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WTVX
Fort Pierce / West Palm Beach, Florida
Branding	The CW West Palm My 15 (on DT3) RTV West Palm Beach (on DT4)
Channels	Digital: 34 (UHF)
Subchannels	34.1 The CW 34.2 Azteca America 34.3 MyNetworkTV 34.4 RTV
Owner	Four Points Media Group (operated through LSA by Nexstar Broadcasting Group) (West Palm Beach Television Licensee Corporation)
First air date	April 5, 1962
Call letters’ meaning	disambiguation of WTVJ (which WTVX replaced at sign-on)
Sister station(s)	WTCN-CA WWHB-CA
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 34 (UHF, 1966-2009) Digital: 50 (UHF)
Former affiliations	Independent (1962 & 1989-1995) CBS (1962-1989) UPN (1995-2006) The WB (secondary, early 2000s-2005)
Transmitter Power	1,000 kW
Height	455.7 m
Facility ID	35575
Transmitter Coordinates	27°7′19″N 80°23′20″W / 27.12194°N 80.38889°W / 27.12194; -80.38889

WTVX is the CW-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida that is licensed to Fort Pierce. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter south of Port Saint Lucie and I-95 in Martin County. Owned by the Four Points Media Group and operated by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group through a local service agreement (a.k.a. LSA), the station is sister to Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA and Class A Azteca America affiliate WWHB-CA. All three share studios at the corner of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and North Congress Avenue in West Palm Beach.

Despite WTVX's call sign, it was never owned by the TVX Broadcast Group which coincidentally was a predecessor to the Paramount Stations Group now called CBS Television Stations. Syndicated programming on WTVX includes: Friends, That '70s Show, Two and a Half Men, and Judge Judy. It can be seen on Comcast channel 4 (in Palm Beach, Martin, southern St. Lucie, and northern Indian River Counties) and channel 6 (in northern St. Lucie and southern Indian River Counties).

Digital programming

The station's signal is multiplexed.

History

WTVX began operations as an independent station on April 5, 1962 and soon after became a CBS affiliate. The station was originally owned by Indian River Television and based out of a small building along U.S. 1 just south of the St. Lucie / Indian River County line. Prior to the station becoming a CBS affiliate, the network was seen via Miami affiliate WTVJ.

Even after WTVX signed-on, its signal was not near as powerful as WTVJ and continued to be recognized as the CBS affiliate for the area. It was not until the 1980s that cable penetration allowed WTVX to gain a Palm Beach audience. In 1988, NBC bought WTVJ. CBS needed a new Miami affiliate and purchased WCIX which had a Grade B signal in Fort Lauderdale. West Palm Beach stations WPTV and WPEC had Grade A signals there. This forced CBS to switch their West Palm Beach affiliate on January 1, 1989 to WPEC leaving WTVX without network affiliation. As ABC decided to go from WPEC to new sign-on WPBF, WTVX was forced to become an independent station once again.

WTVX logo during most of the 1980s.

During the day, the station showed movies, drama shows, and talk shows. By Summer 1989, they became more of a traditional independent station with sitcoms and cartoons being added to its schedule. Most of WTVX's shows were to have originally aired on WPBF before that station made the decision to affiliate with ABC. In 1990, WTVX was sold to Krypton Broadcasting. In 1995, Paramount / Viacom joined with Chris Craft / United Television to form the United Paramount Network or UPN. WTVX immediately became an affiliate of this network and would become an owned-and-operated station upon Paramount / Viacom's acquisition of the station in 1997.

By the late-1990s, they had started to move away from cartoons and sitcoms adding more talk / reality and court shows. In the early-2000s, WTVX started to carry The WB on a secondary basis. Programming from that network aired after UPN prime time. The station soon re-branded from "UPN 34" to "TVX 34" which was based on their call letters. In Fall 2005, WTCN-CA (then a little-known community access channel) became the area's new WB affiliate after Viacom's acquisition of that station. As a result, WTVX reverted to solely being a UPN station and returned to the "UPN 34" branding.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. WTVX was announced as becoming the area's affiliate of the new network because it was full-powered and owned by CBS. On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management (including WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB) for $185 million dollars. Cerberus formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007. The group deal officially closed on January 10, 2008.

Until the sale to Four Points, WTVX was one of three former CBS affiliates that later became CW stations who were owned by CBS. The other two are KSTW in Seattle / Tacoma, Washington and WPCW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania both of which are still owned by the network. During CBS ownership, some internal operations of WTVX, WTCN, and WWHB were based at WFOR-TV's studios in Miami. As of February 25, 2008, these three stations are now being operated out of Four Points' hub facilities at KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.

WTVX added the Retro Television Network (a.k.a. RTV) on its fourth digital subchannel as well as Comcast digital channel 225 (in Palm Beach, Martin, and southern St. Lucie Counties) and channel 187 (in southern St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties). The station transmitted on UHF channel 50 during the DTV transition, but switched to transmitting digital television exclusively on channel 34 before the June 12th cut-off date.

Newscasts

Their logo for the 6:30 news.

As a CBS affiliate, WTVX operated a news department from their studios in Fort Pierce and maintained newsrooms in Stuart and West Palm Beach. Soon after the loss of the affiliation, they began to phase out their newscasts eventually ceasing completely by Summer 1989. At one point as a CW affiliate, the station aired news updates under the title CW News Now on its website.

In Summer 2008, WTVX created a new news department (and on August 4) debuted CW West Palm News At 10. This production initially aired seven nights a week for 35 minutes and in high definition starting on September 15. As their first news broadcast to air in nearly twenty years, it competed with the well established 10 o'clock news on Fox affiliate WFLX. As was the case with that station, WTVX's broadcast also rated in the Miami / Fort Lauderdale market where it competed with similar newscasts on WSVN and WBFS-TV.

At some point in time, the Saturday night broadcast was dropped. On March 2, 2009, WTVX moved the show to weeknights at 6:30 when the national news programs air on the big three stations. On June 8, 2009, the station discontinued its newscast altogether. Throughout its life, the CW newscast was produced by owner Four Points Media Group in conjunction with sister station KUTV. The news originated from a secondary set at that station's studios on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. WTVX's studios functioned as a news bureau with two reporters local to West Palm Beach.

They continue to air the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekday mornings from 6 to 8 that is produced from studios on the campus of Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. There is also a public affairs show called Around Our Town that airs Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8 as well as Sunday mornings at 7 hosted by Aneta Sewell.

The Daily Buzz
(Weekday Mornings 6 to 8)

• Anchors:
  • Andy B. Campbell
  • Holly Hannula
• News Updates:
  • Kia Malone
• Weather:
  • Mitch English

Former personalities

• Fields Moseley - anchor
• Cristina Flores - anchor
• Sterling Poulson - meteorologist
• Dave Fox - sports
• Lane Wright - reporter
• Michelle Visage - entertainment reporter and heard on WEAT-FM 104.3
• Fadia Patterson - Public Affairs Journalist and producer of "Around Our Town"

News/Station Presentation

Newscast titles

• WTVX News (1980s-1988)
• CW West Palm News at 10 (2008-2009)
• CW West Palm News at 6:30 (2009)

Station slogans

• The Spirit of the Treasure Coast (1986-1992)
• Good Time TV! (2002-2006)
• Free to be CW (2006-2007; used to promote switch to The CW)
• All Your News in Half the Time (2008-2009)

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External links

• WTVX "The CW West Palm"
• WTCN-CA "My 15"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVX