Editing WTSP (section)

==History==
===Independent and ABC affiliation===
The station first signed on the air on July 18, 1965, as WLCY-TV, becoming the fourth commercial television outlet in the Tampa Bay region in a 12-year timeframe, and the fifth overall. The station debuted a week and a half after<ref>{{cite web |title=LinkedIn, 10 Tampa Bay |url=https://www.linkedin.com/company/wtsp-tv/about/ |publisher=WTSP-TV |access-date=October 9, 2022 |archive-date=March 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314005422/https://www.linkedin.com/uas/login?session_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fwtsp-tv%2Fabout%2F |url-status=live }}</ref> the conclusion of a decade-long court battle between five prospective owners seeking the Channel 10 license, including the ''[[St. Petersburg Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tampabays10.com/company/aboutus/|title=Station history page|access-date=August 24, 2008|archive-date=October 2, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002100131/http://www.tampabays10.com/company/aboutus/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was owned by Rahall Communications, along with WLCY radio (1380 AM, now [[WWMI]]; and 94.9 FM, now [[WWRM]]). The station was affiliated with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], but spent its first month and a half of operation as an [[independent station]], as previous ABC affiliate [[WSUN-TV]] (channel 38; frequency now occupied by [[WTTA]]) went to court to keep the affiliation. The city of St. Petersburg, owners of WSUN-TV, had been one of the applicants for the Channel 10 license, having jumped in out of fear of losing its ABC affiliation. WLCY ultimately won and formally switched to ABC in a special ceremony on September 1, 1965. As a condition for being placed on VHF channel 10 instead of a [[UHF]] placement, the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) required the station to produce 20 hours of public service programming each week.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}  When WLCY landed the ABC affiliation, it finally gave the Tampa Bay Area market all three commercial television affiliates on the VHF dial alongside [[WFLA-TV]] (channel 8) and [[WTVT]] (channel 13), respective affiliates of [[NBC]] and [[CBS]].

Until 1981, the station was licensed to [[Largo, Florida|Largo]],{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} north of St. Petersburg, but its studios have always been based in St. Petersburg. The station's first studio facilities were located at 2426 Central Avenue. Its current studios on Gandy Boulevard, originally known as the "Rahall Color Communications Center" were dedicated on October 15, 1968. In-studio broadcasts were fully in [[color television|color]] by 1966, but field reports during the station's newscasts remained in black and white until 1972.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}

The station aired several local children's programs as ''Submarine 10'', ''[[Romper Room]]'' with June Hurley, ''10 Ultimate'' and ''This Side Up,'' and local [[talk show]]s such as ''Russ Byrd's Morning Show'', ''The John Eastman Show'', ''The Liz Richards Show'' and ''Murphy in the Morning''. From 1966 to 1967, the station produced ''10 á Go Go,'' a teen dance show hosted by WLCY-AM disc jockey Roy Nilson. Another early local program was a morning exercise show, ''The Fran Carlton Show''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} The most popular program on channel 10 during that era was the syndicated ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]''.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} In the mid-1970s, the station aired ''[[Bowling for Dollars]]'' with host Jim Bradley.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}

In October 1971, WXLT (now [[WWSB]], channel 40) signed on to provide ABC network programming to the [[Sarasota]] area as WLCY's signal was mediocre to poor in most of [[Sarasota County]]. WLCY's transmitter was located at 1754 Solar Drive in [[Holiday, Florida|Holiday]], an [[unincorporated area|unincorporated]] community in the southwestern corner of [[Pasco County]]<ref name=EI042879>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gLdaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=61gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6925%2C3359484 "Gospel Television Coming to Suncoast"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220202603/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gLdaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=61gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6925%2C3359484 |date=February 20, 2023 }}, ''[[Evening Independent]]'', April 28, 1979, p. 6A.</ref> (where it would remain until 2011). Tampa Bay residents had to use a special VHF antenna that faced away from [[Riverview, Florida|Riverview]] in order to view WLCY (this setup was called the "Tampa Bay Special"). Ratings for the station during the early to mid-1970s were dismal, however, compared to WTVT (channel 13) and WFLA-TV (channel 8) and, as a result, channel 10 nearly lost its ABC affiliation. Its transmitter location in Pasco County was the primary contributor to WLCY's low viewership (all of other stations serving the Tampa Bay area operated their transmitters in Riverview, in [[Hillsborough County, Florida|Hillsborough County]]). It also operated at a lower power than the other Tampa Bay stations.

In 1977, WLCY-TV was purchased by [[Dallas, Texas]]-based Gulf United Broadcasting. New owner Alan Henry (of [[WINS (AM)|WINS]] New York fame), [[general manager]] Larry Clamage, and [[news director]] George "Bud" Faulder began to turn the station around, changing the call letters to WTSP-TV on September 12, 1978, and hiring several new on-air staff members who changed the face of the station. In June 1979, WTSP began using a logo known as the "sunset 10" (which was later duplicated by its sister station [[KSAZ-TV|KTSP]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona]]) along with the "[[Action News]]" format.

WTSP is also a station of firsts: in October 1979, the station acquired "Sky 10", Tampa Bay's first television news helicopter which was the only one to broadcast live aerial coverage of the aftermath of the infamous [[Sunshine Skyway Bridge|Skyway Bridge]] disaster in May 1980. Another technological advance was Tampa Bay's first satellite news truck called "Star 10" which was introduced in 1984, that beamed signals from distant locations to WTSP's Gandy Boulevard studios. WTSP also acquired Tampa Bay's first [[Doppler weather radar]] called "StormSeeker" in 1980, was one of the first television stations in the country to use a computer in weather forecasting called "WeatherEye" in 1979 and was the first station in the market to provide a seven-day forecast in 1992. The station pioneered the use of satellite technology among local television stations in the United States, deploying its own satellite dish in 1979.

In 1979, the station launched an aggressive marketing campaign, and in April of that year, the station built a taller transmission tower, improving the station's broadcast signal. By 1982, WTSP had passed WFLA in the evening news ratings where it remained until the latter part of the decade. WTSP has won many prestigious awards, including the [[Peabody Awards|George Foster Peabody award]] in 1983. [[Taft Broadcasting]] (soon to be rebranded Taft Television and Radio) purchased the station along with four other Gulf properties in 1985. Then, in 1988 after a hostile takeover, Taft Television and Radio was forced to sell its independent stations and Fox affiliates to [[TVX Broadcast Group]], while Taft's remaining network affiliate properties, including WTSP, became part of the restructured Great American Broadcasting (which became known as Citicasters by 1995).

===CBS affiliation===
{{further|1994–96 United States broadcast television realignment}}
In June 1994, [[E. W. Scripps Company|Scripps Howard Broadcasting]] arranged for several of its stations to affiliate with ABC (including [[WFTS-TV]], channel 28, which was about to lose its [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliation to then-CBS affiliate WTVT, channel 13, due to a corporate deal between Fox and WTVT's then-owner [[New World Pictures#New World Communications|New World Communications]]) in order to allow [[WEWS-TV]] ([[Cleveland]]) and [[WXYZ-TV]] ([[Detroit]]) to renew their affiliations with the network. WTSP later signed a deal to become the market's new CBS affiliate, resulting in a three-way affiliation swap that occurred on December 12, 1994, with the ''ABC Sunday Night Movie'' premiere of ''[[Hook (film)|Hook]]'' being the final ABC program to air on channel 10 on December 11 at 9&nbsp;p.m. Eastern Time. Upon switching to CBS, WTSP went from third to second place in the local news ratings, although a later resurgent WTVT and competition from WFTS' upstart news department would result in the station battling for second with those stations for the remainder of the 1990s. WFLA was the market leader, until dipping to second after the 2009 premiere of the 10 p.m. ''[[The Jay Leno Show]]''.

Citicasters (which held on to WTSP and [[WKRC-TV]] in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] after it sold its other television stations to New World, whose station properties were later acquired by [[Fox Television Stations]] in 1997) merged with [[Jacor]] in September 1996. Three months later, in December 1996, the [[Gannett Company]] acquired WTSP in a swap deal, [[WDAE|selling]] [[WMTX|six]] [[KEIB|of]] [[KIIS-FM|its]] [[KMRO|radio]] [[KLQV|stations]] to Jacor in return. In the spring of 1999, WTSP debuted a new Doppler weather radar system branded as "Double Doppler". The station ceased using the radar located in Pasco County in 2013; the remaining radar is located at the station's transmitter site in Riverview.
[[Image:WTSP2008.png|165px|thumb|Logo as "10 Connects", used from October 9, 2008, to July 26, 2010.]]
On October 9, 2008, WTSP rebranded from "Tampa Bay's 10" to "10 Connects" (with the "10 Connects Network" being used alternatively). The station's "10 Connects" logo was similar to the one in use since 2002 though without the wave design, along with a small notch in the oval portion of the logo for the "Connects" text (this logo was nicknamed "[[Pacman]]" for its resemblance to the video game character.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://flnewscenter.com/?p=2570|title=Florida News Center "Goodbye PacMan"|access-date=July 26, 2010|archive-date=September 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926094242/http://flnewscenter.com/?p=2570|url-status=live}}</ref>). The station re-branded itself as ''10News'' in July 2010.

[[Image:Wtsp.png|150px|thumb|right|"10" logo used from October 2002 to October 2008 and again from July 2010 to April 2017. Variations of this logo were in use until May 2020.]]
The station re-launched its investigative unit, "10Investigates", in 2011 with the nucleus of investigative reporters Mike Deeson and Noah Pransky. The unit has won several national awards since then, including a national Edward R. Murrow Award for a story on soccer goal safety and national Columbia-duPont and George Polk awards for exposing red light camera injustices.

Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a [[Carriage dispute|dispute]] against [[Dish Network]] regarding [[Retransmission consent|compensation]] fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper [[digital video recorder]]s. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for WTSP. Gannett threatened to pull it from the satellite provider should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Loose|first=Ashley|title=DISH customers may lose Gannett programming, including 12 News KPNX, over AutoHop feature|url=http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/dish-customers-may-lose-gannett-programming-including-12-news-kpnx-over-autohop-feature|access-date=October 6, 2012|publisher=[[KNXV-TV]]|date=October 5, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011013154/http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/dish-customers-may-lose-gannett-programming-including-12-news-kpnx-over-autohop-feature|archive-date=October 11, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Vuong|first=Andy|title=Gannett threatening to black out stations in its dispute with Dish|url=http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_21710959/gannett-threatening-black-out-stations-its-dispute-dish|access-date=October 6, 2012|newspaper=[[Denver Post]]|date=October 6, 2012|archive-date=October 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007231731/http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_21710959/gannett-threatening-black-out-stations-its-dispute-dish|url-status=live}}</ref> The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.<ref>{{cite news|last=Warner|first=Melodie|title=Dish, Gannett Reach New Deal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444897304578044401930225948|access-date=October 8, 2012|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=October 8, 2012|archive-date=September 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924090642/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444897304578044401930225948|url-status=live}}</ref>

On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WTSP was retained by the latter company, named [[Tegna Inc.|Tegna]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = Separation of Gannett into two public companies completed {{!}} TEGNA|date = June 29, 2015|url = http://www.tegna.com/separation-of-gannett-into-two-public-companies-completed/|publisher = Tegna|access-date = June 29, 2015|archive-date = July 2, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150702005302/http://www.tegna.com/separation-of-gannett-into-two-public-companies-completed/|url-status = live}}</ref> Its branding then evolved to ''10News WTSP''. In May 2020, the station would be rebranded as ''10 Tampa Bay''; at that time, the station rolled out a new logo designed by Atlanta-based design firm Matchstic,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://matchstic.com/work/10tampabay|title=10 Tampa Bay|access-date=December 16, 2020|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128074832/https://matchstic.com/work/10tampabay|url-status=live}}</ref> who had also created an identity for sister station [[WXIA-TV]] in 2019.