WSVN: Encyclopedia II - WSVN - History

WSVN - History

WSVN signed on in 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 circomstances 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.

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).

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).

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 a Fox affiliate, WSVN is still very aggressive with its news coverage, and is sometimes criticized for sensationalist reporting. Nonetheless, it continues to attract high ratings.

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 five 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 does not call itself "FOX7", but "WSVN 7".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki