West Palm Beach, Florida United States |
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City | West Palm Beach |
Branding | WPTV NewsChannel 5 |
Slogan |
Local Coverage You Can Count On |
Channels |
Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 5 () |
Subchannels | 5.1 NBC 5.2 MeTV 5.3 Laff |
Affiliations | NBC |
Owner |
E. W. Scripps Company (Scripps Media, Inc.) |
First air date | August 22, 1954 |
Call letters' meaning | West Palm Beach (or Phipps Family) TeleVision (former owner) |
Sister station(s) | WFLX |
Former callsigns | WJNO-TV (1954–1956) |
Former channel number(s) | 5 (VHF analog, 1954–2009) 55 (UHF digital, –2009) |
Former affiliations |
NBC WX+ (DT2; 2004–2008) LWN (DT2; 2011–2014) |
Transmitter power | 50 kW |
Height | 386.3 m |
Facility ID | 59443 |
Transmitter coordinates | 26°35′20″N 80°12′44″W / 26.58889°N 80.21222°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.wptv.com |
WPTV-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for South Florida's Gold and Treasure Coasts. Licensed to West Palm Beach, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 (PSIP virtual channel 5) from a transmitter in Lake Worth along U.S. 441/SR 7. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 3 (in Martin, Palm Beach, Okeechobee, and Southern St. Lucie Counties) and channel 5 (in Indian River and Northern St. Lucie Counties). Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, WPTV has studios on South Australian Avenue in Downtown West Palm Beach (mailing address says Banyan Boulevard also known as 1st Street).
The station began broadcasting on August 22, 1954 as the primary NBC affiliate for all of South Florida with the call letters WJNO-TV. At sign-on, the first words heard on-air were from Control Room Director Vern Crawford: "The power has just been turned on for WJNO-TV channel 5 by Frank M. Folsom, President of The Radio Corporation of America." Crawford later became a fishing reporter for the station. (While the station is the oldest in operation in the region, the area's first TV station was WIRK-TV, Channel 21, which was in operation from 1953 to 1956.)