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Tampa Bay Television Inc history
Tampa Bay Television Inc company history timeline
1. Included in opening broadcast was a re-enactment of the first Air Mail flight into Florida in 1928, with the plane this time delivering a letter from the FCC granting WITV permission to broadcast.
18, 1948.) Again, because many TVs at the time didn’t have UHF tuners, WPFA found itself at a huge disadvantage.
1, 1950, WMBR-TV televised the Gator Bowl game for the first time.
WMBR TV and Radio were bought by the Washington Post Co. in 1953.
13, 1953 Original Network: ABC. Info: WIRK-TV was the first television station in West Palm Beach.
31, 1953, but regular programming did not begin until Sunday, Sept.
14, 1953, and even New Orleans’ WDSU-Channel 6, which first broadcast on Dec.
26, 1953 and began regular service at 4:30 p.m. on Dec.
When WINK-TV started broadcasting in 1954, the network coaxial cable did not yet extend to Fort Myers — so there were no live network shows to be aired.
A story in the May 15, 1955, issue of the Pensacola News Journal chronicled the station’s struggles. It increased its schedule to three hours a day in February 1955, four hours a day in March, five in April, and announced plans for an eight-hour daily schedule in May.
Original Networks: NBC, ABC. Info: As early as 1955, WJHP-TV knew it was in trouble.
6, 1956, after John H. Phipps bought the station.
Bill Byers was WITV’s anchorman, and Maxine Barrat did weather — she was Florida TV’s first “weather girl.” The station proved popular initially before Miami VHF stations WCKT-Channel 7 and WPST-Channel 10 went on the air, with the latter taking WITV’s ABC affiliation with it in August 1957.
25, 1957 — just days after Jacksonville’s third TV station, WFGA-Channel 12, went on the air and took the NBC affiliation with it.
Finally, on May 11, 1958, WITV signed off for good.
Click here to read about WPST’s studio dedication in 1958.
But WPST had its license stripped by the FCC in November 1961 after it was discovered station owner National Airlines bribed a FCC commissioner to get the broadcast license.
Original Network: ABC. Info: Now known as WFTV-9, ABC. Changed its call letters to WFTV in 1963.
The most successful of the early UHF stations was WSUN-TV Channel 38 in St Petersburg, which managed to hang on for 17 years before fading to black in 1970.
Original Network: ABC. Info: Went dark air in 1970.
HSN, an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC), originated the electronic retailing industry in 1977.
1977: Clearwater, Florida, radio station debuts home shopping concept.
Speer liked the idea of expanding to television but wanted to proceed slowly, investing $500,000 for a 60 percent stake and set out to make sure that viewers would not be disappointed before he gave the go-ahead in July 1982.
In 1982, WMBB and WJHG switched networks with Channel 7 getting NBC once again.
1982: Home Shopping Club moves to television.
When a change in ownership of the Tribune forced the sale of the radio stations in 1983, WFLA became WXFL. It returned to the WFLA call letters on Jan.
By 1985, HSC was so successful that it went national, calling itself the Home Shopping Network.
1986: Home Shopping Network makes a public stock offering.
In September 1987, Home Shopping announced its plans for a major corporate restructuring, with HSN Inc. becoming a holding company for the various subsidiaries conducting its businesses.
In 1987, the station was sold to NBC — which later prompted a three-way affiliation swap in the Miami market (WTVJ-Ch.
Not everything, however, was on the upswing in 1987.
Was the longtime NBC station in South Florida, until NBC bought then-CBS affiliate WTVJ in 1988 — setting off a three station affiliation swap.
Harrington was responsible for developing the infomercial in Europe through Quantum International, a company he formed in 1988.
1990: The company's stock moves to the New York Stock Exchange.
There was worry about the stability of the home shopping industry in the face of recession years. It also reported good annual sales gains, passing the $1 billion mark in 1990.
In December 1992, Liberty Media Corporation bought a 23-percent stake in HSN by acquiring shares from chairman Roy Speer.
The federal government's Cable Act of 1992 ensured that 4.8 million other homes also would be covered through the agreement, since the rules specified that cable operators must carry all broadcasters with signals in the areas.
In July 1993, Diller's QVC offered a $1.3 billion stock swap to gain control of HSN. By November, however, HSN and QVC ended their merger discussions when QVC decided to pursue the acquisition of Paramount Communications Inc.
In the meantime, HSN went into 1994 with global aspirations.
Earlier, with Sumitomo Corporation, a large Japanese trading company, HSN brought televised home shopping to Japan through 30-minute programs broadcast in Tokyo, Osaka, and nearby regions beginning in 1996.
Similarly, Jupiter Programming and HSN introduced the SHOP channel in Japan in November 1997.
When USA Networks completed its transaction with Seagram for Universal TV Studios in 1998, the Wall Street Journal (February 13, 1998) reported, "Some entertainment executives were puzzled when the deal was announced" and others were unsure what Diller's role at Universal would be.
In 1999, USA Networks planned to buy Lycos Inc., an Internet search engine portal.
HSN also swiped a popular show from rival QVC in 2000, broadcasting live from ABC's Monday Night Football to retail football-related goods through its exclusive "NFL Shop." Home Shopping Network changed its name officially to just its initials, HSN, in 2000.
The Wall Street Journal (November 15, 2002) reported that Diller was frustrated with trying to market USA Networks to investors.
On December 6, 2003, HSN set a one-day sales record of $30 million. Its previous one-day sales record was $16.9 million, set in 2002, so this represented a huge jump.
However, HSN did not do very well over 2002.
WINK-TV’s Lundquist died at age 77 in 2003.
Sales for 2003 came to $2.2 billion.
2003: HSN's parent changes its name to IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Fortune magazine (May 3, 2004) later claimed that Diller had at first envisioned USA Networks as his second Fox.
In January 2009, it became the first station in the Jacksonville market to begin broadcasting local news in high definition.
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