WMOR-TV
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| Lakeland/Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Lakeland, Florida |
| Branding | MOR (spelled out as "M-O-R") This TV Tampa Bay (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Just Can't Get Enough |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 32 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | Independent (1986–1995, 1999–present) |
| Owner | Hearst Television (WMOR-TV Company) |
| First air date | April 24, 1986 |
| Call letters' meaning | MORe TV (former branding) |
| Former callsigns | WTMV (1986–1996) WWWB (1996–1999) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 32 (UHF, 1986–2009) |
| Former affiliations | The WB (1995–1999) Fox Kids/4Kids TV (2001–2008) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 458 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 53819 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 27°49′10″N 82°15′39″W / 27.81944°N 82.26083°W (digital) |
| Website | www.mor-tv.com |
WMOR-TV, virtual channel 32 (digital channel 19), is an independent television station that is licensed to Lakeland, Florida, United States and serves the Tampa-St. Petersburg television market. The station is owned by the Hearst Television division of the Hearst Corporation, and is the company's only television station that is not affiliated with any major broadcast network nor runs any news programming. The station's studios are located on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, with its transmitter located in Mulberry.
On cable, WMOR can be seen on channel 12 on Bright House Networks (channel 10 in North Pinellas County, due to WTSP broadcasting on channel 10), Verizon FiOS, and Comcast Venice, and on channel 4 on Comcast Sarasota. WMOR is also available locally on satellite provider DirecTV on channel 32 and 32-1 in standard and high definition, respectively.
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History
The station first signed on the air on April 24, 1986 as WTMV, originally maintaining an all-music video format, branded as "V-32". Its owner and general manager was Dan Johnson, former mayor of St. Petersburg Beach. The station originally operated from studios located on the south side of Lakeland on South Florida Avenue. WTMV began incorporating general entertainment programming by 1988, following the move of its operations to Tampa. At the time, WTMV carried many network programs from ABC, NBC and CBS programs that the Tampa area's network affiliates (WTSP, channel 10, now with CBS; WFLA-TV channel 8; and WTVT channel 13, now with Fox) chose to preempt.
After a brief period of broadcasting from the transmitter in Mulberry, the WTMV studios relocated to Tampa in the summer of 1988. The move brought WTMV to its present-day Hillsborough Avenue studios on Tampa's east side, a former headend office for Group W Cable's Hillsborough County system.
WTMV became Tampa Bay's WB affiliate when that network launched on January 11, 1995, branding itself as "WB32". By then it ran cartoons (such as Scooby-Doo, Biker Mice from Mars, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, The Jetsons and The Flintstones), sitcoms (such as Doogie Howser, M.D., Blossom, The Wonder Years and Too Close for Comfort), talk shows (such as The Richard Bey Show), reality shows (such as Check It Out!) and movies. WTMV was sold to the Hearst Corporation in 1996,[1] with the station's callsign being changed to WWWB-TV (in reference to its affiliation with The WB) following the finalization of the purchase.
In 1999, WWWB lost its WB affiliation to WTTA (channel 38), as a result of a larger nationwide deal between The WB and the Sinclair Broadcast Group's UPN affiliates and independent stations (Kansas City sister station KCWB also lost its WB affiliation to a Sinclair station, KSMO-TV, now owned by the Meredith Corporation). WWWB changed its call letters to WMOR-TV that year and rebranded itself as More TV 32 – a moniker also adopted by its Kansas City sister (now known as KCWE). In August 2008, the "More TV 32" branding was dropped for the simplified "TV 32". On April 4, 2011, the station's on-air brand was changed to "MOR". To distance themselves from the earlier "More TV" branding, the station spells out "MOR", instead of saying it as a word; however, it's still inferred as "more", through its slogan, "Just Can't Get Enough".
On July 9, 2012, WMOR's parent company Hearst Television became involved in a dispute with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, leading to WMOR being pulled from Bright House and temporarily replaced with HBO Family on the main WMOR channel and This TV, with InfoMás in Estrella TV's slot.[2] The substitutions lasted until July 19, 2012, when a new carriage deal was reached between Hearst and Time Warner Cable.[3][4]
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[5] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WMOR-TV | Main WMOR-TV programming |
| 32.2 | 480i | 4:3 | This TV | This TV |
| 32.3 | Estrell | Estrella TV |
This TV was added to digital subchannel 32.2 in March 2009. It was followed by the launch of Estrella TV in September 2009 on subchannel 32.3.[6]
Analog-to-digital conversion
WMOR shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 32, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally-mandated transition from analog to digital television.[7] The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as 32.
Programming
Syndicated programming seen on WMOR-TV includes 30 Rock, Leverage, Jerry Springer, The Office, Family Guy, The Big Bang Theory and The Steve Wilkos Show.
Sports programming
WWWB/WMOR was the original television broadcaster of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when it began Major League Baseball play in 1998. Before that, as WTMV, it showed occasional telecasts of Toronto Blue Jays games, including Nolan Ryan's seventh career no-hitter in 1991, to accommodate the Tampa Bay area's unique population of Canadian snowbirds in the days before MLB Extra Innings and MLB.tv came to prominence.[8]
Repeaters
Prior to the end of analog broadcasting for full-power stations in the United States, WMOR operated three repeaters in the Tampa Bay area. Its transmitter is located farther east than the other Tampa Bay stations because of Federal Communications Commission rules requiring a station's transmitter to be within 15 miles (24 km) of its city of license – in this case, Lakeland, which is 56 miles (90 km) east of St. Petersburg and 34 miles (55 km) east of Tampa. Hence, the repeaters were necessary to reach as much of the most-populated areas as possible. The station's former translators were:
| City of license | Callsign | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Port Richey | W18DB | 18 |
| Sarasota | W24AT | 24 |
| St. Petersburg | WMOR-LP | 63 |
| Venice | W56CN | 56 |
The translators were shut down in June 2009, as WMOR's digital signal operates at a full million watts – equivalent to 5 million watts for an analog transmitter – and is more than sufficient to cover the entire market.
References
- ^ "HEARST CORP. TO BUY FLORIDA TV STATION.(BUSINESS).", Albany Times Union. November 1, 1995. HighBeam Research. (February 18, 2011).
- ^ Tampa Bay Times: "Hearst dispute with Bright House pulls WMOR-Ch. 32 and digital THIS TV off Tampa Bay cable system", July 10, 2012.
- ^ Broadcasting & Cable: "Hearst TV, Time Warner Cable End Viewer Blackout", July 19, 2012.
- ^ Tampa Bay Times: "WMOR-Ch. 32 returns to Bright House Networks in Tampa Bay as Hearst resolves dispute with cablers", July 20, 2012.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WMOR
- ^ "Estrella TV Coming Soon". WMOR-TV32.
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
- ^ Re-broadcast of Toronto Blue Jays vs. Texas Rangers, 1991, on MLB Network July 2, 2009
External links
- WMOR homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WMOR
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMOR-TV
- mcsittel.com: 1990s DX screengrabs from Tallahassee -- includes a 1993 WTMV "Traffic Highlights" screengrab
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