is the
Fox affiliate in
Miami ,
Florida that broadcasts on VHF Channel 7. It is owned by Sunbeam Television, who also owns
WHDH in
Boston . WSVN's transmitter is located in
Miami . WSVN operates a
Key West repeater, '''WKIZ-LP''', on channel 49. This is the only station not affiliated with the big three networks in Miami, that offers a Keys repeater.
WBFS and
WBZL do not have any.
WSVN signed on
July 29 ,
1956 as WCKT, an
NBC station owned by the
Cox and Knight publishing families, the publishers of
The Miami News and
The Miami Herald , respectively. In 1962, the Cox-Knight partnership, which operated under the name "Biscayne Television Corporation", lost its license (due to circumstances that are unknown for now) and was forced to sell WCKT by the FCC. Shortly afterward, a new company, "Sunbeam Television Corporation", acquired the station and assumed ownership on
December 19 ,
1962 , with the station licensed as a new station, using the same WCKT calls.
In
1983 , Edmund N. ("Ed") Ansin acquired Sunbeam and, shortly afterward, changed the calls to WSVN. (The WSVN calls were previously-used by PBS affiliate
WSBN in
Norton, Virginia .)
As an NBC station, WCKT/WSVN aired news in place of whatever NBC aired at noon. It also preempted shows during the 10 or 11 AM hours and an occasional prime time show. NBC was very annoyed at seeing so much of its programming getting preempted in the growing Miami market, and eventually concluded it needed to have an owned and operated station there. NBC got its chance in the late 1980s, when
CBS affiliate
WTVJ , Florida's oldest television station, went on the block. NBC won a bidding war for WTVJ in
1987 , but couldn't move its programming there right away because WTVJ's affiliation deal with CBS lasted until the end of
1988 . Also, Ansin insisted on keeping NBC programming for one more year because of the
Summer Olympics . Finally, on
New Year's Day 1989 , NBC formally moved to
WTVJ . WSVN quickly snapped up the Fox affiliation from WCIX channel 6 (now
WFOR-TV channel 4). WSVN had far fewer programming to pre-empt as a result, as Fox only programmed a few hours each day. WSVN's affiliation with Fox could also be seen as a major coup, as WSVN had been the longtime NBC affiliate, and Fox was pleased to move its affiliation to a station which had been with a "Big 3" network for years.
Instead of buying a lot of off-network sitcoms and running a lot of cartoons, WSVN opted to move to a news intensive format and poured most of its resources into its news department. It began to air a lot of first run syndicated talk shows, court shows, off-network dramas, and 8 hours of news a day. It did run some cartoons on weekends. It originally aired Fox Kids programming in
1990 , but by
1993 it moved to WDZL channel 39 (now
WBZL ) (
WBFS-TV now airs the current
4Kids TV block.).
WSVN was the second Fox station to have a morning newscast and was the first with 5PM and 6 PM newscasts. Led by news director Joel Cheatwood, it adopted a format based on the philosophy "if it bleeds, it leads." When Ansin bought
WHDH-TV in Boston, Cheatwood moved there and adopted a slightly watered-down version of WSVN's format that was still much flashier than had been the case on Boston television.
The WSVN model would influence what most Fox affiliates would look like in years to come. In
1994 , when
New World Communications switched its stations to Fox, its stations' programming was very similar in format to WSVN, except their news format may have aimed at an older audience than WSVN. As well, many New World stations passed on Fox Kids, just like WSVN.
As a Fox affiliate, WSVN is still very aggressive with its news coverage and is often criticized for sensationalist reporting. Nonetheless, it continues to attract high ratings. It even has an 11 PM newscst in addition to its 10 PM one, unlike most Fox stations (although Fox O&O WTVT in nearby Tampa is experimenting with an 11 PM newscast).
WSVN tends to run a lot of lower budget first run syndicated shows that other stations pass on, and runs virtually no off network sitcoms. Fox supplies the station with a prime time lineup and plenty of weekend sports. Even though other stations outbid WSVN for the best programming, the station has far higher ratings than the UPN and WB stations and often beats the network affiliates in ratings.
Fox News anchor
Shepard Smith once worked for the station as well as
CNN Headline News anchor Linda (Cinnamon) Stouffer, and current
CNN and one-time
MSNBC anchor
Rick Sanchez . WSVN is a proud sponsor of
Habitat For Humanity .
In
2004 , WSVN lead
Meteorologist Bill Kamal was arrested by
Immigration And Customs Enforcement agents and sentenced to jail for 5 years for soliciting a 14-year old boy for sex.
WSVN's main nightly news programs at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. are anchored by Craig Stevens and Belkys Nerey. This lineup using reporters of various ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations displays the diversity of the
South Florida community.
Unlike most Fox stations, the station doesn't call itself ''"FOX7"'', but ''"WSVN 7"'' (though sister station WHDH brands itself as ''"7 NBC"''). There were rumors that Ansin may sell his stations directly to their respective network affiliations: WSVN to Fox, and WHDH to NBC, which would force a branding change to ''"FOX7"''; however, each time these rumors surface, Ansin and his staff would refute these rumors, stating that his stations are not for sale.
- ''Today in Florida'' 5-9AM
- ''7 News at Noon'' Noon-1PM
- ''7 News at 5'' 5-5:30PM (Belkys Nerey and Craig Stevens)
- ''7 News at 5:30'' 5:30-6PM (Lynn Martinez and Tom Haynes)
- ''7 News at 6'' 6-6:30PM (Belkys Nerey and Craig Stevens)
- ''7 News at 6:30'' 6:30-7PM (Lynn Martinez and Tom Haynes)
- ''7 News at 10'' also called ''7 News Night team'' 10-11PM (Belkys Nerey and Craig Stevens)
- ''7 News at 11'' 11-11:30PM (Belkys Nerey and Craig Stevens)
- ''Today in Florida Saturday Edition'' 8-10AM (Saturday only)
- ''7 News at 5'' 5-5:30PM
- ''7 News at 6'' 6-6:30PM
- ''7 News at 10'' 10-11PM
- ''Deco Drive'' with Lynn Martinez and Louis Aguirre; Weekdays & Saturdays 7:30PM (encores 11:30PM weekdays and 5:30 on Sundays)
- ''Sunday Sports Xtra'' with Steve Shapiro, Mike DiPasquale, and Drew Rosenhaus ; 11-11:30PM (Sunday only)
