WZTV

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WZTV channel 17 is the FOX affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as sister stations to My Network TV affiliate WUXP-TV channel 30 and CW affiliate WNAB channel 58. It is currently branded as "FOX17". Its transmitter is located in White's Creek, Tennessee.

History

The station originally signed on the air on August 5, 1968 as WMCV and operated until March 10, 1971 from a small studio in west Nashville. It was Nashville's first UHF TV station as well as its first independent (in fact Tennessee's first), without a network affiliation. Not surprisingly, with three strong, well-established network affiliates in the market, WMCV did not attract many advertisers and relied mainly on old movies, cartoons, religion, and syndicated fare; many area households probably did not have sets capable of receiving the station's signal anyway. This was very typical of UHF start-ups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

After a false start ended hopes for a 1974 return for channel 17, new owners Reel Broadcasting brought the station back as WZTV on March 6, 1976, initially branding it as "ZTV" and later "Z-17". WZTV's first several years showed far more promise in the programming lineup than WMCV ever did, with coverage of college basketball and Cincinnati Reds baseball supplementing the usual independent syndicated program assortment such as cartoons, classic sitcoms, old movies, westerns, and reruns of old network dramas. Even though the station took out ads in TV Guide in 1979 and 1980 offering assistance to Middle Tennessee viewers who had problems receiving its UHF signal, by the late 1980s the problem became mostly a moot one as many households now could view the station clearly via cable.

In the early 1980s, WZTV was sold to Multimedia Broadcasting, which owned several NBC and CBS affiliates around the country. Multimedia continued to run the independent format on WZTV, even after competitors came in the form of a Murfreesboro-based station, WFYZ channel 39, in 1983, and a TVX-owned station, WCAY-TV channel 30, in 1984. However, WZTV was the only one who was profitable, so by 1985, it became clear that Nashville could not support three independent stations, a large number for that time in only a medium-sized market. TVX owned many other stations that were profitable and high-rated, while the Murfreesboro TV Corporation, owners of WFYZ, lacked the resources to grow. They eventually turned the station into an all-music video format, then a fashionable format, and then sold the station in late 1985 to Christian Television Network, who switched the station to a religious format and its calls to WHTN.

WZTV then acquired most of WFYZ's former shows, being the stronger of the two remaining independents. In 1986, Multimedia sold WZTV to Act III Broadcasting, who had a reputation of buying medium-market independent stations and the programming from its competitors, combine assets to make a stronger station, and have the other stations switch to religion or shopping full-time. Act III wanted to do this in Nashville, but TVX would not allow it.

In 1987, TVX affiliated all of its stations with the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company. WCAY, then branded "Fox 30," however did not get a substantial ratings boost. TVX bought 5 general entertainment stations from Taft Broadcasting later in 1987 - 2 of these stations were Fox affiliates, the other 3 were independent. TVX acquired massive debt as well, and so they sold some of their underperforming medium-market stations. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis were sold to MT Communications, which was headed by -- and named after -- Michael Thompson. After the sale was complete, WCAY changed its call letters to WXMT. The deal between Fox and TVX, of course, had one catch: if one of TVX's underperforming stations -- like WCAY/WXMT -- was sold, that station could lose its Fox affiliation. As a result, in 1990, Fox pulled its affiliation from WXMT and moved it to WZTV.

Act III was not done yet: they approached Thompson about buying WXMT's programming and moving it to WZTV, while making WXMT all religion and home shopping. Thompson initially agreed, but backed out of the deal a few days later. But Thompson came up with another idea: WXMT would sell only its expensive programming to WZTV: which included mostly sitcoms, drama shows, and movies; and WXMT would keep barter shows and cartoons. In mid-February, the deal was complete, and WZTV became a Fox affiliate with a strong schedule, changing its on-air branding to "Fox 17." WXMT's schedule now looked like this: home shopping 15 hours a day, religion 2 hours, cartoons 4 hours, and syndicated shows 2 hours.

Over the years, WZTV began going torwards more first-run talk, court, and reality shows, and WXMT began to add more sitcoms and cartoons as a result, allowing WXMT to full-time general entertainment by 1994. Around that time, Act III sold its stations to Abry. WXMT became a UPN affiliate in 1995, and one year later Sinclair bought most of Abry's stations, including WZTV. Sinclair then entered into a local marketing agreement with channel 30, now called WUXP, and most of WZTV's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WUXP, with Sinclair buying WUXP outright in 2001.

On July 7, 1997, WZTV began its 9 p.m. newscast, after Fox demanded all its stations air local news, and WZTV was one of the few Fox affiliates in the top 50 markets that did not air local news before that.

Fox ended the weekday cartoon block in 2002, allowing their affiliates to add even more first-run syndicated shows.

Today, WZTV offers Fox programming, first-run reality/talk/court shows, recent sitcoms, and news, although WZTV remains one of the few top 50 Fox affiliates lacking a traditional weekday morning newscast. It does, however, produce a magazine show entitled "TN Mornings," which includes minimal news content.

In 2006, all Sinclair-owned Fox affiliates including WZTV extended their affiliation contracts until at least March,2012.

News Operations

Initially, Nashville's ABC affiliate, WKRN-TV channel 2, produced the newscast on WZTV, which was then 30 minutes long and aired only Sunday through Friday.

Original FOX News @ 9

Laura Faber and Ashley Webster anchored news. Melissa Crowley was the chief FOX News @ 9 reporter. Her husband, Brian May, was the sports anchor. Cody Stark was the weather anchor. The area of the building (inside WKRN's building) where FOX news was done was called "The Fox Hole." The show was taped in the studio adjacent to the WKRN newsroom/studio. The FOX News @ 9 newscast was known for the "modern and hip" spin it put on stories, that was unlike any other station at the time in Nashville.

FOX News @ 9 (and 10) Today

Three years later on July 6, 2000, WZTV began producing its own newscast, which by then was expanded to a full hour and aired seven days a week. In 2004, WZTV launched the FOX17 News: Late Edition at 10pm, a half-hour show featuring local news and weather combined with national segments from Sinclair's "News Central" operation. On April 3, 2006 WZTV reformated "FOX 17 News: Late Edition" into "FOX 17 News at 10" and eliminated the Sinclair segments, while adding local sports and expanding its local news and weather segments. "FOX 17 News at 10" airs against late night newscasts from Nashville's "Big 3" stations.

Newscasts

Weekdays

• Tennessee Mornings (news/information show) - 6:00-8:00AM
  • with Charlie Chase, Kelly Sutton, traffic anchor David Park, and news anchor Brooke Austin
• FOX17 News at 9:00 - 9:00-10:00PM
  • anchored by Ashley Webster and Laura Faber with Joe Case on weather and Paul Jones with sports
• FOX17 News at 10:00 - 10:00-10:30PM
  • anchored by Ashley Webster and Laura Faber with Joe Case on weather and Paul Jones with sports

Saturday

• FOX17 News at 9:00 - 9:00-9:30PM
  • anchored by Sarah Bishop with Cindy Tremblay on weather and Amy Fadool with sports

Sunday

• FOX17 News at 9:00 - 9:00-9:35PM
  • anchored by Sarah Bishop with Cindy Tremblay on weather and Amy Fadool with sports

Station Logos

• Station logo, January 1980.
  Station logo, January 1980.

External links

• Official site
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