WINK-TV

WINK-TV
Fort Myers/Naples, Florida
United States
Branding WINK-TV (general)
WINK News now (newscasts)
Slogan Southwest Florida's
News Leader
Channels Digital: 50 (UHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels 11.1 CBS
11.2 24/7 Weather
Affiliations CBS
Owner Fort Myers Broadcasting Company
First air date March 23, 1954 (1954-03-23)
Call letters' meaning Refers to
CBS eye for affiliation
Sister station(s) WJUA, WINK-FM, WNPL, WTLQ-FM
Former channel number(s) Analog:
11 (VHF, 1954–2009)
Digital:
9 (VHF, 2008–2011)
Former affiliations All secondary:
DuMont (1954–1955)
NBC (1954–1968)
ABC (1954–1974)
Transmitter power 1,000 kW
Height 443 m
Facility ID 22093
Transmitter coordinates 26°48′2.8″N 81°45′46.2″W / 26.800778°N 81.762833°W / 26.800778; -81.762833
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website winknews.com

WINK-TV, virtual channel 11 (UHF digital channel 50), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Fort Myers, Florida, United States. The station is owned by the Fort Myers Broadcasting Company. WINK's transmitter is located north of Fort Myers Shores. The station broadcasts on Comcast channel 5 and in high definition on digital channel 433.

History

The station began broadcasting on March 23, 1954 as part of the Fort Myers Broadcasting Company. Its sister stations were WINK radio (1240 AM, now WJUA at 1200 AM; and 96.9 FM). WINK-TV was the first television station in Southwest Florida and is the fifth-oldest surviving station in the state. WINK-TV gained the only VHF license allocated to its area. It carried programming from the four major networks of its era: long a primary CBS affiliate, it carried programming from NBC, ABC and DuMont in the first two decades of its existence.

The DuMont network ended operations in 1956. In December 1968, WINK lost a secondary NBC affiliation. It continued to share ABC programming with WBBH until August 1974. The station broadcast PBS's Sesame Street on weekday mornings until 1978.

On October 20, 2007, WINK-TV became the first television station in Southwest Florida to begin broadcasting in high definition. In January 2008, several programming changes were made on WINK-TV. It began airing The Early Show (which was replaced by CBS This Morning in January 2012) in its entirety after CBS began requiring all of its affiliates to air the full two-hour broadcast of the program.

On May 26, 2011, WINK-TV debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, one of many added on television stations around the United States on that date to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ended its 25-year run the day before.[1] On June 11, 2011 WINK-TV debuted a 90-minute morning newscast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.[2] WINK-TV also added a half-hour late morning newscast at 10 a.m. on September 6, 2011.[3] On September 16, 2013, WINK-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast a half-hour early to 4:30 a.m. and expanded the extension of that program on WXCW by one hour to 7 to 10 a.m.[4] In January of 2015, WINK-TV expanded the 6:30 p.m. newscast to weekends on WXCW.[5]

In August 2015, Matt Dougherty, a former WINK-TV investigative reporter and weekend news anchor[6] filed a lawsuit against the station's owner, Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, alleging he was fired by the station's news director for refusing to hinder a federal investigation and participate in an illegal cover-up. [7][8][9] [10][11] The station settled with Dougherty in March 2016 and the news director was "ousted" from his job.[12][13] News director Russ Kilgore had been in the position at WINK-TV for more than seven years.[13]

Notable former staff include Hoda Kotb (1989-1991), Trey Radel[14] and Kerry Sanders.

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast on WINK-TV include Live! with Kelly and Michael, TMZ on TV, Castle, Inside Edition, and Rachael Ray. WINK-TV broadcasts 40 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays). WINK-TV operates two news bureaus: the Charlotte County Bureau in the Charlotte Sun newsroom in Charlotte Harbor the Collier County Bureau in Naples. The station's weather radar is located next to its studios. The Boston Red Sox have held spring training in Fort Myers since 1993, and WINK-TV shares its coverage of the team with fellow CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston. WINK-TV is one of two Fort Myers stations carried by Comcast in Venice and Wauchula. It is the only Southwest Florida-based station carried on Comcast's Sebring system. [15]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[16]
11.1 1080i 16:9 WINK HD Main WINK-TV programming / CBS
11.2 480i 4:3 WINK D2 24/7 Weather

WINK-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, at noon on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 9.[17] The station's digital signal relocated to UHF channel 50 in mid-2011[18] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 11.

References

  1. ↑ In Fort Myers, WINK Replacing ‘Oprah’ with Newscast, Media Bistro, April 29, 2011.
  2. ↑ On the Heels of New Afternoon Newscast, WINK Prepares Weekend Expansion, Media Bistro, May 24, 2011.
  3. ↑ WINK Adds 10 a.m. Newscast to Daily Programming, "Media Bistro", August 22, 2011.
  4. ↑ More News on WINK... Florida NewsCenter, September 11, 2013.
  5. ↑ WINK's 6:30 p.m. newscast expands to weekends on WXCW. The Changing Newscasts Blog, January 28th, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Matt Dougherty - News Anchor and Investigative Reporter @newsmanmatt". Matt Dougherty - News Anchor and Investigative Reporter @newsmanmatt. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  7. ↑ "Fired News Anchor Matt Dougherty Sues CBS Station WINK News". New Times Broward-Palm Beach. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  8. ↑ "Lawsuit: WINK reporter fired in retaliation for story". www.naplesnews.com. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  9. ↑ "Fired news anchor sues station over story". The News-Press. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  10. ↑ "WINK Reporter Sues Station Over Firing". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  11. ↑ "News-Press: Fired News Anchor Sues Station Over Story - New York Attorney Susan Chana Lask". www.appellate-brief.com. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  12. ↑ "NewsBlues - Serving up tasty television news gossip since 1998.". www.newsblues.com. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  13. 1 2 "News Director Ousted in South Florida". FTVLive. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  14. ↑ Knox, Merrill (7 November 2012). "Former WINK Anchor Trey Radel Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives". Mediabistro. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  15. ↑ http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=211996
  16. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WINK
  17. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  18. ↑ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1353988&Service=DT&Form_id=301&Facility_id=22093

External links

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