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| City | Palm Beach, Florida |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WTCN-TV My 15 (cable channel) |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WTVX,WWHB-CD,WPEC | |
| History | |
First air date | October 1988 (37 years ago) (1988-10) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Treasure Coast Network |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 70865 |
| ERP | 15kW |
| HAAT | 292.5 m (960 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 27°1′32″N80°10′41.9″W / 27.02556°N 80.178306°W /27.02556; -80.178306 |
| Translator(s) | WTVX 34.3Fort Pierce |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | my15wtcn |
WTCN-CD (channel 43, cable 15) is alow-power,Class A television station licensed toPalm Beach, Florida, United States, serving theWest Palm Beach area as an affiliate ofMyNetworkTV. It is owned bySinclair Broadcast Group alongsideCBS affiliateWPEC (channel 12),CW affiliateWTVX (channel 34), and Class ARoarowned-and-operated stationWWHB-CD (channel 48). The stations share studios on Fairfield Drive inMangonia Park (with a West Palm Beachpostal address); WTCN-CD's transmitter is located southwest ofHobe Sound, Florida.
Due to WTCN's low-power status, the station's directional antenna pattern prevents it from reachingVero Beach (to the north) andBoca Raton (to the south). In order to expand the broadcasting radius, WTCN issimulcast instandard definition on WTVX's thirddigital subchannel (34.3) from a transmitter southwest ofPalm City.
WTCN-CD brands asMy 15 after the cable channel position on most West Palm Beach areacable providers.
WTCN began as W19AQ (known on-air as "WAQ"), a station that began broadcasting as channel 19 in West Palm Beach in October 1988.[2] The original owner was Palm Beach Broadcasting, led by William B. O'Donnell. WAQ had hoped to become anABC affiliate whenWPEC dropped ABC forCBS at the end of 1988,[3] but instead the affiliation went toWPBF.[4] According to theSun-Sentinel, WAQ's initial programming consisted of "morningcartoons (Beverly Hills Teens); old,public domain (and oftensilent)movies (Bachelor in Paradise,The Pickwick Papers); vintage TV series (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.); sports (Notre Dame football,Florida Marlins baseball); and music (Hit Video USA, which ran from 1 to 6 a.m.)."[5] The station later carriedHoward Stern's originalsyndicated television program, and tape-delayed races from the Palm Beach Kennel Club.[6]
The station struggled to pay its bills[7] and after declaringbankruptcy in 1991, thelicense was transferred from the O'Donnell family's company, Palm Beach Broadcasting, to Main Street TV ofCarle Place, New York.[8] In 1996,Adelphia Cable removed WAQ from its channel lineup because of "continuing problems with the picture quality", and once again the station filed for bankruptcy.[9][10] By this point the station was airing home shopping programming, old black and white movies, a localbowling show, andThe Cliff Dunn Show, which wassimulcast on local radio stationWPBR.[11] The loss of cable caused station revenue to drop from $303,315 in 1995 to only $24,995 in 1996. Station advertising rates dropped from $95 for a 30-second spot to as low as $5.
After losing nearly $7 million in 1996, the station changedcall letters to WINQ-LP and its studios were moved to the suburb ofLake Park. The station was sold to William B. Turner in 1999 for $875,000 including $175,000 in debt.[12] Martin County businessman Bill Brothers purchased the station for an undisclosed price in 2001.[13] The station then changed its callsign to WWHB-CA and WTCN-CA on August 1, 2002, and January 15, 2003, respectively. In the fall of 2005, CBS/Viacom bought WTCN and sister station WWHB-CA from Bill Brothers for $7.7 million.[14] Local operations were then integrated with WTVX at its facility at Beacon Circle in West Palm Beach.[15] However,master control originated from the studios ofWBFS-TV andWFOR-TV on Northwest 18th Terrace inDoral (WFOR served as the flagship of the network-owned cluster, dubbed the "CBS South Florida Television Station Group").[16]
At some point during the first six months of 2005, it began airingKids' WB programming when the area's primaryUPN and secondaryWB affiliate WTVX stopped airing it. After its purchase by CBS/Viacom, WTCN became affiliated with The WB, its first full network affiliation.[17] Until that point, WTVX had aired programming from that network after UPN prime time.
On January 24, 2006,CBS Corporation (whichsplit fromViacom in December 2005) andTime Warner'sWarner Bros. Entertainment (the division that operated The WB) announced that they would dissolve UPN and The WB, and move some of their programs to a newly created network operated as a joint venture between the companies,The CW Television Network. On the same day, The CW signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with eleven CBS-owned UPN stations, including WTVX. Even without the affiliation deal, that station's full-powered status made it a foregone conclusion that the station would become the CW affiliate for the Gold and Treasure Coasts.
On February 22,News Corporation announced that it would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be sister toFox, would be operated byFox Television Stations and its syndication division20th Television. WTCN would subsequently become one of only two MyNetworkTV affiliates owned by CBS. In 2006, WTCN placed sixth in theNielsen ratings in the Palm Beachmarket with 0.4% of the audience.[18]
On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations toCerberus Capital Management for $185 million. Cerberus formed a new holding company for the stations,Four Points Media Group, which took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007 until the group deal closed on January 10, 2008. At this point in time, local operations of WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB moved to offices on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.[19] Master control was eventually moved to Four Points' hub facility atKUTV inSalt Lake City, Utah, on February 25, 2008.
On March 20, 2009,Nexstar Broadcasting Group took over the management of Four Points under a three-year outsourcing agreement.[20][21] After thedigital transition date on June 12, 2009, WTCN began airing on WTVX's previous digital channel (50). At this point, the station's transmitter was relocated to its current location southwest of Hobe Sound.
On September 8, 2011, the Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million; Sinclair began managing the stations, including WTCN, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval.[22] Sinclair subsequently announced its purchase of the entire broadcasting division ofFreedom Communications, including WPEC. As a result, Sinclair would now control three of the six largestEnglish-language network affiliations in West Palm Beach. The deal with Sinclair acquiring Four Points was completed on January 3, 2012.[23]
Although WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB initially retained separate operations from WPEC, they would eventually move into WPEC's studios. On May 24, 2012, the FCC granted WTCN aconstruction permit to air a low-power digital signal on UHF channel 43 (one of its former analog allotments) and become WTCN-CD (with "CD" referring to digital Class A status).[24][25] Its 15kW power offers market-wide coverage as opposed to the limited broadcast radius of the former analog signal.
The station began airing sports programming from theAmerican Sports Network package of syndicated sports on August 30, 2014.[26]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | MyTV | MyNetworkTV |
| 43.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Antenna | Antenna TV |
| 43.3 | Weather | Weather | ||
| 43.4 | 16:9 | Dabl | Dabl |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Florida | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
