WTVX

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WTVX
Fort Pierce / West Palm Beach, Florida
Branding	The CW West Palm Azteca 48 (on DT2) My 15 (on DT3) RTV West Palm Beach (on DT4)
Channels	Digital: 34 (UHF)
Subchannels	34.1 The CW 34.2 Azteca America 34.3 MyNetworkTV 34.4 RTV
Owner	Four Points Media Group (operated through LSA by Nexstar Broadcasting Group) (West Palm Beach Television Licensee Corporation)
First air date	April 5, 1966
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 (1966 and 1989-1995) CBS (1966-1989) UPN (1995-2006) The WB (secondary, early 2000s-2005)
Transmitter Power	1000 kW
Height	455.7 m
Facility ID	35575
Transmitter Coordinates	27°7′19″N 80°23′20″W / 27.12194°N 80.38889°W / 27.12194; -80.38889
Website	34cwtv.com

WTVX 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 south of Port Saint Lucie 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 MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA and Azteca America affiliate WWHB-CA. All three share studios at the corner of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and North Congress Street in West Palm Beach.

Despite WTVX's call sign, it was never owned by the TVX Broadcast Group which coincidentally was a predecessor to the Paramount Stations Group now called the CBS Television Stations Group. Syndicated programming on WTVX includes: Will & Grace, Sex and the City, Friends, and The King of Queens. It can be seen on Comcast channel 4 (in Palm Beach, Martin, southern St. Lucie, and northern Indian River Counties) and channel 6 (in northern St. Lucie and southern Indian River Counties).

[edit] Digital television

The station's signal is multiplexed.

[edit] History

WTVX began operations as an independent station on April 5, 1966, and soon after became a CBS affiliate. The station was originally owned by Indian River Television, and based out of a small building along US-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's, and WTVJ thus continued to be recognized as the CBS affiliate for the Palm Beaches. It wasn't 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 their 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 the summer of 1989, the station 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 would become an owned-and-operated station of the network upon Paramount/Viacom's acquisition of the station in 1997. By the late-1990s, WTVX 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 their call letters. In the fall of 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, L.P. (including WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB) for $185 million dollars. 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 of 2007. The group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008. Until the sale to Four Points, WTVX was one of three former CBS affiliates that later became CW stations who 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, (WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB) had some internal operations based at WFOR-TV's studios in Miami. As of February 25, 2008, these three stations are now being operated out of Four Points' hub facilities at KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.

WTVX recently^[when?] added Retro Television Network on its fourth digital subchannel as well as Comcast digital cable channel 225 (in Palm Beach, Martin, southern St. Lucie counties, and 187 (in southern St. Lucie, and Indian River counties. The station transmitted on channel 50 during the DTV transition, but switched to transmitting digital television exclusively on channel 34 before the June 12th cut-off date.

[edit] News operation

The station's news logo during the time of the 6:30 newscast.

As a CBS affiliate, WTVX operated a news department with its main newsroom in Fort Pierce, and additional, smaller newsrooms in Stuart and West Palm Beach. Soon after the loss of WTVX's CBS affiliation, WTVX began to phase out its newscasts; they had ceased 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 the summer of 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. The station's first news broadcast to air in nearly 20 years, it competed with the well established 10 o'clock news that airs on FOX affiliate WFLX. WTVX's newscast 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 newscast to weekdays at 6:30 P.M., 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 and CBS affiliate KUTV. The news originated from a secondary set at that station's studios on Main Street, in downtown Salt Lake City. WTVX's studios, therefore, essentially functioned as a news bureau, with two reporters local to West Palm Beach.

WTVX continues to air the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, on weekday mornings from 7 to 9 A.M., which is produced in studios located on the campus of Full Sail University, in Orlando, Florida.

[edit] News team

The Daily Buzz
(Weekday Mornings 7 to 9)

• Anchors:
  • Andy B. Campbell
  • Andrea Jackson
• News Updates:
  • Kia Malone
• Weather:
  • Mitch English

Former Personalities
CW West Palm News at 6:30 (Weeknights 6:30 to 7)

• Anchors:
  • Fields Moseley
  • Cristina Flores
• Weather:
  • Sterling Poulson
• Sports:
  • Dave Fox
• Reporters:
  • Lane Wright
  • Michelle Visage - entertainment and heard on WEAT-FM 104.3

[edit] Logos

WTVX CBS logo with WTVJ's logo.	WTVX CBS logo from a 1984 issue of TV Guide.	The station's first "UPN 34" logo as seen in a 1998 issue of TV Guide. It was likely used from 1995 until Viacom purchased the station in 2000.	WTVX's second "UPN 34" logo used from 2000 to 2002.
The station's third "UPN 34" logo used for several months in 2002.	WTVX's "TVX 34" logo used from 2002 until 2005.	The station's final UPN logo used from 2005 until August 2006.	WTVX's current CW logo.
WTVX-DT4 logo.

[edit] External links

• WTVX "The CW West Palm"
• WTVX-DT4 "RTV West Palm Beach"
• WTCN-CA "My 15"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVX