WZTV
Encyclopedia
WZTV is the Fox-affiliated television station
for Nashville, Tennessee
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 15 (remapping to former analog channel 17 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Knob Road north of downtown along I-24
. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV
affiliate WUXP-TV
(wholly owned by Sinclair) and CW affiliate WNAB
(owned by Tennessee Broadcasting but operated by Sinclair through outsourcing
agreement). All three share studios on Mainstream Drive along the Cumberland River
. Syndicated
programming on WZTV includes: How I Met Your Mother
, Curb Your Enthusiasm
, and Grace Under Fire
.
WZTV discontinued regular analog programming on June 12, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 15. However, through the use of PSIP
, digital television receivers display its virtual channel
as 17.
. Not surprisingly with three 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. It went off the air on March 10, 1971. After a false start ended hopes for a 1974 return, new owner Reel Broadcasting brought the station back as WZTV on March 6, 1976 initially branding it as "Z TV" 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, the problem became mostly a moot one by the late-1980s as many households could now view the station clearly via cable
.
In the early-1980s, WZTV was sold to Multimedia
, who owned several NBC
and CBS
affiliates around the country. WZTV soon got some competition in the form of Murfreesboro
-based WFYZ (channel 39), which took to the air in 1983. Soon after, in 1984, TVX Broadcast Group
signed on WCAY-TV (channel 30). However, WZTV not only remained the dominant independent station in Middle Tennessee, but was the only one operating in the black.
Nashville was only a medium-sized market at the time, and by 1985, it was obvious that it was not big enough for three independent stations. However, Multimedia and TVX had more resources than Murfreesboro TV Corporation, owners of WFYZ, could possibly hope to match. With this scenario, channel 39 opted to broadcast only music videos (similar to MTV
). Later that year, the Christian Television Network
bought WFYZ and switched it to an all-religious format in 1986 under new calls, WHTN
. WZTV then acquired most of WFYZ's former shows.
In 1988, Multimedia sold WZTV to Act III Broadcasting
, who had a reputation for buying its competitors' stronger programming inventory. However, in most of those cases, Act III's competition was not nearly as well-heeled as TVX, so this strategy wasn't successful in Nashville. In 1987, TVX affiliated all of its stations, including WCAY, with the newly-launched Fox network. However, WCAY did not get a substantial ratings boost. TVX bought Taft Broadcasting
's five non-Big Three stations later that year. Two of these stations were Fox affiliates while the other three were independent. TVX acquired massive debt as well, and was forced to sell some of its under-performing medium-market stations to service the new debt. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis
were sold to MT Communications. After the sale was complete, WCAY changed its call sign to WXMT.
The deal between Fox and TVX had one catch. If one of TVX's under-performing 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. The company approached Thompson about buying WXMT's syndicated programming and moving it to WZTV, which would have left WXMT with only religious shows and the Home Shopping Network
. Thompson initially agreed but backed out of the deal a few days later. He came up with another idea where WXMT would sell its sitcoms, dramas, and movies to WZTV while WXMT would keep barter shows and cartoons. The deal closed in mid-February, around the same time that WZTV changed its on-air name to the current "Fox 17".
Over the years, WZTV began going towards more first-run talk, court, and reality shows. Most of channel 17's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WXMT around this time. In 1994, Act III merged with Abry. Only a year later, Sinclair bought most of Abry's stations, including WZTV. Sinclair then entered into a local marketing agreement
(LMA) with channel 30, which was now UPN
affiliate WUXP. Most of WZTV's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WUXP with Sinclair buying that station outright in 2001. Fox ended the weekday cartoon block in 2001 allowing its affiliates to add even more first-run syndicated shows. Today, WZTV offers Fox programming, first-run reality / talk / court shows, and recent sitcoms.
From 2001 until September 5, 2006, this station served as the de-facto Fox affiliate for Bowling Green, Kentucky
filling a gap created in 2001 when WNKY
dropped its Fox affiliation and switched to NBC
. WZTV was offered on cable in that area and could be received over-the-air in the southern areas of the market. In 2006, ABC
affiliate WBKO
began to broadcast a Fox affiliate on a new second
digital subchannel. Also that year, all Sinclair-owned Fox affiliates including WZTV extended their affiliation contracts until at least March 2012.
produced the broadcasts on WZTV which was then thirty minutes long and aired Sunday through Friday. Three years later on July 6, 2000, WZTV began its own news department and expanded the 9 p.m. newscast to a full hour; it currently airs seven days a week.
In 2004, WZTV launched Fox 17 News: Late Edition at 10 p.m., a half-hour show featuring local news and weather combined with national segments from Sinclair's News Central
operation based at company headquarters in Hunt Valley
suburbs. This came around the time that most larger Fox stations were adding newscasts at 10 p.m. Central (11 p.m. Eastern). After News Central was discontinued in March 2006, WZTV reformatted the program as Fox 17 News at 10 adding local sports and expanding the local news and weather segments. The show airs against late night newscasts from Nashville's big three
network affiliates.
Beginning in early 2007, the station let go several of its news personalities, including main anchor Ashley Webster and weekend meteorologist Cindy Tremblay. Ashley Webster joined the Fox Business Network
in October 2007 as the overseas market reporter. Meanwhile, Chief Meteorologist Joe Case left to ministry opportunities and weekend sports anchor Amy Fadool was promoted to sports anchor for Sinclair flagship WBFF-TV in Baltimore
. Former WTVF
anchor/reporter Scott Couch took Webster's position as lead anchor. On April 21, 2008, WZTV launched the Fox 17 Morning News from 5-7 a.m. and rescheduled the news magazine Tennessee Mornings to air from 7-9 a.m. In late May 2009, "Fox 17 Morning News" was replaced with an extra two hours of TN Mornings, which now runs for four hours each weekday from 5-9 a.m.
On September 11, 2011, WZTV became the third station in the Nashville market to began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition
. This included a new news set designed by Devlin Design Group as well as an updated logo, which now uses a red, white and blue color scheme.
Fox 17 Sky Watch Weather
Sports team
Reporters
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 15 (remapping to former analog channel 17 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Knob Road north of downtown along I-24
Interstate 24 in Tennessee
In the U.S. state of Tennessee, Interstate 24 runs from Clarksville to Chattanooga via Nashville. Just west of Chattanooga, I-24 drops into Georgia's Dade County for before reentering Tennessee....
. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate WUXP-TV
WUXP-TV
WUXP, channel 30 is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and is a sister station to Fox affiliate WZTV channel 17 and the CW affiliate WNAB channel 58. It is currently branded as My 30. Its transmitter is located in Whites Creek, Tennessee...
(wholly owned by Sinclair) and CW affiliate WNAB
WNAB
WNAB, virtual channel 58 is the CW-affiliated television station in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Tennessee Broadcasting, although operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group under an outsourcing agreement. It currently serves as a sister station to WZTV and WUXP-TV. It is currently branded as...
(owned by Tennessee Broadcasting but operated by Sinclair through outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
agreement). All three share studios on Mainstream Drive along the Cumberland River
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WZTV includes: How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
, and Grace Under Fire
Grace Under Fire
Grace Under Fire is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 1993 to February 1998. The show starred Brett Butler, and was the highest rated new comedy of the 1993–1994 season.- Premise of show :...
.
Digital programming
| Channel | Video Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection... |
Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
WZTV-DT | Main WZTV-TV programming / FOX |
| 17.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | WZTV-DT2 |
WZTV discontinued regular analog programming on June 12, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 15. However, through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers display its virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 17.
History
The station originally began broadcasting on August 5, 1968 as WMCV from a small studio in West Nashville. It was the area's first UHF station, as well as the state's first independent stationIndependent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
. Not surprisingly with three well-established network affiliates in the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
, 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. It went off the air on March 10, 1971. After a false start ended hopes for a 1974 return, new owner Reel Broadcasting brought the station back as WZTV on March 6, 1976 initially branding it as "Z TV" 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
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
and Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
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
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
in 1979 and 1980 offering assistance to Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
viewers who had problems receiving its UHF signal, the problem became mostly a moot one by the late-1980s as many households could now view the station clearly via cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
.
In the early-1980s, WZTV was sold to Multimedia
Multimedia (media company)
Multimedia, Inc. was a media company that owned 10 daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers, two radio stations, five television stations, and a cable television system division...
, who owned several NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliates around the country. WZTV soon got some competition in the form of Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
-based WFYZ (channel 39), which took to the air in 1983. Soon after, in 1984, TVX Broadcast Group
TVX Broadcast Group
The TVX Broadcast Group was an American media company that owned a group of UHF television stations during the 1980s. Originally known as the Television Corporation, the company was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and was founded by a group of Norfolk-area businessmen led by Timothy McDonald...
signed on WCAY-TV (channel 30). However, WZTV not only remained the dominant independent station in Middle Tennessee, but was the only one operating in the black.
Nashville was only a medium-sized market at the time, and by 1985, it was obvious that it was not big enough for three independent stations. However, Multimedia and TVX had more resources than Murfreesboro TV Corporation, owners of WFYZ, could possibly hope to match. With this scenario, channel 39 opted to broadcast only music videos (similar to MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
). Later that year, the Christian Television Network
Christian Television Network
Christian Television Network is a non-profit broadcast television network of small owned-and-operated stations that broadcasts religious programming. It is based in Largo, Florida , and the flagship station is WCLF channel 22, which signed on the air in the Tampa Bay Florida region in 1979...
bought WFYZ and switched it to an all-religious format in 1986 under new calls, WHTN
WHTN
WHTN digital channel 38 is a not-for-profit television station licensed to Murfreesboro, Tennessee that serves the Nashville market. It is owned by Clearwater, Florida-based Christian Television Network. WHTN offers 24-hour religious programming, much of which is produced either locally or at the...
. WZTV then acquired most of WFYZ's former shows.
In 1988, Multimedia sold WZTV to Act III Broadcasting
Act III Broadcasting
Act III Broadcasting was a company that owned several television stations that started as independents, and later became Fox affiliates. The stations were located in medium-sized markets, and the company existed from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, eventually to be sold to Abry in 1994...
, who had a reputation for buying its competitors' stronger programming inventory. However, in most of those cases, Act III's competition was not nearly as well-heeled as TVX, so this strategy wasn't successful in Nashville. In 1987, TVX affiliated all of its stations, including WCAY, with the newly-launched Fox network. However, WCAY did not get a substantial ratings boost. TVX bought Taft Broadcasting
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
's five non-Big Three stations later that year. Two of these stations were Fox affiliates while the other three were independent. TVX acquired massive debt as well, and was forced to sell some of its under-performing medium-market stations to service the new debt. WCAY and sister station WMKW in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
were sold to MT Communications. After the sale was complete, WCAY changed its call sign to WXMT.
The deal between Fox and TVX had one catch. If one of TVX's under-performing 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. The company approached Thompson about buying WXMT's syndicated programming and moving it to WZTV, which would have left WXMT with only religious shows and the Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
. Thompson initially agreed but backed out of the deal a few days later. He came up with another idea where WXMT would sell its sitcoms, dramas, and movies to WZTV while WXMT would keep barter shows and cartoons. The deal closed in mid-February, around the same time that WZTV changed its on-air name to the current "Fox 17".
Over the years, WZTV began going towards more first-run talk, court, and reality shows. Most of channel 17's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WXMT around this time. In 1994, Act III merged with Abry. Only a year later, Sinclair bought most of Abry's stations, including WZTV. Sinclair then entered into a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LMA) with channel 30, which was now UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate WUXP. Most of WZTV's sitcoms and cartoons moved to WUXP with Sinclair buying that station outright in 2001. Fox ended the weekday cartoon block in 2001 allowing its affiliates to add even more first-run syndicated shows. Today, WZTV offers Fox programming, first-run reality / talk / court shows, and recent sitcoms.
From 2001 until September 5, 2006, this station served as the de-facto Fox affiliate for Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green is the third-most populous city in the state of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, with a population of 58,067 as of the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Warren County and the principal city of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area with an estimated 2009...
filling a gap created in 2001 when WNKY
WNKY
WNKY is the NBC-affiliated television station for South Central Kentucky licensed to Bowling Green. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter on Pilot Knob in Smiths Grove along I-65. The station can also be seen on Insight channel 7 and in high definition...
dropped its Fox affiliation and switched to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. WZTV was offered on cable in that area and could be received over-the-air in the southern areas of the market. In 2006, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate WBKO
WBKO
WBKO is the ABC-affiliated television station for South Central Kentucky licensed to Bowling Green. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter along KY 185/Richardsville Road in unincorporated Northern Warren County. The station can also be seen on Insight...
began to broadcast a Fox affiliate on a new second
WBKO-DT2
WBKO-DT2 is the Fox-affiliated television station for South Central Kentucky. The station is a second digital subchannel of ABC affiliate WBKO owned by Gray Television. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on VHF channel 13.2 from a transmitter along KY 185/Richardsville...
digital subchannel. Also that year, all Sinclair-owned Fox affiliates including WZTV extended their affiliation contracts until at least March 2012.
News operation
On July 7, 1997, WZTV began a prime time newscast called Fox News at 9 after the network demanded that all its affiliates air local news. This station was one of the few Fox affiliates in the top 50 markets that did not air local news before that. Initially, ABC affiliate WKRN-TVWKRN-TV
WKRN-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC-affiliated television station in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Young Broadcasting under the operation of Gray Television. Its transmitter is located in Brentwood, Tennessee....
produced the broadcasts on WZTV which was then thirty minutes long and aired Sunday through Friday. Three years later on July 6, 2000, WZTV began its own news department and expanded the 9 p.m. newscast to a full hour; it currently airs seven days a week.
In 2004, WZTV launched Fox 17 News: Late Edition at 10 p.m., a half-hour show featuring local news and weather combined with national segments from Sinclair's News Central
News Central
News Central was a primetime newscast on Sinclair television stations in the United States, mixing locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios...
operation based at company headquarters in Hunt Valley
Hunt Valley, Maryland
Hunt Valley is an affluent unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It lies just north of the city of Baltimore, along Highway 145 off Interstate 83. Loch Raven Reservoir...
suburbs. This came around the time that most larger Fox stations were adding newscasts at 10 p.m. Central (11 p.m. Eastern). After News Central was discontinued in March 2006, WZTV reformatted the program as Fox 17 News at 10 adding local sports and expanding the local news and weather segments. The show airs against late night newscasts from Nashville's big three
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
network affiliates.
Beginning in early 2007, the station let go several of its news personalities, including main anchor Ashley Webster and weekend meteorologist Cindy Tremblay. Ashley Webster joined the Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
in October 2007 as the overseas market reporter. Meanwhile, Chief Meteorologist Joe Case left to ministry opportunities and weekend sports anchor Amy Fadool was promoted to sports anchor for Sinclair flagship WBFF-TV in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. Former WTVF
WTVF
WTVF is the CBS-affiliated television station for Middle Tennessee that is licensed to Nashville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 5 from a transmitter north of downtown along I-24. Owned by Landmark Media Enterprises, the station has studios on James Robertson Parkway...
anchor/reporter Scott Couch took Webster's position as lead anchor. On April 21, 2008, WZTV launched the Fox 17 Morning News from 5-7 a.m. and rescheduled the news magazine Tennessee Mornings to air from 7-9 a.m. In late May 2009, "Fox 17 Morning News" was replaced with an extra two hours of TN Mornings, which now runs for four hours each weekday from 5-9 a.m.
On September 11, 2011, WZTV became the third station in the Nashville market to began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. This included a new news set designed by Devlin Design Group as well as an updated logo, which now uses a red, white and blue color scheme.
Newscast titles
- ZTV News Headlines (1980s)
- Fox News at Nine (1997–2000)
- Fox 17 News (2000–present)
- Tennessee Mornings (morning newscast; 2006–present)
News team
Anchors- Stacy Case - weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
- Scott Couch - weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
- Erika Kurre - weekends at 9 p.m.; also fill-in weeknight anchor
- Nick Paranjape - weekday mornings (5-7 a.m.); also reporter
- Kelly Sutton - weekday mornings (7-9 a.m.)
- Shane Tallant - weekday mornings (7-9 a.m.)
Fox 17 Sky Watch Weather
- Barak Shapiro (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m. - Craig Edwards (NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings
Sports team
- Paul Jones - sports director; weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.
- Dave Foster - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m.
- Dan Phillips - sports reporter and photographer
Reporters
- Eric Alvarez - general assignment reporter
- Sky Arnold - general assignment reporter
- Alex Denis - Tennessee Mornings traffic reporter
- John Dunn - general assignment reporter
- Erika Lathon - general assignment reporter
- Stacy McCloud - entertainment reporter
- Justin McFarland - general assignment reporter
- Erica Shaffer - general assignment reporter