WMOR-TV

Encyclopedia : W : WM : WMO : WMOR-TV

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WMOR-TV is an independent television station in the Tampa / St. Petersburg television market, with studios in Tampa and city of license in Lakeland. It is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television.

History

The station began operation in April 1986 as WTMV, a music video channel known as V-32. They began mixing in general entertainment by 1988 though it was low budget such as cartoons, barter sitcoms, B grade movies, and network programs that were bumped by the local affiliates. While they became more entertainment-oriented, they stuck to its music video roots with music videos during the late overnight hours on weekdays and the all-night Mike Paschelli Show (featuring Mike and his band), which was seen all-night on weekends. They continued this format, into the 90's.

WTMV's early studios were located in Lakeland on S. Florida Avenue, on Lakeland's south side. By 1990, they relocated to Tampa to its present-day Hillsborough Avenue studios on Tampa's east side, a former headend office for Group W Cable's Hillsborough County system.

In January 1995 they added The WB when that network launched. By then they ran cartoons, sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, and movies; plus, of course, Mike on weekends. They were sold to Hearst in 1996.

In September of that year, once Hearst took control of the station, they pink-slipped Mike and the videos, and became WWWB, WB 32. Channel 32 was a first for Hearst in many ways -- Hearst's first TV property in Florida, Hearst's first UHF station, and Hearst's first station that was neither ABC, NBC nor CBS. To date, WMOR is still the only pure independent station in the Hearst family, with Tampa Bay being Hearst's second-largest market (Boston, home of WCVB and WMUR, is Hearst's largest).

The WWWB calls later resided on the WB affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 2001 until April 2006.

WB would move to 38 WTTA in 1998. When resuming life as an indy, Channel 32 became known as WMOR, and was the first to adopt the More TV moniker (which would later be used by its Kansas City Sister Station, KCWE). They would add Fox Kids in 2001 but in 2002 they would only run Fox Kids on weekends being FOX cancelled the weekday kids block at that time. WMOR would run Fox Kids' weekend programming (plus the later Fox Box and 4Kids TV blocks) on Sunday, instead of Saturday. Today WMOR offers syndicated shows such as talk, court shows, reality TV, sitcoms, and movies.

WMOR has no newscast, but does have a nightly weathercast, anchored by Dave Marsh from its Orlando sister station, WESH.

On cable, WMOR can be seen on Bright House and Comcast Venice channel 12 (except North Pinellas, where it's on channel 10), and on Comcast Sarasota channel 4.

WMOR also has repeaters in St. Petersburg (WMOR-LP channel 63, with a construction permit to operate on channel 5), Venice (W56CN channel 56, which has a construction permit to change channels to 14) and Port Richey (W18DB channel 18). Due to its transmitter location, the use of repeaters is necessary to reach as much of the most-populated areas as possible, especially in the early days before Hearst acquired the station.

Previous logos

Image:Wtmv1993.jpg|WTMV logo from 1993; this one was used from the late-1980s to 1995. Image:Wtmv1996.jpg|WTMV's "WB32" logo from 1995-1996, before Hearst acquired the station. Image:Hrsttv0696.jpg|Hearst's family of TV stations, before its acquisition of WTMV was finalised. Image:Wwwb1996.jpg|"WB32" logo from 1996-1998, after Hearst took over the station.

External links

• [WMOR homepage]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WMOR-TV]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WMOR-LP]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for W56CN]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for W18DB]
• [mcsittel.com: 1990s DX screengrabs from Tallahassee -- includes a 1993 WTMV "Traffic Highlights" screengrab]

Broadcast television in the Tampa / St. Petersburg / Sarasota market  [(Nielsen DMA #12)]
WEDU 3 (PBS) - WFLA 8 (NBC) - WTSP 10 (CBS) - WINK 11 (CBS) - WTVT 13 (Fox) - WLWA-LP 14 (TBN)  - WPDS-LP 14 (Edu.) - W15CM 15 (AS) - WUSF 16 (PBS)  WHRT-CA 17 (Ind) - WSVT-LP 18 (DS) - WARP-CA 20 (MTV2) - WCLF 22 (CTN) - WXAX-LP 26 (AZA) - WFTS 28 (ABC) - WTAM-LP 30 (TV Informa) - WMOR 32 (Ind)  W33CC 33 (Ind) - W34AW 34 (3ABN) - WSPF-CA 35 (St. Pete city access) - W36CO 36 (TBN) - WTTA 38 (The WB/MNTV) - WWSB 40 (ABC) - W43CE 43 (Ind)  WTOG 44 (UPN/The CW) - WYKE-LP 47 (FN) - W48CN 48 (TBN) - WZRA-CA 48 (Ethnic/A1/NTV/CTV) - WRMD-LP 49 (TEL) - WFTT 50 (TFU) - W56EB 56 (TBN)  W60CE 60 (TBN) - WVEA 62 (UNI) - WXPX 66 (i)
Local cable television channels
Bay News 9  -  SNN 6  -  Catch 47  -  FSN Florida  -  Sun Sports

 

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