WSVN

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WSVN
Miami / Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Branding	WSVN 7 / 7 News
Slogan	The News Station
Channels	7 (VHF) analog, 8 (VHF) digital
Translators	49 WKIZ-LP Key West
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Sunbeam Television
Founded	July 29, 1956 (current license dates back to December 19, 1962)
Call letters meaning	W SeVeN
Former callsigns	WCKT (1956-1983)
Former affiliations	NBC (1956-1989)
Transmitter Power	316kw
Website	www.wsvn.com

WSVN is the Fox affiliate in the Miami / Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Florida area that broadcasts on VHF Channel 7. It is owned by Sunbeam Television, who also owns WHDH and WLVI in Boston, Massachusetts. WSVN and WHDH share video, news stories, and reporters when covering each other's news. WSVN's transmitter is located in Miami. Channel 7 operates a Key West repeater, WKIZ-LP, on channel 49.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operations 2.1 Newscasts 2.2 Specialty Shows 2.3 Current Personalities 3 Alumni 4 Trivia 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History

WSVN signed on July 29, 1956 as WCKT, an NBC station owned by Biscayne Television Corporation. It was a partnership of the Cox and Knight publishing families, owners of Miami's two major newspapers, The Miami News and The Miami Herald, respectively. The same partnership also owned WCKR-AM 610 (now WIOD). Before WCKT signed on, NBC had been carried on WFTL-TV, channel 23 in Fort Lauderdale (now WLTV). However, WFTL struggled because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning capability. When the Cox-Knight partnership won a construction permit and license for channel 7, NBC quickly agreed to move its affiliation there since WCKR had long been the NBC radio affiliate in Miami, and channel 23 went dark. In 1962, the Cox-Knight partnership was stripped of both of its broadcast licenses due to circumstances that are unknown for now. Biscayne Television originally planned to appeal, but was advised that it would be turned down. It then opted to put the station on the market. Shortly afterward, a new company, Sunbeam Television Corporation, assumed ownership on December 19, 1962. Although the FCC granted a brand-new license, Sunbeam retained the WCKT calls.

In 1983, Edmund N. ("Ed") Ansin acquired Sunbeam Television. He formally assumed control on June 7th that same year and changed the calls to WSVN. (The WSVN calls were previously-used by PBS affiliate WSBN in Norton, Virginia.)

As an NBC station, WCKT/WSVN aired news in place of whatever NBC aired at noon. It also at some times of the year preempted shows during the 10 or 11 a.m. hours (but ran at least one of these hours) and preempted an occasional prime time show. NBC did not mind this at first provided that WPTV in West Palm Beach carried it. WPTV's signal covered most of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, and was available on nearly every cable system in the region. However, in the early 1980s, WPTV fell off a few Miami cable systems to make room for new channels. NBC disliked the fact that much of its programming getting preempted in the growing Miami market, and eventually concluded it needed to have an owned-and-operated station there.

NBC got its chance in the late 1980s, when CBS affiliate WTVJ, Florida's oldest television station, went on the block. NBC won a bidding war for WTVJ in 1987. WTVJ's affiliation contract with CBS didn't run out until the end of 1988, but CBS was willing to let WTVJ out of its affiliation contract a year early. However, Ansin wasn't willing to let NBC out of its affiliation contract with WSVN, which also ran out at the end of 1988. He wanted to air NBC's strong 1988 lineup, including baseball and the 1988 Summer Olympics. As a result, NBC was forced to run WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for more than a year, but all of the NBC shows preempted by WSVN moved to WTVJ. This situation didn't sit well with either network. When Ansin made an offer to take the CBS affiliation, CBS turned the offer down almost out of hand. Instead, it bought Miami's original Fox affiliate, WCIX, even though it had an inadequate signal in Broward County.

Finally, on New Year's Day 1989, NBC formally moved to WTVJ and WSVN quickly snapped up the Fox affiliation from WCIX (now WFOR-TV). WSVN had far fewer programming to pre-empt as a result, as Fox only programmed a few hours each day. WSVN's affiliation with Fox could also be seen as a major coup, as WSVN had been the longtime NBC affiliate, and Fox was pleased to move its affiliation to a station which had been with a "Big 3" network for years.

Instead of buying a lot of off-network sitcoms and running a lot of cartoons, WSVN opted to move to a news intensive format and poured most of its resources into its news department. It began to air a lot of first run syndicated talk shows, court shows, off-network dramas, and 8 hours of news a day. It did run some cartoons on weekends. It originally aired Fox Kids programming in 1990, but by 1993 it moved to WDZL (now WSFL). (WBFS-TV now airs the current 4Kids TV block.).

WSVN was the second Fox station to have a morning newscast and was the first with 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts. Led by news director Joel Cheatwood, it adopted a format based on the philosophy "if it bleeds, it leads." WSVN's newscasts soon became heavy on crime stories and flashy graphics. When Ansin bought WHDH-TV in Boston, Cheatwood moved there and adopted a considerably watered-down version of WSVN's format. The WSVN model would influence what most Fox affiliates would look like in years to come. In 1994, when New World Communications switched most of its stations to Fox, its stations' programming was very similar in format to WSVN, except their news format may have aimed at an older audience than WSVN. As well, many New World stations passed on Fox Kids, just like WSVN.

As a Fox affiliate, WSVN is still very aggressive with its news coverage with its "if it bleeds, it leads" philosophy and is often criticized for sensationalist reporting. Nonetheless, it continues to attract high ratings. It even has an 11 p.m. newscast (which began in 1995 as a 15 minute O.J. Simpson trial wrap-up newscast) in addition to its 10 p.m. one.

WSVN tends to run a lot of lower budget first run syndicated shows that other stations pass on. Fox supplies the station with a prime time lineup and plenty of weekend sports. Even though other stations outbid WSVN for the best programming, the station has far higher ratings than the UPN and WB stations and often beats the network affiliates in ratings. In May 2006, WSVN was the number one English-language station from sign-on to sign-off. [1]

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith once worked for the station as well as CNN Headline News anchor Linda Stouffer, and current CNN and one-time MSNBC anchor Rick Sanchez. WSVN is a proud sponsor of Habitat for Humanity.

In 2004, WSVN lead meteorologist Bill Kamal was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and sentenced to prison for 5 years for soliciting a 14-year old boy for sex.

WSVN offers the FOX AccuWeather Channel on a digital subchannel. WPVI-TV, WFMZ-TV, WABC-TV, and WLS-TV offer similar video from AccuWeather.

[edit] News Operations

WSVN's main nightly news programs at 5, 6, 10, and 11 p.m. are anchored by Craig Stevens and Belkys Nerey. This lineup using reporters of various ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations displays the diversity of the South Florida community.

The station's radar is called "Stormtracker". All newscasts are offered live on WSVN's website.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• Today in Florida 5:00-9:00 a.m.
• 7 News at Noon Noon-1:00 p.m.
• 7 News First at 4 4:00-4:30 p.m.
• 7 News at 5 5:00-5:30 p.m.
• 7 News at 5:30 5:30-6:00 p.m.
• 7 News at 6 6:00-6:30 p.m.
• 7 News at 6:30 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• 7 News at 10 also called 7 News Nightteam 10:00-11:00 p.m.
• 7 News at 11 11:00-11:30 p.m.

Weekends

• Today in Florida Saturday Edition 8:00-10:00 a.m. (Saturday only)
• 7 News at 5 5:00-5:30 p.m.
• 7 News at 6 6:00-6:30 p.m.
• 7 News at 10 10:00-11:00 p.m.

[edit] Specialty Shows

• Deco Drive Weekdays & Saturdays 7:30 p.m. (encores 11:30 p.m. weekdays and 5:30 on Sundays)
• Sunday Sports Xtra 11:00-11:30 p.m. (Sunday only)

[edit] Current Personalities

News Anchors

• Charles Billi - weekend evenings
• Christine Cruz - weekday mornings and noon
• Diana Diaz - weekday mornings and noon
• Tom Haynes (formerly of CNN) - 4, 5:30 and 6:30
• Richard Lemus - weekday mornings
• Lynn Martinez - 4, 5:30 and 6:30/co-host of Deco Drive
• Sharron Melton - weekend evenings (also reporter)
• Belkys Nerey - 5, 6, 10, and 11
• Craig Stevens - 5, 6, 10, and 11
• Adam Williams - Saturday mornings

Reporters

• Louis Aguirre - co-host of Deco Drive
• Joel Brown
• Carmel Cafiero - investigative reporter (Carmel on the Case)
• Dianne Fernandez
• Howard Finkelstein - legal analyst (Help Me Howard)
• Patrick Fraser (Help Me Howard segment with Finkelstein)
• Derek Hayward
• J.P. Hervis
• Dave Kartunen
• Nicole Linsalata
• Rosh Lowe
• Vanessa Ruiz
• Natalie Solis
• LuAnne Sorrell
• Tiffani Tucker

Weather

• Brent Cameron - weekend evenings
• Phil Ferro - chief meteorologist
• Elita Loresca - weekday mornings and noon
• Jonathan Novack - Saturday mornings

Sports (entire team is also seen on Sunday Sports Xtra)

• Mike DiPasquale - weekends
• Larry Ridley - fill-in anchor/reporter
• Drew Rosenhaus - featured on Sunday Sports Xtra
• Steve Shapiro - lead anchor

[edit] Alumni

• Shepard Smith, Fox News
• Rick Sanchez, CNN
• Robin Meade, CNN Headline News
• Jillian Barberie, Good Day Live, Fox NFL Sunday
• Shaun Robinson, Access Hollywood
• Linda Stouffer, CNN Headline News
• Bill Kamal, found guilty for soliciting sex to a minor

[edit] Trivia

• As a Fox affiliate, the station is branded WSVN 7, rather than Fox 7 under Fox's station standardization rule. (Curiously, sister station WHDH in Boston does brand itself with its network name as 7 NBC.)
• WSVN has used its own version of the circle 7 logo since the early 1980s. When Sunbeam purchased WHDH in Boston, the WSVN logo was adopted for the new acquisition.
• The original calls WCKT stood for its former owners: Cox and Knight Television
• WKIZ's calls are a play on the Florida Keys since the translator serves Key West.
• WSVN's newscasts were featured in at least two movies -- The Mean Season (1985) and Flight of the Navigator (1986).

[edit] See also

• WHDH
• Circle 7 logo

[edit] External links

• WSVN Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSVN
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WKIZ-LP

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WSVN 7 (Miami) - WTVT 13 (Tampa) - WPGX 28 (Panama City) - WFLX 29 (West Palm Beach) - WAWS 30 (Jacksonville) - WOFL 35 (Orlando) - WFTX 36 (Cape Coral) - WTLH 49 (Bainbridge / Tallahassee) - WOGX 51 (Ocala / Gainesville)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida