nashville tennessee united states branding fox 17 general fox 17 news newscasts slogan we are fox 17 channels digital 15 uhf virtual 17 psip subchannels 17.1 fox 17.2 weathernation tv 17.3 antenna tv affiliations fox since 1990 owner sinclair broadcast group wztv licensee llc first air date august 5 1968 1968 08 05 original incarnation march 6 1976 ; 40 years ago 1976 03 06 current incarnation call letters meaning we re zenith television sister station s wnab & wuxp tv former callsigns wmcv 1968 1971 former channel number s analog 17 uhf 1968 1971 & 1976 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1968 1971 1976 1990 silent 1971 1976 secondary pten 1993 1995 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 411 metres 1 348 ft facility id 418 transmitter coordinates 36 15 49.8708 n 86 47 39.0480 w 36.263853000 n 86.794180000 w 36.263853000 ; 86.794180000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website fox17.com wztv virtual channel 17 uhf digital channel 15 is a fox affiliated television station located in nashville tennessee united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group and is sister to mynetworktv affiliate wuxp tv channel 30 wholly owned by sinclair and cw affiliate wnab channel 58 owned by tennessee broadcasting but operated by sinclair through an outsourcing agreement . all three share studios on mainstream drive along the cumberland river wztv s transmitter is located north of downtown along i 24 . contents 1 history 1.1 first independent station in nashville 1.2 second attempt as an independent station 1.3 fox affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 wztv dt2 2.1.2 wztv dt3 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 general programming 3.2 sports programming 3.2.1 current sports programming 3.2.2 thursday night football simulcast 4 news operation 4.1 news station presentation 4.1.1 newscast titles 5 out of market coverage 5.1 south central kentucky 5.2 northern alabama 6 references 7 external links history edit first independent station in nashville edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message the station originally began broadcasting on august 5 1968 as wmcv from a small studio in west nashville . 1 it was the area s first uhf station as well as the state s first independent station . not surprisingly with three well established network affiliates in the market wmcv did not attract many advertisers and relied mainly on old movies cartoons religious programs and syndicated fare . additionally the nashville market is a fairly large market geographically ; uhf stations usually do not carry very well over long distances . many area households probably did not have sets capable of receiving the station s signal anyway . this was very typical of uhf start ups in the late 1960s and early 1970s . wmcv went off the air on march 10 1971 . after a false start ended hopes for a 1974 return new owner reel broadcasting brought the station back as wztv on march 6 1976 initially branding it as z tv and later z 17 . second attempt as an independent station edit wztv s first several years showed far more promise than wmcv ever did . with wealthier ownership it was able to buy the rights to college basketball and cincinnati reds baseball supplementing the usual independent syndicated program assortment such as cartoons classic sitcoms older movies westerns and reruns of old network dramas . even though the station placed ads in tv guide in 1979 and 1980 offering assistance to middle tennessee viewers who had problems receiving its uhf signal the problem became mostly a moot one as many households could now view the station clearly via cable . in the early 1980s wztv was sold to multimedia which owned several nbc and cbs affiliates around the country . wztv soon got some competition in the form of murfreesboro based wfyz channel 39 which took to the air in 1983 . soon after in 1984 tvx broadcast group signed on wcay tv channel 30 . however wztv not only remained the dominant independent station in middle tennessee but was the only one that was profitable . nashville was only a medium sized market at the time and by 1985 it was obvious that it was not big enough for three independent stations . however multimedia and tvx had more resources than murfreesboro tv corporation owners of wfyz could possibly hope to match . with this scenario channel 39 opted to broadcast only music videos similar to mtv . later that year the christian television network bought wfyz and switched it to an all religious format in 1986 under new calls whtn . wztv then acquired most of wfyz s former shows . in 1988 multimedia sold wztv to act iii broadcasting who had a reputation for buying its competitors stronger programming inventory . however this strategy wasn t successful in nashville since tvx was far wealthier than act iii s competition in most other markets . in 1987 tvx affiliated all of its stations including wcay with the newly launched fox network . however wcay did not get a substantial ratings boost . tvx bought taft broadcasting s five non big three stations later that year ; two of these stations were fox affiliates while the other three were independent . tvx acquired massive debt as well and was forced to sell some of its underperforming medium market stations to service the new debt . wcay and sister station wmkw in memphis were sold to mt communications . after the sale was complete wcay changed its call sign to wxmt . fox affiliation edit the deal between fox and tvx had one catch . if one of tvx s underperforming stations like wcay wxmt was sold that station could lose its fox affiliation . as a result in 1990 fox pulled its affiliation from wxmt and moved it to wztv . act iii was not done yet . the company approached mt about buying wxmt s syndicated programming inventory and moving it to wztv which would have left wxmt with only religious shows and home shopping network programming . mt initially agreed but backed out of the deal a few days later . he came up with another idea in which wxmt would sell its sitcoms dramas and movies to wztv while wxmt would keep barter shows and cartoons . the deal closed in mid february around the same time that wztv changed its on air name to the current fox 17 . over the years wztv s schedule began migrating towards more first run talk court and reality shows . most of channel 17 s sitcoms and cartoons moved to wxmt around this time . in 1994 act iii merged with abry communications . only a year later sinclair broadcast group bought most of abry s stations including wztv . sinclair then entered into a local marketing agreement lma with channel 30 which was now upn affiliate wuxp . most of wztv s sitcoms and cartoons moved to wuxp ; sinclair eventually bought that station outright in 2001 . fox discontinued its weekday cartoon block in 2001 allowing its affiliates to add even more first run syndicated shows . today wztv offers fox programming first run reality talk and court shows and recent sitcoms . on may 15 2012 sinclair broadcast group and fox agreed to a five year extension to the network s affiliation agreement with sinclair s 19 fox stations including wztv that will run through 2017 . 2 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 17.1 720p 16 9 wztv fo main wztv programming fox 17.2 480i 4 3 wxnat weathernation tv 17.3 an tv antenna tv wztv dt2 edit wztv dt2 was initially a standard definition simulcast of the main channel from its 2008 launch until the subchannel was temporarily deleted in 2010 . on october 27 2014 weathernation tv and sinclair broadcasting signed an affiliation agreement to carry that network on a subchannel of baltimore sister station and fellow fox affiliate wbff tv which is sinclair s flagship station . additional sinclair owned stations were added to the agreement . wztv dt2 began carrying weathernation tv on december 16 2014 . 4 wztv dt3 edit on january 1 2016 wztv dt3 launched as the station s third digital subchannel and became an affiliate of tribune broadcasting owned antenna tv thus stripping the affiliation with wrtn ld3 . this is part of a new deal between sinclair and tribune for the carriage of antenna tv on the subchannels of sinclair owned and or operated stations . 5 analog to digital conversion edit wztv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 17 on february 17 2009 which was intended to be the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the deadline was moved to june 12 2009 but the station decided to convert on the original deadline . 6 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 15 . 7 8 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 17 . programming edit general programming edit the station clears all of the fox network s programming schedule except for the xploration station children s educational programming block . syndicated programming on wztv as of september 2015 includes hot bench judge judy the wendy williams show the 700 club divorce court the big bang theory acquired from wnab on september 22 2015 entertainment tonight jeopardy the program s carriage by wztv being a rarity for a fox affiliate anger management everybody loves raymond and access hollywood . 9 in a particular example from this list the nashville market is one of the few that carries jeopardy on a separate station because wheel of fortune airs on abc affiliate wkrn tv . syndicated saturday morning programming in lieu of the xploration station includes teen kids news dragonflytv real life 101 think big and the u.s. farm report . sports programming edit wztv was the television home of nashville sounds baseball from 1982 to 1992 . 10 current sports programming edit wztv along with sister station wuxp carry the locally produced sports program titans all access a 30 minute game preview show hosted by famed tennessee titans radio personality mike keith . it provides highlights behind the scenes of the games and analysis and perdictions for the next game that is played after the broadcast of this program . 11 since the fox network s sports division carries the nfc package the only time wztv carries any titans games is when they play a home game against an nfc opponent because the titans play in the afc or if a titans game is flex scheduled from cbs to fox to balance both network s schedules . in some occasions mainly during the month of march wztv may air some atlantic coast conference men s basketball games from the acc network by raycom sports in the event that wuxp s sports schedules conflict between acc network games and the tssaa state high school basketball championships and or american sports network s ohio valley conference and or conference usa basketball packages . those scheduling conflicts that usually only ensue on weekends . wnab or one of wuxp s digital subchannels may also pick up some c usa programming from asn since that station is considered one of asn s alternate affiliates in nashville . thursday night football simulcast edit wztv previously simulcast all of the titans appearances on nfl network s thursday night football if they were to be scheduled during any week