WKCF:
WKCF, channel 18, is The CW-affiliated television station for Orlando, Florida, licensed to Clermont. Its transmitter is located at the Central Florida tower farm in Bithlo. Owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, the station is sister to NBC affiliate WESH. The two stations share studios on North Wymore Road in Winter Park. Syndicated programming on the station includes: King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, and Friends.
[edit] History
The station first went on the air in November 1988. The station originally broadcast on channel 68 from studios in Lake Mary. It was owned by Press Broadcasting which previously owned WMOD channel 43 (now WOTF-TV). WKCF's early programming lineup consisted of shows previously shown on WMOD. The station provided a city-grade signal to Orlando and a Grade B signal to Daytona Beach and Melbourne. This was not the case for WMOD which had no signal in Daytona Beach and a weak signal in Orlando. WKCF was branded on-air as TV 68.
Press Broadcasting wanted to move WKCF's transmitter to the Bithlo tower farm in order improve its signal in the other two major cities in the market, Daytona Beach and Melbourne. However, it soon discovered that as long as WKCF broadcast on channel 68, it could not move its transmitter to Bithlo and still reach Clermont with a city-grade signal. FCC regulations require a station's transmitter to be located within 15 miles of its city of license.
In 1991, Press Broadcasting approached Brevard Community College about swapping channels with its educational station, WRES. Under this plan, both stations would move their transmitters to Bithlo. At the time, WRES was a relatively low-powered station serving the immediate Brevard County area on channel 18. However, if it moved to Bithlo, it would be able to boost its power to the maximum 5 million watts. The college agreed and the FCC approved the swap. As a result, in 1992, WKCF moved to channel 18 (which was re-classified as a commercial license), and WRES moved to channel 68 as WBCC. After the switch, WKCF rebranded itself as TV 18.
WKCF started producing a Kids Club program called The Buckaroo Club hosted by Ranger Bob. Despite low ratings, it seemed most people in Central Florida knew who Ranger Bob was. The show was on the air from 1992 until 1994. A reunion show was aired on WKCF in 2004. Another move that put WKCF on the map was partnering up with the Orlando Magic. At first, it only broadcast road games, but home games were later added as well. In 1994, the station was rebranded as 18-WKCF.
WKCF joined The WB network on January 11, 1995 as a charter affiliate. A year after the network affiliation was in place, WKCF rebranded itself as WB 18. For most of the WB's 11-year run, WKCF was consistently the network's top affiliate and was even the fourth-highest rated station in Central Florida. The station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1998 for $200 million dollars. As the station focused more on its network commitments, it lost rights to Magic games in 1999 to WRBW.
From 2001 until 2005 the WKCF studios in Lake Mary served as the home of Emmis Communications. Using Florical Automation, Emmis was responsible for master control operations for several Emmis owned Fox and WB affiliates in the southeastern United States. These stations included: WVUE in New Orleans, WALA-TV and WBPG-TV in Mobile, Alabama, and WFTX in Fort Myers. Emmis maintained broadcast capabilities during several major hurricanes impacts including: Katrina (affecting WVUE), Ivan (affecting WALA), and Charley (affecting WFTX and WKCF). The Emmis model was later discontinued as the company sold off the stations.
On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that they cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On March 1, Emmis officials confirmed that WKCF would affiliate with The CW. Channel 18 had been the obvious choice as Orlando's CW affiliate in any case. CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates, and as mentioned above WKCF had been The WB's strongest affiliate for virtually all of the network's run. Orlando's UPN affiliate, WRBW, linked up with MyNetworkTV along with other Fox-owned UPN affiliates.
On May 8, Emmis announced the sale of WKCF to Hearst-Argyle Television for $217.5 million dollars. The sale was finalized on August 31. This created a duopoly for Hearst-Argyle in the Orlando market as it already owned WESH. As part of the move, WKCF moved its operations to WESH's facility in Winter Park. WKCF may now take on the responsibility of airing NBC programs when WESH is not able to such as in a news-related emergency. Until October 2008, WKCF was the only Hearst-Argyle owned station whose web site was not powered by Internet Broadcasting; that changed when Hearst-Argyle and Internet Broadcasting created a separate page within WESH's web site for the station. As was the case with WB affiliation, the station is currently the highest rated CW affiliate in the country.
[edit] Newscasts
From 2004 to 2007, the station was home to The Daily Buzz, a nationally syndicated morning program (originally produced at WBDT in Dayton, Ohio). As a result of a station ownership changeover in 2007, the show moved their base of operation to the Disney-MGM Studios with local tetecasts moving to WRDQ. WKCF was the first television station in the Orlando area to air a 10 P.M. newscast. It launched in 1991 and was originally produced by WCPX-TV (now WKMG-TV). Later on, future sister station WESH took over the production of the newscast. It was canceled in September of 2002 in response to increased competition from WOFL and WRDQ (whose newscasts are produced by WFTV). After Hearst-Argyle bought WKCF, it led to speculation that WESH could bring back 10 o'clock news on the station. That station began producing a two-hour, weekday morning newscast (at 7 A.M.) for WKCF in January of 2007. More recently, a simulcast of the 6 o'clock hour of WESH's morning news as added. WESH began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition on November 1 of that year. The WKCF broadcasts were included in the upgrade.
[edit] News team
WKCF's weekday morning meteorologist.
WESH 2 News Sunrise
(Weekday Mornings 6 to 7 A.M., simulcasted from WESH)
- Anchors:
- Weather:
- Traffic:
- National Correspondent:
WESH 2 News on CW 18
(Weekday Mornings 7 to 9 A.M.)
- Anchor:
- Weather:
- Traffic:
- National Correspondent:
WKCF shares additional news personnel with WESH. See that article for a complete listing.
[edit] External links
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