TVX is the CW-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida that is licensed to Fort Pierce. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter southwest of Palm City and I-95 in Martin County. Owned by the Four Points Media Group and operated by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group through a local service agreement (LSA), the station is sister to Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA and Class A Azteca America affiliate WWHB-CA. All three share studios in a high-rise office building at the corner of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and North Congress Avenue in West Palm Beach.
Despite WTVX's call sign, it was never owned by the TVX Broadcast Group which coincidentally was a predecessor to former owner Paramount Stations Group, now called CBS Television Stations. Syndicated programming on WTVX includes: Friends, That '70s Show, Two and a Half Men, and Judge Judy. It can be seen on Comcast channel 4 (in Palm Beach, Martin, southern St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties).
| [1] | |
| West Palm Beach, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Branding | The CW West Palm |
| Channels | Digital: 34 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 34.1 The CW |
| Owner | Four Points Media Group
(operated through LSA by Nexstar Broadcasting Group) (West Palm Beach Television Licensee Corporation) |
| First air date | April 5, 1962 |
| Call letters' meaning | disambiguation of WTVJ (which WTVX replaced at sign-on) |
| Sister station(s) | WTCN-CA
WWHB-CA |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog:
34 (UHF, 1966-2009) Digital: 50 (UHF) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1962, 1989-1995)
CBS (1962-1989) UPN (1995-2006) The WB (secondary, early 2000s-2005) RTV (on DT4) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 455.7 m |
| Facility ID | 35575 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 27°7′19″N 80°23′20″W |
Digital programming
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 34.1 | main WTVX programming/The CW HD |
| 34.2 | WWHB-CA Azteca America |
| 34.3 | WTCN-CA "My 15" |
| 34.4 | WTVX-DT4 LATV |
| [2]WTVX-DT2 | [3]WTVX-DT3 | [4]WTVX-DT4 |
History
[5][6]WTVX logo during most of the 1980s.WTVX began operations as an independent station on April 5, 1962 and soon after became a CBS affiliate. The station was originally owned by Indian River Television and based out of a small building along U.S. 1 just south of the St. Lucie/Indian River County line. Prior to the station becoming a CBS affiliate, the network was seen via Miami affiliate WTVJ. Even after WTVX signed-on, its signal was not near as powerful as WTVJ and continued to be recognized as the CBS affiliate for the area. It was not until the 1980s that cable penetration allowed WTVX to gain a Palm Beach audience. In 1988, NBC bought WTVJ. CBS needed a new Miami affiliate and purchased WCIX which had a Grade B signal in Fort Lauderdale. West Palm Beach stations WPTV and WPEC had Grade A signals there. This forced CBS to switch its West Palm Beach affiliate on January 1, 1989 to WPEC leaving WTVX without network affiliation. As ABC decided to go from WPEC to new sign-on WPBF, WTVX was forced to become an independent station once again.
During the day, the station showed movies, drama shows, and talk shows. By Summer 1989, it became more of a traditional independent station with sitcoms and cartoons being added to its schedule. Most of WTVX's shows were to have originally aired on WPBF before that station made the decision to affiliate with ABC. In 1990, WTVX was sold to Krypton Broadcasting. In 1995, Paramount/Viacom joined with Chris Craft/United Television to form the United Paramount Network or UPN. WTVX immediately became an affiliate of this network and became an owned-and-operated station upon Paramount/Viacom's acquisition of the station in 1997. By the late-1990s, it had started to move away from cartoons and sitcoms adding more talk/reality and court shows. In the early-2000s, WTVX started to carry The WB on a secondary basis. Programming from that network aired after UPN prime time. The station soon re-branded from "UPN 34" to "TVX 34" which was based on its call letters. In Fall 2005, WTCN-CA (then a little-known community access channel) became the area's new WB affiliate after Viacom's acquisition of that station. As a result, WTVX reverted to solely being a UPN station and returned to the "UPN 34" branding.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. WTVX was announced as becoming the area's affiliate of the new network because it was full-powered and owned by CBS. On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management (including WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB) for $185 million. Cerberus formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late June 2007. The group deal closed on January 10, 2008. Until the sale to Four Points, WTVX was one of three former CBS affiliates that later became CW stations that were owned by CBS. The other two are KSTW in Seattle/Tacoma, Washington and WPCW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania both of which are still owned by the network. During CBS ownership, some internal operations of WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB were based at WFOR-TV's studios in Miami. As of February 25, 2008, these three stations are now being operated from Four Points' hub facilities at KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.
WTVX added the Retro Television Network (RTV) on its fourth digital subchannel and Comcast digital channel 225. The station transmitted on UHF channel 50 during the DTV transition, but switched to transmitting digital television exclusively on channel 34 before the June 12 cut-off date. WTVX-DT4 dropped RTV in favor of LATV on June 29, 2010. [1]
News operation
[7][8]Its logo for the 6:30 news.As a CBS affiliate, WTVX operated a news department from its studios in Fort Pierce and maintained newsrooms in Stuart and West Palm Beach. Soon after the loss of the affiliation, it began to phase out its newscasts eventually ceasing completely by Summer 1989. At one point as a CW affiliate, the station aired news updates under the title CW News Now on its website. In Summer 2008, WTVX created a new news department (and on August 4) debuted CW West Palm News At 10. This production initially aired seven nights a week for 35 minutes and in high definition starting on September 15. As its first news broadcast to air in nearly twenty years, it competed with the well-established 10 o'clock news on Fox affiliate WFLX. As was the case with that station, WTVX's broadcast also rated in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market where it competed with similar newscasts on WSVN and WBFS-TV.
At some point in time, the Saturday night broadcast was dropped. On March 2, 2009, WTVX moved the show to weeknights at 6:30 when the national news programs air on the big three stations. On June 8, 2009, the station discontinued its newscast altogether. Throughout its life, the CW newscast was produced by owner Four Points Media Group in conjunction with sister station KUTV. The news originated from a secondary set at that station's studios on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. WTVX's studios functioned as a news bureau with two reporters local to West Palm Beach. It continues to air the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekday mornings from 6 to 8 that is produced from studios on the campus of Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. There is also a public affairs show called Around Our Town that is aired Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8 and on Sunday mornings at 7 hosted by Aneta Sewell.
Newscast titles
- X•34 (1960s-1980s)
- News Source 34 (1980s)
- WTVX News (1980s-1988)
- CW West Palm News at 10 (2008-2009)
- CW West Palm News at 6:30 (2009)
Station slogans
- "I got to know 'em!" (1970s-1980s)
- "The Spirit of the Treasure Coast" (1986-1992)
- "Good Time TV!" (2002-2006)
- "Free to be CW" (2006-2007, used to promote switch to The CW)
- "All Your News in Half the Time" (2008-2009)
Former staff
- Fields Moseley - weeknight news anchor
- Cristina Flores - weeknight news anchor
- Claudia Shea - weekend news anchor and reporter (during CBS affiliation)
- now at WPEC/WFLX
- Sterling Poulson - weeknight meteorologist
- Dave Fox - weeknight sports anchor
- Lane Wright - news reporter
- Michelle Visage - entertainment reporter and heard on WEAT-FM 104.3
- Fadia Patterson - host of Around Our Town
References
- ^ "Nexstar/Four Points fired up to add 4th network in West Palm". Television Business Report. June 24, 2010. http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/25350.html. Retrieved June 25, 2010.