WTVJ

WTVJ

ATSC 3.0 station
Miami–Fort Lauderdale, Florida United States
City	Miami, Florida
Channels	Digital: 31 (UHF) Virtual: 6
Branding	NBC 6
Programming
Affiliations	6.1: NBC for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	NBC Owned Television Stations (Comcast / NBCUniversal) (NBC Telemundo License LLC)
Sister stations	WSCV
History
First air date	March 21, 1949 (75 years ago) (1949-03-21)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 4 (VHF, 1949–1995), 6 (VHF, 1995–2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949–1989) DuMont (secondary, 1949–1956) NBC (secondary, 1949–1956) ABC (secondary, 1949–1957)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	63154
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	311 m (1,020 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	25°58′8″N 80°13′19″W / 25.96889°N 80.22194°W / 25.96889; -80.22194
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.nbcmiami.com

WTVJ (channel 6) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Fort Lauderdale–licensed WSCV (channel 51), a flagship station of Telemundo. The two stations share studios on Southwest 27th Street in Miramar; WTVJ's transmitter is located in Andover, Florida.

WTVJ began broadcasting March 21, 1949, on channel 4 as Florida's first television station. Owned by Wometco Enterprises, a Miami movie theater operator, the station nearly never launched over a disputed transfer of the construction permit. A primary affiliate of CBS, WTVJ was Miami's only television station for four years, establishing a head-start in local programming that endured for three decades. Anchorman Ralph Renick had Miami's highest-rated television newscast for 34 years; Chuck Zink's children's show Skipper Chuck was a local favorite for more than 20 years; and the station pioneered in sports coverage and local Spanish-language programming. WTVJ produced a series of reporters and anchors that went on to prominent network positions, including Jane Chastain, Katie Couric, Bernard Goldberg, and Martha Teichner. This era of stability and ratings success began to decay considerably after Wometco's owner, Mitchell Wolfson, died in 1983. The firm's television stations were sold to investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), which instituted cost cuts and management changes that prompted Renick to exit in 1985, months after his evening newscast fell to second place for the first time ever. After Renick's departure, WTVJ fell to third place in news ratings.

KKR acquired Storer Communications soon after purchasing WTVJ, creating a cross-ownership conflict between Storer's cable systems in South Florida and WTVJ. Lorimar-Telepictures initially agreed to purchase the station but backed out once it emerged that CBS was looking at buying another Miami station, WCIX (channel 6), at a discount. The effect was to scare off buyers that were not themselves television networks. NBC agreed to buy WTVJ in 1987, displacing its longtime Miami affiliate, WSVN (channel 7). WSVN's affiliation agreement with NBC expired at the end of 1988, leaving NBC to continue to run WTVJ as a CBS affiliate through the end of 1988. The purchase catalyzed a six-station, two-market affiliation switch on January 1, 1989, when WTVJ became an NBC affiliate; CBS moved to WCIX; and WSVN became an independent station affiliated with Fox. In spite of a multi-million-dollar publicity campaign critics considered grating and off-putting, significant investment by NBC in the news department, and industry acclaim for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew, WTVJ's local newscasts remained mired in third place, wracked by turnover of news anchors; an attempt to clone WSVN's flashy news presentation that left the station without its own news identity; and low ratings for NBC's daytime programming.

Another round of television affiliation realignment, this time affecting markets nationwide, led to a September 10, 1995, channel switch with WCIX as part of an asset trade between NBC and CBS. On that date, WTVJ and its NBC and local programming moved to channel 6, while WCIX and its CBS and local programming moved to channel 4 as WFOR-TV. The switch was an upgrade for CBS and a downgrade for NBC, as the analog channel 6 facility in Miami faced location restrictions that reduced its population coverage. Despite the switch and signal downgrade, WTVJ found a news identity in "solid, old-fashioned journalism" under general manager Don Browne, who led the station to its best newscast ratings performance since the Renick years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Browne oversaw WTVJ's move from downtown Miami to its present Miramar studios in 2000 and the integration of WSCV with WTVJ after NBC bought Telemundo in 2001. The station has run generally first or second among English-language local newscasts since the early 2000s, complimenting overall market leader WSCV.