affiliate in indianapolis indiana kttv wtvt s sister station in los angeles california or ktvt the cbs owned and operated station in dallas fort worth texas . this article is about fox 13 in tampa bay . for the similar fox 13 in memphis tennessee see whbq tv . for the similar fox 13 in seattle washington see kcpq . for the similar fox 13 in salt lake city utah see kstu . 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 . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message wtvt tampa st. petersburg florida united states city tampa florida branding fox 13 general fox 13 news newscasts slogan tampa bay s 1 news station primary the one to watch secondary channels digital 12 vhf virtual 13 psip affiliations .1 fox o & o .2 movies .3 buzzr .4 heroes & icons owner fox television stations new world communications of tampa inc. first air date april 1 1955 ; 61 years ago 1955 04 01 call letters meaning dual meaning walter tison and virginia tison original owner and his wife or tv tampa sister station s wofl wrbw wogx fox sports florida fox sports sun former channel number s analog 13 vhf 1955 2009 former affiliations cbs 1955 1994 transmitter power 72.3 kw height 436 m facility id 68569 transmitter coordinates 27 49 8 n 82 14 26 w 27.81889 n 82.24056 w 27.81889 ; 82.24056 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox13news.com wtvt virtual channel 13 vhf digital channel 12 is a fox owned and operated television station located in tampa florida united states and also serving the nearby city of st. petersburg . the station is owned by the fox television stations subsidiary of 21st century fox . wtvt maintains studio facilities located on west kennedy boulevard in tampa and its transmitter is located in riverview . contents 1 history 1.1 as a cbs affiliate 1.2 as a fox station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 3.1 monsanto controversy 3.2 current on air staff 3.2.1 notable former on air staff 4 references 5 external links history edit as a cbs affiliate edit the station first signed on the air on april 1 1955 becoming the third television station in tampa bay after wsun tv channel 38 frequency now occupied by wtta and wfla tv channel 8 it is also currently the second oldest surviving station in the market behind wfla . operating as a cbs affiliate wtvt was originally owned by tampa bay radio veteran walter tison and his tampa television company . the federal communications commission originally awarded the construction permit to build a station on channel 13 to the now defunct tampa times newspaper which owned wdae radio then at 1250 am now at 620 am . however the fcc reversed its decision and awarded the license to the tison group which intended to open a studio facility in nearby st. petersburg . the times appealed the fcc s decision but lost . although it appears that the station s call letters stand for television tampa they actually stand for the initials of walter tison and his wife virginia . like many other stations located on unlucky channel 13 wtvt used a black cat as its mascot for several years . in 1956 the tampa television company merged with the oklahoma city based oklahoma publishing company . opubco s broadcasting subsidiary the wky radiophone company would later be known as gaylord broadcasting named for the family that owned the company gaylord also owned what is present day cbs o & o ktvt in fort worth but the tvt base callsign was only a coincidence . the station s remote broadcast facilities were chosen for network pool coverage of alan shepard and john glenn s mercury capsule splashdowns in 1961 and 1962 respectively . 1 1 the mobile unit recorded the recoveries on videotapes that were flown to the mainland . in 1987 gaylord sold that station to gillett communications which gillett was in a groupwide acquisition from kkr that mostly are stations owned by storer broadcasting . gillett underwent a corporate restructuring in the early 1990s changing its name to gci broadcast services inc. in 1993 gci filed for bankruptcy and its stations including wtvt were sold to new world communications . by that time wtvt was pre empting cbs this morning for a locally produced morning newscast as well as pre empting all but one hour of the network s saturday morning cartoons . as a fox station edit on december 18 1993 fox outbid cbs for the rights to the nfl s national football conference television package beginning with the league s 1994 season . 2 most of fox s affiliates at the time were on the uhf band ; seeking to affiliate with vhf stations to complement the new rights fox signed a long term deal with new world communications on may 23 1994 to affiliate with twelve of the company s major network affiliates effective that fall . 3 wtvt affiliated with fox on december 12 1994 ending its 39 year affiliation with cbs . this resulted in a three way affiliation swap that resulted in the market s original fox affiliate wfts tv channel 28 affiliating with abc as part of a deal between the station s owner the e. w. scripps company and abc that saw four of scripps s stations joining abc ; longtime abc affiliate wtsp channel 10 became a cbs affiliate . with the switch wtvt became the third tampa area station to have been affiliated with fox . wtog channel 44 was the market s original affiliate from the network s launch in october 1986 until the affiliation moved to wfts in 1988 . albeit with a three month interruption due to cbs losing the nfc rights the games instead aired on wfts for the first three months of fox s nfc telecasts as a lame duck affiliate the switch continued channel 13 s status as the home station for the tampa bay buccaneers . however largely due to the bucs lack of success on the field for most of their first 20 years the team s home games were rarely shown locally . once the buccaneers began to build a winning team in the late 1990s along with a new look and the opening of raymond james stadium local television blackouts decreased thus allowing more games to be shown on wtvt . the station chose not to renew the more expensive syndicated programs that it had run as a cbs affiliate and instead began acquiring cheaper first run syndicated talk and reality shows . news corporation bought new world outright in july 1996 ; 4 the purchase was finalized on january 22 1997 making wtvt the first owned and operated station of a major network in the tampa bay area . although new world no longer exists as a separate company wtvt continues to use new world communications of tampa bay as the copyright tag at the end of the station s newscasts . shortly after the purchase was announced the station changed its branding from channel 13 to fox 13 retaining the numerical 13 logo it had used since 1989 as a cbs affiliate the font for that number has since been utilized by sister station wfld in chicago upon its rebranding in 2012 as well as the 13 itself used by ex sister station whbq tv in memphis . under fox ownership the station added more higher profile syndicated shows and a few off network sitcoms to its lineup . in june 2009 wtvt interviewed late television pitchman billy mays shortly before his death . his interview which was conducted at the tampa international airport is believed to have been his final appearance on live television . 5 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 6 13.1 720p 16 9 wtvt dt main wtvt programming fox 13.2 480i movies movies 7 13.3 4 3 buzzr buzzr 13.4 16 9 h & i heroes & icons analog to digital conversion edit wtvt shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 13 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 8 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 12 9 using psip to display wtvt s virtual channel as 13 on digital television receivers . news operation edit wtvt presently broadcasts 67 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 11 hours on weekdays 6 hours on saturday and 6 hours on sunday . under gaylord broadcasting ownership the company poured its resources into channel 13 s news operation . in 1958 wtvt became the second station in the country to introduce daily editorials and was also the first station in the country 1 to run an hour long news block consisting of 45 minutes of local news under the title pulse combined with the then 15 minute network newscast . by 1962 wtvt had overtaken wfla tv as the highest rated station in the tampa bay market retaining that position for over 25 years . this was largely because of the longevity of many of the station s personalities . for instance roy leep was the station s weatherman from 1957 until his retirement in 1997 and hugh smith was the station s main anchor from 1963 to 1991 spending most of that time doubling as its news director . channel 13 dropped the pulse moniker from its newscasts in 1989 renaming the news branding channel 13 eyewitness news later becoming fox 13 eyewitness news 10 in 1996 before the eyewitness news brand was dropped altogether in 1997 . after wtvt became a fox affiliate in december 1994 the station adopted a news intensive schedule increasing its news programming output from about 25 hours a week to nearly 45 hours . the station retained all of its existing newscasts but it expanded its weekday morning newscast from one to 3 hours with two hours added from 7 9 a.m. and extended the weeknight 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts were bridged into a two hour early evening news block by expanding its half hour 6 p.m. newscast to one hour ; and added an hour long primetime newscast at 10 p.m. at one point wtvt had the largest local newscast output of any television station in the country . in april 2009 fox entered into a local news service agreement with the e. w. scripps company in which fox s owned and operated stations in tampa detroit and phoenix would share news video and helicopter footage with scripps owned stations in those markets for use in their own reports . 11 locally wtvt began pooling video with wfts as part of the agreement ; however the stations otherwise maintain separate news departments . 12 gannett company owned wtsp was added to the lns agreement that june . 13 prior to the agreement wtvt had been the only station in the tampa market to use two news helicopters a bell 206 called skyfox and a robinson r44 called skyfox 2 which was used whenever skyfox was grounded due to mechanical reasons . when warranted both helicopters were used to cover significant news stories . wtvt wfts and wtsp now utilize only one helicopter wfts action air one to cover news events . in the summer of 2009 fox television station opened a graphics hub at the wtvt studios to distribute graphics for fox s owned and operated stations . 14 15 rival wfts serves a similar role as a graphics hub for the e.w. scripps group . monsanto controversy edit in 1997 steve wilson and jane