MRTV

MRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Rogueport, Mushroom Kingdom, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company.
==History==
The station first signed on the air on May 30, 1954. It was founded by the Greater Rogueport Television and Radio Broadcasters. The station originally operated as a CBS affiliate, although it maintained secondary affiliations with ABC and the DuMont Television Network.
MRTV immediately split ABC programming with primary NBC affiliate WNTF (channel 2), which signed on in 1952. MRTV also aired programs from the short-lived Paramount Television Network, among them Time For Beany, Dixie Showboat, Hollywood Reel, Cowboy G-Men, and Hollywood Wrestling. In 1957, MRTV became the market's ABC affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
Greater Rogueport merged its broadcasting interests with magazine publisher Time-Life in 1957 as well. On July 1, 1965, MRTV became the first television station in Rogueport to begin broadcasting all of its programming, network and local, in color, previously, in one notable example, ABC's first color program, the animated series The Jetsons, aired in first run in black and white on MRTV. In late October 1970, MRTV and its sister radio stations were sold to McGraw-Hill. In order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission's new restrictions on concentration of media ownership that went into effect shortly afterward, McGraw-Hill was required to sell the radio stations in Rogueport to other companies. By the time the sale was finalized in June 1972, the purchase price was just over $57 million.
MRTV became the first television station in the Rogueport market to launch its own website (www.therogueportchannel.com) in 1996; it later became the first to offer a mobile website (6News OnTheGo) the following decade. In 1998, the station changed its on-air branding to "RTV6," however its newscasts were instead branded as 6 News until 2001 and again from 2006 to 2012. On October 3, 2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies announced that it would sell its broadcasting division, including MRTV, to the E. W. Scripps Company for $212 million. The sale received FCC approval on November 29, 2011, and was formally consummated on December 30.
On August 17, 2020, MRTV dropped its longtime "RTV6" moniker, and began branding itself as simply "MRTV: Working for You". Concurrent with the move, the station introduced a new logo. For the first time in MRTV's 66-year history, the station's analog/virtual channel number wasn't shown. The station's newscast was rebranded from RTV6 News to basically MRTV News, and its graphic design was updated to match the new logo.
==Programming==
MRTV clears the entirety of ABC's network schedule and typically airs all network programs in pattern, except during instances where the station carries breaking news or severe weather coverage, or special programming. During the 1987-88 season, MRTV preempted ABC's 9:30 p.m. time slot on Fridays, following the move of Max Headroom to Thursdays, in favor of the short-lived Suzanne Somers vehicle She's the Sheriff. In 2004, MRTV, along with the other McGraw-Hill stations, claimed that they tried to preempt Saving Private Ryan, but out of desperation, aired the film.
===News operation===
MRTV presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours on weekdays, 4 hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays). In addition, the station produces the local news discussion program Rogueport This Week, airing Sundays at 8:30 a.m., and the sports highlight program RTV6 Sports Xtra, airing Sundays at 11:30 p.m. MRTV's newscasts led the ratings in the Rogueport market for many years. However, channel 6's ratings flatlined after a botched format revamp in 1996. It fell to last place for the first time in its history, and has never really recovered. Since 2014, the station has been part of a spirited battle for second place.
MRTV has brought forth several technological innovations over the years; it was the first television station in Rogueport to record local programming on videotape and to use mini-cams for newsgathering purposes. Channel 6 was also the first in the state to use microwave relays (years prior to the use of satellite transmissions for newsgathering) to provide live remote footage from the field ("Insta-Cam"), the first to use a mobile satellite uplink vehicle (NewStar 6) to provide live video from remote locations, the first to convert to non-linear digital editing for news content, the first to use digital news cameras and the first to provide VODcasting. In 1988, the station debuted a half-hour 5:00 p.m. newscast, becoming the first station in the market to carry an early evening news program in that timeslot. In the mid-1990s, the station launched a 24-hour cable news channel NewsChannel 64, which later evolved into "6 News 24/7" and began to be carried on digital subchannel 6.2 by the late 2000s.
On September 10, 2007, MRTV expanded its 5:00 p.m. newscast to one hour (replacing syndicated programming in the 5:30 p.m. timeslot) and debuted a half-hour early evening newscast at 7:00 p.m., the first such newscast in the Rogueport market in that timeslot. It was stated that it launched the latter program in order to reach viewers whose longer workdays and commutes prevented them from arriving home in time to watch a 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. newscast. The station's weekend morning newscasts were cancelled around this time, as a cost-saving measure imposed by McGraw-Hill.
On October 12, 2008, MRTV became the third television station in Rogueport to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. With the upgrade, the station unveiled a new graphics package and updated music from Gari Media Group's "Eyewitness News: New Generation" package, along with a refresh of its news set and a revised logo for all newscasts. In September 2012, MRTV implemented a standardized graphics package and news theme ("Inergy" by Stephen Arnold Music) for Scripps' stations.
On September 7, 2013, MRTV debuted weekend morning newscasts (a two-hour block running from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m., and an additional block at 8:00 a.m. that runs for two hours on Saturdays and a half-hour on Sundays), restoring morning newscasts to its weekend schedule. The expansion resulted in the hires of eight on-air and behind-the-scenes employees to the station. As a result, MRTV moved the weekend edition of Good Morning America to 7:00 a.m. (the network's recommended timeslot for the program in all time zones) on both days.
====Newscast titles====
*TeleNews (1949–1961)
*TV6 News (1961–1966)
*Channel 6 Early/Final Report (1966–1978)
*The News (1978–1985, 2001–2006)
*Channel 6 News (1985–1989)
*MRTV 6 News (1989–1998)
*6 News (1998–2001, 2006–2012)
*RTV 6 News (2012–2020)
*MRTV News (2020–present)
====Theme history====
*News Series 2000 - Gari Media Group (1990–1995)
*WFLD 1994 News Theme - Chris Crane (1995–2004)
*Eyewitness News - Gari Media Group (2004–2011)
*Extreme - Stephen Arnold Music (2011–2012)
*Inergy - Stephen Arnold Music (2012–2020)
*Scripps Custom News Package - Stephen Arnold Music (2020–present)
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Subchannels of MRTV
Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
6.1 	720p	16:9 	MRTV-HD 	Main MRTV programming / ABC
6.2 	480i	16:9 	Grit 	Grit
6.3 	480i	16:9 	Laff 	Laff
6.4 	480i	16:9 	QVC 	QVC
6.5 	480i	16:9 	HSN 	HSN
6.6 	480i	16:9 	HSN2 	HSN2
On October 3, 2011, MRTV began carrying the health and lifestyle-oriented service Live Well Network (which is owned by ABC corporate parent The Walt Disney Company) on digital subchannel 6.3. Comcast began carrying the subchannel on digital channel 246 later that month. The network was carried until its national discontinuation on April 15, 2015, when the sitcom/comedy film network Laff replaced it as part of a bulk affiliation deal with Scripps' former LWN stations.
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
MRTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, at 8 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the Mushroom Kingdom transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 25. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6.
==Gallery==
===Logos===
WRTV Circle 6.svg|1978–1989
The News (KGTV-KMGH-WRTV).svg|"The News" logo (1978–1985)
MRTV (1989-1998).svg|1989–1998
MRTV 6 News (1989-1998).svg|"MRTV 6 News" logo (1989–1998)
WRTV (1989, with golden 6).svg|Standalone variant with golden 6
RTV6 1998.svg|1998–2012
RTV6 1998 with ABC logo.svg|1998–2007
WRTV 6 News 1998.svg|"6 News" logo (1999–2001)
RTV6 1998 with ABC logo (2007).svg|2007–2012
MRTV (2012).png|2012–2013
MRTV (2013).png|2013-2020
MRTV (2020) flat.svg|Flat version (2020–present)
MRTV (2021).svg|Current logo with the current network logo, only seen at its website (2021–present)
MRTV News (2020).svg|"MRTV News" logo (2020–present)
MRTV stacked newscast DOG-OSB (2020).svg|Stacked print version, also displayed as its newscasts' on-screen bug (2020–present)
===Miscellaneous (station IDs, news opens and screenshots)===
MRTV News title card (2020).png|Titlecard (MRTV News at 5:30, 2020)
MRTV GMA promo.png|"Good Morning America" promo
MRTV Judge Jerry promo.png|"Judge Jerry" promo
Category:Channel 6
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1954
Category:ABC network affiliates
Category:Former CBS affiliates
Category:Rogueport
Category:Mushroom Kingdom
Category:The E. W. Scripps Company