Fox affiliate in Cape Coral, Florida
WFTX-TV
(channel 36) is a
television station
licensed to
Cape Coral, Florida
, United States, serving as the
Fox
affiliate for
Southwest Florida
. Owned by the
E.
W. Scripps Company
, the station has studios on Southwest Pine Island Road (
SR 78
) in Cape Coral, and its transmitter is located near
Punta Gorda
(east of
I-75
/
SR 93
) near the
Charlotte
and
Lee
county line.
WFTX-TV is branded as
Fox 4
, in reference to its channel location on most
cable
systems in the
market
, which it has enjoyed since its sign on in 1985.
History
[
edit
]
In 1982, interest began in the channel 36 allocation to Cape Coral. In 1984, out of four applications, a
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) administrative law judge gave the nod to Florida Family Broadcasting Limited, which included one Native American and one Asian investor, over three other groups seeking the construction permit.
[3]
Florida Family?a company associated with
Family Group Broadcasting
, which two years prior had signed on
WFTS-TV
in
Tampa
?had to settle with the other applicants, a process that look longer than expected.
[4]
Construction work began in April,
[5]
and after a prolonged construction marked by delays due to high winds, WFTX-TV started broadcasting on October 14, 1985.
[6]
It was the first
independent station
in Southwest Florida, and from the start, it aired on channel 4 on most systems.
[6]
Within a year of building WFTX-TV, Family Group sold it for $17 million to
Terre Haute, Indiana
?based
Wabash Valley
Broadcasting, controlled by the family of
Tony Hulman
; Wabash Valley, which owned
WTHI-TV
in its home town of Terre Haute, had also agreed to purchase
WBSP-TV
in
Ocala
earlier that year.
[7]
[8]
Even though it was on the air in 1985, a full studio facility was not completed until 1987; that same year, the station affiliated with Fox (partly to prevent new independent
WNPL-TV
channel 46 from doing so) and extended its coverage north with an increase in tower height.
[9]
WFTX even pitched ABC on defecting from its affiliate, perennial third-place station
WEVU-TV
, in 1988.
[10]
With Fox, channel 36's programming rapidly grew in ratings. Its first major local program, the consumer series
Troubleshooter
, was outdrawing national and local newscasts by 1991.
[11]
The station changed hands again in 1998, when
Emmis Communications
purchased the assets of Wabash Valley Broadcasting, giving Emmis its first television stations.
[12]
From 2002 to 2005, WFTX's
master control
and other internal operations were controlled from a regional hub located at the company's
WKCF
in
Lake Mary
, near
Orlando
.
[13]
Emmis exited the television business in 2005, with
Journal Broadcast Group
acquiring WFTX and two other stations.
[14]
On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the E. W. Scripps Company would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction and spin off the combined company's print assets. The deal made WFTX a sister station once again to WFTS and also
NBC
affiliate
WPTV-TV
in
West Palm Beach
.
[15]
The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014. It was approved by shareholders on March 11, 2015, closing on April 1.
In the fall of 2021, WFTX added
Ion Television
as a subchannel after Scripps' acquisition of
Ion Media
, bringing the network over-the-air to Southwest Florida for the first time since its 1998 launch. The
Fort Myers
?
Naples
market was the only market in the state outside Tallahassee which never had a station owned by Ion Media or its forerunner companies.
News operation
[
edit
]
In 1992, WFTX announced it would start a local news service in 1993.
[16]
The first 10 p.m. newscast aired on October 10, 1993,
[17]
In its first year, the
Associated Press
selected WFTX as having the best medium-market newscast in the state of Florida.
[18]
A 6 p.m. program was added in 1995, incorporating the previously separate
Troubleshooter
show;
[19]
low ratings prompted its cancellation in 2000.
[20]
After the sale to Journal, WFTX expanded its news department with a focus on consumer advocacy and investigative reporting. A weekday morning newscast titled
Fox 4 News Rising
subsequently debuted in the fall of 2006; the station launched an 11 p.m. newscast in 2007 and a 6 p.m. show in 2010.
[21]
A 5 p.m. hour has since been added.
Due to the highly competitive nature of the Fort Myers?Naples market, WFTX's flagship 10 p.m. newscast has attracted competition over the years. In August 2006 when
ABC
affiliate WZVN-TV (channel 26) announced that it would launch a nightly prime time newscast on cable-only
MyNetworkTV
affiliate "
WNFM
". On March 26, 2007,
CBS
affiliate
WINK-TV
(channel 11) entering into the 10 p.m. race with its own broadcast on
CW
affiliate WXCW. Right from the start, this emerged as a strong second-place finisher to WFTX's longer-established newscast, building on WINK-TV's longtime status as the most watched station in the market. On May 25 after only eight months on-the-air, the nightly WZVN-produced newscasts on WNFM were dropped, due to Comcast's frequent technical difficulties (the cable provider operates the MyNetworkTV affiliate) which hindered in the program's ratings, as well as the success of the WXCW production. To take on the
big three stations
, WFTX began airing an hour-long weeknight 6 p.m. newscast on August 2, 2010, with the second half competing against the national evening news programs on WZVN,
WBBH
and WINK.
Notable former on-air staff
[
edit
]
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WFTX-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF
channel 36, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts
under federal mandate.
[23]
The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition
UHF
channel 35.
[24]
[25]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Erickson, Michael (February 21, 1986).
"Looking between the letters"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1D,
6D
.
Archived
from the original on December 5, 2021
. Retrieved
December 5,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WFTX-TV"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
"Charlotte County investors win license for Cape Coral TV station"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. September 13, 1984. p. 1B
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Leighton, Brian (October 13, 1984).
"Group seeking Cape TV license given more time for settlement"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1B,
3B
.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Sabo, William (April 2, 1985).
"Council approves Cape TV station"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1B.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
Rinella, Frank (October 15, 1985).
"TV station finally gets signal across"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1B
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"TV station in Cape purchased"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. July 12, 1986. p. 5B.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"TV station sold"
.
The Miami Herald
. Miami, Florida. September 12, 1986. p. 1C.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Zoldan, Sheldon (March 9, 1987).
"WFTX-TV commits $1 million for tower, studio improvements"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. Business 8
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Zoldan, Sheldon (June 30, 1988).
"TV-36 wants ABC to switch channel"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1A,
8A
.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Berg McClure, Christy (May 12, 1991).
"Sly like a fox: Some innovative TV programming moves WFTX up"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1E, [v 2E].
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Jerse, Dorothy (April 5, 2008).
"LOOKING BACK: 1983-Terre Haute receives 13 mentions in new state promotional booklet"
.
Tribune-Star
.
Archived
from the original on April 1, 2012
. Retrieved
March 21,
2011
.
- ^
Kerschbaumer, Ken (April 1, 2002).
"Emmis shares hub"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
.
- ^
Romano, Allison (December 1, 2005).
"Emmis Completes Deal for Six TVs"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on January 18, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
.
- ^
Glauber, Bill (July 30, 2014).
"Journal, Scripps deal announced"
.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
.
Archived
from the original on July 31, 2014
. Retrieved
July 30,
2014
.
- ^
"Fine Tuning: WFTX, FOX trot to TV success"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. September 4, 1992. pp. Sun-Press 1,
2
.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
Strauss, Larry A. (October 10, 1993).
"News faces: WFTX-TV joins local broadcast battle"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1F,
4F
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Strauss, Larry A. (April 22, 1994).
"Classy jazz, piano shows light up Phil"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. Gulf Coasting 2.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Strauss, Larry A. (August 1, 1995).
"Time for change in news shows at WFTX, WBBH"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1D
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Scott, Denise L. (June 6, 2000).
"WFTX drops 6 p.m. newscast"
.
News-Press
. Fort Myers, Florida. p. 1B.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Gauthier, Andrew (May 10, 2010).
"In Fort Meyers, WFTX Enters 6pm News Competition"
.
TVSpy
.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
.
- ^
"RabbitEars query for WFTX"
.
rabbitears.info
.
Archived
from the original on December 7, 2021
. Retrieved
December 7,
2021
.
- ^
Archived at
Ghostarchive
and the
Wayback Machine
:
"Fort Myers TV Stations Switch Off Analog (2009)"
.
YouTube
.
- ^
"Attachment I: DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on August 29, 2013
. Retrieved
January 18,
2014
.
- ^
"CDBS Print"
.
Archived
from the original on December 8, 2021
. Retrieved
October 30,
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]
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