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WFOR-TV

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WFOR-TV is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Miami, Florida. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel four. Its studios and transmitter are located in Miami.

Under a CBS-owned television cluster in southern Florida, WFOR-TV operates along with current UPN outlets WBFS-TV (channel 33) in Miami and WTVX (channel 34) in Fort Pierce, and West Palm Beach low-power stations WTCN-CA (channel 43, currently a WB affiliate), and WWHB-CA (channel 48, affiliated with Azteca America). WFOR produces a 10 p.m. newscast for WBFS and in any breaking news coverage, CBS programming usually moves to WBFS, along with any CBS-produced Miami Dolphins games that are moved to another timeslot in the case of a weather postponment.

WFOR-TV also operates two translators in the Florida Keys: W38AA in Marathon and W39AC in Key West.

Contents

History

WCIX, channel six

The station signed on air on September 2, 1967 on channel six as WCIX, owned by Coral Television, a subsidiary of General Cinema Corporation. The callsign sounded like the word "six," referring to its channel of operation. Originally, channel six was licensed to Islamorada in the Florida Keys, but the local owners successfully convinced the federal government to move the license to Miami on the mainland, where it could serve more viewers. It built a transmission tower in Homestead, which was 20 miles southwest of Miami. Because of this, Fort Lauderdale viewers could not get a clear signal.

WCIX was the first independent station to serve the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. Many of the shows that it aired were re-runs and sitcoms such as Abbott and Costello, Flintstones, I Love Lucy, Sanford & Son, Laverne & Shirley, Bugs Bunny cartoons, Scooby Doo, Superfriends, Star Trek, Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati. The station acquired the local rights to air M*A*S*H in 1986. WCIX was also one of very few stations not owned by Kaiser Broadcasting to carry The Lou Gordon Program from Detroit's WKBD (now WFOR's sister station) in the 1970s.

During the 1970s through the early-1980s, WCIX had widespread cable penetration throughout Florida, seen on cable systems as far north as Tampa Bay and Orlando. Outside the Miami market, WCIX shared its cable space with another Miami station, WKID-TV (channel 51, now WSCV), which presnted old movies and sitcoms after WCIX left the air.

A few years after its launch, the station started airing Eyewitness News at 10:00, the first prime-time newscast in South Florida. The station was the only independent outlet in the market offering general entertainment programming for nearly a decade. It lost that title when WHFT (channel 45) signed on in 1976 with a mix of entertainment and religious programming. It regained the title in 1980 after WHFT was sold to the Trinity Broadcasting Network and switched to religious programming full-time. However, it would receive competition once again in 1982 when WDZL (channel 39, now WBZL) signed on.

General Cinema exchanged WCIX to the Taft Television and Radio Company in early 1983 for NBC affiliate WGR-TV (now WGRZ-TV) in Buffalo, New York. Under Taft, WCIX continued to be the leading independent station in South Florida, and moved from its original studio in downtown Miami to a new facility in the Doral area in 1985. In 1986, WCIX became one of the charter affiliates of the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company. WCIX was one of few stations on VHF to affiliate with Fox.

Acquiring CBS

After losing a bidding for WTVJ (then on channel 4), which was eventually sold to NBC, CBS made a half-hearted offer to buy WCIX from Taft in 1987. Taft declined however, and later opted to sell all its independent stations and Fox affiliates, including WCIX, to the TVX Broadcast Group, as part of a corporate restructuring. However, TVX became mired in debt, and began to sell off its underperforming medium market stations. Although TVX originally planned to keep WCIX, the company eventually agreed to sell the station to CBS. Another factor was that WCIX was a VHF station, whereas its sisters were on UHF. CBS programming pre-empted from WTVJ moved to WCIX immediately after the purchase was announced in the spring of 1988.

The official affiliation changeover occurred in January 1, 1989. WTVJ became an NBC owned-and-operated station, while CBS programming moved to WCIX. Fox moved its programming over to longtime NBC affiliate WSVN (channel 7), while most of WCIX's syndicated programs went to WDZL. The station also began a half-hour newscast at 6 p.m., moved the 10 p.m. newscast to 11 p.m., and continued to increase its local news output in the 1990s.

However, WCIX did not do well as a CBS station throughout the early 1990s. One of the factors was its poor signal in Broward County. Its transmission tower had been located further to the south than the other Miami stations in order to avoid interference with WCPX-TV (now WKMG-TV) in Orlando. It had originally made up for the shortfall in its Broward County coverage by building a low-powered translator on channel 33 in Fort Lauderdale, but this was turned off in 1984 to allow WBFS-TV to begin operations.

The station's transmission tower was brought down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, forcing the station off the air. Within hours, WCIX resumed transmission via a low power station in Fort Lauderdale. WDZL began carrying WCIX's newscasts the next day, with the entire CBS schedule following a few days later. Within a week, WCIX was back on the air using an emergency transmitter on a borrowed tower. In the wake of the devastation, WCIX's staff helped create Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a grass roots charitable organization which aimed to help people rebuild. The organization lives on as Neighbors 4 Neighbors, which is still supported by the station.

Move to channel four

In 1994, CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting signed a long-term affiliation deal, part of which resulted in three Westinghouse-owned stations becoming CBS affiliates. As a sidebar, a subsequent deal between CBS and NBC was made in 1995, with CBS selling the channel six broadcasting facility to NBC as compensation for the loss of two Westinghouse-owned NBC stations, KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WBZ-TV in Boston. In return, CBS received the stronger channel 4 broadcasting facility and cash as compensation for the loss of WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, which was being acquired by NBC. NBC also included stations in Denver and Salt Lake City in the tradeoff to CBS.

On September 12, 1995, WTVJ and WCIX swapped dial positions. The entire WCIX intellectual unit (calls, shows, CBS network and staff) moved from channel six to channel four, thus returning CBS programming to channel four after a six-year hiatus. WTVJ had been Miami's CBS affiliate from its sign-on in 1949 until the sale to NBC. Along with the change came new call letters, WFOR-TV. Even though the FCC regards channel four as changing its call letters from WTVJ to WFOR on September 12, the stations themselves did not change hands, only the broadcasting facilities.

As part of the deal, CBS sold controlling interest in WFOR-TV to Westinghouse. WFOR became fully owned by CBS once again when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased CBS at the end of 1995.

WFOR began its digital television service on May 1, 2001.

When Shannon High-Bassalik took over as news director in 2000, major changes came to WFOR. New anchors, a younger and hipper look, and flashy news coverage were all similar to the style seen at WSVN, where she was assistant news director. She also changed the newscast's name from News 4 South Florida to CBS 4 News. A short time later, Viacom and CBS merged, making channel four a sister station to WBFS.

Like other CBS O&O stations, WFOR offers a web only newscast called "CBS 4 At Your Desk", shown weekdays.

Newscasts

Weekdays

CBS4 logo seen at the beginning of the 11 p.m. newcast in 2006.
Enlarge
CBS4 logo seen at the beginning of the 11 p.m. newcast in 2006.

Robb Hanrahan and Maggie Rodriguez anchor the 11 p.m. Newscast in January 2006.
Enlarge
Robb Hanrahan and Maggie Rodriguez anchor the 11 p.m. Newscast in January 2006.

Weekends

External links

Broadcast television in the South Florida (Miami / Fort Lauderdale) market  [(Nielsen DMA #17)]'''
WPBT 2 (PBS) - WFOR 4 (CBS) - WTVJ 6 (NBC) - WSVN 7 (Fox) - WGEN 8 / WSBS 22 (Ind) - WPLG 10 (ABC) - WLMF-LP 13 (Ind/Edu.) - WLRN 17 (PBS) - WLTV 23 (UNI) - WIMP-CA 25 (HSN) - WBFS 33 (UPN/MNTV) - WPXM 35 (i) - WPMF-LP 38 (Ind) - WBZL 39 (The WB/The CW) - WJAN-CA 41 (Ind) - WHFT 45 (TBN) - WFUN-LP 48 (HSN) - WSCV 51 (TEL) - WEYS-LP 56 (ALMA) - WPPB 63 (EDU) - WAMI 69 (TFU)
Local digital television channels
WHDT-LP 44 (Ind)
'''CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WFOR 4 () - WCTV 6 () - WKMG 6 () - WTSP 10 () - WINK 11 () - WPEC 12 () - WTEV 47 () - WGFL 53 ()
See also: , , , , , , , and stations in the state of Florida

CBS Corporation
Corporate Directors: David R. Andelman | Joseph A. Califano, Jr. | William S. Cohen | Philippe P. Dauman | Charles K. Gifford | Bruce S. Gordon | Leslie Moonves | Shari Redstone | Sumner Redstone | Ann N. Reese | Judith A. Sprieser | Robert D. Walter
Broadcast radio stations owned by CBS Radio
Radio Networks: CBS Radio Network | Free FM | Jack FM (most US stations) | Westwood One
Misc. Assets: CBS Consumer Products | CBS Digital Media | CBS Outdoor | Simon & Schuster | Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Broadcast Television Networks: CBS | UPN (to be The CW in 9/2006, co-owned with Time Warner)
Television Production and Distribution: Big Ticket Entertainment | CBS Paramount Domestic Television | CBS Paramount Television | CBS Studio Center | CBS Television City | King World | Spelling Entertainment Group
CBS Owned & Operated Television Stations: KCBS | KCNC | KDKA | KEYE | KOVR | KPIX | KTVT | KUTV | KYW | WBBM | WBZ | WCBS | WCCO | WFOR | WFRV/WJMN | WJZ | WWJ
UPN Owned & Operated Television Stations: KBCW1 | KMAX1 | KSTW1 | KTXA3 | WBFS2 | WGNT1 | WKBD1 | WLWC1 | WPCW1 | WPSG1 | WSBK3 | WTOG1 | WTVX1 | WUPA1 | WUPL2
Other Television Stations: KCAL | WBXI | WTCN2 | WWHB
Cable Television Networks: Showtime Networks | College Sports TV
1Will Become The CW Television Network>The CW Owned and Operated Television Stations on September 18, 2006
2Will become affiliates of Fox Broadcasting Company>Fox's My Network TV in September 2006
3Will become Independent station>independent stations on September 18, 2006 Annual Revenue: 
.54 billion USD (2005) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [CBS] | Website: [www.cbscorporation.com]

 

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