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WSVN, channel 7, is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Miami, Florida, United States. WSVN is owned by Sunbeam Television, and has its studio facilities located in North Bay Village and transmitter based in north Miami-Dade County.

WSVN operates a Key West repeater, WKIZ-LP, on channel 49. WKIZ's calls are a play on the Florida Keys since the translator serves Key West.

History

The station began broadcasting on July 29, 1956. It had the call letters WCKT and was a NBC affiliate owned by Biscayne Television Corporation. Biscayne Television Corporation operated WCKT (TV) as an amalgamation of James Cox (Miami News) and John S. Knight (Miami Herald) interests, with Nile Trammell, former NBC president, owning a 15% balance. The station was a partnership of the Cox and Knight and Trammell publishing families who owned Miami's two major newspapers: the Miami News and Miami Herald, respectively. The same partnership also owned WCKR radio (610 AM, now WIOD; and 97.3 FM, now WFLC). Before WCKT signed on, NBC had been carried on WFTL-TV (channel 23) in Fort Lauderdale (later known as WGBS-TV after it had been acquired by Storer Broadcasting) along with some DuMont programming. However, WFTL struggled because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning capability. When the Cox/Knight partnership won a construction permit and license for channel 7, NBC quickly agreed to move its affiliation to that channel since WCKR had long been the NBC Radio affiliate in Miami. Channel 23 became an independent station and eventually went dark, and later came back to the air in 1967 as WAJA-TV, eventually becoming Univision-owned WLTV.

WCKT and Biscayne Television lose license

File:Wcktlogo.png
WCKT logo in 1966 as seen on its tenth anniversary special.

In 1962, the Cox/Knight/Trammell partnership was stripped of its broadcast licenses because it violated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing rules and because of ethics violations. In hearings that began back in June 1960, it was found that some of the principals of Biscayne Television, as well as some of James M. Cox's personal friends, had made improper contact with FCC commissioner Richard Mack in order to influence the award of the construction permit and licenses. Biscayne was competing for the license with East Coast Television and South Florida TV. Mack had also been found guilty of taking payoffs and was forced to resign by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as the rest of the FCC commissioners.

Biscayne Television originally planned to appeal its license revocation but was advised that it would be turned down due to the gravity of the situation. Mack had also been found guilty of taking payoffs in the licensing process of another Miami station, WPST-TV (channel 10, now WPLG), to the broadcasting subsidiary of National Airlines. WPST had its license revoked and Biscayne then opted to put WCKT on the market. The owners of WPST were forced to sell the station only after they had to cease broadcasting.

Shortly afterward a new company called Sunbeam Television Corporation bought the station for $3.4 million and assumed ownership on December 19, 1962. Upon the change in ownership, Sunbeam retained the WCKT call letters and claimed the Cox/Knight station's history as its own. Sunbeam Television was a partnership between Sydney Ansin, a Miami Beach-based real estate developer, and his son Edmund ("Ed") Ansin. The younger Ansin succeeded his father as president of Sunbeam Television in 1971. On June 7, 1983, the station's call letters were changed to the current WSVN, after those call letters were purchased from a PBS station in Norton, Virginia. The station has used its own version of the circle 7 logo since the mid-1970s.

Sunbeam Television ownership

As an NBC station, WCKT/WSVN aired a newscast in place of whatever NBC aired weekdays at Noon. It also, at some times of the year, preempted shows during the 10 or 11 a.m. hour (but ran at least one of these hours) and preempted an occasional primetime show. While NBC was traditionally far less tolerant of pre-emptions than the other networks, it did not mind this at first provided that NBC was able to contact alternate independent stations in the Miami area to air whatever programs that WSVN did not air. In addition, NBC programs that WSVN didn't air were cleared by WPTV (channel 5) in West Palm Beach. WPTV's signal provides city-grade coverage of Fort Lauderdale and was available on nearly every cable system in the area. However, in the early 1980s, WPTV fell off a few Miami cable systems to make room for new channels. Largely due to those preemptions, WCKT/WSVN was one of NBC's weaker affiliates. Though the independent stations NBC contacted continued to air programs not shown on WSVN, the network grew increasingly annoyed at having to resort to such an arrangement in what had grown into a major market. NBC eventually decided that it needed to own its own outlet in the growing South Florida market.

Network affiliation switch

NBC got its chance in the late 1980s when CBS affiliate WTVJ (then on channel 4, now on channel 6), Florida's oldest television station, went on the market. NBC's corporate parent General Electric purchased that station in 1987, but WTVJ's affiliation contract with CBS did not run out until the end of 1988. CBS was willing to let WTVJ out of its affiliation contract a year early. However, Ed Ansin was not interested in letting NBC out of its pact with WSVN, which also expired at the same time; Ansin even made an unsuccessful petition to the FCC to stop NBC's purchase of WTVJ.[1][2] He wanted channel 7 to air NBC's strong fall 1988 lineup, which included the Major League Baseball World Series and the Summer Olympics. As a result, NBC was forced to run WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for more than a year, with all of the NBC shows preempted by WSVN airing to WTVJ (a situation that did not sit well with either network). When Ansin made an offer to take the CBS affiliation, CBS turned the offer down.[3] Instead, CBS bought Miami's original Fox affiliate, WCIX (channel 6, now WFOR-TV on channel 4), even though that station had an inadequate signal in Broward County. In May 1988 Ed Ansin filed an antitrust lawsuit against General Electric/NBC and CBS, a week after he had claimed that CBS backed out of negotiations to affiliate with WSVN.[4]

Fox affiliation

Finally, on January 1, 1989, South Florida's first network affiliation switch occurred, with NBC moving to WTVJ full-time and WSVN taking the Fox affiliation. WSVN had far less programming to pre-empt as a result, as Fox only programmed weekends at the time and would not air a full week's worth of programming until 1993. As a result, for all intents and purposes WSVN was programmed essentially as an independent station. Until the network began airing weeknight programming, WSVN aired a film in primetime every weeknight at 8 p.m. The station also took on a news-intensive format after the affiliation switch, expanding its newscasts to eight hours on weekdays. WSVN's affiliation with Fox could also be seen as a major coup for the fledgling network, as WSVN had been the area's longtime NBC affiliate and Fox was pleased to gain affiliation with a station which had been with a "Big Three" network for years. At the time, WSVN was one of the largest heritage "Big Three" stations to join the upstart network. The combination of WSVN not following a similar pattern to other Fox affiliates at the time and WCIX becoming a "Big Three" affiliate also led then-struggling independent WDZL (channel 39, now CW affiliate WSFL-TV) to rise to prominence, as WDZL picked up many shows once on WCIX.

WSVN archive betacam newstape at the Florida Moving Image Archive.

Instead of buying a lot of off-network sitcoms and running cartoons, WSVN opted to pour most of its resources into its news department—a move that was pilloried at the time since its newscasts had consistently finished well behind WTVJ and WPLG in the ratings.[5] Because of this, the station had a higher local newscast output than the rest of Fox's stations did at the time of the switch; when WSVN became a Fox affiliate, only a small number of Fox stations ran local news, which were limited to late primetime slots (as of 2010, only about one-quarter of Fox's affiliates carry newscasts in either the midday, 4, 5 or 6 p.m. time periods, in addition to morning and/or primetime newscasts). It began to air a lot of first-run syndicated talk shows, court shows, off-network dramas, and eight hours of news a day; in its early years with the Fox network, local news on WSVN ran on weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m., 12 to 1 p.m., 5 to 7 p.m., and 10 to 11 p.m.

It also ran some cartoons on weekends as well; it originally aired Fox Kids programming in 1990, but by 1993 it moved to WDZL. WBFS-TV (channel 33) aired the 4Kids TV block until the block ended on December 27, 2008. In 1994, when New World Communications switched most of its stations' to Fox, the programming on them was very similar in format to WSVN except that their news format may have aimed at an older audience than WSVN. Also, many stations owned by New World passed on Fox Kids just as WSVN.

As a Fox affiliate, the station is branded "WSVN 7", rather than "Fox 7" under Fox's station standardization rule (Boston sister station WHDH does brand itself with its network name as "7 NBC", though NBC is not as strict with branding as Fox). However, Fox News Channel refers to the station as "Fox 7" when carrying WSVN's coverage of news from South Florida during breaking news emergencies. Also until a revamp of the website in late 2009, the Fox logo occasionally appeared in a rolling marquee on the top left hand corner of the website.

WSVN today

File:WSVNlogo.jpg
WSVN's 2001–2009 news open

The station has continued to draw down their syndication output for years, choosing to fill the majority of their schedule with lower-tier and barter programming such as The Wendy Williams Show, Inside Edition, Matlock, Divorce Court and Justice for All with Judge Cristina Pérez, with the majority of the weekend morning and afternoon schedule outside of E/I and Fox Sports programming with paid programming and Sunday services from national televangelists, all of it scheduled by WSVN as the station has refused carriage of Fox's Weekend Marketplace infomercial package, which is completely unseen in South Florida. Despite this, the purchase of low-tier programming allows for much more latitude for breaking news pre-emptions than the traditional talk show-heavy lineup of most Fox stations in daytime.

Even though other stations usually take more of the higher-tier programming in the market, the station has far higher ratings than WSFL and WBFS and often has higher ratings than the other stations in the market, depending on the strength of Fox's schedule or sports rights from year to year. In May 2006, WSVN was the market's highest-rated English-language station from sign-on to sign-off.[6] WFOR has since surpassed WSVN as the number one English-language station in Miami, though WSVN has been a solid runner up and has tied with WPLG. Today, the station has expanded its news programming and added other local programs such as Deco Drive.

WSVN vs. DirecTV dispute

At midnight on January 14, 2012, the signals of WSVN along with sister stations WHDH and WLVI in Boston were pulled from DirecTV after talks to increase the retransmission fees paid to Sunbeam Television by a reported 300% failed. This dispute affected an estimated 230,000 customers in the South Florida area.[7] In response to this outage, a page called "Boycott WSVN" was started on Facebook to pressure advertisers to pull their ads from the local station.[8] However, WSVN did allow DirecTV customers access to the NFC championship game and an episode of American Idol which aired immediately after the game while negotiations were still ongoing. Sunbeam and DirecTV finally reached a deal on January 26, 2012, ending the lockout.[9]

Digital television

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
7.1 720p 16:9 WSVN-D1 Main WSVN programming / Fox
7.2 480i 4:3 WSVN-D2 Estrella TV

On June 12, 2009, WSVN remained on channel 7 when the analog to digital conversion was completed.[10] The station was one of four VHF digital stations granted a power increase later that month after stations experienced signal problems on VHF that did not occur with UHF.[11]

News operation

File:7 HD Open.jpg
WSVN's former 10 p.m. news logo.
File:WSVN HD.JPG
WSVN's HD Newsroom studio.

When the station gained the Fox affiliation, it retained a news schedule similar to the one it had as an NBC affiliate. As a result, it became the second Fox affiliate to have a weekday morning newscast and was the first with weeknight 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Under news director Joel Cheatwood, WSVN became well known in South Florida, and throughout the nation, for its emphasis on crime stories and sensationalistic reporting—summarized in the phrase, "if it bleeds, it leads."[12] Although this embrace of tabloid television was criticized, it rejuvenated a station that had languished in third place for most of its tenure with NBC. Within a few years, WSVN was the highest-rated English-language station in South Florida, a rank it would hold for the better part of two decades until WFOR passed it. WSVN's success also influenced how Fox affiliates' newscasts would look in later years to come.

The station currently has an 11 p.m. newscast, in addition to its 10 p.m. newscast. The 11 p.m. newscast began in 1995 as a 15-minute O.J. Simpson murder case wrap-up, and did not expand to weekend evenings until September 26, 2009,[13] (an 11 p.m. newscast previously existed before the 1989 switch to Fox). A half-hour 4 p.m. newscast was added to the schedule on September 11, 2006,[14] which later expanded to an hour in 2007. On July 11, 2010 WSVN expanded its Saturday and Sunday 6 p.m. newscasts to one hour with the addition of half-hour newscasts at 6:30 p.m.[15]

WSVN broadcasts 63 hours of local news each week, the most of any local television station in the United States. The station currently airs 10.5 hours of news on weekdays (5-10 a.m., noon-1 p.m., 4-7 p.m., 10-11:30 p.m.), six hours on Saturday and three hours on Sunday night; unlike other news-intensive Fox stations, WSVN carries weekend evening newscasts at 5, 6 and 6:30 p.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays (others either air early evening weekend newscasts at different times on Saturdays and Sundays (i.e., Saturdays at 6 and Sundays at 5 p.m.), air them either at only 5 or 6 p.m. on both nights or do not carry early evening weekend newscasts at all); however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, WSVN's weekend 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption and/or delay due to network sports coverage.

The station's weather radar is called "Storm Tracker 7". All newscasts, including entertainment show Deco Drive, can be viewed live on WSVN's website. On January 11, 2009, starting with their 5 p.m. newscast, WSVN became the second station in Miami (behind WTVJ) to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition. With the switch to HD came a new updated newsplex that premiered on December 29, 2008 and new HD graphics. On August 22, 2011, WSVN expanded Today in Florida, with the addition of a fifth hour from 9-10 a.m. by way of the move of Live! with Regis and Kelly to WPLG; this increased WSVN's weekly news output to 63 hours a week, surpassing KRON-TV in San Francisco as the station with the highest local news output in the United States, and the second highest news output of any North American television station.[16]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • WCKT-TV News (1956–1962)
  • The World Today / The World Tonight (1962–1973; later used by WTVJ)
  • TV-7 News (1973–1975, presented on air simply as News)
  • Channel 7 News (1975–1980 and 1988–1993; presented on air as 7 News, which is currently used)
  • NewsCenter 7 (1980–1988)[17]
  • Today in Florida (morning newscast, 1988–present;[18] WTVJ previously used similar title, Today in South Florida for its morning newscast until 2011, based on WSVN's former and WTVJ's current morning lead-in, Today)
  • 7 News (1993–present)[19]

News team

[20] Current anchors

  • Blake Burman - weekends at 5:00, 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
  • Christine Cruz - weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
  • Diana Diaz - weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon; also health reporter
  • Jeff Lennox - Saturday mornings Today in Florida (7:00-10:00 a.m.)
  • Lynn Martinez - weekdays at 4:00 and 4:30 and weeknights at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
  • Mike Marza - weekdays at 4:00 and 4:30 and weeknights at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
  • Belkys Nerey - weeknights at 5:00, 6:00, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
  • Alexis Rivera - weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.)
  • Robbin Simmons - weekends at 5:00, 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
  • Craig Stevens - weeknights at 5:00, 6:00, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.

7 Weather

  • Phil Ferro (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4:00 and 4:30 and weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
  • Brent Cameron (NWA Member) - meteorologist; weekends at 5:00, 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also weeknight fill-in
  • Vivian Gonzalez (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - meteorologist; weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.) and noon
  • TBD - meteorologist; Saturday mornings Today in Florida (7:00-10:00 a.m.)

7 Sports (entire team is seen on Sunday Sports Xtra)

  • Steve Shapiro - sports director; weeknights at 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
  • Mike DiPasquale - sports anchor; weekends at 5:00, 6:00, 6:30, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also sports reporter
  • Donovan Campbell - sports reporter

7 FastTrak Traffic

  • Stephen J. Grey - weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.); also "7 Skyforce HD" photographer
  • Lauren Lane - weekday mornings Today in Florida (5:00-10:00 a.m.)
  • Rio Grant - weekdays at 4:00 and 4:30 p.m.

Reporters

  • Carmel Cafiero - investigative reporter
  • Howard Finkelstein - legal analyst
  • Patrick Fraser - investigative and political reporter
  • Eugene Ramirez - general assignment reporter
  • Derek Hayward - general assignment reporter
  • Alexa Helms - general assignment reporter
  • Liz Nagy - general assignment reporter
  • Brandon Beyer - general assignment reporter
  • Kevin Ozebek - general assignment reporter
  • Alex Diprato - general assignment reporter
  • Adrianna Hopkins - general assignment reporter
  • Nicole Linsalata - general assignment reporter
  • Rosh Lowe - general assignment reporter
  • Vanessa Medina - general assignment reporter
  • Ralph Rayburn - "7 Skyforce HD" photographer

Deco Drive (weeknights at 7:30 p.m.)

  • Louis Aguirre - co-host; also entertainment reporter
  • Lynn Martinez - co-host
  • Shireen Sandoval - Deco Drive and entertainment reporter

Station alumni

Other notes

References

  1. ^ Channel 7 Fights Sale Of Rival TV Station's Owner, Wants Channel 4 Deal Stopped, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, March 11, 1987.
  2. ^ "WSVN owner contests NBC purchase of WTVJ Miami." Broadcasting, March 16, 1987, pp. 43-44. [1][2]
  3. ^ CBS Snubs WTVJ, Network Affiliation Flap Is Setting Precedents, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, June 19, 1988.
  4. ^ WSVN Owner Files Suit Against Networks, Firm, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, May 7, 1988.
  5. ^ Emphasis On News A Bold Move For Ch. 7, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, September 13, 1988.
  6. ^ 2006 May Sweeps: Miami/Fort Lauderdale..
  7. ^ http://www.thestreet.com/story/11376257/1/sunbeam-television-shuts-out-directv-nfl-fans-in-miami-in-attempt-to-extract-300-percent-pay-increase.html
  8. ^ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-WSVN/324011944297374?ref=ts
  9. ^ http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21006531578486/sunbeam-television-and-direct-tv-reach-deal/
  10. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
  11. ^ Eggerton, John (2009-06-29). "Boise Station Gets Power Boost". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  12. ^ Jicha, Tom (29 March 1991). "News Show To Get WSVN`s Familiar Tabloid Touch". Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  13. ^ "WSVN-TV Announces More News at the News Station". WSVN.com. September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
  14. ^ Bandell, Brian (September 4, 2006). "More news is good news for WSVN Channel 7".
  15. ^ WSVN Adding More Weekend News, TVNewsCheck.com, June 21, 2010. Accessed October 19, 2010.
  16. ^ WSVN Miami Expands Morning News Block, TVNewsCheck, August 9, 2011.
  17. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ljtms_fdzI
  18. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7QAq9TxX4
  19. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Wc21Fdq0I
  20. ^ WSVN-TV News Team
  21. ^ "Robb Hanrahan bio". WHP-TV. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  22. ^ "Marilyn Mitzel Resume" (PDF). Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  23. ^ Perez, Charles (27 May 2004). "What Would You Do: Fear Of Bullies". WSVN. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  24. ^ "About Rick Sanchez". Retrieved 13 March 2013.

External links

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