CBS and became the third station in Miami to carry NBC. CBS moved the rest of its programming over to WCIX, while WSVN became the new FOX affiliate for South Florida, and most of WCIX's syndicated programming went to WDZL (channel 39, now WSFL-TV).

In 1992, when Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, WTVJ was the only station to give complete coverage of the story non-stop with meteorologist Bryan Norcross.

In 1994, Westinghouse and its broadcasting division Group W, signed a long-term deal with CBS in which the three Group W stations not already affiliated with CBS would become CBS affiliates while two other stations had already been CBS affiliates. One of the stations was Philadelphia's longtime NBC affiliate KYW-TV. CBS decided to sell off its longtime owned and operated television station in that same market, WCAU-TV. This led to a deal in 1995 between CBS and NBC, where CBS sold the channel 6 facility to NBC as compensation for the loss of KYW and Westinghouse's other NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston. In return, CBS received the stronger channel 4 facility and cash as compensation for the loss of WCAU. (KCNC Denver and KUTV Salt Lake City were also spun to CBS in this deal, causing NBC to find new homes in both markets on KUSA and KSL-TV respectively.)

On September 12, 1995, WTVJ and WCIX swapped dial positions. WTVJ's entire intellectual unit (calls, shows, NBC network, and staff) moved from channel 4 to channel 6. However, its studios remained the same. The entire WCIX intellectual unit moved to channel 4, but changed its call letters to WFOR-TV. Even though FCC records list channel 6 as changing its calls from WCIX to WTVJ on September 12, the stations themselves did not change hands, only the transmitting facilities. This was the result of the two stations being required to swap licenses in addition to the transmitting facilities.

Most, if not all, of WTVJ's archive, as well as other Florida television stations, are stored at the Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive in Downtown Miami.

WTVJ, along with the Sun-Sentinel, produces a daily 10 PM newscast for South Florida's CW affiliate WSFL-TV called CW News at 10. It is a similar operation to: WCAU (NBC) and WPHL-TV (MyNetworkTV) in Philadelphia, KNSD (NBC) and KSWB (The CW) in San Diego.

Unlike most NBC affiliates, WTVJ does not air a weekday Noon newscast. Instead, it airs a 10 AM edition of its morning newscast. There is, however, a webcast at Noon that features the top stories of the day along with an updated weather forecast.

During weather forecasts, WTVJ uses 2 weather radar systems: "Weather Plus TITAN Radar" and "Weather Plus VIPIR" (they are also used on WSFL). It has been announced that WTVJ will launch a weeknight 7 PM newscast on September 10, 2007 in hopes of catching a new audience. It will be known as South Florida Nightly News at 7. A similar program change occurred on sister station WNBC-TV.

Except for the WSFL 10 PM newscast, all of WTVJ's local news can be watched via live streaming video on WTVJ's website.

Anchors

• Pam Giganti - weekday mornings
• Bob Mayer - weekday mornings and 11 AM
  • weekday Noon webcast
• Kelly Craig - weekdays at 11 AM
• Julia Yarbough - weeknights at 6 and 10 PM (on WSFL)
  • reporter
• Tony Segreto - weeknights at 6 and 11 PM
  • The Spirit of South Florida segment producer
• Jackie Nespral - weeknights at 7 and 11 PM
• DeMarco Morgan - weekend mornings
• Joel Connable - weekend evenings
  • consumer reporter

NBC 6 Weather Plus Meteorologists

• Paul Deanno (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
• Ryan Phillips (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekday mornings
• Trina Robinson - weekdays at 11 AM
  • fill-in meteorologist
  • reporter
• Jennifer Gray - weekend mornings
• John Gerard (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekend evenings

Sports

• Joe Rose - weeknights at 6, 7, 10 (on WSFL), and 11 PM
  • host of Sunday Sports Final
• Andrea Brode - weekend evenings
• Adam Kuperstein - sports reporter
  • host of Fins TV
  • appears on Sunday Sports Final

Reporters

• Patricia Andreu - special projects
• Nick Bogert - political and judicial
• Jeff Burnside - special projects
• Hetal Gandhi - weekday mornings
• Willard Shepard - investigative
  • fill-in anchor
• Diana Gonzalez - "NBC 6 Health Connection" segment producer
• Gray Hall- weekday mornings
• Victoria Langley - freelance journalist based in Tallahassee
• Tisha Lewis - weeknights at 6, 7, and 11 PM
• Tom Llamas - nighttime
• Ian Wood - on-air and website
• Sharon Lawson
• Steve Litz
• Ari Odzer
• Amara Sohn
• Hank Tester

Administration

• Ardyth R. Diercks - President and General Manager
• Yvette Miley- News Director
• Josef Holloway - Digital Account Manager

• Katie Couric - now anchoring the CBS Evening News
• David Bloom - born 1963, died 2003 (former journalist for NBC News)
• Larry King - now at CNN
• Nancy O'Dell - now at Access Hollywood
• Rick Sanchez - now at CNN
• Michelle Kosinski- now at NBC NEWS
• Bryan Norcross - now at WFOR-TV and CBS News
• Charlie Van Dyke - now a radio announcer
• Chris Myers - now a FOX sportscaster
• Lonnie Quinn - now a weekday meteorologist at WCBS-TV and on Saturday Early Show
• Ike Seamans- retired from WTVJ in 2007
• Susan Lichtman Taylor- now at KNSD-TV
• Karen Curtis - now WCBS-TV Chopper 2 HD reporter
• Beverly White- now at KNBC-TV
• Martha Sugalski- now at WESH-TV
• Guy Rawlings- sports director/anchor at WESH-TV
• John Guaraldi- now at WPLG-TV
• Jennifer Valoppi
• Tom Randles
• Gerri Helfman
• Roland Steadham
• Marti Skold
• Danielle Knox
• Ilena Bravo
• Alicia Ortega
• Theresa Rodriquez
• Michael Williams
• John Hambrick
• Alycia Lane- weekend anchor/reporter- now 6 and 11 pm co-anchor at KYW-TV in Philadelphia

• Station Website
• WSFL Website
• NBC Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVJ
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W44AC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W58BU

v • d • e Broadcast television in the South Florida (Miami / Fort Lauderdale / Key West) market (Nielsen DMA #16)
Miami-Dade / Fort Lauderdale, Florida stations WPBT 2 (PBS) - WFOR 4 (CBS) - WTVJ 6 (NBC, WX+ on DT2) - WSVN 7 (FOX) - WPLG 10 (ABC, LATV on DT2) - WLRN 17 (PBS) - WLTV 23 (UNI) - WIMP-CA 25 (HSN) - WBFS 33 (MNTV) - WPXM 35 (ION) - WPMF-LP 38 (Ind) - WSFL 39 (The CW) - WJAN-CA 41 (Ind) - WHFT 45 (TBN) - WFUN-LP 48 (CV) - WSBS-CA 50 (Ind) - WSCV 51 (TEL) - WLMF-LP 53 (SCOLA) - WGEN-LP 55 (Ind) - WEYS-LP 56 (ALMA) - WPPB 63 (Ind/Edu.) - WAMI 69 (TFU) Local television stations In Key West (Most of these stations either serve Miami proper, or are repeaters of Miami stations.) WGEN 8 (Ind) - WSBS 22 (Ind) - WCAY-LP 34 (Ind) - W38AA 38 / W39AC 39 (CBS) - WGAY-LP 41 (Ind) - W44AC 44 / W58BU 58 (NBC) - W47AC 47 (ABC) - WKIZ-LP 49 (FOX) Local digital television channels WHDT-LP 44 (Ind)
See also: Broadcast television stations in West Palm Beach and Bahamas

v • d • e Radio stations in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida market (Arbitron #12)
By FM frequency	87.7¹ · 88.1 · 88.3 · 88.5 · 88.9 · 89.7 · 90.3 · 90.5 · 91.3 · 92.3 · 93.1 · 93.9 · 94.9 · 95.7 · 96.5 · 97.3 · 97.9 · 98.3 · 99.1 · 99.9 · 100.7 · 101.5 · 102.7 · 103.5 · 105.1 · 105.9 · 106.7 · 107.5
By AM frequency	560 · 610 · 670 · 710 · 790 · 840 · 940 · 980 · 990 · 1020 · 1080 · 1140 · 1170 · 1210 · 1260 · 1320 · 1360 · 1400 · 1430 · 1450 · 1470 · 1490 · 1520 · 1550 · 1580
By callsign	WKRL · WACC · WAFG · WAMR · WAQI · WAVS · WAXY · WBGG-FM · WCMQ-FM · WDNA · WEAT · WEDR · WEXY · WFLC · WFLL · WHDR · WHSR · WHYI · WINZ · WIOD · WOIR · WIRP · WKAT-AM · WKCP · WKIS · WKPX · WLQY · WLRN-FM · WLVE · WLYF · WMBM · WMGE · WMIB-FM · WMXJ · WMYM · WNMA · WOCN · WPOW · WQAM · WQBA · WRGP · WRHB · WRHC · WRMA · WRMF · WRTO · WSRF · WSUA · WTPS-AM · WTVJ · WVUM · WWFE · WWNN-AM · WXDJ
¹Audio for TV channel 6 (WTVJ/NBC) Satellite Radio Local Traffic/Weather: XM Channel 230 · Sirius Channel 153 Florida Radio Markets: Daytona Beach • Fort Myers-Naples-Marco Island • Ft. Pierce-Stuart-Vero Beach • Ft. Walton Beach • Gainesville-Ocala • Jacksonville • Lakeland-Winter Haven • Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa • Miami-Ft. Lauderdale • Orlando • Panama City • Pensacola • Sarasota-Bradenton • Sebring • Tallahassee • Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater • The Florida Keys • West Palm Beach-Boca Raton Other Florida Radio Regions: Lake City • Okeechobee See also: List of radio stations in Florida

v • d • e NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WESH 2 (Daytona Beach-Orlando) - WPTV 5 (West Palm Beach) - WTVJ 6 (Miami) - WJHG 7 (Panama City) - WFLA 8 (Tampa) - WTLV 12 (Jacksonville) - WBBH 20 (Fort Myers) - WTWC 40 (Tallahassee)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida

v • d • e NBC Universal, Inc. (a subsidiary of General Electric and Vivendi)
Universal Studios	Focus Features • Islands of Adventure • Rogue Pictures • United International Pictures1 • Universal Animation Studios • Universal Studios Home Entertainment • Universal Playback • Universal Orlando Resort • Universal Pictures • Universal Studios Hollywood Theme Park • Universal Studios Florida Theme Park • Universal Studios Japan • Universal Studios Singapore • Universal Studios Theme Parks • Universal CityWalk
Broadcast TV Assets	NBC • Telemundo • NBC News • NBC Sports
NBC Universal Cable	A&E Television Networks (25%) • Bravo • Chiller • CNBC • MSNBC2 • Mun2 • NBC Weather Plus • Oxygen • Sci Fi Channel • ShopNBC • Sleuth • Sundance Channel (co-owned with Robert Redford and CBS Corporation) • Telemundo Internacional • Telemundo Puerto Rico • Trio • Universal HD • USA Network
CNBC Global Channels	CNBC (US) • CNBC World • CNBC Latin America • CNBC Europe • CNBC Asia • CNBC Africa
CNBC Europe Branches	Class CNBC • CNBC-e • CNBC Arabiya (according to CNBC Europe) • CNBC Nordic • CNBC Africa • TVN CNBC Biznes
CNBC Asia Branches	Nikkei CNBC • CNBC-TV18 • CNBC Awaaz • CNBC Pakistan • CNBC Australia • CNBC Hong Kong • CNBC Singapore
Sci Fi Global Channels	US • UK • Germany • France • Australia • Spain • Benelux
NBC Universal Television Group	NBC Studios • NBC Universal Television Distribution • Telemundo Television Studios • Telemundo of Puerto Rico Studios • Universal Media Studios
NBC O&Os	KNBC • KNSD3 • KNTV • KXAS3 • WCAU • WMAQ • WNBC • WRC • WTVJ • WVIT
Telemundo O&Os:	KBLR • KEJT-LP • KHRR • KDEN • KNSO • KTAZ • KTMD • KVDA • KSTS • KVEA • KXTX • WKAQ • WNEU7 • WNJU • WSCV • WSNS
ShopNBC O&Os:	WWDP
Spanish Independent TV Stations	KBOP4 • KWHY
Internet Ventures:	msnbc.com2 • NBBC5 • iVillage • Television Without Pity • OUTzoneTV.com • getTRIO.com • BrilliantButCancelled.com • calamitygame.com
Other Assets:	qubo6 • EMKA, Ltd.
50%, with Viacom's Paramount Pictures. Co-owned with Microsoft in a joint venture (82% owned by NBC, 18% owned by Microsoft). The stations are co-owned with LIN TV in a joint venture (76% owned by NBC, 24% owned by LIN). KNSD also includes a repeater used for rebroadcast of Entravision's KBNT-CA. Owned by Commercial Broadcasting Corp., and operated by the NBC / LIN joint venture (see note 3) A joint venture between NBC Universal and its broadcast affiliates. Co-owned with Corus Entertainment, Classic Media, Scholastic Books and ION Media Networks The station is owned by NBC Universal, but is controlled by ZGS Broadcast Holdings.