WZVN-TV
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WZVN-TV, channel 26, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southwest Florida that is licensed to Naples. Its analog transmitter is located northeast of Bonita Springs near the Collier and Lee County line. This location puts a stronger signal into Naples and Southern Collier County. WZVN's digital transmitter is located north of Fort Myers Shores near the Lee and Charlotte County line. Owned by Montclaire Communications, the station is operated by Waterman Broadcasting Corporation under a local marketing agreement (LMA).
This makes it a sister station to NBC affiliate WBBH-TV. The two stations share studios on Central Avenue in Fort Myers. WZVN is carried on Comcast cable channel 7, which is why the station is known on-air as ABC 7. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Dr. Phil, TMZ, and The Insider. WZVN is one of two major Fort Myers-based stations licensed to Naples (the other one being CW affiliate WXCW).
History
WZVN began broadcasting on August 31, 1974 with the call letters WEVU. The station was owned by Caloosa Television. In 1976, the Home News Company purchased the station. WEVU began its partnership with WBBH in 1994 through a local marketing agreement (LMA) according to a USA Today article on media consolidation. The station became owned by Montclair Communications but was now a junior partner in the LMA. Without this arrangement, WEVU would have had to shut down its news department. The station's call letters became WZVN on October 16, 1995.
The previous WEVU calls currently reside on a Class A station. In 1995, WZVN began identifying itself on-air by its cable channel and started using a variant of the common circle 7 logo. The station's version has the ABC logo attached to the bottom left corner superimposed over a tall black rectangle. Unlike the more common varieties, as used by WABC-TV in New York City, the "seven" numeral is curved differently. Both of WZVN and WBBH's digital signals went on-the-air on October 31, 2002. As a result, the two stations became the first in the market to make such a launch.
News operation
In 1994, when WZVN and WBBH begin their partnership, reporters would appear on either station. The combined forces of the two stations were billed as the "Eyewitness News Network". However, each station used its own primary personalities, news set, and on-air style. Today this continues with Darrel Adams as current News Director for both stations. Although the two have separate on-air identities, it is not unusual for news personnel to share video. With its city of license being Naples and its analog transmitter location farther south than other stations, WZVN has a slight focus on Collier County. WBBH tends to cover more news from Charlotte County. That station is the primary competitor with CBS affiliate WINK-TV which has been and continues to be the market leader.
WZVN's best known former personality is Harry Horn who was also a veteran of WBBH and WINK-TV. He anchored weeknights on WZVN for 15 years until his retirement in 2004. Horn lost his battle with ALS in August of 2005. On August 14, 2006, WZVN rebranded its evening newscasts as Gulfshore News and added a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on MyNetworkTV affiliate "WNFM". However, it only ran for 9 months as a result of Comcast's frequent technical difficulties (the cable company operates the station). This hindered the show's ratings and as a result, WZVN canceled the production on May 25, 2007. This move was also in response to the popularity of WINK-TV's nightly 10 o;clock news on WXCW. Back on November 8, 2006, re-branding of WZVN's newscasts continued with Good Morning Southwest Florida becoming Good Morning Gulfshore.
On April 9, 2007, WZVN pulled the Gulfshore News label from its newscasts and now simply refers to them as ABC 7 News. During major hurricanes, recently Charley and Wilma, the news teams of WZVN and WBBH join together to put on 24-hour coverage. There is a simulcast on both stations and a common live video stream on both of their websites. During previous years, WBBH's anchor desk was used along with both station's weather centers. As of the 2007 season, WZVN's high definition studio will be used in the event of a hurricane as it provides the best protection against damaging winds. Commercial breaks are dropped for several hours preceding and following landfall. On July 12, 2007, WZVN began broadcasting its news in widescreen 16x9 standard definition. The station branded it as "enhanced digital definition" which is not the same as full high definition. It also began to use the WZVN-HD calls on its website. On October 20, competitor WINK-TV became the first Southwest Florida station to broadcast local news in full high definition.
In early-February 2008 following the lead of WZVN, WBBH upgraded to enhanced digital definition local broadcasts. On July 19, the two stations started broadcasting their local newscasts in high definition becoming the second and third stations respectively in Fort Myers to do so (WZVN upgraded five hours after WBBH). Unlike most ABC affiliates, WZVN does not air news at Noon or at 5 P.M. during the week. However (until October 26, 2008), it aired a 10 o'clock edition of it morning news. On that date, several changes occurred at both stations. WZVN dropped the first hour of its weekday morning news as well as the 10 A.M. broadcast. WBBH also debuted a new 11 A.M. newscast while keeping its Noon broadcast. In addition to their main studios, WZVN and WBBH share two news bureaus. The Collier County Bureau is located on Tamiami Trail North in Naples. The Charlotte County Bureau is located in Punta Gorda. The two stations own and share a Baron weather radar. It is located near their studios and is known on WZVN as "ABC 7 Precision VIPIR".
News team
Anchors
- Eric Weisfeld - weekday mornings and weekdays at 11 A.M. on WBBH
- Len Jennings - weeknights
- Stacey Deffenbaugh - weeknights
- Catherine Bergerson - weekends and reporter
ABC 7 Precision Weather Team
- Jim Reif (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights and Waterman Broadcasting Director of Meteorology
- John Patrick (NWA and AMS Seals of Approval) - weekday mornings and weekdays at 11 A.M. on WBBH
- Jim Clarke (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekends
Sports
- Brian Colleran - Director seen weeknights
- Evan Fitzgerald - weekend evenings and sports reporter
Reporters
- Mike Baldyga
- Kelly Imrick - weekday morning traffic
- Katie LaGrone - consumer and investigative
- Joshua Landon
- Scott Dobroski - weekday mornings
- Susie Hassan
- Todd Ofenbeck - Photojournalist Director
- Kevin Ozebeck
- Noah Pransky
- Stephanie Tsoflias
- Max Turnier
Station alumni
- Nancy Alvarez - former weekday morning and 10 A.M. anchor now at WBBH-TV (also consumer and investigative reporter)
- Gordon Barnes - Chief Meteorologist
- Ibby Carothers - meteorologist
- Paul Conrad - weather forecaster
- Michelle Cunningham - former meteorologist now at WBBH
- Tim Drawbridge - weekend meteorologist
- Meghan Danahey - former weekend meteorologist now at WFAA-TV
- Wayne Farris - anchored for a few months after leaving WCKT in 1984
- Shelby Goldman - sports
- Julian Gonzalez - sports
- Sharon Gregory - former evening anchor now at sister station WVIR-TV
- Harry Horn - anchor
- Curtis Jay
- Phil Jean - sports
- Bonnie Kenny
- Scott Madus
- Emily Norman - anchor
- Kent Overmeyer - Sports Director
- Meredith Putney - anchor
- Erik Salna - Chief Meteorologist
- Bay Scroggins - former anchor now at KSTP-TV
- Heather Turco - former anchor now at WBBH-TV
- Patrick Taney - former weekday morning anchor now 5:30 P.M. anchor at WKBW-TV
- Gary Widom - reporter
- Kristen Nastasia - now at WSPA-TV