WINK-TV

The stations share studios on Corporate Lakes Drive in Gateway; WINK-TV's transmitter is located north of Fort Myers Shores, near the Charlotte–Lee county line. The station began broadcasting on March 18, 1954, owned by the family of taxicab magnate and Cleveland Browns founder Mickey McBride along with WINK (1240 AM). WINK-TV was the first television station in Southwest Florida and is the fifth-oldest surviving station in the state. Although the call letters appear to be an outgrowth of its CBS affiliation, in fact they were simply carried over from its radio sister, which adopted them in 1944—seven years before the CBS Eye made its first appearance. It carried programming from the four major networks of its era: CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont in the first two decades of its existence. However, it has always been a primary CBS affiliate. Channel 11 lost DuMont when that network ended operations in 1956. In December 1968, WINK-TV finally gained a local competitor when WBBH-TV signed on and took the NBC affiliation.