| West Palm Beach, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Branding | CBS 12 (general) CBS 12 News |
| Slogan | Working. For You. |
| Channels | Digital: 13 (VHF) Virtual: 12 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 12.1 CBS-HD 12.2 CBS-SD 12.3 local weather |
| Owner | Freedom Communications (sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group pending) (Freedom Broadcasting of Florida Licensee, LLC.) |
| First air date | January 1, 1955 |
| Call letters' meaning | Photo Electronics Corporation (station owner from 1973 until 1996) |
| Former callsigns | WEAT-TV (1955-1974) |
| Former channel number(s) | 12 (VHF analog, 1955-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1955-1988) |
| Transmitter power | 90 kW |
| Height | 309 m |
| Facility ID | 52527 |
| Website | cbs12.com |
WPEC is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Gold and Treasure Coasts of South Florida. Licensed to West Palm Beach, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter in Lake Worth along U.S. 441/SR 7. The station is the flagship of Freedom Communications and has studios on Pioneer Road in Mangonia Park (address says Fairfield Drive). Syndicated programming on WPEC includes: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Doctors, Swift Justice with Nancy Grace, and Live with Kelly.
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On WPEC-DT2 and Comcast digital channel 212 was a local Spanish language channel known as "Hola TV". On September 12, 2011, WPEC dropped Hola TV, and began simulcasting programming from it's main channel on 12.2 in 4:3 standard definition. On WPEC-DT3 is a 24-hour local weather channel which is currently not offered on Comcast.
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 12.1 | Main WPEC programming / CBS |
| 12.2 | |
| 12.3 | "CBS 12 Now" |
The station signed-on as an ABC affiliate with the call letters WEAT-TV on January 1, 1955. Its first studios were on the 12th floor of the Harvey Building on Datura Street in Downtown West Palm Beach. On January 27, 1974, the WEAT calls were changed to the current WPEC which stood for Photo Electronics Corporation in reference to the station's then-current owner.[1] The previous calls are currently used by an area radio station, Sunny 104.3, owned by the CBS Corporation.
On January 1, 1989, it switched affiliations to CBS after the network purchased WCIX in Miami from the TVX Broadcast Group. WCIX's (now WFOR-TV) over-the-air signal was weaker than the other Miami VHF stations north of the city so getting WPEC to switch made up for the shortfall in coverage. New sign-on WPBF took WPEC's old ABC affiliation forcing WTVX (which lost CBS) to become an Independent station. A similar situation happened to NBC when CBS returned to channel 4 as WFOR and NBC was demoted to channel 6.
This caused WPEC to lose much of its Broward County audience to WFOR. As a result, rival West Palm Beach station WPTV gained Broward County NBC market share from WTVJ that was now on channel 6. On April 8, 2009, WPEC announced that it was eliminating its 24-hour local weather channel (known as "CBS 12 Now") in favor of a new local Spanish language television station originally known as "232 Mi Pueblo TV". However, the weather channel was re-instated on digital channel 12.3 in mid-2009. WPEC shut down analog transmissions on June 9, 2009 due to the analog shutdown and digital conversion. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 13; its former analog channel began being used for the digital signal of WPTV three days later. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display its virtual channel as 12. [2] [3]
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011 that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including WPEC, to Sinclair Broadcast Group.[4] Sinclair had earlier announced the acquisition of Four Points Media Group, owner of WTVX, and the two purchases will result in the first full duopoly in West Palm Beach.[5] Sinclair began operating the Four Points stations (including WTVX and its low-power sisters) through time brokerage agreements at some point in October; the company entered into a similar arrangement with the Freedom stations (including WPEC) two months later (although WTVX's and WPEC's operations have not yet been consolidated into a common facility as of December 17).
Following the May 2009 sweeps period, WPEC finished in third place in household ratings in the early weeknight time slots. WPTV regularly beats WPBF and WPEC in Nielsen ratings as the most watched in West Palm Beach and South Florida. After the May 2009 sweeps period, WPTV retained its title as the most-watched television station in the state of Florida based on sign-on to sign-off household ratings in metered markets. WPBF has more or less remained at second place.
After Fox required most of its affiliates air local news in 1990, the area's affiliate WFLX (then owned by Malrite Communications) entered into a news share agreement with WPEC. On September 11, 1991, this station started producing a nightly prime time broadcast on that channel known as the Fox 29 10 O'Clock News. Originally thirty minutes long, it soon expanded to a full hour. In 2000, an hour-long weekday morning show at 7 began to air on WFLX entitled Fox 29 Morning News. This was expanded to two hours on September 6, 2006. On Friday and Sunday nights, there was a sports highlight show called SportsZone shown on that channel.
WFLX and WPEC maintained separate news sets and on-air identities but shared a weather set and most on-air personnel except for a few that only appeared on one channel. The former had its own entertainment reporter and website producer. Although all newscasts originated from WPEC's facilities, presentation on WFLX was done under the direction of Raycom Media which was credited in the closings. The graphics package used was similar to ones seen on other company-owned channels.
It was announced on October 22, 2010 that WFLX would end the news share agreement with WPEC on December 31. On New Year's Day 2011, WPTV (owned by the E.W. Scripps Company) established a new partnership with WFLX and began producing the two-hour weekday morning show and nightly hour-long prime time program. These newscasts now originate from a secondary set at WPTV's facilities on South Australian Avenue in Downtown West Palm Beach (its mailing address actually says Banyan Boulevard which is also known as 1st Street) and required the addition of more than a dozen new personnel. This is the first time any of the nine Scripps stations have produced an on-air newscast for a non company-owned channel. [6] [7] [8] The new WFLX news team has been named and includes existing WPTV personnel. An entire new format was introduced and the coverage is different.
In April 2004, WPEC started using "Doppler 12000 StormTrac" (now known as "CBS 12 StormTrac Radar") regional weather radar technology similar to the "VIPIR" system used by rival WPTV. However unlike that station which actually operates its own radar, WPEC receives delayed data from the National Weather Service. On January 31, 2008, WPEC and WFLX became the second and third stations respectively in all of South Florida to offer local newscasts in high definition. On both stations, the upgrade included a new set, graphics scheme, news music package, and on-air branding.
Effective October 11, 2008, this station airs local news on Saturday mornings starting at 5. Also, The Saturday Early Show moved to 7 which allowed WPEC to add a local newscast at 9. On Sunday mornings, the station added an hour of local news at 8. In addition to its main studios, the channel operates a Treasure Coast Bureau on East Prima Vista Boulevard in Port Saint Lucie. Monday through Saturday nights, it is the only television station in the market to air local news at 7. The station operates a helicopter known as "Sky 12". All news anchors also serve as reporters.
Anchors
CBS 12 StormTrac Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
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