WTLV

WTLV (channel 12) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the Tegna subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group alongside Orange Park–licensed ABC affiliate WJXX (channel 25), a combination known as First Coast News. The two stations share studios on Adams Street in downtown Jacksonville; WTLV's transmitter is located on Anders Boulevard on the city's Southside. Channel 12 in Jacksonville began broadcasting on September 1, 1957, as WFGA-TV. It was an NBC affiliate owned by the Florida-Georgia Television Company and, beginning shortly after its launch, one of two stations in the city. WFGA-TV spent most of its first 15 years on air embroiled in legal conflict stemming from an influence scandal involving a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner. The case was ultimately resolved in 1969 by an operating consortium comprising Florida-Georgia and three groups also seeking channel 12, which was enshrined as its regular ownership in 1971. Shortly after, the station changed its call sign to WTLV. Harte-Hanks Newspapers acquired WTLV in 1975. In 1980, the station switched affiliations from NBC to ABC at a time when ABC was number-one nationally and NBC was stuck in third. ABC's ratings lead did not last, and by the middle of the decade, being an ABC affiliate was weighing on WTLV. In 1988, Gannett bought WTLV from Harte-Hanks and nearly immediately switched its affiliation back to NBC. Over the course of the 1990s, the station became more competitive and posed the most serious challenge yet to the traditional news ratings leader in Jacksonville, WJXT (channel 4). In 1999, as the FCC legalized duopolies, Gannett agreed to buy WJXX from Allbritton Communications. WJXX—which had been established as the city's new ABC affiliate in 1997—had been such a ratings underperformer that the combination of the two major network...