Жаксонвилль қаласының NBC телеарнасы: Тарих және дамуы

NBC affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida

WTLV (channel 12) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Orange Park–licensed ABC affiliate WJXX (channel 25). The two stations share studios on East Adams Street (near EverBank Stadium) in downtown Jacksonville; WTLV's transmitter is located on Anders Boulevard in the city's Killarney Shores section.

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1957, as WFGA TV (which stood for "We're Florida and Georgia"). Founded by the Florida Georgia Television Company, it was originally a primary NBC affiliate with a secondary affiliation with ABC. It was the first television station in the United States that was designed for color broadcasting, and many of the country's color commercials were filmed at the station. Two years later, WFGA donated tower space, money and transmitting facilities to the market's National Educational Television (NET) member station WJCT (channel 7, now a PBS member station). In 1958, WFGA was selected "Newsfilm Station of the Year" by the National Press Photographers Association. On October 11, 1958, channel 12 became the first television station to air a live launch from Cape Canaveral – Thor Able's successful launch of the Pioneer I lunar probe. The station also provided the remote facilities, and supplied video and audio for all three major networks (ABC, NBC and CBS). This earned WFGA TV the exclusive spot for NBC's space coverage. WFGA lost the ABC affiliation to WJKS (channel 17, later WJWB and now CW affiliate WCWJ), when it signed on in September 1966; as a result, channel 12 became an exclusive NBC affiliate. On December 16, 1971, the station changed its call letters to WTLV. In 1975, the station was purchased by Harte Hanks Communications. On March 31, 1980, WTLV swapped affiliations with WJKS, joining ABC, which at the time was the most watched of the then three major U. S. broadcast television networks. In December 1987, the Gannett Company bought WTLV from Harte Hanks, in a two station deal with Greensboro, North Carolina, sister station WFMY TV. The deal was finalized in February 1988. On April 3 of that year, WTLV reversed the 1980 affiliation swap with WJKS, returning to NBC in what the network called one of its most successful affiliation switches ever. By this time, NBC had once again become the highest rated broadcast network. This swap brought WTLV in line with sister stations WXIA TV in Atlanta, KARE TV in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and KPNX in Phoenix, which had recently renewed their NBC relationships.

After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) legalized television station duopolies on November 15, 1999, the Allbritton Communications Company announced the following day that it would sell ABC affiliate WJXX (channel 25) to Gannett, creating a duopoly with WTLV. Normally, duopolies between two "big four" affiliates or even "big three" affiliates would not be allowed because they usually constituted the top four stations in a market. FCC regulations do not allow common ownership of any two of the four highest rated stations in a market based on total day viewership. However, WJXX had ranked as the fifth highest rated station in the market, often trailing WJWB (which had gone from one of ABC's weakest affiliates to becoming one of The WB's strongest) and Fox affiliate WAWS (channel 30, now WFOX TV), in addition to WJXT and WTLV. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WTLV and WJXX were retained by the latter company, named Tegna. On May 30, 2017, WTLV was fined $55,000 by the FCC for airing Jacksonville Jaguars promos that included the Emergency Alert System tones.

On June 12, 2009, WTLV terminated its analog signal, on VHF channel 12, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre transition VHF channel 13, using virtual channel 12. As part of the SAFER Act, WTLV kept its analog signal on the air until June 27 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.