| Dothan, Alabama/Panama City, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Branding | WTVY News 4 |
| Slogan | Your Hometown News Leader |
| Channels | Digital: 36 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 4.1 WTVY/CBS 4.2 MyNetworkTV 4.3 The CW |
| Affiliations | CBS Television Network |
| Owner | Gray Television, Inc. (Gray Television Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | February 12, 1955 |
| Former channel number(s) | 9 (analog; 1955-1960?) 4 (analog; 1960-2009) |
| Former affiliations | DT2:UPN (2005-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 995 kW |
| Height | 573 m |
| Facility ID | 4152 |
| Website | www.wtvy.com |
WTVY or WTVY News 4 is a CBS-affiliated television station broadcasting on channel 4 in Dothan, Alabama, owned by Gray Television. The station's signal, originating from a transmitter in Bethlehem, Florida, reaches portions of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. WTVY is also the designated CBS affiliate for the Panama City, Florida market, where Gray also owns that city's NBC affiliate, WJHG-TV. In exchange, WJHG is available in Dothan on cable since Dothan does not have its own NBC affiliate. In fact, WTVY's transmitter is located in the Panama City market.
WTVY's digital subchannels are MyNetworkTV affiliate My 4 and CW affiliate Dothan's CW.
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WTVY's first broadcast was on February 12, 1955, originally on channel 9, as a CBS affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[1]
The station moved to channel 4 around 1960, where it still remains today. When the station moved to channel 4 in 1960, it also relocated to new studios with a 1,209 ft (368.5 m) tower in Webb, five miles (8 km) east of Dothan. At the time, the tower was the tallest structure in the state of Alabama. In the early 1970s WTVY became one of the first stations in the country to broadcast 24 hours a day.
In 1978, WTVY moved to its current 1,879-foot (573 m) tower in Bethlehem (28 miles/45 km southwest of Dothan). The tower is the tallest structure in the state of Florida and one of the tallest broadcasting towers in North America. The move was made in part to improve its signal in Panama City, where it had been the default CBS affiliate since the early 1960s. The new tower provides grade B coverage to much of the Florida side of the Mobile/Pensacola market, including Fort Walton Beach and Destin. In 1993, WTVY moved its studios to the historic Houston Hotel in downtown Dothan (now known as the Woods Building). WTVY operates on the first two floors. The news studio is actually located in what used to be the grand ballroom of the hotel. The building is tall enough (eight stories) that the station's studio-to-transmitter microwave dish is located on top of the building, not requiring a smaller tower to be built on the property.
For many years Charles Woods, a perennial aspirant to the governorship of Alabama, owned WTVY, through his Woods Communications company. Benedek Broadcasting bought WTVY from Woods in 1995. WTVY was one of the Benedek stations that was purchased by Gray Television in 2002.
When Woods sold WTVY, he continued to allow the station to lease the Woods Building, and the lease is due to expire on December 31, 2010. Because of this, WTVY is contemplating moving to a vacant Appliance Direct store on Ross Clark Circle, giving it ownership of the facility. WTVY is seeking approval from the City of Dothan to move there since its satellite dishes and proposed STL tower would need to be exempted from zoning requirements. [2]
The building WTVY is broadcasting from also has a radar dome that is used, but is "unreliable to the current TruVu Titan system," according to the staff of the station. Currently, the weather center of the station is using a TruVu Titan 6.2.4 radar specifically made for WTVY.
WTVY has historically been a ratings powerhouse in the Wiregrass, winning every news timeslot. This is partly because its only local competition, ABC affiliate WDHN, has a coverage area only half as large.
Newscasts air weekdays from 5-7 a.m., and 12-12:30, 5-5:30, 6-6:30 and 10-10:30 p.m. Central, and weekends at 6:00 on Saturday, 5:00 on Sunday, and 10:00 p.m. This is a considerable amount for a station serving two fairly small markets (Dothan is the 172nd market, Panama City is the 151st market). Syndicated programming includes Wheel of Fortune, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Live with Regis and Kelly.
All syndicated programming that is duplicated on WJHG and WMBB is still shown on WTVY on Panama City's cable systems. This is in contrast to SyndEx laws, which gives local stations the option to restrict importing of syndicated programming that is already available on an in-market station. This is likely due to WTVY.
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