| ATSC 3.0 station | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| |
| City | Waterbury, Connecticut |
| Channels | |
| Branding | CW 20 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WTIC-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | September 10, 1953 (72 years ago) (1953-09-10) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning | CW Connecticut |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 14050 |
| ERP | 220kW |
| HAAT | 517 m (1,696 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°42′13″N72°49′55″W / 41.70361°N 72.83194°W /41.70361; -72.83194 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WCCT-TV (channel 20), brandedCW 20, is a television station licensed toWaterbury, Connecticut, United States, serving theHartford–New Havenmarket as an affiliate ofThe CW. It is owned byTegna Inc. alongside Hartford-licensedFox affiliateWTIC-TV (channel 61). The two stations share studios on Broad Street indowntown Hartford; WCCT-TV's transmitter is located onRattlesnake Mountain inFarmington, Connecticut.
This station was established in 1953 as WATR-TV, anNBC affiliate originally serving Waterbury, New Haven, and southern Connecticut. Following a transmitter upgrade by Hartford NBC affiliateWVIT in 1982, WATR relaunched as WTXX, a regionalindependent and the first station owned byRenaissance Broadcasting. WTXX became Connecticut'sUPN affiliate in 1995 and switched toThe WB in 2001, and became a charter CW affiliate in 2006. Adopting the current WCCT-TV call sign in 2010, it has been managed by WTIC-TV since 1998 and owned by Tegna since 2019.
The station commenced operations on September 10, 1953, as WATR-TV on channel 53, the secondUHF station in Connecticut.[3] It was owned by the Thomas and Gilmore families, along withWATR radio (1320 AM). The station's studios and transmitter were located onWest Peak inMeriden. At the time, the station's signal only covered Waterbury, New Haven and the southern portion of the state.
WATR-TV was originally a dual secondary affiliate of bothDuMont andABC,[4] sharing them with New Haven-based WNHC-TV (channel 8, nowWTNH). DuMont ceased operations in 1955,[5] but WATR-TV continued to carry the network's final regularly scheduled program,Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena, until it was cancelled in August 1958; WATR-TV was one of only five remaining DuMont affiliates at the end.[6][7]
In 1962, the station relocated to UHF channel 20 and moved to a new studio and transmitter site inProspect, south of Waterbury.[8] Channel 53 was later occupied by WEDN,Connecticut Public Television's outlet inNorwich.
In August 1966, WATR-TV joinedNBC.[9] At the time, the network's primary affiliate in Connecticut, WHNB-TV (channel 30) inNew Britain, was hampered by a weak signal in New Haven and the southwestern portions of the state. In the 1970s, the station offered limited local news and instead aired oldersyndicated programs andreligious shows such asThe PTL Club when NBC programs were not offered. A notable local production wasJourneys to the Mind, a half-hour talk show with host Joel Dobbin, which approached topics of theoccult with a serious and sober tone.Journeys ran from 1976 to 1981.
The original Viacom bought WHNB-TV in 1978 and changed its call letters toWVIT.[10][11] Two years later, after WVIT more than doubled its transmission power to cover New Haven, it became clear that WATR-TV's NBC affiliation was now in jeopardy. In 1981, the Thomas/Gilmore interests opted to sell channel 20 to a joint venture of Odyssey Television Partners (later to becomeRenaissance Broadcasting) andOppenheimer and Company. The sale was announced in May 1981[12] and gained FCC approval that December.[13]
The new owners of channel 20 ultimately opted to drop NBC and convert the station into an independent outlet (though NBC was considering ending its affiliation in any event). NBC programming aired on channel 20 for the last time on April 10, 1982. On the next day (Easter Sunday), the station stayed off the air, preparing to relaunch as an independent. On April 12—two days after the NBC affiliation ended—channel 20 returned to the air as WTXX (for "Television XX", with "XX" referring to 20 in Roman numerals),[citation needed] and subsequently became Connecticut's first full-serviceindependent station since Hartford's WHCT-TV (channel 18, nowUnivision affiliateWUVN) served as an independent from 1957 to 1975.[14]
Soon after taking over, Odyssey replaced channel 20's tiny 250-foot (76 m) tower with a more powerful transmitter that more than doubled its signal and gave it a coverage area comparable with the major network stations in the state. It was a typical general-entertainment independent, carrying off-network series,movies, andcartoons presented by the local children's showKidstime with T.X. Critter, apuppet created by and puppeteered byPaul Fusco who later createdALF. WTXX also carried some sports, most notablyNew York Mets telecasts fromWOR-TV in New York City andBoston Celtics telecasts fromWLVI-TV inBoston. WTXX prospered in its new status, and continued to do so even after WTIC-TV signed on in 1984. WTXX bid for theFox affiliation two years later, but lost out to WTIC-TV. Channel 20's transmitter was located further south than the other major Connecticut stations, resulting in a significant overlap with Fox flagshipWNYW. It could be seen at city-grade strength inFairfield County, which is part of the New York City market, and provided at least secondary coverage to most ofLong Island. Fox opted to affiliate with WTIC-TV, which did not have as large an overlap.
In October 1992, Renaissance Broadcasting sold WTXX to Counterpoint Communications, a non-profit media firm with close ties to theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.[15] Renaissance had recently acquired several stations, including WTIC-TV, from Chase Broadcasting, andFederal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations of the time did not allowcommon ownership of two stations in the same market. However, Renaissance retained the rights to all the programming it bought for WTXX. WTIC-TV wanted to establish a full-timelocal marketing agreement (LMA) with WTXX, which basically amounted to channel 20 being programmed by its main competitor. Counterpoint balked, wanting only a part-time agreement. Renaissance then moved some of WTXX's stronger shows to WTIC-TV, leaving the station with a considerably weakened schedule.
Renaissance's sale of WTXX to Counterpoint, and Renaissance's subsequent acquisition of WTIC-TV, became official in March 1993.[16] Under the terms of the sale to Counterpoint, WTXX retained few syndicated programs and some movies, and began airing programming from the Home Shopping Network (HSN) for 15 hours a day (including daytime and prime time). In addition, channel 20 would air a daily Catholic Mass, along with other Catholic religious programs, for one hour per day.[17] While trying to negotiate an LMA, WTXX continued to run some Renaissance-owned programming daily from 3 to 7 p.m. free of charge. These shows were theDisney Afternoon cartoon block, double runs ofThe Cosby Show andGrowing Pains on weekdays, and some hour-long first-run syndicated dramas on weekends. Renaissance sold the ad time for the slot and WTXX paid nothing to run the programming during these hours. That July, after negotiations with WTIC collapsed, WTXX entered into a lease agreement with Viacom-owned WVIT, which would provide27+1⁄2 hours a week of its programs.[18] Its schedule now included cartoons and children's programs during the morning and afternoon hours, and syndicated shows whose local rights were owned by WVIT during the early evenings. Most of the cartoons were shows WTXX previously had on a barter basis that WTIC could not fit on its schedule.The Disney Afternoon and other syndicated shows previously on WTXX moved to WTIC or stopped airing in the market. HSN programming remained during middays, prime time, and the overnight hours.[19]
WTXX became Connecticut'sUPN affiliate on April 3, 1995; for the2+1⁄2 months prior to that, Hartford viewers who wanted to watch UPN programming had to view it on cable, by way ofWSBK-TV from Boston. This was due in part that Viacom, who operated the station through a LMA with WVIT, owned a minority interest in UPN. Initially, it continued to run Home Shopping Network in prime time on nights without UPN programming. By spring 1996, the station expanded its LMA with WVIT to cover the entire day, except for overnights and the hours when the Catholic Mass aired. By this point, WTXX upgraded its syndicated programming, and HSN was relegated to overnights before being dropped completely.
In 1998, WVIT was sold to NBC, and WTIC (now owned byTribune Broadcasting) replaced WVIT as WTXX's LMA partner.[20] As part of the deal, some of the shows previously owned by WVIT were kept by WTXX and WTIC. The LMA change caused no impact on WTXX's daily broadcasts of the Catholic Mass, which continues to the present day. Around this time, the station changed its on-air name from "UPN 20" to "Connecticut's 20". It also picked upBoston Red Sox baseball games; the station's feed (with the "Connecticut's 20" bug) was carried during Red Sox highlights airing onESPN for much of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 1999, WTXX and WTIC consolidated their operations in a new facility at One Corporate Center on Church Street in Downtown Hartford.
On January 1, 2001, WTXX and WBNE (channel 59, nowWCTX) swapped affiliations, with WTXX joiningThe WB and rebranding as "Connecticut's WB". This was due to in fact that the Tribune Company had a minority interest in The WB. Later that year, Tribune purchased WTXX outright, creating a duopoly with WTIC. Tribune, having already received a temporary waiver from FCC rules barringcommon ownership of a newspaper and a television station in the same area when it purchased theHartford Courant a year earlier, received an additional waiver for its purchase of WTXX. Tribune had been seeking a waiver in anticipation of the FCC relaxing its rules to allow such media combinations to exist with the agency's blessing, which would include television duopolies. In March 2005, the FCC requested that Tribune sell WTXX to a new owner, but did not raise any additional pressure outside the request to force a sale or threaten a license forfeiture. In late 2007, the FCC loosened its restrictions on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership perhaps creating an opening for Tribune (which was purchased by investorSam Zell in December 2007) to retain WTXX without a waiver.
On January 24, 2006,Time Warner announced that the company would merge the operations of The WB withCBS Corporation's UPN (which CBS acquired one month earlier in December 2005 following itssplit from Viacom), to form a 50/50 joint venture calledThe CW Television Network.[21][22] The network signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting for 16 of the 19 WB affiliates that the company owned at the time, including WTXX.[23]
In August 2008, the station changed its branding from "CW 20" to "txx" in a corporate effort by Tribune to strengthen its CW affiliates' local identities and reduce the dependence on the use of network branding. In June 2009, after 56 years of transmitting from various locations inNew Haven County, WTXX shut down its analog transmitter in Prospect, solely using WTIC-TV's tower in Farmington for its full launch into the digital age.
In July 2010, the station changed its branding again to "The CT" with "The CT is the place 2B" slogan;[24] to go along with this branding, the station changed its call letters to WCCT-TV on June 18.[25] In March 2012, the station changed its logo and began to use its calls, WCCT-TV, as its branding, though the station remains a CW affiliate. In August 2018, WCCT-TV returned to the "CW 20" branding.
Tribune announced plans on July 10, 2013, to spin off its publishing division into a separate company, with the split finalized in 2014. WTIC-TV and WCCT-TV remained with the Tribune Company (which also retained all non-publishing assets, including the broadcasting, digital media andMedia Services units), while its newspapers (including theHartford Courant) became part of the similarly namedTribune Publishing Company.[26][27]
Sinclair Broadcast Group announced it hadagreed to purchase Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion.[28][29] Tribune Media terminated the Sinclair deal on August 9, 2018, and filed abreach of contract lawsuit, nullifying the transaction;[30] this followed a vote by the FCC to put the transactions up for a formal hearing[31] and a public rejection of the merger by commission chairmanAjit Pai.[32]
After the collapse of the Sinclair deal, Tribune agreed to sell itself toNexstar Media Group for $6.4 billion.[33][34][35] Nexstar already owned two stations in Connecticut—New Haven-based ABC affiliateWTNH andWCTX—requiring that it divest either the New Haven stations or WCCT-TV and WTIC-TV.[36]Tegna Inc. agreed to purchase WCCT-TV and WTIC-TV from Nexstar on March 20, 2019, upon consummation of the merger, marking Tegna's entry into the state and southern New England. The sale of WCCT-TV and WTIC-TV was part of a larger series of deals involving nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and theE. W. Scripps Company worth a combined $1.32 billion.[37][38] The sale was completed on September 19, 2019.[39]
In July 1993, WTXX debuted a nightly 10 p.m. newscast produced by NBC station WVIT, calledConnecticut News Live at 10. The news team consisted of WVIT's evening news team (anchors Gerry Brooks and Joanne Nesti, weather from Brad Field, Beasley Reece with sports), along with reporters from WVIT.[40] In 1998, when WTIC replaced WVIT as WTXX's LMA partner, the WVIT-produced broadcasts were replaced with a simulcast of the first half-hour of WTIC's nightly 10 p.m. newscast;[41] on April 24, 2006, the station began simulcasting the entire newscast; if Fox sports programming kept the newscast from starting on time on channel 61, it was aired on WTXX under the titleNews at Ten.
On December 12, 2009, WTIC, WCCT (then WTXX), and theHartford Courant moved into new combined newsroom facilities in downtown Hartford,[42] and WTIC rebranded fromFox 61 toFox CT (a transition completed in July 2010); in addition, WTIC became the second station in the market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition. The news simulcasts on WCCT were included in the transition.
In June 2010, the station ended the simulcast of WTIC's 10 p.m. newscast. It now airs a rebroadcast of WTIC's 11 p.m. newscast at 1 am, while the 10 p.m. newscast is re-aired on weekends; these rebroadcasts include a sports highlight program calledXfinity Sports Desk at 1:45 a.m. on early Sunday and Monday mornings. Originally, this was not simulcast on WTXX but has since been added (the 10 p.m. newscast continues to be shown live on WCCT, if it is preempted on WTIC due to sports programming overruns). The station also carries the 8 a.m. hour of WTIC's morning newscast (a previous simulcast ofFox 61 Morning News had aired at one point[when?], but was later dropped). WTIC also produces a weeklypublic affairs show calledThe Real Story, which airs Sunday mornings at 8:30 a.m. with a repeat on WCCT at 11 a.m.
Other than simulcasts and default carriage of WTIC's newscasts in the event of Fox Sports programming delays, WCCT does not carry traditional local newscasts produced specifically for the station.
The station holds the local rights to air 29New York Mets games fromWPIX.[43][44] WCCT held the local broadcast television rights to theWNBA'sConnecticut Sun until 2023. Prior to airing Sun games, the station held the over-the-air broadcast rights to theNHL'sHartford Whalers.
WCCT-TV provides four subchannels, which are carried on themultiplexed signals of other Hartford–New Haven television stations:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WCCT-DT | The CW | WTIC-TV |
| 20.2 | 480i | Grit | Grit | WFSB | |
| 20.3 | Comet | Comet | |||
| 20.4 | Quest | Quest | WTNH |
In 2021, WCCT-TV began serving as theATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) lighthouse for Connecticut broadcasters with all subchannels on UHF 33.[46]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 1080p | 16:9 | WFSB-HD | CBS (WFSB) |
| 8.1 | WTNH-DT | ABC (WTNH) | ||
| 20.1 | WCCT-DT | The CW | ||
| 30.1 | WVIT-HD | NBC (WVIT) | ||
| 61.1 | WTIC-DT | Fox (WTIC-TV) |
WCCT-TV (as WTXX) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 20, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[47] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionVHF channel 12 to UHF channel 20 for post-transition operations. The digital signal's change in channel location was necessary to avoid interference withPBSmemberWHYY-TV inWilmington, Delaware.
By supplemental report and order, the commission amended tv table of assignments to substitute ch. 20 for ch. 53 in Waterbury, Conn., and, at same time, modified authorization of WATR Inc.'s station WATR-TV in that city to specify operation on ch. 20 instead of ch. 53.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation inNew England | ||
|---|---|---|
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
