united states city tampa florida branding newschannel 8 8 prime dt2 slogan right now on your side channels digital 7 vhf virtual 8 psip affiliations .1 nbc .2 metv owner media general sale to nexstar broadcasting group pending media general communications holdings llc first air date february 14 1955 ; 61 years ago 1955 02 14 call letters meaning taken from former sister radio station wfla sister station s wtta former callsigns wxfl 1983 1988 former channel number s analog 8 vhf 1955 2009 former affiliations dt2 rtv 2008 2011 transmitter power 32 kw height 465 m facility id 64592 transmitter coordinates 27 50 32 n 82 15 45 w 27.84222 n 82.26250 w 27.84222 ; 82.26250 coordinates 27 50 32 n 82 15 45 w 27.84222 n 82.26250 w 27.84222 ; 82.26250 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wfla.com wfla tv virtual channel 8 vhf digital channel 7 is an nbc affiliated television station located in tampa florida united states and also serving the nearby city of st. petersburg . it serves as one of two flagship television stations of owner media general . located on south parker street in downtown tampa 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 3.1 daytime 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 controversy and criticism 5.1 silencing christians 6 references 7 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on february 14 1955 with a live broadcast of the gasparilla pirate festival . it was originally owned by the tampa tribune along with wfla radio 970 am and 93.3 fm now wflz . wfla tv has been an nbc affiliate since the station s inception . largely because of its newspaper background it was the early ratings leader in the tampa market until wtvt channel 13 passed it for first place in 1962 . in 1966 richmond newspapers publishers of the richmond times dispatch and part owner of the tribune acquired full control of the paper and the wfla radio and television stations . three years later richmond newspapers changed its name to media general and wfla tv the first television station owned and operated by the company has been the flagship of its broadcasting group since then . the station s callsign was changed to wxfl on january 19 1983 after wfla am fm were sold wfla and wflz are currently owned by iheartmedia . at the time federal communications commission cross ownership regulations forced media general to sell the radio stations ; however the company was granted a permanent waiver permitting it to keep the tampa tribune and the television station . channel 8 reverted to its original wfla tv call letters on january 1 1989 . that same year it surged to first place in the tampa bay ratings and has stayed there for most of that time led by one of the most popular anchor teams in the country . in the midst of a market shake up in december 1994 which saw three tampa area stations swapping network affiliations cbs affiliate wtvt switching to fox ; abc affiliate wtsp channel 10 switching to cbs ; and fox affiliate wfts tv channel 28 switching to abc wfla was one of the few major stations in the market that did not change its network affiliation . as a result it became the highest rated station in the market a position formerly held by wtvt which saw its ratings drop after switching from cbs to fox . however since nbc s ill fated primetime experiment with the jay leno show from september 2009 to january 2010 wtvt regained the top spot . wfla and the tampa tribune remained corporate siblings until media general sold the newspaper to tampa media group inc. in october 2012 as part of media general s selloff of its newspaper holdings in a reorganization to alleviate the company s substantial debt load . with the exception of the tribune the company s other newspapers went to world media enterprises . despite the split the two outlets have continued a newsgathering partnership 1 and their operations remain located adjacent to one another at the downtown tampa facility . in january 2013 as a result of the sale wfla began outsourcing its digital operations and website to worldnow as part of a group deal with the company . 2 following the takeover of the company by the principal staff of lin media media general s stations including wfla have since migrated to the wordpress.com based platform and site design previously introduced by lin . on august 20 2014 media general announced that it would acquire mynetworktv affiliate wtta channel 38 from sinclair broadcast group . the deal made wtta a sister station to wfla . 3 4 on january 27 2016 it was announced that the nexstar broadcasting group would buy media general for 4.6 billion . wfla and wtta will become part of nexstar media group . 5 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 6 8.1 1080i 16 9 wfla hd main wfla tv programming nbc 8.2 480i 4 3 8 prime metv 7 former 8 prime logo under the rtv affiliation . wfla tv replaced the retro television network with metv on digital subchannel 8.2 on september 26 2011 as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with media general ; the weigel broadcasting owned metv network also replaced rtv on some media general owned stations in other markets . 8 analog to digital conversion edit wfla tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 8 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 9 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 7 10 11 12 using psip to display wfla tv s virtual channel as 8 on digital television receivers . programming edit syndicated programming seen on wfla tv includes rachael ray steve harvey the ellen degeneres show and extra . 13 wfla mostly clears the entire nbc programming lineup but it airs the fourth hour of today at noon instead of the network s recommended 10 00 a.m. time slot which is occupied by the local lifestyle program daytime see below . it also does not air reruns of the cnbc show mad money during the late night early morning hours opting instead to give the show s time slot to syndicated programming . however both of these are common practices among some of the stations affiliated or owned by nbc . daytime edit the station produces daytime a lifestyle and entertainment program which airs weekday mornings at 10 a.m. ; the program features regular correspondents and contributors for various topics . in 2003 wfla and daytime caused controversy after the new york times reported of its pay for play practices . the article revealed that businesses were charged several thousand dollars to appear on the show effectively making their segments paid segments . many people saw this as payola a practice that is illegal under a federal communications commission fcc ruling . 14 15 after much dispute wfla agreed to identify each paid segment as such to avoid an intervention from congress . 16 original hosts debra schrills and brian fasulo left the show in 2005 . 17 the current hosts are cyndi edwards and former hard copy and extra correspondent who continues to serve as announcer for the latter program jerry penacoli . from 2008 to september 2011 the show aired nationally on the retro television network as part of media general s affiliation deal with the network but was dropped by rtv when media general switched most of its stations subchannel affiliations to metv . 18 national broadcasts of the show currently air on the family channel . news operation edit this section needs expansion with further information on the history of wfla s news department . you can help by adding to it . october 2010 wfla presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with six hours on weekdays and three hours each on saturdays and sundays . arch deal and bill henry were the prominent faces of wfla s newscasts in the 1960s . deal s tenure was abruptly cut short in 1975 when he suffered injuries from a parachute accident . bob koop served as the evening anchor from 1977 to 1979 . longtime anchorman bob hite came to the anchor desk in 1979 . the station began using a helicopter for newsgathering called eagle 8 in october 1985 . bill ratliff who was brought in to anchor the evening newscasts in 1982 and had been morning and noon anchor since 1985 retired from wfla on june 25 2009 ; 19 ratliff who was previously a political contributor at wtsp died on may 8 2012 . wfla began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition in early 2007 . following bob hite s november 2007 retirement after 30 years keith cate assumed anchor duties of the 6 00 and 11 00 p.m. newscasts along with veteran anchor gayle sierens . in the february 2012 sweeps period wfla was the clear ratings winner for early morning evening and late news . it was also the only station in the market to gain audience for its late newscast despite nbc s lackluster ratings performance . on july 30 2012 wfla debuted a new weeknight 7 00 p.m. newscast ; the first such program in that timeslot in the tampa market since wfla produced a similar newscast for wxpx tv channel 66 from 2000 to 2002 . 20 on august 26 2013 wfla launched an hour long 4 00 p.m. newscast . concurrent with the addition wfla dropped its 11 30 a.m. newscast on august 23 the second time wfla discontinued its midday newscast in its history although it retains a noon newscast on saturdays and sundays however management stated that a midday newscast may return to the station s weekday schedule in september 2014 . 21 however it was less than 3 years later in may 2016 when wfla reintroduced a new one hour midday newscast at 11 00 a.m. at the start of 2015 wfla assumed production of wtta s news updates great 38 news now . previously the news updates which debuted eleven days before media general s acquisition of wtta were produced by that station s former sister station in west palm beach wpec . on january 4 2016 wfla once again began producing a local newscast for wtta this time a nightly hour long newscast at 8pm under the title newschannel 8 at 8 00 on great 38 pushing wtta s mynetworktv programming back one hour . notable current on air staff edit keith cate anchor notable former on air staff edit dick crippen sports director 1981 1999 rich fields meteorology intern 2000 2002 now at kcbs kcal in los angeles previously an announcer for the price is right chris hansen reporter 1981 1983 ; now with nbc news 22 jack harris host newswatch 8 at noon 1990 1992 ; harris & company harris live 1992 2000 john muller reporter 1989 2001 ; now with wpix byron pitts reporter 1988 1990 ; now with abc news gayle sierens anchor 1977 2015 ; now retired paul fischer reporter weekend anchor 1976 1977 ; nbc network producer ; since 1989 consultant to national brands . john winter morning meteorologist 1994 2007 ; deceased pat moore morning meteorologist 1973 1976 . now host of goldenyearsgeek.com tony zappone news correspondent 1965 1977 controversy and criticism edit silencing christians edit for more details on this topic see speechless silencing the christians . on june 27 2009 wfla aired an hour long documentary silencing christians which dealt with the christian