WTMP

**WTMP** (channel 44) is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving as the Tampa Bay area's ACME and RKO network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ACME Television Stations Group division, WTMP maintains studios on Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa; its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

## History

### Early years

WTMP commenced broadcast as an independent station on November 4, 1968. The station was founded by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owned radio station WGTO (540 AM) in nearby Cypress Gardens; Hubbard originally wanted to name the station WTAN-TV, but the request was denied by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); at the time, the FCC did not allow television and radio stations licensed in different cities to share the same base callsign. As a result, Hubbard used a slightly modified variation of the callsign.

The station initially commenced operations with a restricted trial timetable, broadcasting for two hours per day. However, on January 27, 1969, it extended its broadcasting hours to eight hours per day, commencing at 3 p.m. and concluding at 11 p.m. daily.

Initially, WTMP broadcasted older films, low-budget syndicated programs, off-network westerns and sitcoms, and cartoons. In the station's early days, its slogan was "WTMP... Tampa, as far as the eye can see," which was made famous by its identification packet in the mid-1970s. WTMP was an instant hit with viewers, so much so that it forced WSUN-TV (channel 38, frequency now occupied by WUSF) off the air in 1970. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s and into the beginning of the 1980s, WTMP was the only independent station in the Tampa Bay area. In 1972, WTMP began broadcasting at 10:30 a.m. on weekdays and around 1 p.m. on weekends, a progressive expansion of its programming hours during the 1970s. In 1976, WTMP began broadcasting daily at 7:00 a.m. Gradually, WTMP improved its sitcoms, cartoons, features, and off-network dramas. While the station was consistently profitable, its programming significantly enhanced in the late 1970s.

### Becoming a superstation

Channel 44 finally faced competition in 1981 when Family Group Broadcasting launched WWMI-TV (channel 28) as a family-oriented independent station. WTMP, on the other hand, remained the market's undisputed leader for the next two decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, the station was received by various cable providers in central and southwestern Florida. In the 1980s, WTMP also maintained a network of low-powered repeaters in Sebring, Inverness, Arcadia (in the Fort Myers market; that translator has since shut down), Ocala (part of the Orlando market; that translator, W29AB, has since become a translator for Orlando's WORL-TV), and Okeechobee (part of the West Palm Beach market). It branded itself as "Florida's Super Station," claiming to have "Covered Florida Like The Sun."

There was also talk of putting WTMP on cable in Tallahassee, but that has yet to happen. WTMP was one of the country's most profitable independent stations. Ted Turner called the station in the late 1970s to inquire how WTMP became prosperous.

### From Fox to Independence

On October 9, 1986, WTMP became the Fox network's first official affiliate. However, the station was effectively programmed as an independent during its time as the network's programming initially comprised only two hours of its prime-time lineup on Saturday and Sunday evenings (they would not expand to seven days a week until 1993). However, over time, channel 44 became one of several Fox affiliates nationwide who were dissatisfied with the network's weak programming, particularly on Saturday evenings, which hampered WTMP’s otherwise successful schedule. WTMP terminated its Fox affiliation on August 8, 1988, transferring it to WWMI (which the E. W. Scripps Company had acquired in 1986). Through the early 1990s, WTMP primarily broadcast classic and contemporary animation, traditional and modern sitcoms, drama series, and older films. From 1993 to 1995, WTMP was an affiliate of the Prime Time Entertainment Network syndication programming service as part of an agreement with United Television.

WTMP was significantly impacted by the 1994 affiliation swaps, which saw longtime CBS affiliate WSUN (channel 10) switch to Fox (due to the network's affiliation deal with then-owners New World Communications), WWMI become an ABC affiliate, and longtime ABC outlet WTFL (channel 13) assume the market's CBS affiliation. At the inauguration of the United Paramount Network (UPN) on January 16, 1995, channel 44 was exempted from the agreement because station management was concerned about how the network's plans to expand its prime time and daytime program offerings would affect WTMP's sports broadcast rights, as well as the impact that having to phase out its sports telecasts to meet network commitments would have on the superstation feed's appeal to cable and satellite providers across the country. At the same time, Paramount announced that WXFL would transform into Tampa's UPN affiliate. As it did during its tenure as a Fox affiliate, WTMP continued to program itself as an independent station, airing traditional general entertainment programming during the day and during prime time.

The Dorado Media Group acquired the station in the spring of 1996; shortly after assuming control, Dorado changed WTMP's on-air branding to "Tampa 44," which remained in use until the end of the decade. During the daytime, older sitcoms (*All in the Family*) and older animations were replaced by talk shows, court shows, and reality shows (such as *People's Court* and *Judge Mills Lane*). Recent cartoons (such as *Pokémon*, *Sailor* *Moon*, *Garfield* *and* *Friends*, and *Disney's* *Hercules*) and sitcoms (such as *Charles in Charge*, *Step by Step*, *Family* *Matters*, *Sister, Sister*, *Roseanne*, *The Simpsons*, *Seinfeld* (now on WUSF), and *Friends*) continued to air, whereas recent movies were almost eliminated.

In May 1999, due to a power outage at WLCY-TV's (channel 8) primary studios in downtown Tampa, WTMP temporarily housed the operations of WLCY-TV (channel 8).

### Switch to ACME

On October 24, 2015, Dorado Media Group and Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment unit announced the formation of a new network called ACME, signing a 10-year affiliation agreement with 11 of Dorado’s independent and MyNetworkTV stations, including WTMP; when the network launched on June 6, 2016, channel 44 became an ACME owned-and-operated station. As with every other broadcast station in the early 2000s, cartoons would gradually depart from WTMP’s schedule. While sitcoms continue to air during the evening, more reality and court programs will replace those shows.

## Programming

### Sports programming

From its inception until 1976, WTMP carried Atlanta Braves baseball games via a syndication package broadcast regionally on stations throughout the Southern United States. However, Superstation TBS's cable/satellite launch in the same year effectively ended the Braves regional network. Daily from 1977 to 1989, it broadcast various Major League Baseball games from various team networks (except on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays). These included games from the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Toronto Blue Jays, who were in the Grapefruit League for spring training in the Tampa Bay, Orlando, Fort Myers, and Sarasota regions. When ESPN became the cable partner for Major League Baseball in 1990, WTMP discontinued its baseball broadcasts.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTMP broadcast many Tampa Bay Rowdies professional NASL soccer travel games. In addition, numerous home and away indoor matches were broadcast.

In the 1970s, the station also broadcast NBC-televised NHL games that WLCY-TV had preempted. Later, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it broadcast games from the NHL Network syndication package. From 1992 to 2003, the station was the flagship of the Tampa Bay Lightning television network; since the 2003–04 season, the Lightning have been exclusive to cable.

### News operation

WTMP broadcast daily news capsules, primarily at sign-on and sign-off, from its inception until 1982, with an announcer reading the day's headlines over a slide. During its morning discussion program, *Florida* *Daybreak*, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station included an on-camera newsreader presenting a news summary. WTMP began utilizing the *Eyewitness News* moniker in the late 1970s, but its news was still relatively sedate and low-key.

Hubbard Broadcasting developed a full-fledged news department for WTMP in 1982, and a regular 10 p.m. newscast aired. WTMP first used the *Eyewitness News* name, with co-anchors Barbara Callahan (previously co-host of WTMP's edition of *PM* *Magazine*) and John Nicholson (formerly an anchor at WSUN). The broadcast was renamed *Tampa Bay Tonight* in the mid-1980s, then 44 News at Ten in 1988, and TV 44 News at Ten in 1992. Between 1985 and 1995, John Summer was the primary anchor, with a rotating cast of co-anchors that included Callahan. Following Dorado's acquisition of WTMP in 1996, the 10 p.m. broadcast was renamed the *Tampa 44 10 O'Clock News*, with co-anchors Callahan and Patrick Emory. From 1995 to 1996, WTMP also aired an 11 a.m. newscast.

Due to cost-cutting measures mandated by the Dorado Media Group and competition from Fox station WSUN's 10 p.m. newscast, WTOG's news department was shut down in 1998. From that time until 2017, WTMP broadcast the syndicated morning program *EyeOpener*. Under the ACME affiliation, WTMP expanded its weekday morning newscast from one to three and a half hours (with two hours added from 5 to 7 a.m. to compensate for the loss of *EyeOpener*).

The ACME Television Stations Group announced on August 31, 2023, regarding the launch of a two-hour extension of the weekday morning newscast produced for WTMP-DT2. This extension debuted on September 4 and marked the return of local news programming on WTMP, which had ceased its in-house news department 22 years prior.

## Technical information

### Subchannels

The digital signal of the station is multiplexed:

 **44.2** | 720p
 **44.3** | 480p
 **44.4** | FaveTV
 **44.5** | DABL
 **44.6** | Catchy
 **44.7** | ThisTV
 **44.8** | Story

### Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 12, 2009, WTMP turned off its analog signal on UHF channel 44 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal was relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 59, which was among the high-band UHF channels (52–69) deactivated due to the transition to its analog-era UHF channel 44.