WFOR-TV

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WFOR-TV
Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Branding CBS 4
Slogan CBS 4 is Always On
Channels Analog: 4 (VHF)

Digital: 22 (UHF)
Translators W38AA Marathon
W39AC Key West
Affiliations CBS
Owner CBS Corporation
(CBS Television Stations, Inc.)
First air date September 20, 1967
Call letters’ meaning channel FOuR
Sister station(s) WBFS-TV
Former callsigns WCIX (1967-1995)
Former channel number(s) 6 (1967-1995)
Former affiliations Independent (1967-1986)
Fox (1986-1989)
Transmitter Power 100 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
Height 304 m (analog)
298 m (digital)
Facility ID 47902
Transmitter Coordinates 25°58′8.3″N, 80°13′19.2″W
Website www.cbs4.com

WFOR-TV, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the CBS Television Network, licensed to Miami, Florida, and serving the Miami-Fort Lauderdale television market. WFOR shares its studio facilities with sister station WBFS-TV (channel 33, Miami's MyNetworkTV affiliate) in Doral, Florida, and its transmitter is located in Miramar, Florida.

WFOR-TV also operates two translators in the Florida Keys: W38AA (channel 38) in Marathon and W39AC (channel 39) in Key West.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] WCIX, channel 6

The station signed on air on September 20, 1967 on channel 6 as WCIX, owned by Coral Television, a subsidiary of General Cinema Corporation. The callsign sounded like the word "six". Channel 6 was originally licensed to Islamorada in the Florida Keys, but the local owners successfully convinced the FCC to move the license to Miami on the mainland where it could serve more viewers. It built a transmission tower in Homestead, which was 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Miami, farther south than the other Miami television stations. This arrangement was necessary to protect WPTV (on adjacent channel 5) in West Palm Beach and WDBO-TV (now WKMG-TV, and also on channel 6) in Orlando. As a result, WCIX only provided a "Grade B" over-the-air signal to Fort Lauderdale, and was virtually unviewable in the northern portion of Broward County. The station made up for this shortfall in its coverage by opening translator channels throughout Broward County and in Boca Raton (part of the West Palm Beach market). The channel 33 translator ceased operations in 1984 to allow WBFS-TV to sign on, and was then moved to channel 27 where it operated until the mid-1990s. Translators on channels 21 (in Pompano Beach) and 58 (in central Broward County) were also used in later years.

WCIX was the first general-entertainment independent station in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, and the second in Florida, after WSUN-TV (now WTTA) in Tampa converted to independent status in 1965. Channel 6 ran the typical independent format of children's shows, sitcoms, movies, and other local and syndicated programs. WCIX was also one of very few stations not owned by Kaiser Broadcasting to carry The Lou Gordon Program from WKBD-TV in Detroit in the 1970s. It was also one of the first stations in the area to offer programming in both English and Spanish to serve South Florida's growing Latino population.

During the 1970s through the early-1980s, WCIX had widespread cable penetration throughout Florida and was seen on cable systems as far north as Tampa Bay and Orlando. Outside the Miami market, WCIX shared its cable space with another Miami station, WKID-TV (channel 51, now WSCV), which presented old movies and sitcoms after WCIX left the air.

A few years after its launch, channel 6 launched The 10 O'Clock News, the first primetime newscast in South Florida. The station was the only general-entertainment independent in the market until 1976, when WHFT (channel 45) was purchased by LeSEA Broadcasting and initiated a hybrid schedule of general-entertainment and religious programming. In 1980 WHFT was sold to the Trinity Broadcasting Network and switched to religious programming full-time, leaving WCIX as the market's lone independent once again. However, it would receive competition once again in 1982 when WDZL (channel 39, now WSFL-TV) signed on.

General Cinema exchanged WCIX to the Taft Television and Radio Company in early 1983 for NBC affiliate WGR-TV (now WGRZ-TV) in Buffalo, New York. Under Taft, WCIX continued to be the leading independent station in South Florida, and moved from its original studios on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami to its current facility in Doral (then unincorporated, now a separate city) in 1985. In 1986, WCIX became one of the charter affiliates of the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company, and was one of a handful of VHF stations to affiliate with Fox.

[edit] Acquiring CBS

After losing a bid to purchase then-CBS affiliate WTVJ (then on channel 4) from then-owner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., CBS made an offer to buy WCIX from Taft in January 1987. Taft declined, but a month later opted to sell all their independent stations and Fox affiliates, including WCIX, to the TVX Broadcast Group. However, TVX became mired in debt as a result of the purchase, and began to sell off many of its medium- and small-market stations. Although TVX originally planned to keep WCIX, the company eventually decided that the station would have to be divested. One of the primary factors in the decision to sell was that WCIX was TVX's only VHF station, whereas its sisters were all on UHF.

KKR sold WTVJ to NBC in September 1987. However, CBS' affiliation contract with WTVJ expired at the end of 1988, as did NBC's contract with WSVN (channel 7), its Miami affiliate since 1956. This situation did not sit well with either network, and WSVN's owner, Sunbeam Television, was not willing to end channel 7's affiliation with NBC a year early. With the defection of WTVJ looming, CBS made another offer to TVX for WCIX in the spring of 1988. In the interim, channel 6 agreed to air CBS programs pre-empted by WTVJ. Meanwhile, WSVN fought to retain its relationship with NBC, but later relented and approached CBS for an affiliation deal. CBS turned it down and went forward with its plans for WCIX despite its signal issues and an expensive, but necessary, upgrade of the station's programming and facilities.

The official affiliation changeover occurred on January 1, 1989: WCIX became a CBS affiliate, while NBC's full schedule of programming moved to WTVJ. Fox moved its programming over to WSVN, while most of WCIX's syndicated programs went to WDZL. WCIX also began a half-hour newscast at 6:00 p.m., moved their 10:00 newscast to 11:00, and continued to increase its local news output in the early 1990s. Channel 6 officially became a CBS-owned station on January 2, 1989. However, WCIX struggled as a CBS station due to its weak signal in Fort Lauderdale. Despite operating a translator in the area on channel 27, CBS persuaded WPEC (channel 12), the longtime ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, to switch to CBS in order to give the network a stronger signal in northern Broward County.

WCIX's transmission tower was brought down by Hurricane Andrew on August 24, 1992, forcing the station off-air. Within hours, the station resumed transmission via its low power translator in Fort Lauderdale. WDZL began carrying WCIX's newscasts the next day, with the entire CBS schedule following a few days later. Within a week, WCIX was back on the air using an emergency transmitter on a borrowed tower. In the wake of the devastation, WCIX's staff helped create Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a grass roots charitable organization which aimed to help people rebuild. The organization lives on as Neighbors 4 Neighbors, which is still supported by the station.

[edit] Move to channel 4

In 1994, CBS and Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting signed a long-term affiliation deal, part of which resulted in three Westinghouse-owned stations becoming CBS affiliates. As a sidebar, a subsequent deal between NBC and a new Group W/CBS joint venture was made in 1995, with CBS selling the channel 6 facility to NBC as compensation for the loss of two Westinghouse-owned NBC affiliates, in Philadelphia and Boston. In return, Group W/CBS received the stronger channel 4 facility and cash as compensation for the loss of WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, which was being acquired by NBC. NBC also included stations in Denver and Salt Lake City in the tradeoff to Group W/CBS.

At 1:00 a.m. on September 10, 1995, WCIX and WTVJ swapped dial positions. The entire WCIX intellectual unit (including programming and staff) moved from channel 6 to channel 4, thus returning CBS programming to channel 4 after a six-year hiatus. WTVJ had been Miami's CBS affiliate from its sign-on in 1949 until the 1989 switch to NBC. Along with the change came new call letters, WFOR-TV. However, WFOR's studios remained the same as they were when the station was on channel 6. Even though the FCC regards channel 4 as changing its call letters from WTVJ to WFOR on September 10, the stations themselves did not change hands, only the transmitting facilities. ([1], [2]) As a result, WFOR operates with the original WTVJ license, while the present WTVJ operates using WCIX's license.

Under the terms of the deal, CBS sold controlling interest (55 percent) in WFOR-TV to Westinghouse, while retaining a minority interest (45 percent). WFOR became fully owned by CBS once again when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased CBS at the end of 1995.

WFOR began its digital television service on May 1, 2001.

With the hiring of a new news director, Shannon High-Bassalik, in 2000, major changes came to WFOR-TV's news department. New anchors, a younger and hipper look, and flashy news coverage were all similar to the style seen at WSVN, where she was assistant news director. She also changed the newscast's name from News 4 South Florida to CBS 4 News. A short time later, Viacom bought CBS, making WFOR a sister station to UPN affiliate WBFS-TV, who subsequently moved into WFOR's studios. The station also handled some support operations for WTVX in West Palm Beach until it was sold to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007. When Viacom spun off CBS Corporation in 2005, WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV became part of the new company.

Until June 2007, anchor Maggie Rodriguez and Elliot Rodriguez co-anchored the 5 and 11 PM newscasts. Maggie left the station to co-anchor the Saturday Early Show. Shannon Hori, formerly of sister station KTVT in Fort Worth, Texas, was named main anchor in June 2007. Also that month, news director High-Bassalik was forced to resign, and was replaced by Adrienne Roark.

[edit] Controversy

WFOR was heavily criticized after it broke into regular programming to announced that the son of Robert Parker, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department had been arrested on armed robbery charges. The story and report turned out to be false. Later, WFOR retracted the story saying "It turns out that information is not correct." [3]

On February 14, 2007, WFOR investigative reporter Mike Kirsch was arrested after police say he threatened an officer during a traffic stop in Doral. Miami-Dade officer Patricia Perez charged him with assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting with violence, and disorderly conduct. [4] All but a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge were later dropped by prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office.

[edit] Logos

1989 - 1995
WCIX logo from April 1989 to September 1995		 2000 - Present
WFOR-TV's current logo.

[edit] News team

The station's weeknight 5, 6, and 11 o'clock anchors.
The station's weeknight 5, 6, and 11 o'clock anchors.
WFOR's chief meteorologist.
WFOR's chief meteorologist.

Anchors

  • Jade Alexander - weekday mornings
    • entertainment and lifestyle reporter
  • Jim Berry - weekday mornings
  • Cynthia Demos - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Eliott Rodriguez - weekdays at Noon and 5:30
    • host of 4 Sunday Morning
  • Shannon Hori - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
  • Antonio Mora - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
  • Erika Von Tiehl - weeknights at 5:30 and 10
  • Jawan Strader - weeknights at 10
    • reporter
  • Marybel Rodriguez - weekend mornings
    • reporter
  • Ileana Varela - weekend evenings
    • reporter

CBS 4 Storm Specialists

  • David Bernard (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - Chief seen on weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
  • Craig Setzer (AMS Seal of Approval and NWA member) - weeknights at 10
    • weekday morning and weekend fill-in
  • Lissette Gonzalez - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Jeff Berardelli - (AMS Certified) weekends
  • Bryan Norcross - (AMS Certified) "Hurricane Specialist" seen during hurricane coverage
    • executive producer for WFOR's hurricane specials
    • CBS News hurricane consultant

Sports

  • Kim Bokamper - sports reporter seen Sunday through Thursday nights
  • Prim Siripipat - weekend evenings
    • sports reporter

Reporters

  • Carey Codd
  • Liv Davalos
  • Jim DeFede - evening news commentator
    • host of The Jim DeFede Show on WFTL-AM 850
  • Peter D'Oench
  • Jorge Estevez
  • Michele Gillen - chief investigator
  • Samantha Hayes - CNN Newsource national politics
    • based in Washington D.C.
  • Tiffani Helberg
  • Dr. Sean Kenniff - health specialist
    • syndicated radio columnist
  • Christina Loren - traffic
  • Joan Murray - Broward County Bureau
  • Gary Nelson
  • Lisa Petrillo - entertainment
    • Extra Miami correspondent
  • Marybel Rodriguez
  • Ted Scouten
  • Laurie Stein - investigative
    • fill-in anchor
  • Stephen Stock - investigative
  • Shomari Stone
  • Al Sunshine - investigative & consumer
  • David Sutta
  • Michael Williams
  • Natalia Zea

[edit] Directors

  • Jason W. Smith

[edit] Station Alumni

[edit] Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast Titles

  • TV-6 News (1970s, as WCIX)
  • News Watch 6 (Late 1970s-Early 1980s)
  • Eyewitness News at Ten (Early-Mid 1980s)
  • The Ten O'Clock News (Mid 1980s-January 1989)
  • Channel 6 News (January-April 1989)
  • Channel 6 Action News (April 1989-1995)
  • News 4 South Florida (1995-1999, used when the station moved to Channel 4)
  • CBS 4 News (1999-present)

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Broadcast television in the South Florida (Miami / Fort Lauderdale / Key West) market (Nielsen DMA #16)
Local stations

WPBT 2 (PBS) - WFOR 4 (CBS) - WTVJ 6 (NBC, WX+ on DT2) - WSVN 7 (Fox) - WPLG 10 (ABC, LATV on DT2) - WLRN 17 (PBS) - WLTV 23 (UNI) - WIMP-CA 25 (HSN) - WBFS 33 (MNTV) - WPXM 35 (ION) - WPMF-LP 38 (Ind) - WSFL 39 (The CW) - WJAN-CA 41 (Ind) - WHFT 45 (TBN) - WFUN-LP 48 (CV) - WSBS-CA 50 (Ind) - WSCV 51 (TEL) - WLMF-LP 53 (SCOLA) - WGEN-LP 55 (Ind) - WEYS-LP 56 (ALMA) - WBEC 63 (Ind/Edu.) - WAMI 69 (TFU)
Digital-only
channels
Local stations
in Key West

Most of these stations either serve Miami proper, or are repeaters of Miami stations.
WGEN 8 (Ind) - WSBS 22 (Ind) - WCAY-LP 34 (tourist) - W38AA 38 / W39AC 39 (CBS) - WGAY-LP 41 (Ind) - W44AC 44 / W58BU 58 (NBC) - W47AC 47 (ABC) - WKIZ-LP 49 (FOX)
Local cable
channels
See also: Broadcast television stations in West Palm Beach and Bahamas
v • d • e
CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida
v • d • e
CBS Television Stations (a subsidiary of CBS Corporation)
CBS Owned & Operated:
KCBS · KCNC · KDKA · KOVR · KPIX · KTVT · KYW · WBBM · WBZ · WCBS · WCCO · WFOR · WJZ · WWJ
CW Owned & Operated:
KBCW · KMAX · KSTW · WGNT · WKBD · WPCW · WPSG · WTOG · WUPA
Other TV stations:
Independent Television Stations: KCAL · KTXA · WSBK

MyNetworkTV affiliates: WBFS

MTV Tr3s affiliate: WBXI
Languages