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.
We also began our commitment to the First Coast donating money, tower space and transmitting facilities to establish Jacksonville’s first educational television station - WJCT.
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.
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Visit Instructions:In your log, you should include a picture of yourself, or if alone, a picture with the GPSr in the shot is acceptable.
Please relate your experience at the location, or any stories you may have that relates to that station (e.g. you appeared as a child in a local program, you were interviewed on-camera for a news story, etc.).
Pictures with you and the local news personalities or celebrities get you extra credit!