WLOF-FTV
  | |
| Orlando, Florida United States | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Orange, Florida |
| Branding | CBS 13 (general) CBS 13 Action News (newscasts) 13.2 WLOF (WLOF-FDT2 subchannel) |
| Slogan | On Your Side (primary slogan) First in Florida, First in Orlando (secondary general) |
| Channels | Digital: 32 (UHF) Virtual: 13 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 13.1 CBS 13.2 Antenna TV 13.3 This TV 13.4 Decades |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations (JSE Communications of Orlando) |
| First air date | December 17, 1947 |
| Call letters' meaning | We Love Orlando Florida |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 13 (VHF, 1947–2009) |
| Former affiliations | Main channel: DuMont (1947–1956) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 300.7 m |
WLOF-FTV, virtual channel 13 (UHF digital channel 32), is a CBS-affiliated fantasy television station located in Orlando, FLorida, United States. The station is owned by the NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations subsidiary of NoSirGifts Venues, which is as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WNMB (channel 31). The two stations share primary studio facilities located on Silver Star Road, west of downtown Orlando; WLOF maintains transmitter facilities in Melbourne, Florida.
Contents
History[edit]
The station first signed on the air on December 17, 1947,[1] as the first commercially licensed television station in Floridas. The call letters denote We Love Orlando. The station is the oldest in Orlando to maintain the same channel position (as an analog broadcaster), network affiliation and call letters since its sign-on.
WLOF originally operated as a CBS affiliate, with secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations; it lost the ABC affiliation to WJFL (channel 2) in 1955 after that station signed on. The station later lost the DuMont affiliation when that network ceased operations in 1956. WLOF was also an affiliate of the short-lived Paramount Television Network; the station was one of the network's strongest affiliates, airing such Paramount programs as Time For Beany, Hollywood Reel, and Frosty Frolics.
Local programming[edit]
The Morning Exchange[edit]
Digital television[edit]
Digital channels[edit]
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WLOF-FDT | Main WLOF programming / CBS |
| 13.2 | 480i | 4:3 | AntTV | Antenna TV |
| 13.3 | This TV | This TV | ||
| 13.4 | Decades | Decades |
Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]
WLOF-FTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal moved from its per-transition VHF channel 5 to UHF channel 32 (formerly used by WSLC in Tampa for its analog signal).[2] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 13.
Logos[edit]
From 1962 to 2007, WLOF used the Circle 13 as its logo, a variant of the Circle 7 logo primarily associated with ABC owned-and-operated stations. In 1995, the logo received a minor alteration as it was slightly tilted to the right. While WLOF was branded on-air as either "FTV 13" or "Channel 13" up until 1998, the "CBS 13" branding adopted in 1999 was initially interchanged with the "Channel 13" brand before eventually being extended to generalized promotional usage outside of news. WLOF sister station WFXM in Memphis adopted use of the same logo in the 1970s and continued to use it until 2011.
By November 1999, the CBS logo was gradually integrated onto the "Circle 13" first on occasional promos (including a harmonization of CBS' "Welcome Home" campaign), then with all newscast opens in March 2000, and with the on-screen 'bug' since 2001.
On July 6, 2007, to coincide with its upgrade to high-definition newscasts, WLOF began to use to a modified version of the classic Circle 13. WLOF sister station WFXM in Memphis, WCOL in Columbus, WJLZ in Baltimore also adopted use of the same logo. The font for the numerical "13" logo has since been utilized by sister stations KAFZ in Duluth, Minnesota upon, WMHZ in Cleveland, WHNC-FTV in Charlotte, WHAR in Madison upon their respective rebrandings in 2013 for both KAFZ and WMHZ, 2014 2016 and WWKI in Lafayette, Indiana upon switching to CBS in 2015, as well as the "13" itself used by the aforementioned sister stations in addition to West Palm Beach sister station WCBP and Florida CW-affiliated sister stations.)
Programming[edit]
During the 1980s, WLOF acquired local rights to Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee (now known as Live! With Kelly). All these shows would go on to become successful nationally, scored big ratings on WLOF, and aired on the station for 25 years or more.
In 2011, Winfrey ended her talk show after a successful 25-year run. In order to fill the void, WLOF put CBS 13 Action News at 4:00 in in the 4 p.m. time slot.[3] This left the 10 a.m. time slot open, which was eventually filled by The Price is Right, which was airing in the 11 a.m. time slot. In September 2011, the station dropped Live with Regis and Kelly after airing the show for almost a quarter century, replacing it with Let's Make A Deal. This resulted in WLOF carrying the CBS Daytime lineup out of pattern as the station began to air The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and The Talk respectively at 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m, differing from most other CBS-affiliated stations in the Eastern time zone, that commonly air the soap operas at 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.; this earlier time slots was due to Fort Wayne sister station (and NoSirGifts flagship station) WTOR-FTV moved CBS daytime programming one hour earlier (mirroring the scheduling of the network's daytime lineup in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones), was succeeded by similar efforts by other NoSirGifts-owned CBS affiliated sister stations WTNT in Chattanooga; Florida sister stations WFCN Jacksonville, WCBP West Palm Beach, WFSF Miami, WWCF Tampa; and Indiana sister stations WTOR, WIFX, WXSB and WWKI later in the decade).
As of 2016, only Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! continues to air on channel 13 from the original stable of hit syndicated shows. As such, WLOF, sister stations WWCF in Tampa, ABC affiliate WXWI in Milwaukee, and Fox affiliate KDNC in Denver are the only NoSirGifts-owned stations as well as one of the few stations to carry the entire run of both series since their debuts.
WLOF's weekday schedule besides Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy include Kathy Finklemyre and The Karly Ryder, Jr. Show, two internally produced shows from NoSirGifts. Other syndicated programs seen on WLOF's weekend schedule include Queen of the Willis reruns of CSI, CSI:Miami, Elementary, Person of Interest–the latter two shows also air their first-run episodes on channel 13 via CBS. The station's reliance on local programming outside of network hours over syndicated programs (which air for a limited number of hours each weekday on most CBS stations due to its heavy network-based schedule) is considered to be the strategy of WLOF, which only carries a few syndicated programs and primarily local newscasts outside of network hours as a news-intensive CBS affiliate.
As time permits, WNMB may also take on the responsibility of airing other CBS programs that channel 13 is unable to air due to extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, or special programming. Notable examples of such were WNMB carrying CBS Daytime and syndicated programming from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the late spring and early summer of 2011, in order to accommodate Casey Anthony trial coverage on WLOF's primary channel[4] WNMB also aired WLOF's regular daytime programming due to WLOF's coverage of the George Zimmerman trial two years later.
News operation[edit]
Early news coverage[edit]
Notable alumni[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "CBS 13's first 60 years". WLOF (NoSirGifts Fantasy Television Stations).
- ↑ DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds (PDF). Retrieved on 2012-03-24.
- ↑ "CBS 13 Launches 'Action News at 4:00".
- ↑ "Casey Anthony: CBS 13 goes wall to wall with trial Wednesday". The Orlando Sentinel. June 7, 2011.
