WTCN-CA
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| WTCN-CA | |
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| West Palm Beach, FL | |
| Branding | My 15 (cable slot) |
| Slogan | Just More Fun! |
| Channels | 43 (UHF) analog, no digital |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | CBS Corporation (Sale Pending to Cerberus Capital Management) |
| Founded | May 4, 1991 |
| Call letters meaning | W Treasure Coast Network |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1991-2005), The WB (2005-2006) |
| Website | my15tv.com |
WTCN-CA, channel 43, is a low-power (class A) television station. It serves as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the West Palm Beach, Florida television market. The call letters refer to Treasure Coast Network, and the on-air identity "My 15" refers to its cable slot. The Treasure Coast is the east coastal Florida counties of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River. WTCN is sister station to West Palm Beach's CW affiliate WTVX and two Miami - Ft. Lauderdale stations: CBS affiliate WFOR and WBFS, another MyNetworkTV affiliate. WFOR handles some support operations for WTCN. The station's trasmitter is located in Martin County southwest of Juniper Island.
The WTCN calls were originally used by present-day WCCO and KARE television in Minneapolis / St. Paul.
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[edit] History
[edit] Stuart Origin
The station is licenced to Stuart, a city in Martin County 45 minutes north of West Palm Beach. It began broadcasting to the Stuart area as W16AR on channel 16 on January 11, 1991.[1] The station briefly produced a local morning show, titled Good Morning Treasure Coast hosted by Tom Teter from October, 1996 to February, 1997. Teter also briefly hosted a 7 p.m. Treasure Coast newscast from February to July, 1997.[2][3] The station no longer airs any news programs.
[edit] Moving
Channel 16 became channel 15 in 2001, and to channel 14 in 2002.[4] It added a repeater signal at channel 53 in order to reach West Palm Beach.[5] Though operating over the air on Channel 43, WTCN bills itself as "WTCN-15" because, according to the station's estimations, 81 percent of households receive the station on cable Channel 15. Comcast customers in St. Lucie and Indian River counties, however, continue to view WTCN on Channel 20, but CBS Corp. hopes to get WTCN moved to Channel 15 on that system.[6]
[edit] Ownership
Retired businessman August Gabriel began the station in 1991 with $200,000 and three employees.[7][8] Bill Brothers, who had been operating WTCN in a Local marketing agreement since 1997, purchased the station for an undisclosed price in 2001.[9] In 2005, Viacom bought WTCN and sister station WWHB Channel 48 from Brothers for $7.7 million.[10] Viacom moved the studios to West Palm Beach and improved the station's signal.[11]
On February 7, 2007, CBS Corporation announced plans to sell all three of the West Palm stations, along with KEYE in Austin, WLWC in Providence, and KUTV in Salt Lake City, to Cerberus Capital Management for $185 million. All affiliations are expected to remain the same.
[edit] Network Affiliation
WTCN-CA became an affiliate of the WB Network in 1999.[12] Until the fall of 2005, sister station WTVX previously repeated WB's programming along with its flagship UPN programming. With the formation of the CW Network from the merger of UPN and the WB, WTVX would be the West Palm Beach affiliate (due to full power status).
WTCN became an affiliate of My Network TV, a new network owned by News Corporation, on September 5, 2006. [1] The station's website, now located at "my15tv.com", has been redone and is up to date with promotions for MNTV. The new MNTV logo for WTCN-CA has a "15" in it unlike its previous WB logo (whch only mentioned "Cable 15" in certain instances but was not part of the actual station name). However, the "15" label was in station logos before the WB affiliaton.
In 2006, WTCN placed sixth in the Nielsen ratings in the Palm Beach market with 0.4% of the audience.[13]
[edit] Logos
 First station logo. |
 Second station logo. |
 "West Palm's WB" logo, used from September 2005-2006. |
 Current station logo. |
[edit] References
- ^ Owner Signing Off at Local TV station, by Bob Betcher, 'Stuart News', June 5, 1996
- ^ 'Stuart's WTCN Moves Its Daily Show to Evenings', by Bob Betcher, 'Stuart News', February 2, 1997
- ^ Lack of Local Sponsors Drives Local Newscast Off Air, by Bob Betcher, Stuart (FL) News, July 8, 1997
- ^ Stuart's WTCN on the move again - to Channel 14 by Bob Betcher, Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News, May 26, 2002
- ^ Stuart's WTCN Has Expanded Into PB County, Fort Pierce (FL) Tribune, August 15, 2001
- ^ Changes Afoot At WTCN, by Bob Betcher, Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News, April 7, 2005
- ^ Stuart TV Pushing For Cable Access by Paul D. Martin, The Palm Beach Post, May 12, 1991
- ^ August Gabriel, by Nisha Pulliam, The Palm Beach Post, August 30, 1993
- ^ Channel 15 Expanding Signal Reach Into Broward County, by Bob Betcher, Stuart News, July 3, 2001
- ^ WTCN's Brothers Cashes Out As Viacom Beefs Up Station, by Bob Betcher, Stuart News, April 17, 2005
- ^ WTCN Moving To West Palm, Likely Will Become WB Station, by Bob Betcher, Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News, June 26, 2005
- ^ WTCN To Become Latest WB Affiliate, Fort Pierce (FL) Tribune, August 9, 1999
- ^ WPTV Wins Ratings Gold by Tom Jicha, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), March 3, 2006
[edit] External links
- Station Website
- WTVX Website
- WFOR Website
- WBFS Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WTCN-CA
WPTV 5 (NBC) - WFPI-LP 8 (Ind) - WPEC 12 (CBS) - WTCE 21 (TBN) - WPBF 25 (ABC, The AccuWeather Channel on DT2) - WFLX 29 (Fox, The Tube on DT2) - WWCI-CA 32 (S@H) - WTVX 34 (The CW) - WXEL 42 (PBS) - WTCN-CA 43 (MNTV) - WWHB-CA 48 (AZA) - WFGC 61 (CTN) - WPPB 63 (Ind/Edu.) - WPXP 67 (i)
| Local digital television channels
See also: Broadcast television stations in Miami - Fort Lauderdale
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WCTV-DT 6.2 (Tallahassee) - WJHG-DT 7.3 (Panama City) - "WNFM" 8 / WBSP-CA 9 (Naples / Ft. Myers) - |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in Florida | |
