WTXL-TV

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WTXL-TV
Tallahassee, Florida
Branding	ABC 27
Channels	27 (UHF) analog, 21 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Calkins Media ("Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota")
Founded	December 13, 1976
Former callsigns	WECA-TV (W Evans Craig Allen, station's founder; used 1976-1983)
Former affiliations	None
Website	(Under Construction)

WTXL-TV is the ABC-TV affiliate station for Tallahassee, Florida and southern Georgia, broadcasting on channel 27. The station is owned by a Calkins Media-owned subsidiary, "Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota", which also owns WWSB in Sarasota. It was owned by Media Ventures Management, and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to a Shared Services Agreement[1], the first of its kind in the United States. This agreement merged virtually all of WTXL-TV's operations with that of Sinclair's NBC affiliate WTWC. Denis LeClair, General Manager of WTXL-TV and WBXT-TV at the time, was made General Manager for WTXL, WBXT and WTWC under this agreement. He would be followed by Chris Butterick and then Bob Franklin. Eventually, Kim Urbuteit would be named General Manager of WTXL only as Bob Franklin oversaw WTWC. WTXL-TV was originally housed on Thomasville Road, across the street from Lawton Chiles High School. On March 17, 2002, WTXL moved into the WTWC building in Killearn Lakes Plantation (on Deerlake Road). They would remain in that building until February 20, 2006. On February 20, 2006, the partnership between the stations was dissolved after Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota gave notice of termination to the agreement to Sinclair Broadcasting. As a result, WTXL moved out of the WTWC building and discontinued producing news briefs for the station, which it had done since 2001. WTXL is currently the only broadcast network that does not broadcast a high definition signal to Tallahassee residents over the air waves or on Comcast cable, due to them being in the WFSU building.

On January 15, 2000, WTXL produced the first newscast for a The WB 100+ Station Group[2] station called the "WB 28 News at Ten." It was a 30-minute newscast which aired Monday through Friday and was produced and anchored by WTXL staff. The newscast ran until the end of August, 2003 and aired only on Comcast Cable ("WB 28" was an affiliate of The WB 100+ Station Group), and billed as Tallahassee's only 10pm newscast. The newscast and cable channel had two variations, "WB 28 News at Ten" and then "WB 6 News at Ten." The newscast on WB 6 was cancelled in the fall of 2003.

WTXL is presently renting studio space from Florida State University's PBS station, WFSU until a new building can be completed for the station. [3] WTXL broke ground on their new facility on June 20, 2006 in the 10/90 Commerce Park in nearby Midway [4] , scheduled to be complete by February 2007 (?).

[edit] June 2, 2006 Arrests

On June 2, 2006, a reporter and photographer from WTXL, photographer Phyllis Joy Ho and reporter Brandon York Beyer, were arrested in Doerun, Georgia for obstruction at the scene of a military helicopter crash at the tower of Albany, Georgia television station WFXL. They were booked at the Colquitt County Jail in Moultrie, Georgia, and later released on a $750 bond. All charges were later dropped. [5]

[edit] Current Personalities

• 5:00, 6:00, 11:00 News Anchor: Lauren Dorsett (As of Oct. 23, 2006) (2005-Present))
• 5:00, 5:30 News Anchor: Lauren Elise (Weekends 2006; 2006-Present)
• Chief Meteorologist: Nancy Dignon (2003-Present)
• Sports Anchor: Brad Dalton (2006-Present)
• Fill-in Sports Anchor: Eric Thompson (2006-Present)
• News at Sunrise Anchor: Brandon Beyer (2005-Present)
• News at Sunrise Forecaster: Dave Priem (2006-Present; fill-in weather anchor 2003-2004; Weekends 2005-2006)
• Weekend Evening Anchor: Amanda Anderson (2005-2006; 2006-Present)
• Weekend Evening Forecaster: Don Harrigan (2006-Present)
• Weekend Evening Sports Anchor: Sean Smith (2006-Present)
• Reporter: Lenita Williams (2006-Present; 5:00, 5:30 News Anchor 2003-2006)
• Reporter: Todd Morrill (2005-Present)
• Reporter: Rebecca Baer (2006-Present)
• Reporter: Alex DiPrato (2006-Present)

[edit] Past Personalities

Main Anchors

• Lee Mainella (1978) (deceased)
• Ken Lass (1978-83) (Currently at WDJC-FM in Birmingham, Alabama)
• Jerry Brown (years unknown) (Currently at WMBB)
• Tom Campbell (years unknown) (Currently at WRDW-TV)
• Donna Hicken (1984-1985) (Mornings) (Currently at WTLV)
• Steve Ring (1993-?; 2000-2003) (6 and 11 p.m.) (Currently at WVNS)
• Betsy Singer (mid 1990s) (Currently at KTTC)
• Patricia Scott (1995-1997) (5, 6, 11 p.m.)
• Kelly Harvey (1996?-1999) (6, 11 p.m. Anchor) (Currently a professor at Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications/fill-in on radio newscasts for WVKL 95.7 FM)
• Ethan Forhetz (1997-1999) (Currently at KYTV (TV))
• Tammy Robiconti (1997-2003) (5, 6, 11 p.m.)
• Myra Monroe (1997-2000) (5 and 5:30 p.m.)
• Tammie Fields (1998-2001) (Weekends) (Currently at WJXT)
• Sydney Fisher (?-2000) (Mornings)
• Rod Carter (?-2000) (Weekends) (Currently at WFLA-TV)
• Bob Trotter (?-2000) (Weekends)
• Rick Boone (1999-2002) (Mornings & 5 p.m.) (Currently at KTAL)
• Dan Cohen (2000-2002) (Weekends) (Currently at KFMB)
• Cathleen O'Toole (2000-2003) (Mornings) (Currently at WPBF)
• Stacey Brenan (2002-2004) (Weekends)
• Amy Basista (2002-2005) (5, 6, and 11 p.m.) (Currently at WCMH)
• James Jackson (2002-2005) (Weekends, then mornings) (Currently at WEAR)
• Shonda Knight (1999-2006; reporter 2000-2003; Anchor 2003-2006) (Mornings)
• Robert Burns (2003-2006) (5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.)

Meteorologists/Weather Anchors

• Dan Hogan (1979-1980)
• Mark Reynolds (early 1980s) (Currently at WJHL)
• Charles Paxton (1983-1984) (weekends) (now with National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
• David Neal (1988-early 1990s) (Currently at WBRC)
• Connor Vernon (1984-1988) (Formerly at KTBC-TV in Austin, TX. Currently at WTVY)
• John Scalzi (early 1990s-1995) (weekends) (Currently at WWSB)
• Glenn Willey (1990s?) (Currently at WTVD)
• Justin Kiefer (1994?-1997) (Currently at WMBB)
• Dave Anthony (Cocchiarella) (?-1997?) (Currently at Central Florida News 13)
• Tom Siler (1994-2003) (Chief) (Currently at WEAR on a fill-in basis)
• Gerald Brinkley (mid 1990s?) (Fill-in)
• Mike Nichols (1997-2000) (Mornings) (Currently at KBMT)
• Chris Zelman (1999-2001) (Weekends) (Currently at WPTV)
• Mike Rucker (2001-2002) ("Director of Weather Operations")
• Peter Kulevich (2001-2002) (Weekends)
• Stephanie Abrams (2002-2003) (Mornings) (Currently at The Weather Channel)
• Jordan DeTillio (2002-2004) (Weekends)
• Joe Sigman (2002-2006) (Fill-in) (Current Promotions Director at WCWG)
• Joe Smith (2002-2003) (Weekends)
• Casanova Nurse (2003-2006) (Weekends/Mornings) (Currently at KHCW)
• Craig Gold (2005) (Weekends) (Currently at KTKA)

Sports Anchors

• Gene Deckerhoff (1976-1978) (original sports director) (Current play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Florida State University Seminoles)
• Tom Mees (1978-1979) (ESPN anchor, drowned August 14, 1996)
• Tom Block (?-1998) (Sports Director) (Currently with Florida State University and Seminole Radio Network and Sun Sports)
• Mike Nabors (1997-1998)
• Wayne Evans (?-1997)
• Dave Neal (early 1990s) (Currently with Fox Sports South and Jefferson Pilot Sports)
• Sean Woodland (1998-2000) (Currently at WJXT)
• Seth Grossman (1998-2000) (Currently at WBIR)
• Preston Scott (2000-2006) (Sports Director) (Currently at 100.7 FM WFLA in Tallahassee)
• Jimm Patterson (2000-2006)
• Matt Stitsinger (2001-2003) (Weekends) (Currently works for Louisville University Athletic Dept.)

Reporters and Fill-in Anchors

• Kim Fettig (?-1997?) (Currently at WGCL-TV)
• Erika Ragland (1996-1998)
• Keith Ingram (1997-2001)
• Ryan Young (2000-2001?) (Currently at WSB-TV)
• Sandra Edmond (2000-2003)
• Kimberly Curth (2000-2002) (Currently at WKRG)
• Lisa Remillard (2003-2005) (Currently at WFTS)
• Carolyn Kluck (2004) (Fill-in Weekend Reporter) (Currently at WLOS as Carolyn Ryan)
• Carley Wegner (2004-2005) (Friday morning entertainment reporter) (Currently at WNCT)
• Stacy White (2004-2005)
• Brandon Tucker (2004-2005)

Others

• Glen Walker (Currently at KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV)
• J. P. Peterson (Currently at WFLA-TV)
• Sherry Christian (Currently at WHP-TV)
• Deborah Feyerick (Currently at CNN)

[edit] Logos

Used from 1998 to February 19, 2006

Used from February 20, 2006 to the present. The logo is modeled after sister station WWSB's circle 7 logo.

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTXL