 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WTOG" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Tampa Bay 44 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
| Founded | December 15, 1966[1][2] |
First air date | November 4, 1968 (57 years ago) (1968-11-04) |
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning | Nod to former sister stationWGTO radio in Orlando |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74112 |
| ERP | 700 kW |
| HAAT | 452.9 m (1,486 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 27°50′51.5″N82°15′49.4″W / 27.847639°N 82.263722°W /27.847639; -82.263722 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WTOG (channel 44), brandedTampa Bay 44, is anindependent television station licensed toSt. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving theTampa Bay area. It is owned by theCBS News and Stations group, and maintains studios on Northeast 105th Terrace in St. Petersburg, near the west end of theGandy Bridge; its transmitter is located inRiverview, Florida.
WTOG first signed on the air on November 4, 1968, operating as anindependent station.[4] The station was founded bySaint Paul, Minnesota–basedHubbard Broadcasting, who also owned radio station WGTO (540 AM, nowWFLF) in nearbyCypress Gardens; Hubbard originally wanted to name the station WGTO-TV, but the request was denied by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC);[5] in those days, the FCC did not allow television and radio stations to share the same base callsign if they were licensed in different cities. This led to Hubbard using a slightly modified form of the callsign.
The station began with a limited test schedule airing two hours per day,[6] but expanded to broadcasting eight hours per day on January 27, 1969, initially airing from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily.[7]
Initially, WTOG ran a lineup of oldermovies, some low-budget syndicated programs, a few off-networkwesterns andsitcoms, and somecartoons. In the station's early days, its slogan was "WTOG... As Far as the Eye Can See", which was made famous by its mid-1970s station identification package. WTOG caught on with viewers immediately; so much so, in fact, that it forced competitorWSUN-TV (channel 38, frequency now occupied byWTTA) off the air in 1970. For the rest of the 1970s into the early 1980s, WTOG was the only independent station in the Tampa Bay area. During the 1970s, WTOG gradually expanded its programming hours: by 1972, the station signed on at 10:30 a.m. on weekdays and around 1 p.m. on weekends. By 1976, WTOG signed on the air daily by 7 a.m. Gradually, WTOG added better sitcoms, more cartoons, off-networkdramas, and better movies. While the station was profitable all along, its programming improved significantly in the late 1970s.
Channel 44 finally gained competition in 1981, when Family Group Broadcasting signed onWFTS-TV (channel 28) as a family-oriented independent station. However, WTOG remained the clear leader in the market for the next two decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, the station was carried on many cable providers in central and southwestern Florida. In the 1980s, WTOG also maintained a network oflow-power repeaters, located in Sebring, Inverness,Arcadia (in theFort Myers market; that translator has since shut down),Ocala (part of theOrlando market; that translator, W29AB, has since become a translator for Orlando'sWKMG-TV) andOkeechobee (part of theWest Palm Beach market). It billed itself as "Florida's Super Station", which "Covered Florida Like The Sun".
There was also some consideration to put WTOG on cable inTallahassee, but that never came to fruition. WTOG was one of the most profitable independent stations in the country. In fact, during the late 1970s,Ted Turner called the station to ask how WTOG made itself so profitable.
On October 9, 1986, WTOG became a charter affiliate of the fledglingFox network. Like most early Fox affiliates, channel 44 was still effectively programmed as an independent, as Fox aired only two hours of prime time programming on Saturday and Sunday evenings early on (it would not expand to seven days a week until 1993). However, over time, channel 44 became one of several Fox affiliates nationwide that were disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings, particularly on Saturday nights, which were bogging down WTOG's otherwise successful lineup. WTOG dropped its Fox affiliation on August 8, 1988, sending it to WFTS (which was acquired by theE. W. Scripps Company in 1986). Through the early 1990s, WTOG was still running mostly cartoons (both classic and recent), classic and recent sitcoms, drama series and older movies. As part of deal withUnited Television, WTOG was an affiliate of thePrime Time Entertainment Network syndication programming service from 1993 to 1995.[8]
WTOG was largely unaffected by theaffiliation swaps of 1994, which saw longtimeCBS affiliateWTVT (channel 13) switch to Fox (as a result of the network's affiliation deal with then-owners,New World Communications); WFTS becoming anABC affiliate; and longtime ABC outletWTSP (channel 10) assuming the market's CBS affiliation. However, channel 44 did regain a network relationship when it became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) at its launch on January 16, 1995. As with its days as a Fox affiliate, WTOG continued to program itself as an independent, programming a traditional general entertainment format during the day, with UPN programming being shown during the prime time hours.
Paramount Stations Group, a subsidiary ofViacom (which jointly owned theAll News Channel cable network with Hubbard) purchased the station in the spring of 1996; at the time, Paramount Stations Group was in the process of selling stations it owned that were not UPNowned-and-operated stations, and tradedNBC affiliatesWNYT inAlbany, New York andWHEC-TV inRochester, New York to Hubbard.[9][10] The purchase by Viacom made WTOG a UPN owned-and-operated station, becoming the first network-owned station in the Tampa Bay market. Soon after taking control, Paramount changed WTOG's on-air branding to "UPN44", which remained in use for the remainder of the network's run. By the late 1990s, older sitcoms (such asAll in the Family) and older cartoons made way fortalk shows,court shows andreality programs (such asPeople's Court andJudge Mills Lane) during the daytime. Recent cartoons (such asPokémon,Sailor Moon,Garfield and Friends andDisney's Hercules) and recent sitcoms (such asCharles in Charge,Step by Step,Family Matters,Sister, Sister,Roseanne,The Simpsons,Seinfeld (now on WTTA) andFriends) continued to air but movies also were eliminated almost completely. Viacom purchased CBS in 2000 and merged that network's owned-and-operated stations into Paramount Stations Group.
For one day in May 1999, WTOG housed the operations forWFLA-TV (channel 8), after a power outage occurred at that station's main studios in DowntownTampa.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (whichsplit from Viacom, one month earlier) and theWarner Bros. Entertainment unit ofTime Warner announced that the two companies would shut downThe WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[11][12] The CW signed a 10-year affiliation agreement with 11 of CBS' UPN stations, including WTOG; channel 44 became a CW owned-and-operated station when the network launched on September 18, 2006. Under current ownership, WTOG is one of two network-owned stations in the Tampa Bay market, alongside Fox-owned WTVT. Gradually, cartoons would disappear from WTOG's schedule, as with every broadcast station in the early 2000s. More reality and court shows would begin airing in place of that programming, while sitcoms continue to run during the evening hours.
For years, WTOG had handledmaster control operations for itssister station,KEYE-TV inAustin, Texas. However, in November 2006, WTOG's master control facilities, along with that ofAtlanta'sWUPA, were moved to sister CW affiliateWGNT inNorfolk, Virginia; 20 WTOG employees were laid off, even though CBS had previously denied that such terminations would happen.[13] KEYE was later sold toCerberus Capital Management, through itsFour Points Media Group (which in turn was sold to theSinclair Broadcast Group, then-owner of MyNetworkTV affiliate WTTA). WGNT was sold toLocal TV, the owner of that market's CBS affiliateWTKR, in August 2010 (Local TV was merged withTribune Broadcasting three years later, in August 2013; both WGNT and WTKR are now sister stations of WFTS under Scripps ownership). When CBS wound down operations at the Norfolk hub, WTOG and WUPA began handling their own master control operations once again.
On October 3, 2022,Nexstar Media Group acquired majority ownership of The CW.[14] Under the agreement, CBS was given the right to pull its affiliations from WTOG and its seven other CW stations. On May 5, 2023, CBS announced that it would exercise that right and WTOG would cease airing the network's programming at the end of August and become an independent station for the first time since 1995.[15] Nexstar-ownedWTTA assumed The CW affiliation for the Tampa market on September 1.[16]
From its sign-on through 1976, WTOG carriedAtlanta Braves baseball games through a syndication package that aired regionally on stations across theSouthern United States before the cable/satellite launch ofSuperstation TBS the same year effectively ended the Braves regional network. From 1977 until 1989, it aired a variety ofMajor League Baseball games from various team networks on a daily basis (with the exception of Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays). These included games from theBoston Red Sox,Chicago White Sox,Cincinnati Reds,Detroit Tigers,Houston Astros,Kansas City Royals,Minnesota Twins,New York Yankees,Philadelphia Phillies,Pittsburgh Pirates,St. Louis Cardinals and theToronto Blue Jays, as those teams were mainly in theGrapefruit League forspring training in the Tampa Bay, Orlando, Fort Myers, and Sarasota areas. WTOG discontinued the baseball broadcasts whenESPN became the cable partner for Major League Baseball in 1990. In2025, WTOG announced an agreement with theTampa Bay Rays to simulcast 15 games alongsideFanDuel Sports Network.[17]
WTOG aired numerousTampa Bay Rowdies professionalNASLsoccer road games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Additionally, many home and awayindoor matches were shown.[18][19][20][21][22] Since 2024, WTOG has aired home matches of thecurrent incarnation of the Rowdies, who play in theUSL Championship.[23]
The station also airedNHL games televised byNBC that were preempted by WFLA-TV in the 1970s. It later aired games from theNHL Network syndication package in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From1992 until2003, the station was the flagship of theTampa Bay Lightning television network; the Lightning has been cable-exclusive since the2003–04 season.
From its sign-on through 1982, WTOG ran daily news capsules, mainly atsign-on and sign-off, with an announcer reading the day's headlines over a slide. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station featured an on-camera newsreader providing a news summary during its morning discussion program,Florida Daybreak. WTOG started using theEyewitness News brand in the late 1970s, though its news was still a rather staid, low-key affair.
In 1982, Hubbard Broadcasting established a full-fledged news department for WTOG, and debuted a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. At first, WTOG continued to use theEyewitness News name, with Barbara Callahan (former co-host of WTOG's edition ofPM Magazine) and John Nicholson (formerly an anchor at WTVT) as co-anchors. During the mid-1980s, the station's newscast was renamedTampa Bay Tonight, subsequently changing in 1988 to44 News at Ten and thenWTOG 44 News at Ten in 1992. Between 1985 and 1995, John Summer served as primary anchor with various co-anchors, including Callahan. In 1996, following Viacom's acquisition of WTOG, the 10 p.m. broadcast was retitled as theUPN44 10 O'Clock News, co-anchored by Callahan and Patrick Emory. WTOG also had an 11 a.m. newscast from 1995 to 1996.
WTOG's news department was shut down in 1998, as a result of cost-cutting measures mandated by then-parent company Viacom and competition from Fox station WTVT's own 10 p.m. newscast. From that point until 2020, WTOG did not air any newscasts, which made it one of seven CBS-owned stations that did not air any local news programming (the other six wereKSTW inSeattle and WUPA in Atlanta—both of which last aired outsourced newscasts in 2005,KTXA inDallas–Fort Worth andWBFS-TV inMiami—both of which canceled newscasts produced by a sister station in 2011, though KTXA retains a sports show, and theDetroit duopoly ofWWJ-TV andWKBD-TV—which canceled their morning newscast in 2012, although, WWJ-TV still airs weather updates; WUPA and WKBD has since begun airing newscasts produced by sister stations in other markets). WTOG had aired the syndicated morning showThe Daily Buzz from 2004 until its sudden cancellation in 2015. It replaced its former time slot withpaid programming and children's shows.
On January 17, 2020, CBS Television Stations announced that they will be introducing nightly 10 p.m. newscasts for WTOG, which debuted on March 9; the newscast for WTOG is produced by CBS'Miami sister stationWFOR-TV. It also marked WTOG's return to airing local news programming since its own in-house news department shut down 22 years earlier.[24] This newscast was converted to theCBS News Now format (asTampa Bay Now News) upon its launch in July 2022. The last Tampa Bay Now newscast was August 31, 2023.[25]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44.1 | 1080p | 16:9 | WTOG | Main WTOG programming |
| 44.2 | 480p | StartTV | Start TV | |
| 44.3 | FaveTV | Fave TV | ||
| 44.4 | DABL | Dabl | ||
| 44.5 | Catchy | Catchy Comedy | ||
| 44.6 | MeTOONS | MeTV Toons | ||
| 44.7 | Story | Story Television |
WTOG shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 44, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[27] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 59, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era frequency, UHF channel 44.
WTOG previously operated a thirdtranslator,W29AB (channel 29) licensed to Ocala. In 1995, it was sold to First Media and became a translator for WCPX (now WKMG-TV) in Orlando.[28][29]
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Florida | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
