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Wwsb
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channel 40 tv stations in the united states
   
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  Station Logo
  Station Slogan Your Suncoast News
  Station Branding ABC 7
  Analog 40 ( UHF )
  Digital 52 ( UHF )
  Affiliations ABC
  Founded 1971
  Location Sarasota, Florida
  Callsign Meaning '''W''' '''W''' '''S'''outhern '''B'''roadcasting
  Former Callsigns WXLT (1971-86)
  Owner Calkins Media (''"Southern Broadcast Corporation of Sarasota"'')
  Former Affiliations CBS , NBC (secondary throughout the 1970s, see article)
  Homepage mysuncoastcom


WWSB, Channel 40 ( Cable and Virtual Channel 7), is the ABC affiliate for Sarasota, Florida .

WWSB is owned by Calkins Media, Inc., a in Tallahassee (which Calkins acquired in December 2005) and WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama (acquired in February 2007).

WWSB's Transmitter is located on a 248 m (814 ft) high tower in Parrish - a small community about 19 miles north of the station's studios in downtown Sarasota.

A directional , Manatee , Charlotte , Hardee , and DeSoto .

The station can not be viewed on Satellite TV , which has been frustrating for many people in the Sarasota-Manatee area, and WWSB has been asking people with satellite systems to petition their providers to show WWSB. Recently, when Verizon started their FiOS cable lines in the area, WWSB was not originally included, but was added to channel 7 on the FiOS systems in late October 2006 which included Hillsborough and Pasco counties. {Link without Title} .


HISTORY

The station first went on the air as WXLT (for '''W''' '''XL''' (40 in when news anchor and talk-show host Christine Chubbuck committed Suicide by shooting herself in the head on the air, making reference to the station's "blood and guts" policies in her final monologue.

In the 1970s, WXLT also cleared some CBS and NBC programming passed on by WTVT or WFLA, respectively. For example: in 1972, when " The Joker's Wild " debuted on CBS, it was pre-empted on WTVT, but picked up by WXLT. The call letters became WWSB in 1986 .

On cable, WFTS was not carried south of the Sarasota area, while WWSB was not available on cable north of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (until Verizon FiOS added WWSB to all of their Gulf Coast lineups) -- the latter was due to contractual conditions drawn up in the early-1990s by WTSP and, later, WFTS.

Until WTSP upgraded their facilities in the late-1970s, both WLCY/WTSP and WXLT competed for viewers in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. It was not uncommon to see WXLT's billboards in Tampa, St. Petersburg or Largo.

Today, WWSB still provides ABC programming to Manatee and Sarasota counties, even though they're in the shadow of WFTS , whose transmitter is only about 20 miles north of WWSB's. On cable, WWSB is the sole ABC affiliate on Comcast's southern Sarasota County systems, while it competes with Fort Myers' WZVN in Desoto County and Port Charlotte , and Orlando's WFTV in Hardee County .

Both WFTS and WWSB will air Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! from 7-8pm starting September 10th. Previously they had been airing on WTSP.


Changes


In 2002, the station changed logos, and changed studio locations to a studio in downtown Sarasota. Until March 2004, the station's News department operated under the Brand "''News 40''", and the station as a whole branded as "''Channel 40.''" The brand was changed to ABC 7, because most viewers watch the station on Brighthouse Networks or Comcast Cable, and both providers carry WWSB on channel 7. The conversion to ABC 7 involved a redress of the station's news Sets , a new Logo (to a unique version of the well known Circle 7 Logo ) and color scheme, a new Slogan ("Local news. Every day. Every newscast."), from its longtime slogan "''ABC for the Suncoast''", and a major local Promotion and Advertising Campaign .

However, not all cable systems carry WWSB on cable 7 -- Comcast's Wauchula system carries WWSB on cable 2; also, its Port Charlotte system offers WWSB on cable 10, since its home-market station, WZVN (which also brands as ABC 7 for the same reason), is seen on cable 7


BLACK ALMANAC

Black Almanac is a locally-produced s face in the community. The program has aired since 1972 , making it the longest running locally-produced public affairs program in the Southeastern United States . {Link without Title}


CURRENT PERSONALITIES




PAST PERSONALITIES




REFERENCES


WWSB-TV Official Site .

WWSB-TV News and Engineering Departments.


EXTERNAL LINKS