'''''"NBC6"''''' is an
NBC Owned And Operated Station licensed to
Miami, Florida and along with sister station
WSCV Telemundo 51 have broadcast facilities in
Miramar, Florida , near
Fort Lauderdale . WTVJ also operates three
Translators . Two of them are in the Keys, '''W44AC''' in Key West, and '''W52BB''' in Big Pine. The third translator, '''W58BU''', is in Hallandale (Broward County), which give the Fort Lauderdale area the best possible signal.
WTVJ went on the air at noon on
March 21 ,
1949 becoming Florida's first television station and broadcasting on channel 4. The station was a
CBS affiliate, owned by Wometco Enterprises and broadcast out of the former Capitol Theater in downtown Miami.
WTVJ was the only commercial station in Miami until
1957 , probably because there was some question about whether Miami and
West Palm Beach could be considered a single market. It carried secondary affiliations with NBC until
1957 (when WCKT, now
WSVN , signed on) and with
ABC until
1958 (when WPST, now
WPLG , signed on).
After longtime Wometco president Charles Wolfson died in
1984 , the company was taken over by investment firm
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts , who also took over
Storer Broadcasting . At the same time, the
FCC raised the television station ownership limit from seven stations to twelve. KKR bought the stations because values were rising rapidly and the goal was to
Sell the stations in a few years.
In
1986 , KKR opted to sell the Wometco stations to separate owners. It had plans to sell WTVJ for a record price of close to half a billion dollars. CBS wanted the station, but lost a bidding war to
Telepictures . CBS then stated it might purchase WCIX channel 6, a
Fox station owned by Taft, making WTVJ an
Independent Station . A major network had never bought a station affiliated with another network. With the prospect of losing the CBS affiliation and having to buy syndicated programming to fill an additional fifteen hours a day, Telepictures walked away from the deal late in 1986.
KKR, without a buyer, was anxious to sell WTVJ. However, the station was actually worth roughly half the asking price that Telepictures almost paid. The only offers came from companies such
Tribune Broadcasting , Pappas, Chris-Craft, and other companies that wanted to have WTVJ as an independent station for a much lower price. The only way that KKR could make a profit was to sell WTVJ to another network, as the only potential buyers who had no interest in keeping CBS while paying the asking price were ABC and NBC. CBS, believing that KKR would not sell to another network, returned with a very low offer. KKR then approached the other networks. ABC wasn't interested, but NBC was since its longtime affiliate, WSVN, pre-empted whatever show NBC had on at noon, as well as shows during the 10 or 11 AM hours and an occasional prime time show. NBC realized that buying its own station with less restrictive ownership laws would get all of its shows aired. Hence, it made an offer almost as high as Telepictures did a few months before.
As the result of NBC outbidding CBS, NBC bought WTVJ in the Fall of
1987 . However, WTVJ was bound to the CBS affiliation until the end of
1988 . WSVN's deal with NBC also expired at the end of
1988 . Though NBC and CBS both approached Ed Ansin, WSVN's owner, about ending the deal early, Ansin refused. Instead, Ansin wanted to air NBC's strong lineup that year, which included the
Summer Olympics and
Baseball . He also wanted to take the CBS affiliation at the beginning of
1989 . However, CBS wanted to switch immediately, as the network was very uncomfortable with NBC owning its affiliate. NBC was also very unhappy about having to run CBS programming. NBC did begin pre-empting some low rated CBS shows on WTVJ to run NBC shows that WSVN was pre-empting.
CBS then moved ahead on its deal with WCIX, whose transmitter was located twenty miles southwest of downtown Miami. This gave Fort Lauderdale only a grade B signal, which was weaker than all of the other TV stations in the Miami market. Accordingly, CBS persuaded
WPEC in
West Palm Beach to drop ABC in favor of CBS in order to get a clear signal into
Broward County . In the spring of
1988 , just before Ansin could sign a deal to affiliate WSVN with CBS starting in January 1989, CBS announced its purchase of WCIX. The changeover occurred on
January 1 ,
1989 . WTVJ finally dropped CBS programming for NBC programming, making it Florida's first and only NBC owned and operated station, which WTVJ benefitted from. CBS programming moved to WCIX, while WSVN took WCIX' former Fox affiliation.
In
1992 , when
Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, WTVJ was the only station to give complete coverage of the story non-stop, until its doppler radar was shut down.
In
1994 ,
Westinghouse and CBS agreed to a no-preemption deal with all five Westinghouse-owned stations. For the Miami market, this led to a deal in
1995 between CBS and NBC, where NBC exchanged WTVJ for
WCAU-TV in
Philadelphia , WCIX, and cash for NBC's loss of two Westinghouse-owned NBC stations,
KYW-TV in Philadelphia and
WBZ-TV in
Boston .
In
September 1995 , WTVJ and WCIX swapped dial positions. WTVJ's entire unit (calls, shows, NBC network and staff) moved from channel 4 to channel 6. However, its studios remained the same. The entire WCIX intellectual unit moved to channel 4, but would change its call letters to
WFOR-TV .
In
2000 , WTVJ moved to new studios in
Miramar, Florida .
Today, WTVJ is the NBC owned & operated station in the market with the entire NBC schedule, news, first run talk/reality shows, and sports. WTVJ also produces a 10 pm newscast for
WBZL , the local
WB station.
- ''Today in South Florida'' 5:00-7:00AM (Co-anchors: Bob Mayer and Pam Giganti)
- ''South Florida Today'' 10:00-11:00AM (Co-anchors: Bob Mayer, Lonnie Quinn, Trina Robinson and Kelly Craig)
- ''Newsnet at Noon'' 12:00PM-12:30PM (Co-anchors: Bob Mayer and Tina Conte)
- ''NBC6 News at 5PM'' 5:00-6:00PM (Co-anchors: Jackie Nespral and Julia Yarbough)
- ''NBC6 News at 6PM'' 6:00-6:30PM (Weekday co-anchors: Tony Segreto and Jackie Nespral, Weekends: Joel Connable)
- ''WB39 News at 10PM'' 10:00-10:30PM on WBZL (Weekday co-anchors: Julia Yarbough and Martha Sugalski, Weekends: Joel Connable)
- ''NBC6 News at 11PM'' 11:00-11:35PM (Weekday co-anchors: Jackie Nespral and Michael Williams , Weekend anchor: Joel Connable)
- ''Today in South Florida Saturday'' 6:00-7:00AM & 9:00-10:00AM (Anchor: Kelly Craig)
- ''Today in South Florida Sunday'' 9:00-10:00AM (Anchor: Kelly Craig)
- ''Sports Final'' 11:30PM-12Midnight (Co-Anchors: Joe Rose, Guy Rawlings and Adam Kuperstien)
