WTVF

History[edit]

WTVF first signed on the air August 6, 1954, as WLAC-TV, originally owned by the Life and Casualty Insurance Company, and Nashville businessmen Guilford Dudley, Al Beaman and Thomas Baker. Life and Casualty's chairman of the board Paul Mountcastle and his investment group also held controlling interest in WROL-TV in Knoxville (now WATE-TV), but the two stations were not considered to be co-owned. Ever since its inception, WLAC-TV's analog signal was short-spaced to Memphis' WMC-TV, and Atlanta's WAGA-TV, also on VHF channel 5 (coincidentally, WMC-TV began on channel 4 and was immediately short-spaced to WSM-TV in Nashville, now WSMV). WLAC-TV was owned alongside WLAC radio (1510 AM) and later WLAC-FM (105.9 FM, now WNRQ). The call sign reflected the initials of the insurance company. It immediately took the CBS affiliation from WSIX-TV (channel 8, eventually WKRN-TV on channel 2) because WLAC (AM) had been Nashville's CBS Radio affiliate since 1928. With WLAC-TV, Nashville became one of the smallest cities in the United States to have three fully separate network-affiliated commercial television stations. American General Corporation, a Houston-based insurer, bought L&C and WLAC-AM-FM-TV in the 1960s.


In 1975, American General sold channel 5 to the Hobby family of Houston (owners of KPRC-AM-TV and the now-defunct Houston Post), who changed the station's call letters to the current WTVF on December 1. The call letter change was brought on due to an FCC rule in place at the time forbidding TV and radio stations in the same city from sharing the same base callsign if they had separate owners. American General/L&C eventually sold WLAC-AM-FM to other interests and the other stations have had several owners over the years. In 1983, the Hobbys reorganized their broadcast holdings as H&C Communications after the Post was sold. Landmark Communications, based in Norfolk, Virginia, bought WTVF from the Hobbys in 1994.


On January 30, 2008, Landmark announced its intention to sell WTVF, along with sister station KLAS-TV in Las Vegas and cable network The Weather Channel.^[2] This was followed on July 14, 2008, with an announcement that WTVF would be sold to Bonten Media Group, which at that time already owned 16 broadcast television stations in five states, including WCYB-TV in Bristol, Virginia.^[3] However, the deal was called off due to the economic crisis of 2008 as Bonten informed Landmark that it could not close on the purchase after its key financial backer for that purchase, Lehman Brothers, filed for what remains the largest bankruptcy in American history.^[4][5] Although the sale of The Weather Channel and some other assets was eventually completed, Landmark (which changed its name from Landmark Communications to Landmark Media Enterprises in September 2008) took most of its other properties off the market in October 2008. As a result, WTVF and KLAS remained owned by Landmark. WTVF would have become the largest station owned by Bonten, as well as the first CBS affiliate in its portfolio.


On May 1 and 2, 2010, WTVF's newsroom was flooded with three feet (0.91 m) of water, and became non-operational for three months as it was being rebuilt. During the flooding, equipment was hastily moved to other locations around the building to prevent disruption of the station's news operation.


On September 4, 2012, Milwaukee-based Journal Communications announced that it would purchase WTVF from Landmark for $215 million.^[6][7] The FCC approved the sale on October 22, and it was consummated on December 6.^[8][9][10] With the transaction's completion, WTVF became the largest Journal-owned station by market size (displacing flagship WTMJ-TV, which became the second largest). It also made WTVF the sister station of KLAS-TV's rival, KTNV-TV.


On July 30, 2014, less than two years after Landmark sold the station to Journal, it was announced that Journal Communications would be bought out by the E. W. Scripps Company in an all-stock transaction. Scripps retained the companies' broadcast holdings, including WTVF, and spun off their print holdings into Journal Media Group. This marks the second time that Scripps has owned a Tennessee television station, as it was the founding owner of WMC-TV in Memphis from its 1948 sign-on until 1993.^[11] The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014. It was approved by the two companies' shareholders on March 11, 2015,^[12] and it closed on April 1.


On September 24, 2020, a consortium made up of Scripps and Berkshire Hathaway announced the proposed purchase of Ion Media.^[13] As there were no regulatory complications within the Nashville market, the deal made Ion station WNPX-TV (channel 28) a sister station to WTVF. The transaction was finalized and closed on January 7, 2021.^[14][15]