| Naples/Fort Myers, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Branding | TV 6 (general) WINK News Now (during WINK-TV-produced newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 45 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 46.1 The CW |
| Owner | Sun Broadcasting, Inc. |
| First air date | January 1, 1990 |
| Call letters' meaning | Channel SiX (6) The CW |
| Former callsigns | WNPL-TV (1990-1995) WTVK (1995-2007) |
| Former channel number(s) | 46 (UHF analog, 1990-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1990-1995) UPN (1995-1998) The WB (1998-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 456 m |
| Facility ID | 61504 |
| Website | TV 6 |
WXCW is the CW-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida licensed to Naples. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 from a transmitter near the Charlotte and Lee County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 6 (hence the TV 6 branding) and in high definition on Comcast digital channel 236. It is owned by Sun Broadcasting, but shares technical facility with Fort Myers Broadcasting Company-owned CBS affiliate WINK-TV, even having its newscasts produced by the station — the two stations cannot have the same license-holder because the Southwest Florida market does not have enough full-powered station allocations to allow a duopoly.
Syndicated programming on the station includes: Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and King of Queens. Along with ABC affiliate WZVN-TV, WXCW is one of two Fort Myers-based stations licensed to Naples.
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The station began broadcasting on January 1, 1990 as WNPL-TV. As an Independent, it filled a void after WFTX-TV joined Fox four years earlier. The station was beset with problems early on, particularly with regard to finding programming. Despite this, from 1993 until 1998, the station carried Florida Marlins baseball games from WBFS-TV in Miami. It also aired Orlando Magic basketball during much of this time.
The situation changed on January 16, 1995 when the station joined UPN as a charter affiliate. It changed its call letters to WTVK in September of that year. Those calls were previously used on what is now WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. The WNPL call sign was brought back in 2009 when a new radio station at AM 1460 signed-on to improve coverage of WPTK (1200 AM, now WINK). With a network backing it up, WTVK was able to get stronger programming and strengthen its signal. In 1998, the station's original local owners sold the station to ACME Communications, who swapped affiliations with the area's cable-only WB affiliate WSWF (now WNFM). It then adopted the on-air moniker "WB 6", after its channel location on cable.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that the networks would end broadcasting and merge to form The CW. On March 9, ACME announced that all of its WB stations, including WTVK, would affiliate with The CW. However, it was likely that the station would receive the CW affiliation in any event, since WNFM is a cable-only station (that station ultimately joined MyNetworkTV). On May 15, 2006, ACME announced that it would sell WTVK to Sun Broadcasting. The sale completed February 16, 2007 with the new owner changing the call sign to WXCW on March 2. On February 17, 2009, it ceased analog broadcasting and became an all-digital station transmitting its signal on channel 45 (re-routed to channel 46.1 through PSIP).
As an independent station, WNPL operated a news department, producing a weeknight prime time show entitled Channel 46 Ten O'Clock News. This originated from its original studios on Bonita Bay Boulevard in Bonita Springs along South Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41/SR 45). Due to low ratings and financial reasons, the broadcast was dropped and its news department was shut down.[1] [2]
On March 26, 2007, WINK-TV began producing a prime time newscast on WXCW. Initially, it aired every night at 10 for a half-hour. This was the third show established in the time slot, competing with Fox affiliate WFTX and MyNetworkTV affiliate WNFM. Right from the start, it emerged as a strong second place ranked broadcast, aided by WINK-TV's longtime status as the highest rated station in Southwest Florida, as well as Comcast's frequent technical difficulties in airing WNFM's newscast (the cable company operates the station), which was produced by WZVN-TV and left the air May 25.
On October 20, 2007, WINK-TV was the first station in the area to begin offering newscasts in high definition. It purchased new HD studio cameras, field cameras, weather computers, and graphics to complete the launch. The WXCW broadcasts were included in the upgrade.
On January 7, 2008, WINK-TV started showing The Early Show in its entirety because CBS now requires all of its affiliates to do that. Originally, the station had preempted the first hour of the show to air an extra hour of local news. It moved this broadcast to WXCW and expanded it to two hours. For a time afterward, WXCW also rebroadcast WINK's noon news at 1 in the afternoon on WXCW. Later, to compete with NBC affiliate WBBH-TV, a live hour-long newscast was added to WXCW weekday mornings at 11, which has since been cancelled. As of October 31, the first 21 minutes of the nightly prime time show is commercial free. On August 24, 2009, WINK-TV expanded the 10 o'clock broadcast to an hour.
All on-air staff on WXCW is provided by WINK-TV.
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