WMOR-TV is an independent television station in the Tampa Bay television market (the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida DMA) and the East Central Florida television market (the Orlando/Melbourne/Daytona Beach, Florida DMA). It is licensed to Lakeland, with studios in Tampa. The station is owned by the Hearst Corporation.

History [link]

The station began operation in April 1986 as WTMV, a music video channel known as V-32. Its owner and General Manager was former mayor of St. Petersburg Beach, Dan Johnson. WTMV began mixing in general entertainment by 1988 following its move to Tampa.

At the time WTMV carried many ABC, NBC and CBS programs when the Tampa network affiliates preempt their network programming.

WTMV's early studios were located in Lakeland on South Florida Avenue, on Lakeland's south side. After a brief period of broadcasting from the transmitter in Mulberry, the WTMV studios relocated to Tampa in the summer of 1988. The move brought WTMV to its present-day Hillsborough Avenue studios on Tampa's east side, a former headend office for Group W Cable's Hillsborough County system.

WTMV became Tampa Bay's WB affiliate when that network launched, branding itself as "WB32". By then it ran cartoons, such as Scooby-Doo, Biker Mice from Mars, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, The Jetsons and The Flintstones. It also ran sitcoms, such as Doogie Howser, M.D., Blossom, The Wonder Years and Too Close for Comfort. It even ran talk shows, such as The Richard Bey Show. It also even ran reality shows, such as Check It Out!, and it also aired movies. It was sold to Hearst in 1996^[1], who changed the calls to WWWB-TV.

In 1998, WWWB lost its affiliation to WTTA (channel 38) as a result of a larger nationwide deal between The WB and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sister station KCWB-TV in Kansas City also lost its WB affiliation to a Sinclair station. WWWB changed its calls to WMOR-TV and rebranded itself as More TV 32—a moniker also adopted by its Kansas City sister (now known as KCWE). Today WMOR-TV offers syndicated programming, talk, reality, sitcoms and movies. It is one of the few independent stations left in the country serving a major market.

In August 2008, the More TV 32 branding was dropped for a more simple TV 32, complete with a brand-new logo. This lasted until April 4th, 2011, when a new logo and "MOR" branding was adopted; to distance themselves from the earlier More TV branding, the station spells out "MOR", instead of saying it as a word.

Sportscasts [link]

WWWB/WMOR was the original broadcast station of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when it began play in 1998. Before that, as WTMV, it showed occasional games of the Toronto Blue Jays, including Nolan Ryan's seventh career no-hitter in 1991, to accommodate the Tampa Bay area's unique population of Canadian snowbirds in the days before MLB Extra Innings and MLB.tv came to prominence.^[2]

WMOR-TV, being owned by Hearst, has right of first refusal for local simulcasts of ESPN-aired Monday Night Football games involving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.^{[citation needed]} ESPN is 20% owned by Hearst. The station, however, has waived the 2011 game against the Indianapolis Colts to WFTS-TV.

Current carriage [link]

On cable, WMOR can be seen on channel 12 on Bright House Networks (channel 10 in North Pinellas County, due to WTSP broadcasting on channel 10), Verizon FiOS, and Comcast Venice; and on channel 4 on Comcast Sarasota.

Digital television [link]

"ThisTV Tampa Bay" was launched in March 2009. It was followed by the launch of Hispanic network Estrella TV in September 2009.^[3]

Repeaters [link]

Prior to the end of analog broadcasting in the United States, WMOR operated three repeaters in the Tampa Bay area. Its transmitter is located farther east than the other Tampa Bay stations because of FCC rules requiring a station's transmitter to be within 15 miles (24 km) of its city of license—in this case, Lakeland, which is 56 miles (90 km) east of St. Petersburg and 34 miles (55 km) east of Tampa. Hence, the repeaters were necessary to reach as much of the most-populated areas as possible. The station's former translators were:

• WMOR-LP, St. Petersburg (channel 63)
• W56CN, Venice (channel 56)
• W18DB, Port Richey (channel 18)
• W24AT, Sarasota (channel 24)

The translators were shut down in June 2009, as WMOR's digital signal operates at a full million watts--equivalent to 5 million watts for an analog transmitter--and is more than sufficient to cover the entire market.

References [link]

External links [link]

• WMOR homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMOR
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMOR-TV
• mcsittel.com: 1990s DX screengrabs from Tallahassee -- includes a 1993 WTMV "Traffic Highlights" screengrab