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WCJB-TV

Gainesville, Florida United States
Channels	Digital: 16 (UHF) Virtual: 20
Branding	WCJB-TV 20; TV 20 News Gainesville CW (DT2)
Programming
Affiliations	20.1: ABC 20.2: CW+ for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
History
First air date	April 7, 1971 (53 years ago) (1971-04-07)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 20 (UHF, 1971–2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1971–1973)
Call sign meaning	Casey, JoAnn, and Bill Minshall, original owners
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	16993
ERP	343.6 kW
HAAT	254.4 m (835 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	29°32′11.5″N 82°24′0″W / 29.536528°N 82.40000°W / 29.536528; -82.40000
Translator(s)	W35EC-D (35 UHF, Lake City)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wcjb.com

WCJB-TV (channel 20) is a television station in Gainesville, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Northwest 43rd Street in Gainesville, and its transmitter is located near Micanopy, Florida.

History

WCJB began broadcasting April 7, 1971, as an NBC affiliate owned by William E. "Bill" Minshall. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 20, its call sign bears the first initials of his family members: Casey (daughter), JoAnn (wife), and himself, Bill. In 1973, just two years after its first broadcast, the station switched its affiliation to ABC. In 1976, WCJB was sold to Diversified Communications. In 2001, it began airing its digital signal on UHF channel 16. WCJB was one of the ABC affiliates that aired Saving Private Ryan in 2004.

On September 18, 2006, WCJB launched a new second digital subchannel to be the area's CW affiliate as part of the national CW Plus service, replacing the cable-only WB 100+ affiliate "WBFL" after the WB–UPN merger.

Its coverage area includes Lake City (within the Jacksonville market), Ocala (in the Orlando market) and most of North Central Florida. It is also the sole ABC affiliate on cable systems in Live Oak and Jasper (both within the Tallahassee area). Until July 2006, WCJB was the only ABC affiliate seen on Cox Cable systems in Ocala. Even though that city is part of the Orlando market, this station had exclusivity on that system for ABC programming. This kept in-market affiliate WFTV off the system for several years. In that month, the cable company received the green light to pick up WFTV's standard and high definition feeds in Ocala. WFTV and WCJB are also both seen on Charter Spectrum in Belleview and unincorporated Marion County.

Diversified announced on February 16, 2017, that it would exit broadcasting and sell WCJB and its sister station WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, to Gray Television for $85 million. The sale was completed on May 1, 2017. It made WCJB a sister station to WCTV (Gray Television's then-flagship station) in Tallahassee and WJHG-TV and WECP-LD in Panama City.

The Florida Department of Health sent a cease and desist letter to the station, alongside a few others such as Tampa's WFLA-TV, dated October 3, 2024, over a broadcast of a political advertisement backing Amendment 4, relating to the abortion laws in the state. The move was criticized by the Federal Communications Commission.

Programming

Sports programming

WCJB airs select Florida Gators football games as part of ABC's rights to college football telecasts, including select SEC contests beginning in 2024 under the SEC on ABC branding. The station aired the Gators' first-ever national championship in 1996 through their victory in the 1997 Sugar Bowl.

News operation

As of September 2022, WCJB presently broadcasts 35 hours, 15 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and an hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station also broadcasts 2+1⁄2 hours of late local news each week on its CW subchannel.

Originally, WCJB was the only station to operate a news department covering the Gainesville area. As a result, it held the number one spot in Nielsen ratings by a wide margin for most of the station's existence. In addition to its main studios, this station operates a Marion County Bureau on Northeast 1st Avenue in Ocala.

Until the establishment of rival WGFL's GTN News in 2010 (later CBS 4 News), WCJB had the only local news department on a commercial station – non-commercial WUFT television airs a nightly newscast produced by University of Florida journalism and broadcasting students; and Fox affiliate WOGX simulcasts newscasts from sister station WOFL in Orlando, with no separate local inserts targeted to the Gainesville area. Following the discontinuation of CBS 4 News on May 12, 2023, WCJB reassumed becoming the only commercial news station serving Gainesville.

On April 19, 2009, WCJB debuted a new set complete with updated graphics and music theme (identical to that of Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI in the late '90s) which had not changed in almost ten years. The graphics are yellow and orange instead of blue and white. Its updated logo now includes ABC in it unlike the previous two. WCJB began airing local newscasts in high definition on January 9, 2010. Its music theme was later updated in 2012, with a background graphics color change to blue and red. The music theme and news set was then modified on October 22, 2015, and the background graphics was updated on February 1, 2016, showing photos relating to Gainesville and North Central Florida.

From September 18, 2006, until February 2010, it produced a half-hour weeknight prime time newscast on WCJB-DT2, titled WCJB-TV 20 News at 10 on Gainesville CW. The live broadcast was dropped in favor of a repeat of the main channel's 6 o'clock show, but the repeat was later dropped as well.

On January 18, 2016, WCJB expanded its early evening newscast a half-hour earlier to 5 p.m. instead of 5:30. The 6 p.m. newscast remains as scheduled.

On June 26, 2017, for the first time in over eight years, WCJB updated a new logo.

On September 6, 2021, WCJB added an hour-long weekday 4 p.m. newscast on the main channel and relaunched a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on the DT2 CW subchannel.

On September 5, 2022, WCJB extended its weekday noon newscast to one hour, with the last half-hour replacing the canceled Right This Minute.

Florida–Dayton recreation

On March 29, 2014, the Florida Gators beat the Dayton Flyers 62–52 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament. Since WCJB is an ABC affiliate and CBS owned the broadcast rights (although the game aired nationally on TBS), the network could not show highlights until the day after per NCAA regulations. The news team instead recreated the highlights inside a conference room at the station's studio, using a mini-hoop attached to the wall and the station staff doubling as players.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

WCJB-DT2 upgraded its signal to 720p in June 2012.

In January 2018, WCJB added MeTV to its subchannel lineup on channel 20.3, marking the first new subchannel added to WCJB since adding Gainesville CW in September 2006. MeTV had been aired on NBC affiliate WNBW's subchannel 9.4 prior to the change.

On January 1, 2020, WCJB launched a new subchannel, Circle, on channel 20.4.

In March 2020, WCJB added another new subchannel, Justice Network (now True Crime Network), on channel 20.5.

On December 1, 2022, the station added a sixth subchannel, Grit.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WCJB-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 20, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16, using virtual channel 20.

Former translator

Until 1998, WCJB operated an analog translator station, W57AN (UHF channel 57) which rebroadcast WCJB's signal into Marion County from a transmitter located on NE Jacksonville Road in Ocala.

See also

• Channel 16 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 20 virtual TV stations in the United States

References

1. "Facility Technical Data for WCJB-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
2. "Station Changes Its Affiliation With Networks". The Tampa Tribune. Tampa, Florida. July 12, 1973. p. 7-D. Retrieved July 13, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
3. Diana Marszalek, Gray Buys Diversified's Stations in Bangor, Gainesville Broadcasting & Cable, February 16, 2017
4. Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved May 2, 2017.
5. Russon, Gabrielle (October 7, 2024). "Department of Health sends cease and desist letter to TV station over abortion ad". Florida Politics. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
6. Brasch, Ben (October 9, 2024). "Florida threatens to criminally charge TV stations airing abortion rights ad". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
7. Festo, Alan (October 10, 2024). "Florida DOH sends cease-and-desist order to WCJB TV20 over running of abortion ad". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
8. "WCJB is expanding its early-evening newscasts to 5:00 p.m." January 9, 2016.
9. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "DYLANPREVIEW30A". YouTube.
10. "TV20 News at Noon expands to hour-long newscast". September 5, 2022.
11. TV station acts out Florida-Dayton highlights on mini-hoop
12. RabbitEars TV Query for WCJB
13. "CW+ HD and TSReader Data - RabbitEars Blog".
14. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
15. April 18, 1993 Sign-Off – WCJB (ABC, Gainesville), archived from the original on December 22, 2021, retrieved March 8, 2021
16. "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. Retrieved March 8, 2021.

External links

• Official website
• Gainesville CW

• The CW affiliates
• 1971 establishments in Florida
• American Broadcasting Company affiliates
• Gray Television
• Grit (TV network) affiliates
• MeTV affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1971
• Television stations in Gainesville, Florida
• True Crime Network affiliates