WVEA-TV

WVEA-TV
Venice/Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida
United States
City Venice, Florida
Branding Univision Tampa Bay (general)
Noticias Tampa Bay (newscasts)
Channels Digital: 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 62 (PSIP)
Subchannels 62.1 Univision
62.2 LATV
62.3 ZUUS Latino
Affiliations Univision
Owner Entravision Communications Corporation
(Entravision Holdings, LLC)
First air date May 3, 1991 (1991-05-03)
Call letters' meaning "vea" is Spanish for "I see" (present subjunctive)
Sister station(s) WFTT-DT
Former callsigns WBSV-TV (1991–2000)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
62 (UHF, 1991–2009)
Former affiliations independent (1991–2001)
Transmitter power 750 kW
Height 472 m
Facility ID 16788
Transmitter coordinates 27°49′10.9″N 82°15′38″W / 27.819694°N 82.26056°W / 27.819694; -82.26056
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.wveatv.com

WVEA-TV, virtual channel 62 (UHF digital channel 25), is a Univision-affiliated television station serving Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, United States that is licensed to Venice. The station is owned by Entravision Communications Corporation; Entravision also operates UniMás station WFTT-DT (channel 50) under a local marketing agreement with owner Univision Communications. The two stations share studio facilities located on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa (in a former Barnett Bank building west of Armenia Avenue), and its transmitter is located at the antenna farm at Riverview.

History

The station first signed on the air on May 3, 1991[1] as WBSV-TV (for Bradenton, Sarasota, and Venice, the three cities it primarily served; locally-owned by DeSoto Broadcasting, it originally operated as an English-language independent station serving the Sarasota area, and competed with the area's ABC affiliate WWSB (channel 40) and the other stations in the Tampa Bay and nearby Fort Myers markets. As WBSV, the station ran a variety of syndicated and local programming, along with infomercials and home shopping programs; early on, the station also produced a local newscast. However, the station was unprofitable, eventually relying more on home shopping and infomercials to keep the station afloat.

WVEA's logo prior to January 1, 2013

In 2000, the station was acquired by Entravision Communications, with the intent of moving its transmitter from Venice to Riverview and move Univision programming to the station from Entravision's existing low-power affiliate, WVEA-LP (channel 61). WBSV's history ended in early 2001, when the station ceased broadcasting for a few weeks to perform the move and establish WVEA's new studio facilities. In March 2001, the station returned to the air with its current programming and call letters.

Intellectual property

The WVEA call letters and programming originated on low-power station W50AC (channel 50). That station operated as Tampa Bay's first Spanish-language television station, operating as an affiliate of the Spanish International Network (the forerunner of Univision), when it signed on the air in 1982. In 1988, to make way for new Home Shopping Network flagship station WBHS (channel 50, now WFTT-DT), the station relocated to UHF channel 61 and changed its callsign to W61BL; in 1994, the station changed its call letters to WVEA-LP. After Entravision bought channel 62, in March 2001, the entire WVEA intellectual unit (studios, Univision affiliation and programming) moved from the low-power station on channel 61 to the full-power station on channel 62. WVEA-LP itself remains in operation on channel 46, carrying programming from Jewelry Television.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[2]
62.1 1080i 16:9 WVEA-DT Main WVEA programming / Univision
62.2 480i 4:3 LATV
62.3 (silent)

Until 2013, WVEA-TV carried the Spanish-language music video network ZUUS Latino[3] on its third digital subchannel.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WVEA-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 62, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[4] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25, using PSIP to display WVEA-TV's virtual channel as 62 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

News operation

WVEA-TV presently broadcasts five hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with one hour on weekdays); the station does not broadcast any news programming on Saturdays and Sundays. The station's news department shares resources with Orlando sister station WVEN-TV. WVEA simulcast WVEN's news programming until 2013, when WVEA began producing its own newscasts under the title Noticias Tampa Bay, but then its newscast "moved" back to Orlando again, although still making its own newscast, with filming of WVEA's newscast at 5pm and then WVEN's newscast at 6pm, while WVEA-TV still has the 6pm timeslot, which means that their newscast are no longer live and are pre-recorded. In the late 90's until 2009, they had produce their own news to the economic crisis. However, it stopped. In 2011 it produced 5 minute news blocks on WVEA-TV on Facebook which ended when the news department relaunched. WVEN continues to produce sports and weather segments inserted into WVEA's newscasts.

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors
Reporter
News Director

References

  1. ↑ FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order: In re: DeSoto Broadcasting, Inc., Venice, Florida, For Modification of Station WBSV-TV's ADI, April 27, 1995.
  2. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WVEA
  3. ↑ http://www.zuus.com/music-videos/latin
  4. ↑ List of Digital Full-Power Stations

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.