WTXL-TV
Encyclopedia
WTXL-TV is the ABC
-affiliated television station
for Tallahassee, Florida
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter northwest of Monticello, Florida
along the state line with Georgia. It can also be seen on Charter
channel 3 as well as Mediacom
and Comcast
channel 7. There is a high definition feed seen on Comcast digital channel 431 and Mediacom digital channel 827. Owned by Calkins Media
, the station has studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida
. Syndicated
programming on WTXL includes: Judge Judy
, Inside Edition
, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
, and The Doctors
.
. It is not offered on Mediacom or Charter systems.
. By its fourth year of broadcasting, the station used the slogan "Up & Coming". Its original studios were on Thomasville Road (U.S. 319
/FL 61) in Tallahassee and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter northeast of the facilities. In 1984, Allen sold the station to Tallahassee 27 Limited Partnership led by former Senator
Joseph Tydings
and former Representative Louis Frey, Jr.
The call letters were changed to the current WTXL-TV. The station's history page claims the new owners took over in 1985, but according to Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) files, the call letters were changed in 1984.
In 1998, WTXL began to manage and promote a cable-only affiliate of The WB. Known as "WBXT" and originally on-air as "WB 28", it was part of The WB 100+
service. Except for the same call letters being used in a fictional manner, the channel had no relation to Class A MTV2
affiliate WBXT-CA
that broadcasts over-the-air. In 2001, Media Ventures Management (then owner of WTXL) entered into an outsourcing agreement with the Sinclair Broadcast Group
who owns NBC
affiliate WTWC-TV
. Sinclair began to operate this station that merged virtually all of its operations from the original studios to WTWC's facilities on Deer Lake South on March 17, 2002. The arrangement was the first of its kind in the United States
. The Southern Broadcast Corporation (now Calkins Media) acquired WTXL's license on November 30, 2005 while the arrangement continued.
On February 20, 2006, the partnership between the two stations was dissolved when the Southern Broadcast Corporation gave notice to terminate the agreement with Sinclair. As a result, WTXL moved out of the WTWC building. On April 1, 2005, UPN
affiliates WFXU
/WTLF
switched to The WB. UPN promptly signed with WCTV which launched a new second digital subchannel to carry the network. As a result, the "WBXT" operation was shut down. After leaving WTWC's facilities, WTXL rented studio space from Florida State University
's PBS
affiliate WFSU. On June 20, 2006, this station broke ground on new studios in a commercial park in nearby Midway. WTXL fully moved into the new facility in August 2007. The station's broadcasts have been digital-only since February 17, 2009. Until January 1, 2011, it served as the default ABC affiliate for Albany, Georgia
as that area did not have an affiliate of its own. On that date, WALB
added ABC to its second
digital subchannel
.
In August 2007, WTXL debuted a news set from its new studios with the same design as sister station WAAY-TV
and became the first television station in the market
to broadcast local newscasts in high definition. On June 2, 2006, photographer Phyllis Joy Ho and reporter Brandon York Beyer were arrested in Doerun, Georgia
for obstruction at the scene of a military helicopter crash at the tower of WFXL
. They were booked at the Colquitt County
jail in Moultrie, Georgia
and later released on a $750 bond. All charges were later dropped. On September 24, 2007, sports videojournalist and fill-in sports anchor Eric Thompson was issued a traffic citation in Panama City
while providing coverage of jury selection process for the Martin Lee Anderson trial. Unlike most ABC affiliates, it does not air a full two-hour weekday morning show. All of WTXL's newscasts are streamed live on its website (which for about two years was operated by WorldNow until the entire Calkins station group switched its CMS provider to Inergize Digital in 2010).
ABC 27 HD Storm Team Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter northwest of Monticello, Florida
Monticello, Florida
Monticello is a city in Jefferson County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,533 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 2,572. It is the county seat of Jefferson County...
along the state line with Georgia. It can also be seen on Charter
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
channel 3 as well as Mediacom
Mediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 7. There is a high definition feed seen on Comcast digital channel 431 and Mediacom digital channel 827. Owned by Calkins Media
Calkins Media
Calkins Media is a media company based in Levittown, Pennsylvania, which owns 8 newspapers and 3 television stations, all of them are ABC affiliates. It was established in 1937 as Calkins Newspapers, Inc...
, the station has studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida
Midway, Florida
Midway is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Florida:*Midway, Gadsden County, Florida*Midway, Santa Rosa County, Florida*Midway, Seminole County, Florida...
. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WTXL includes: Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
, Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
, and The Doctors
The Doctors (2008 TV series)
The Doctors is an American syndicated talk show airing daily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and Finland. It debuted on September 8, 2008. The hour-long daytime program is produced by Phil McGraw and his son Jay McGraw and is distributed domestically and globally by CBS Television...
.
Digital programming
On WTXL-DT2 and Comcast digital channel 209 is The Local AccuWeather ChannelThe Local AccuWeather Channel
The Local AccuWeather Channel is a 24-hour, weather-oriented, commercially sponsored broadcast and cable television network in the United States owned and operated by AccuWeather, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania....
. It is not offered on Mediacom or Charter systems.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 27.1 | main WTXL programming/ABC HD |
| 27.2 | WTXL-DT2 "ABC 27 Weather Now" (The Local AccuWeather AccuWeather AccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the... Channel) |
History
WTXL-TV debuted on September 16, 1976 as WECA-TV owned by local businessman Evans Craig Allen. In the early years, its slogan was "We Can Do It!" which was a play on the call letters. The station was the third to sign-on in the area after WFSU-TV and WCTVWCTV
WCTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for southwest Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida that is licensed to Thomasville, Georgia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter in Metcalf along the Georgia and Florida state line. This is 609.6 meters high...
. By its fourth year of broadcasting, the station used the slogan "Up & Coming". Its original studios were on Thomasville Road (U.S. 319
U.S. Route 319
U.S. Highway 319 is a spur of U.S. Route 19. It runs for 318 miles from US 1 /State Route 4 in Wadley, Georgia to the John Gorrie Bridge at Apalachicola, Florida. The sections of US 319 in Medart, Florida and from just east of Carrabelle, Florida to its terminus in Apalachicola are jointly...
/FL 61) in Tallahassee and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter northeast of the facilities. In 1984, Allen sold the station to Tallahassee 27 Limited Partnership led by former Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Joseph Tydings
Joseph Tydings
Joseph Davies Tydings is a former Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing the state of Maryland from 1965 to 1971....
and former Representative Louis Frey, Jr.
Louis Frey, Jr.
Louis Frey, Jr. is an American+ politician and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1969 until 1979...
The call letters were changed to the current WTXL-TV. The station's history page claims the new owners took over in 1985, but according to Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) files, the call letters were changed in 1984.
In 1998, WTXL began to manage and promote a cable-only affiliate of The WB. Known as "WBXT" and originally on-air as "WB 28", it was part of The WB 100+
The WB 100+ Station Group
The WB 100+ Station Group was a group of primarily non-broadcast local cable television outlets for The WB Television Network, for markets below the top 100 television media markets in the United States. Dayparts with no WB programming were programmed by the network...
service. Except for the same call letters being used in a fictional manner, the channel had no relation to Class A MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
affiliate WBXT-CA
WBXT-CA
WBXT-CA is the All Wrestling Network affiliate for Tallahassee, Florida. It is owned by Gibson Media Group, and broadcasts on UHF channel 43. Like most over-the-air All Wrestling Network affiliates, it was an affiliate of The Box until that network's acquisition by Viacom in 2001....
that broadcasts over-the-air. In 2001, Media Ventures Management (then owner of WTXL) entered into an outsourcing agreement with the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
who owns NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WTWC-TV
WTWC-TV
WTWC-TV is the NBC affiliate television station for Tallahassee, Florida, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.-History:The station was started on April 21, 1983 by Guy Gannett Communications. This made Tallahassee one of the last markets in the country with full service from all three networks...
. Sinclair began to operate this station that merged virtually all of its operations from the original studios to WTWC's facilities on Deer Lake South on March 17, 2002. The arrangement was the first of its kind in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The Southern Broadcast Corporation (now Calkins Media) acquired WTXL's license on November 30, 2005 while the arrangement continued.
On February 20, 2006, the partnership between the two stations was dissolved when the Southern Broadcast Corporation gave notice to terminate the agreement with Sinclair. As a result, WTXL moved out of the WTWC building. On April 1, 2005, UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliates WFXU
WFXU
WFXU is a television station serving southwest Georgia and the Tallahassee, Florida area, licensed to Live Oak, Florida. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter in Hamilton County, Florida, between Jasper and Jennings...
/WTLF
WTLF
WTLF is the CW-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida. The station broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter at its studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida. WTLF can also be seen on Mediacom channel 2 and...
switched to The WB. UPN promptly signed with WCTV which launched a new second digital subchannel to carry the network. As a result, the "WBXT" operation was shut down. After leaving WTWC's facilities, WTXL rented studio space from Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
's PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
affiliate WFSU. On June 20, 2006, this station broke ground on new studios in a commercial park in nearby Midway. WTXL fully moved into the new facility in August 2007. The station's broadcasts have been digital-only since February 17, 2009. Until January 1, 2011, it served as the default ABC affiliate for Albany, Georgia
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
as that area did not have an affiliate of its own. On that date, WALB
WALB
WALB is the NBC- and ABC-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia licensed to Albany. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter in Doerun along the Colquitt and Worth County line...
added ABC to its second
WALB-DT2
WALB-DT2 is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia. The station is a second digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WALB owned by Raycom Media. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on VHF channel 10.2 from a transmitter in Doerun along the Colquitt...
digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
.
News operation
On January 15, 2000, WTXL began to produce a weeknight prime time newscast called WB 28 News at 10 for "WBXT". This was the first local broadcast for a cable-only WB affiliate. Airing for thirty minutes, the show was seen exclusively on Comcast systems and billed as the area's only 10 p.m. newscast. As the WB station changed channels on the cable system, the name was changed to reflect this. It was later called WB 11 News at 10 and then WB 6 News at 10. The local WB newscast was canceled in September 2003. During the outsourcing agreement with Sinclair, WTXL's on-air team provided WTWC with news briefs on weekday mornings at 7:27 and 8:26 as well as weeknights at 5:58 and 6:28. There were also severe weather cut-ins when conditions warranted. Otherwise, WTWC aired no other local news programming although it had on two previous occasions in the past.In August 2007, WTXL debuted a news set from its new studios with the same design as sister station WAAY-TV
WAAY-TV
WAAY-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Tennessee Valley area of North Alabama that is licensed to Huntsville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter at its Monte Sano Boulevard studios on top of Monte Sano Mountain. Calkins Media owns...
and became the first television station in the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
to broadcast local newscasts in high definition. On June 2, 2006, photographer Phyllis Joy Ho and reporter Brandon York Beyer were arrested in Doerun, Georgia
Doerun, Georgia
Doerun is a city in Colquitt County, Georgia, United States. The population was 828 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Doerun is located at ....
for obstruction at the scene of a military helicopter crash at the tower of WFXL
WFXL
WFXL is the Fox-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia that is licensed to Albany. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter in Doerun near the Colquitt and Worth County line. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station has studios on...
. They were booked at the Colquitt County
Colquitt County, Georgia
Colquitt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on February 25, 1856. As of 2000, the population was 42,053. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 45,744. The county seat is Moultrie...
jail in Moultrie, Georgia
Moultrie, Georgia
Moultrie is the county seat and largest city of Colquitt County and the third largest in Southwest Georgia behind Thomasville and Albany. As of 2009, Moultrie's population is 15,199 people. Since 2000, it has had a population growth of 6.07 percent....
and later released on a $750 bond. All charges were later dropped. On September 24, 2007, sports videojournalist and fill-in sports anchor Eric Thompson was issued a traffic citation in Panama City
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
while providing coverage of jury selection process for the Martin Lee Anderson trial. Unlike most ABC affiliates, it does not air a full two-hour weekday morning show. All of WTXL's newscasts are streamed live on its website (which for about two years was operated by WorldNow until the entire Calkins station group switched its CMS provider to Inergize Digital in 2010).
Newscast titles
- News Sight 27 (1980s)
- NewsCenter 27 (1980s-1990s)
- Action NewsAction NewsAction News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
(1990s) - Tallahassee's NewsChannel 27 (mid 1990s-1998)
- ABC NewsChannel 27 (1998-2006)
- ABC 27 News (2006-present, HD added in 2007)
Station slogans
- "We Can Do It!" (1976-1980)
- "Where News is First" (1998-2004)
- "On Your Side" (2004-2006)
- "Committed to You!" (briefly in 2010)
- "Dedicated to You!" (2010-present)
News team
Anchors- Abbey Phillips - weekday mornings and noon
- Anne Imanuel - weeknights at 5, 5:30, and 6
- "Super Student of the Month" segment producer
- Mika Highsmith - weekends
- Kristen Ledlow - The Good News Show host
ABC 27 HD Storm Team Meteorologists
- Casanova Nurse (Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
) - Chief seen weeknights - Sean Parker - weekday mornings and noon
- Greg Bennett - weekends
- Kevin Niewood - weekend fill-in
Sports
- Brad Dalton - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 11
- Dave Griffiths - weekends
Reporters
- Jane Marks - "Teen Talk" segment producer
- Greg Angel
- Jerry Hume
- Patty Santos