In 1975, WFGA underwent
significant changes beginning with a change in call letters
to WTLV TV-12 (WTeLeVision). Later that year, a San Antonio
based newspaper company, Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc., purchased
the station and began the first hour-long newscast called "Action
News".
In 1980, WTLV-12 switched network affiliations to ABC, the #1
network at the time. Ownership changed once more in 1988, when
Gannett Co. Inc., purchased the station from Harte-Hanks Communications.
WTLV returned to NBC in what was known as ?one of the most successful
affiliation switches in the history of NBC?.
WJXX
ABC25 began broadcasting as an ABC affiliate owned by the Albritton
Communications Group in 1997. WJXX was the first station totally
designed for digital broadcast. They also began broadcasting
the first 7pm news in the market. In March 2000, Gannett purchased
the ABC affiliate in Jacksonville, WJXX, and merged operations
with the NBC affiliate, WTLV, thereby creating First Coast News
and one of the first duopolies in the nation.
April
2000 saw the launch of First Coast News and also the first digital
signal in the Jacksonville Market. First Coast News is owned
by Gannett Broadcasting which consists of 22 television stations
covering 17.3% of the USA. In addition to its broadcast operations,
Gannett publishes 74 daily newspapers including USA Today and
USA Weekend, and is the USA?s largest newspaper group in terms
of circulation.
First Coast News currently employs approximately 185 men and
women in the areas of news, engineering, production , promotion,
accounting, sales, programming and administrative support. First
Coast News? commitment to the First Coast is to provide the
most comprehensive news, information, programming and community
service available.
First Coast News is located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida.
First Coast News
1070 East Adams Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
(904)354-1212
Firstcoastnews.com is part of the
Gannett
Network of television and newspaper websites.
First Coast News and firstcoastnews.com
offer a broad range of marketing opportunities. Whether
you are a veteran advertiser or exploring television advertising
for the first time, First Coast News can help you meet your
company's marketing goals.
First
Coast News began broadcasting in 1957 as an NBC affiliate owned
and operated by Florida-Georgia Television Company, Inc. Assigned
the call letters, WFGA, it was the first television station
in the country designed for color broadcasting. Jacksonville
viewers were seeing local live and film color long before the
networks regularly aired it. 
WFGA
was the first television station to air a live launch from Cape
Canaveral in the 1960?s. The station provided the remote facilities
and supplied video and audio for all three major networks, earning
WFGA the exclusive spot for space coverage for NBC. 
