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WZTV channel 17 is the Fox affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as sister stations to My Network TV affiliate WUXP-TV channel 30 and CW affiliate WNAB channel 58. It is currently branded as "Fox 17". Its transmitter is located in Whites Creek, Tennessee, northwest of Nashville.

History

The station originally began broadcasting on August 5, 1968 as WMCV and operated until March 10, 1971 from a small studio in west Nashville. It was Nashville's first UHF TV station as well as its first independent (in fact Tennessee's first), without a network affiliation. Not surprisingly, with three strong, well-established network affiliates in the market, WMCV did not attract many advertisers and relied mainly on old movies, cartoons, religion, and syndicated fare; many area households probably did not have sets capable of receiving the station's signal anyway. This was very typical of UHF start-ups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

After a false start ended hopes for a 1974 return for channel 17, new owners Reel Broadcasting brought the station back as WZTV on March 6, 1976, initially branding it as "ZTV" and later "Z-17". WZTV's first several years showed far more promise in the programming lineup than WMCV ever did, with coverage of college basketball and Cincinnati Reds baseball supplementing the usual independent syndicated program assortment such as cartoons, classic sitcoms, old movies, westerns, and reruns of old network dramas. Even though the station took out ads in TV Guide in 1979 and 1980 offering assistance to Middle Tennessee viewers who had problems receiving its UHF signal, by the late 1980s the problem became mostly a moot one as many households now could view the station clearly via cable.

In the early 1980s, WZTV was sold to Multimedia Broadcasting, which owned several NBC and CBS affiliates around the country. Multimedia continued to run the independent format on WZTV, even after competitors came in the form of a Murfreesboro-based station, WFYZ channel 39, in 1983, and a TVX-owned station, WCAY-TV channel 30, in 1984. However, WZTV was the only one that was profitable, so by 1985, it became clear that Nashville could not support three independent stations, a large number for that time in only a medium-sized market. TVX owned many other stations that were profitable and high-rated, while the Murfreesboro TV Corporation, owners of WFYZ, lacked the resources to grow. With this scenario, Channel 39 opted to broadcast only music videos, ala MTV; later that year, the Christian Television Network bought the station and switched it to an all-religious format and its calls to WHTN in 1986.

WZTV then acquired most of WFYZ's former shows, being the stronger of the two remaining independents. In 1988, Multimedia sold WZTV to Act III Broadcasting, who had a reputation of buying medium-market independent stations and the programming from its competitors, combine assets to make a stronger station, and have the other stations switch to religion or shopping full-time. Act III wanted to do this in Nashville, but TVX would not allow it.

In 1987, TVX affiliated all of its stations with the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company. WCAY, then branded "Fox 30," however did not get a substantial ratings boost. TVX bought 5 general entertainment stations from Taft Broadcasting later in 1987 - two of these stations were Fox affiliates, while the other 3 were independent. TVX acquired massive debt as well, so they sold some of their underperforming medium-market stations. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis were sold to MT Communications, which was headed by -- and named after -- Michael Thompson. After the sale was complete, WCAY changed its callsign to WXMT. The deal between Fox and TVX, of course, had one catch: if one of TVX's underperforming stations -- like WCAY/WXMT -- was sold, that station could lose its Fox affiliation. As a result, in 1990, Fox pulled its affiliation from WXMT and moved it to WZTV.

Act III was not done yet: it approached Thompson about buying WXMT's programming and moving it to WZTV, while making WXMT all religion and home shopping. Thompson initially agreed, but backed out of the deal a few days later. But Thompson came up with another idea: WXMT would sell only its expensive programming to WZTV: which included mostly sitcoms, drama shows, and movies; and WXMT would keep barter shows and cartoons. In mid-February, the deal was complete, and WZTV became a Fox affiliate with a strong schedule, changing its on-air branding to "Fox 17." WXMT's schedule now looked like this: home shopping 15 hours a day, religion 2 hours, cartoons 4 hours, and syndicated shows 2 hours.

Over the years, WZTV began going torwards more first-run talk, court, and reality shows, and WXMT began to add more sitcoms and cartoons as a result, allowing WXMT to return to full-time general entertainment by 1994. Around that time, Act III sold its stations to Abry. WXMT became a UPN affiliate in 1995, and one year later Sinclair bought most of Abry's stations, including WZTV. Sinclair then entered into a local marketing agreement with channel 30, now called WUXP, and most of WZTV's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WUXP, with Sinclair buying WUXP outright in 2001.

On July 7, 1997, WZTV began its 9 p.m. newscast, after Fox demanded that all its affiliates air local news, and WZTV was one of the few Fox affiliates in the top 50 markets that did not air local news before that.

Fox ended the weekday cartoon block in 2002, allowing their affiliates to add even more first-run syndicated shows.

Today, WZTV offers Fox programming, first-run reality/talk/court shows, recent sitcoms, and news. On April 21, 2008, WZTV launched a local morning newscast, airing from 5-7am weekdays. The magazine show "TN Mornings" moved to 7-9am.

In 2006, all Sinclair-owned Fox affiliates, including WZTV, extended their affiliation contracts until at least March 2012.

Since early 2007, the station has let go several of its news personalities. Main news anchor Ashley Webster and weekend weathercaster Cindy Tremblay have been dismissed from the station, with their contracts not renewed. Ashley Webster joined FOX Business Network in October 2007 as the Overseas Market Reporter. Meanwhile, chief meteorologist Joe Case left to pursue his ministry, and weekend sports anchor Amy Fadool left the station to become sports anchor for the Fox station in Baltimore. Former WTVF anchor/reporter Scott Couch took Webster's position as lead anchor.

WZTV will be leaving analog channel 17 and will occupy digital channel 15 after the analog shutdown on February 17, 2009.

News Operations

Initially, Nashville's ABC affiliate, WKRN-TV channel 2, produced the newscast on WZTV, which was then 30 minutes long and aired only Sunday through Friday. Three years later on July 6, 2000, WZTV began producing its own newscast, which by then was expanded to a full hour and aired seven days a week. In 2004, WZTV launched the Fox17 News: Late Edition at 10pm, a half-hour show featuring local news and weather combined with national segments from Sinclair's News Central inititave based at company headquarters in the Baltimore suburbs. After News Central was discontinued in March 2006 the station reformatted the program as "Fox 17 News at Ten", adding local sports and expanding its local news and weather segments. "Fox 17 News at Ten" airs against late night newscasts from Nashville's "Big 3" stations. On Monday April 21, 2008 Fox 17 launched "Fox 17 Morning News" from 5-7 am and resheduled newsmagazine "Tennessee Mornings" to 7-9 am.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• FOX17 News (2000-present)

Station Slogans

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Station Logos

• Station logo, January 1980. Station logo, January 1980.

External links

• Official site
• Template:TVQ
• Template:BIA

• Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates
• Television stations in Tennessee
• Television stations in Nashville
• Fox network affiliates
• Sinclair Broadcast Group
• Channel 17 TV stations in the United States
• Television channels and stations established in 1968