naples florida united states city fort myers florida branding nbc 2 general nbc 2 news newscasts slogan count on nbc 2 first channels digital 15 uhf virtual 20 psip subchannels 20.1 nbc 20.2 local news and weather affiliations nbc owner waterman broadcasting corporation first air date december 18 1968 ; 47 years ago 1968 12 18 call letters meaning none sister station s wvir tv wzvn former channel number s analog 20 uhf 1968 2009 former affiliations secondary abc 1968 1974 dt2 nbc weather plus 2006 2008 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 453.9 m facility id 71085 transmitter coordinates 26 49 31 n 81 45 54.3 w 26.82528 n 81.765083 w 26.82528 ; 81.765083 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website nbc 2 . com wbbh tv virtual channel 20 uhf digital channel 15 is a nbc affiliated television station located in fort myers florida united states . the station is owned by the waterman broadcasting corporation ; waterman broadcasting also operates abc affiliate wzvn tv channel 26 under a local marketing agreement with owner montclair communications . the two stations share studio facilities located on central avenue in fort myers ; wbbh s transmitter is located along sr 31 in unincorporated southeastern charlotte county . the station is also available on centurylink and comcast channel 2 . there is a high definition feed provided on comcast digital channel 432 and centurylink digital channel 1002 . known on air as nbc 2 the branding is derived from wbbh s primary cable position in the market on comcast xfinity and most other cable providers in the area . this practice stems in part from the area s exceptionally high cable penetration rate which is one of the highest in the united states . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 3.1 notable former on air staff 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on december 18 1968 as wbbh tv . before its existence nbc programming in the market was relegated to off hours clearances through a secondary affiliation with cbs affiliate wink tv channel 11 . as the second television station in southwest florida after wink tv wbbh shared abc programming with that station until wevu channel 26 now wzvn tv signed on the air on august 21 1974 . founded by local businessmen the station originally transmitted its signal from a 1 000 feet 300 m tower in lehigh acres which increased to 1 500 feet 460 m in 1983 . waterman broadcasting purchased the station in 1978 ; the tv suffix was removed from the call letters on october 16 of that year the suffix was later bought back . the driving force behind the emergence of wbbh was joe buerry who had worked as a sales manager and a dj at wmyr radio . when the federal communications commission assigned the channel 20 allocation to fort myers buerry put together a group of investors and filed for the construction permit . the station was granted to buerry and his partners ; buerry ran the station for seven years taking it through its growth period and successfully obtained the nbc affiliation with the help of nbc s regional manager pier mapes who eventually became president of the network . wbbh became the ratings leader in the market under buerry s management ; the arrival of cable in southwest florida eliminated the disadvantage of being on uhf allowing wbbh to overtake wink tv . while wink tv has since regained the lead wbbh has remained a solid runner up for most of the last three decades . after seven years buerry left wbbh to become general manager at wevu tv . at that time wevu was losing revenue averaging at 25 000 a month . buerry because of his knowledge of the market was able to turn the station around by the end of his first year as general manager . he ran wevu until it was purchased by the home news publishing company which retained him as its general manager buerry left that station to run wvgs tv in valdosta georgia six years later . two plaques listing buerry s accomplishments at the fort myers historical society . in 1994 wevu by then owned by ellis communications entered into a local marketing agreement with wbbh and moved into channel 20 s central avenue facilities . at that time both stations began identifying by their respective channel slots on local cable providers . ellis communications merged with raycom media in 1996 who spun wzvn s license off to montclair communications . montclair continues the lma with wbbh to this day . it should be noted wbbh owner waterman broadcasting holds an investment interest in montclair communications even though the two companies file separate financial reports with the securities and exchange commission . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 20.1 1080i 16 9 wbbh hd main wbbh tv programming nbc 20.2 480i wbbh sd nbc 2 news now wbbh began offering nbc weather plus on a new second digital subchannel in september 2006 . in december 2008 after the national service folded wbbh dt2 switched formats and became a 24 hour local news and weather channel known as nbc 2 news now . analog to digital conversion edit wbbh tv became the second station in the market to begin broadcasting a high definition digital signal on october 31 2002 . the station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 20 at noon on february 17 2009 the original target date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 2009 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 15 2 using psip to display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 20 . as part of the safer act 3 wbbh tv kept its analog signal on the air until february 21 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . news operation edit wbbh tv presently broadcasts 45 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 7 hours on weekdays 3 hours on saturdays and four hours on sundays ; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming it is the highest local newscast output among all big three affiliated broadcast television stations in the united states . it is one of the few big three stations in the united states whose weekly news programming total exceeds 40 hours which is more common with news producing affiliates of the post 1986 broadcast networks even surpassing the amount produced locally by one such station fox affiliate wftx . between the two wzvn and wbbh air a combined twelve hours of news on weekdays and 4 hours on weekends . in addition to the main studios wbbh and wzvn operate a collier county bureau on tamiami trail north u.s. 41 sr 45 in naples . the two stations operate a baron doppler weather radar at the main facilities that is known on wbbh as nbc 2 first alert power doppler hd . the radar has a range of 300 miles and can survey approaching storms in three dimensions . in 1994 wzvn and wbbh merged their news departments and began having news reporters appear on both stations . resources such as video footage and stories also began to be shared between the stations . during this period each station maintained separate unique sets at the central avenue facilities and featured a distinct on air style . there were primary personalities such as news anchors that would only appear on one station . the joint operation was billed as the eyewitness news network . it should be known that if wzvn chose not to become a junior partner in the lma with wbbh the station would have been required to shut down its news department . traditionally in the past wbbh tended to cover more stories from charlotte county while wzvn had a slight collier county focus since it is licensed to naples and had the former analog transmitter located further south than the area s other television outlets . today wzvn continues the practice of maintaining its own primary on air team on weekdays that only appear on the station . otherwise all other personnel including most reporters are shared amongst one another . wbbh s newscasts are broadcast from a separate set at the central avenue facility allowing it to have a different on air identity and graphics scheme from wzvn . compared with that station channel 26 s newscasts usually tend to air in a more flashier fast paced format with promotions referring to the station providing more news coverage in 30 minutes than the market s other stations . wbbh traditionally covers more investigative and consumer stories through its nbc 2 investigators unit . on weekends there are separate news and sports anchors but the same meteorologists are seen on both wzvn and wbbh . this is possible because the two stations maintain individual sets and do not always air local newscasts at the same timeslots . since it was the first station to sign on in southwest florida and was the only one located on the vhf dial wink tv has long been the most watched television station according to nielsen . one of the best known former personalities and a veteran of southwestern florida broadcasting is harry horn . he lost his battle with als in august 2005 . during major hurricanes most recently charley and wilma wzvn and wbbh combined their news resources to provide 24 hour continuous coverage . commercial breaks are dropped for several hours preceding and following landfall . coverage is simulcast on both stations and a common live video stream is featured on both stations websites . during previous years wbbh s news set was used during hurricanes along with both wbbh and wzvn s weather sets . as of 2007 wzvn s high definition news set is now used in the event of a hurricane as its internal location at the central avenue facility provides the best protection against damaging winds . in early february 2008 following the lead of wzvn wbbh became the second television station in the market to upgrade its newscasts to 16 9 enhanced definition widescreen . rival wink tv became the first station in southwestern florida to begin broadcasting its news programming in high definition on october 20 2007 . wbbh would itself upgrade its newscasts to hd on july 19 2008 . on october 26 of that year several changes occurred to wzvn and wbbh s news programming in order to better compete with wink tv . wzvn dropped the first hour of its weekday morning newscast as of 2012 that hour has since been restored and a mid morning newscast at 10 a.m. wbbh debuted a new hour long midday broadcast at 11 a.m. while keeping its hour long noon newscast . meanwhile wzvn added an hour long weekday morning newscast at 9 a.m. on september 8 2009 the station began producing a half hour 7 p.m. newscast on weeknights to compete against wink tv s newscast airing in the same timeslot . on january 16 2012 wzvn debuted an hour long newscast at 5 p.m. weeknights which incidentally directly competes with wbbh s own 5 p.m. newscast . in october of 2014 wbbh moved into a brand new newsroom & studio facility this facility is located behind the old facility . the nbc 2 newsroom backs up to the studio and a wall can be opened