. wear tv pensacola fort walton beach florida mobile alabama u.s. city pensacola florida branding wear abc 3 or channel 3 general channel 3 news newscasts slogan first . live . local . channels digital 17 uhf virtual 3 psip subchannels 3.1 abc 3.2 the country network affiliations abc secondary until 1955 owner sinclair broadcast group wear licensee llc first air date january 13 1954 1954 01 13 call letters meaning the words ear or wear sister station s wpmi tv wfgx wjtc former channel number s analog 3 vhf 1954 2009 former affiliations cbs 1954 1955 the tube on dt2 2007 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 579 m class dt facility id 71363 transmitter coordinates 30 36 45.4 n 87 38 41.6 w 30.612611 n 87.644889 w 30.612611 ; 87.644889 website weartv.com wear tv virtual channel 3 uhf digital channel 17 is an abc affiliated television station located in pensacola florida united states that also serves mobile alabama . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate wfgx channel 35 ; sinclair also operates mobile based nbc affiliate wpmi tv channel 15 and independent station wjtc channel 44 under a local marketing agreement with owner deerfield media . wear and wfgx share studios on mobile highway u.s. 90 in unincorporated escambia county florida with a pensacola mailing address wear s transmitter is located in unincorporated baldwin county alabama east of rosinton . the station can also be seen on comcast mediacom and cox channel 3 . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on january 13 1954 . broadcasting on vhf channel 3 it was founded by charles smith and mel wheeler who also owned wear radio 1230 am now wdwr . initially the station was a primary cbs affiliate with a secondary abc affiliation . shortly after wear signed on the federal communications commission collapsed mobile and pensacola into a single market . in early 1955 channel 3 activated a new tower in baldwin county . shortly afterward wkrg tv channel 5 signed on as the cbs affiliate for the enlarged market and wear became an exclusive abc affiliate . in 1959 it was sold to rollins telecasting which in turn merged with heritage broadcasting to form heritage media in 1987 . in october 1997 wear and the other heritage stations were sold to the sinclair broadcast group just as the remainder of heritage media was merging with news corporation the then parent company of fox . this sale also protected former longtime nbc affiliate wala tv channel 10 as the market s fox outlet ; otherwise wear would have been forced to switch its network affiliation to fox . sinclair prohibited its abc affiliates including wear from airing a nightline broadcast in 2004 that featured a segment displaying the names of those who died in the war in iraq because the company felt it was anti war rhetoric against the invasion . 1 in late 2006 sinclair entered into negotiations with mediacom the main cable provider for parts of the florida side of the market including santa rosa county florida and pensacola beach . the two companies could not reach an agreement over retransmission fees . as a result mediacom pulled all of sinclair s stations including wear from its systems on january 6 2007 . the dispute ended on february 2 when the two sides reached an agreement that restored wear to mediacom systems . upon the expiration of the 2007 agreement on january 1 2010 mediacom was prepared to drop the station once again from its systems . sinclair agreed to a temporary extension until january 8 in order to allow the bowl championship series college football games to be viewed on sinclair s abc and fox affiliates over mediacom . eventually a one year agreement was reached which would keep sinclair stations on the cable television provider until 2011 . in 2012 newport television sold five of its stations including wpmi and wjtc to sinclair . however since sinclair already owns wear and wfgx wpmi and wjtc were sold to deerfield media while sinclair operates the two stations under local marketing agreements . the sale created one of the few instances where two big three stations are operated by the same company . however the two duopolies maintain separate operations . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 2 3.1 720p 16 9 wear hd main wear tv programming abc 3.2 480i 4 3 tcn the country network wear formerly carried the tube on its second digital subchannel until early 2007 when it was replaced with a standard definition feed of the station s main channel which lasted until around 2010 . in 2011 the country network began occupying the second subchannel after the network moved from sister station wfgx . analog to digital conversion edit wear tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over vhf channel 3 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 17 . 3 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 3 . programming edit syndicated programming on wear includes who wants to be a millionaire the ellen degeneres show extra and rachael ray . news operation edit wear tv presently broadcasts 36 hours of local newscasts each week with 6 hours on weekdays and two hours each on saturdays and sundays . in addition the station produces an additional 2 hours of newscasts weekly for wfgx with a half hour on weekdays . this totals 38 hours of newscasts on a weekly basis between the two stations ; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming it is the highest local newscast output among all broadcast television stations in the mobile pensacola market in contrast wpmi produces 27 hours and wkrg produces 22 hours of newscasts each week . since wear is the only major network station licensed on the florida side of the market the station s newscasts tend to focus more on pensacola . it does however operate a bureau on dauphin street in downtown mobile . wear is one of several abc stations across the country that carries an hour long 10 00 p.m. newscast . because of this abc s 10 35 programming including nightline and presently jimmy kimmel live since the two shows switched timeslots nationally in january 2013 have always been broadcast on a half hour tape delay and start at 11 00 p.m. the additional half hour of the 10 00 p.m. broadcast began as channel 3 news extra but has since evolved into an extension of the 10 00 p.m. newscast . the station launched a 4 00 p.m. newscast in december 2007 . on september 7 2008 wear tv was the first station in the mobile pensacola market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition ; field video remained pillarboxed for almost three years until widescreen and eventually high definition video began supplementing the newscasts in 2011 . on july 15 2013 the weekday edition of wear s morning newscast 3 in the morning expanded by a half hour moving its start time to 4 30 a.m. putting them in competition with wala s already existing 4 30 a.m. newscast . 4 on august 12 2013 wear launched a new half hour weeknight only newscast at 9 00 p.m. on sister station wfgx . the newscast airs in direct competition with wala s long established dominant and hour long 9 00 p.m. newscast . 5 this marked the first time that newscasts have aired on wfgx since it shut down its in house news department in 1998 after two years the 6 30 and 9 00 p.m. newscasts wfgx produced specifically focused on okaloosa county florida . notable current on air staff edit mark e. hyman behind the headlines host ; also sinclair broadcast group vice president for corporate relations notable former on air staff edit steve berthiaume sports anchor last with espn s sportscenter now play by play announcer with the arizona diamondbacks mark curtis anchor reporter now at wowk tv in charleston west virginia liz swaine began career at wear tv ; voted best journalist in the nation while at ktbs tv in shreveport ; candidate for mayor of shreveport 2006 references edit http www.cnn.com 2004 showbiz tv 04 29 abc.nightline index.html rabbitears tv query for wear dtv tentative channel designations for the first and second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . earlier news on wear ... florida newscenter july 19 2013 . wear to produce new newscasts for wfgx ... florida newscenter july 31 2013 . external links edit official website wfgx website query the fcc s tv station database for wear tv v t e television stations in lower alabama and the western florida panhandle including mobile and pensacola local stations wear 3.1 abc 3.2 zuus country wkrg 5.1 cbs 5.2 ion 5.3 metv wrbd lp 8.1 ind. a1 wala 10.1 fox 10.2 cozi tv wbqp 12.1 a1 youtoo america 12.2 punch tv 12.3 word wpmi 15.1 nbc 15.2 wxn wgox 18.1 ind. wdpm 18.1 daystar w19co d 19.1 hsn wmpv 21.1 tbn 21.2 hillsong channel 21.3 juce tv smile 21.4 enlace 21.5 tbn salsa wsre 23.1 pbs 23.2 world 23.3 create wsre plus 23.4 v me w26bv 26 ind. whbr 33.1 ctn 33.2 ctni 33.3 lifestyle wfgx 35.1 mntv 35.2 gettv 35.3 comet w39bp 39 fn wpan 40.1 ssn weiq 42.1 pbs apt 42.2 apt world 42.3 create wjtc 44.1 ind. 44.2 grit wctu 46.1 gcn 46.2 blank 46.3 word 46.4 punch tv wfbd 48.1 ind. blab tv w50cf 50 dark wfna 55.1 cw 55.2 bounce tv 55.3 justice wawd wdes cd 58.1 ind. tourist info wrbm 60 ind. cable channels blab tv fox sports sun fox sports southeast fox sports south fox sports florida defunct w30bx 30 hsn florida broadcast television areas by city fort myers gainesville jacksonville miami orlando pensacola panama city tallahassee tampa st. petersburg west palm beach see also montgomery tv biloxi tv hattiesburg tv v t e abc network affiliates in the state of florida wear 3 pensacola wftv 9 orlando wplg 10 miami fort lauderdale wmbb 13 panama city wcjb 20 gainesville wpbf 25 tequesta west palm beach wjxx 25 orange park jacksonville wzvn 26 naples wtxl 27 tallahassee wfts 28 tampa wwsb 40 sarasota see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in florida v t e abc network affiliates in the state of alabama wdhn 18 dothan wear 3 mobile waay 31 huntsville wncf 32 montgomery wtok 11 demopolis wtvm 9 auburn wbma ld 58.1 wabm 68.2 wdbb 17.2 wgww 40.2 birmingham see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in alabama v t e sinclair broadcast group sorted by primary channel network affiliations abc katu katv kdnl tv khgi tv kwnb tv khgi cd komo tv ktul ktvo kvii tv kvih tv wbma ld wchs tv wear tv wgtu wgtq1 wham tv1 wicd wics wkef wjla tv wlos wpde tv wset tv wsyx wtvc wxlv tv cbs kbak tv kboi tv kdbc tv keye tv kfdm kgan kgbt tv khqa tv kima tv kepr tv klew tv kmeg1 krcg ktvl kutv kval tv kcby tv kpic wgfl1 wgme tv whp tv wkrc tv wpec wrgb wsbt tv wtvh1 wwmt the cw kfdm kfre tv kmys1 kocb kvcw kxvo1 kyuu ld wbui1 wbsf1 wcwf wcwn