. not to be confused with ktsp tv or wstp . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message wtsp st. petersburg tampa florida united states city st. petersburg florida branding 10 news slogan tampa bay s news leader channels digital 10 vhf virtual 10 psip translators 4 vhf st. petersburg affiliations .1 cbs .2 antenna tv .3 justice network owner tegna media pacific and southern llc first air date july 18 1965 ; 51 years ago 1965 07 18 call letters meaning tampa st. petersburg former callsigns wlcy tv 1965 1978 former channel number s analog 10 vhf 1965 2009 digital 24 uhf until 2009 former affiliations independent 1965 abc 1965 1994 transmitter power 69 kw height 457 m facility id 11290 transmitter coordinates 27 49 9.7 n 82 15 38.7 w 27.819361 n 82.260750 w 27.819361 ; 82.260750 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wtsp.com wtsp virtual and vhf digital channel 10 is a cbs affiliated television station serving tampa florida united states that is licensed to st. petersburg . the station is owned by tegna inc. wtsp maintains studio facilities located on gandy boulevard in st. petersburg and its transmitter is located in riverview . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 notes and references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on july 18 1965 as wlcy tv ; the station debuted after a lengthy court battle that lasted nearly ten years between five prospective owners seeking the channel 10 license including the st. petersburg times . 1 it was owned by rahall communications along with wlcy radio 1380 am now wwmi ; and 94.9 fm now wwrm . the station was affiliated with abc but spent its first month and a half of operation as an independent station as previous abc affiliate wsun tv channel 38 ; frequency now occupied by wtta went to court to keep the affiliation . the city of st. petersburg owners of wsun tv had been one of the applicants for the channel 10 license having jumped in out of fear of losing its abc affiliation . wlcy ultimately won and formally switched to abc in a special ceremony on september 1 1965 . as a condition for being placed on vhf channel 10 instead of a uhf placement the federal communications commission fcc required the station to produce 20 hours of public service programming each week . citation needed until 1981 the station was licensed to largo north of st. petersburg but its studios have always been based in st. petersburg . the station s first studio facilities were located at 2426 central avenue . its current studios on gandy boulevard originally known as the rahall color communications center were dedicated on october 15 1968 . in studio broadcasts were fully in color by 1966 but field reports during the station s newscasts remained in black and white until 1972 . citation needed the station aired several local children s programs as submarine 10 romper room with june hurley 10 ultimate and this side up and local talk shows such as russ byrd s morning show the john eastman show the liz richards show and murphy in the morning . from 1966 to 1967 the station produced 10 go go a teen dance show hosted by wlcy am disc jockey roy nilson . another early local program was a morning exercise show the fran carlton show . citation needed the most popular program on channel 10 during that era was the syndicated the lawrence welk show . citation needed in the mid 1970s the station aired bowling for dollars with host jim bradley . citation needed in october 1971 wxlt now wwsb channel 40 signed on to provide abc network programming to the sarasota area as wlcy s signal was mediocre to poor in most of sarasota county . wlcy s transmitter was located at 4217 stewart avenue in holiday an unincorporated community in the southwestern corner of pasco county 2 where it would remain until 2011 . tampa bay residents had to use a special vhf antenna that faced away from riverview in order to view wlcy this setup was called the tampa bay special . ratings for the station during the early to mid 1970s were dismal however compared to wtvt channel 13 and wfla tv channel 8 and as a result channel 10 nearly lost its abc affiliation . its transmitter location in pasco county was the primary contributor to wlcy s low viewership all of other stations serving the tampa area operated their transmitters in riverview in hillsborough county . it also operated at a lower power than the other tampa stations . in 1977 wlcy tv was purchased by dallas texas based gulf united broadcasting . new owner alan henry of wins new york fame general manager larry clamage and news director george bud faulder began to turn the station around changing the call letters to wtsp tv on september 12 1978 and hiring several new on air staff members who changed the face of the station . in june 1979 wtsp began using a logo known as the sunset 10 which was later duplicated by its sister station ktsp in phoenix arizona along with the action news format . wtsp is also a station of firsts in october 1979 the station acquired sky 10 tampa bay s first television news helicopter which was the only one to broadcast live aerial coverage of the aftermath of the infamous skyway bridge disaster in may 1980 . another technological advance was tampa bay s first satellite news truck called star 10 which was introduced in 1984 that beamed signals from distant locations to wtsp s gandy boulevard studios . wtsp also acquired tampa bay s first doppler weather radar called stormseeker in 1980 was one of the first television stations in the country to use a computer in weather forecasting called weathereye in 1979 and was the first station in the market to provide a seven day forecast in 1992 . the station pioneered the use of satellite technology among local television stations in the united states deploying its own satellite dish in 1979 . in 1979 the station launched an aggressive marketing campaign and in april of that year the station built a taller transmission tower improving the station s broadcast signal . by 1982 wtsp had passed wfla in the evening news ratings where it remained until the latter part of the decade . wtsp has won many prestigious awards including the george foster peabody award in 1983 . taft broadcasting purchased the station along with four other gulf properties in 1985 . then in 1988 taft sold its independent stations and fox affiliates to tvx broadcast group while taft s remaining network affiliate properties including wtsp became part of the restructured great american broadcasting which became known as citicasters by 1995 . in 1994 scripps howard broadcasting arranged for several of its stations including wfts tv channel 28 which was about to lose its fox affiliation to then cbs affiliate wtvt channel 13 due to a corporate deal between fox and wtvt s then owner new world communications to affiliate with abc . wtsp later signed a deal to become the market s new cbs affiliate resulting in a three way affiliation swap that occurred on december 12 1994 ; upon switching to cbs wtsp went from third to second place in the local news ratings although a later resurgent wtvt and competition from wfts s upstart news department would result in the station battling for second with those station for the remainder of the 1990s . wfla was the market leader until dipping to second after the 2009 premiere of the 10 p.m. the jay leno show . logo as 10 connects used from october 9 2008 to july 26 2010 . citicasters which held on to wtsp and wkrc tv in cincinnati ohio after it sold its other television stations to new world whose station properties were later acquired by fox television stations in 1997 merged with jacor in september 1996 . three months later in december 1996 the gannett company acquired wtsp in a swap deal selling six of its radio stations to jacor in return . in the spring of 1999 wtsp debuted a new doppler weather radar system branded as double doppler . the station ceased using the radar located in northern pinellas county in 2013 ; the remaining radar is located at the station s transmitter site in riverview . on october 9 2008 wtsp rebranded from tampa bay s 10 to 10 connects with the 10 connects network being used alternatively . the station s 10 connects logo was similar to the one in use since 2002 though without the wave design along with a small notch in the oval portion of the logo for the connects text this logo was nicknamed pacman for its resemblance to the video game character . 3 . the station rebranded itself as 10 news in july 2010 . around the first week of october 2012 gannett entered a dispute against dish network regarding compensation fees and dish s autohop commercial skip feature on its hopper digital video recorders . gannett ordered that dish discontinue autohop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for wtsp . gannett threatened to pull it from the satellite provider should the skirmish continue beyond october 7 and dish and gannett fail to reach an agreement . 4 5 the two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours . 6 on june 29 2015 the gannett company split in two with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media . wtsp was retained by the latter company named tegna . 7 digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 10.1 1080i 16 9 wtsp hd main wtsp programming cbs 10.2 480i 4 3 wtsp sd antenna tv 10.3 justice network analog to digital conversion edit wtsp shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 10 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 9 the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 24 to vhf channel 10 . 10 the station s previous digital allocation on channel 24 is now occupied by the digital signal of wwsb in sarasota . 11 on february 6 2010 wtsp doubled its transmitter s effective radiated power from 35 kw to 78 kw to help with reception issues that plagued the station s vhf digital signal . at the time the station s transmitter tower was still segregated farther north in holiday due to bygone analog spacing requirements . however even after the increase in power the reception problems persisted for area viewers which aim their antennas toward the majority of transmitters for the tampa market located 35 miles south in riverview . on january 7 2011 wtsp filed an application with the fcc to move its transmitter from holiday to the riverview antenna farm ; 12 however while wtsp remains short spaced with wplg it will give more signal spacing for its jacksonville sister station wjxx ; both wplg and wjxx also operate their post conversion digital signals on channel 10 . the fcc granted wtsp a construction permit on january 26 . 13 the move was completed on october 1 2011 . 14 northern portions of the viewing area lost the station s signal after the move to riverview ; in response to this