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WFTS-TV history
WFTS-TV company history timeline
The other two parties dropped out in settlement agreements in early 1981, and Family received a construction permit in March.
WFTS first signed on the air on December 14, 1981, operating as a family-oriented independent station with cartoons, off-network dramas, classic movies and religious programs.
In 1984, after having launched the station for just $6 million and turning a profit in the first year, Family sold the station to Capital Cities Communications for more than $30 million.
In March 1985, Capital Cities stunned the broadcasting industry with its announced purchase of ABC—a network that was ten times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time.
WFTS became the Tampa Bay market's Fox affiliate in 1988 after the network was dropped by WTOG.
On December 12, 1994, WFTS became the market's ABC affiliate; that day, it launched local news and broke ground on the Tampa studio.
WWSB ended up winning its battle with ABC and signed a new affiliation contract in March 1995.
With the station's new facility not planned to be ready until late 1995, the news department initially operated from former facilities of the Home Shopping Network in Clearwater.
WFTS was briefly the local over-the-air broadcast partner of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club, airing four Lightning games produced by the Sunshine Network during the 2002–03 season.
An East Coast traffic hub and the station group-wide graphics operation for Scripps were established at Tampa in 2009, as an open floor was available at the WFTS facility.
On September 24, 2020, a consortium made up of Scripps and Berkshire Hathaway announced the purchase of Ion Media, including local Ion Television station WXPX-TV (channel 66) and the company's technical operations center in Clearwater.
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of WFTS-TV, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about WFTS-TV. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at WFTS-TV. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by WFTS-TV. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of WFTS-TV and its employees or that of Zippia.
WFTS-TV may also be known as or be related to WFTS-TV and Wfts-tv.