WTOG

WTOG

Company type	Television station
Industry	Broadcasting
Founded	November 4, 1968 (1968-11-04) in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States
Headquarters	St. Petersburg , United States
Area served	Tampa Bay area
Owner	CBS News and Stations
Website	tampabay44.com

WTOG (channel 44), operating under the brand name Tampa Bay 44, is an independent television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida and serving the greater Tampa Bay area. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group and maintains its studios on Northeast 105th Terrace in St. Petersburg, near the western end of the Gandy Bridge. The station's transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

Initial Phase

WTOG commenced broadcasting on November 4, 1968, as an independent station. It was established by Hubbard Broadcasting, a company based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which also owned WGTO (540 AM), a radio station in nearby Cypress Gardens, Florida. Hubbard initially requested the callsign WGTO-TV; however, the FCC rejected this due to regulations prohibiting identical base callsigns in different markets. Consequently, the callsign was altered to WTOG.

The station started with a brief two-hour daily test transmission, later extending its broadcast day to eight hours by January 27, 1969.

In its early years, WTOG’s schedule consisted primarily of older films, low-budget syndicated programs, reruns of westerns and sitcoms, along with cartoons. During the mid-1970s, it adopted the slogan "WTOG... As Far as the Eye Can See." The station quickly established a strong presence in the market, ultimately leading to the closure of rival WSUN-TV (channel 38) in 1970. Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, WTOG remained the only independent broadcaster in the Tampa Bay region.

Programming hours gradually increased: by 1972, weekday broadcasts began at 10:30 a.m., and by 1976 daily sign-on was at 7 a.m. The content lineup improved with more popular sitcoms, cartoons, syndicated dramas, and higher-quality films. During this era, WTOG sustained profitability while enhancing its programming offerings.

Expansion as a Superstation

In 1981, WTOG encountered competition when Family Group Broadcasting launched WFTS-TV (channel 28) as a family-oriented independent outlet. Nevertheless, WTOG retained market dominance for approximately twenty years. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it was widely available on cable systems throughout central and southwestern Florida and operated several low-power repeater stations in Sebring, Inverness, Arcadia, Ocala, and Okeechobee. The station promoted itself as "Florida's Super Station," emphasizing its extensive regional reach. Plans to extend into cable systems in Tallahassee were considered but never came to fruition. WTOG ranked among the nation's most lucrative independent stations and attracted interest from industry figures such as Ted Turner.

Affiliation Changes: Fox to UPN

On October 9, 1986, WTOG became one of the founding affiliates of the then-new Fox network. Initially, Fox’s programming was limited to two hours on weekend evenings; hence WTOG largely maintained an independent programming schedule. Dissatisfaction with Fox’s relatively weak offerings—particularly on Saturdays—prompted WTOG to end its affiliation on August 8, 1988; Fox programming subsequently moved to WFTS (owned by the E. W. Scripps Company). During the early 1990s, WTOG continued airing cartoons, sitcoms, dramas, and older movies. Between 1993 and 1995, it affiliated with the Prime Time Entertainment Network through a partnership with United Television.

While major affiliation realignments swept through Tampa Bay in 1994 with little impact on WTOG, it became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) when it launched on January 16, 1995. The station preserved a general entertainment format during daytime hours while dedicating prime time slots to UPN content.

In spring 1996, ownership transferred to Paramount Stations Group, a division of Viacom, aligning with Viacom’s strategy to consolidate UPN owned-and-operated outlets. This acquisition made WTOG Tampa Bay’s first network-owned station. Paramount rebranded it as "UPN44," a title retained throughout UPN’s lifespan. By the late 1990s, daytime programming shifted toward talk shows, courtroom series like People's Court and Judge Mills Lane, and reality television. Popular cartoons such as Pokémon and Disney's Hercules, alongside sitcoms including Family Matters, The Simpsons, and Friends, remained central; feature films were largely removed from the schedule. When Viacom acquired CBS in 2000, it merged CBS owned-and-operated stations into Paramount Stations Group.

In May 1999, following a power failure at WFLA-TV’s studios in Downtown Tampa, WTOG temporarily hosted operations for WFLA-TV (channel 8).

Transition to The CW

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation, which had recently separated from Viacom, and Warner Bros. Entertainment (a division of Time Warner) revealed plans to combine The WB and UPN programming to form a new network called The CW. As part of this launch, The CW secured a 10-year affiliation agreement with 11 former UPN stations owned by CBS, including WTOG; consequently, channel 44 became a CW owned-and-operated station when the network debuted on September 18, 2006. Under its current ownership structure, WTOG stands as one of two network-owned stations in the Tampa Bay area, alongside WTVT, which is owned by Fox. Over time, WTOG gradually removed animated programming from its lineup, replacing it with reality and court shows, while sitcoms continued to occupy evening time slots.

For an extended period, WTOG oversaw master control operations for its sister station KEYE-TV located in Austin, Texas. However, in November 2006, the master control functions for both WTOG and WUPA in Atlanta were transferred to WGNT in Norfolk, Virginia; this move led to 20 job cuts despite earlier CBS assurances that layoffs would not occur. Subsequently, KEYE was sold to Four Points Media Group under Cerberus Capital Management (which was later acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group). WGNT was sold in 2010 to Local TV LLC, which merged with Tribune Broadcasting in 2013; both WGNT and WTKR are currently sister stations of WFTS under the ownership of Scripps. After CBS shut down the Norfolk master control hub, WTOG and WUPA resumed managing their own master control operations independently.

Reverting to Independence

Nexstar Media Group acquired majority control of The CW on October 3, 2022. According to the agreement, CBS maintained the option to terminate affiliations with its eight CW stations. On May 5, 2023, CBS exercised this right: WTOG ended its CW programming at the conclusion of August and reverted to an independent station for the first time since 1995. Beginning September 1, Nexstar-owned WTTA assumed The CW affiliation for the Tampa Bay market.

Sports Coverage

From its inception until 1976, WTOG broadcast Atlanta Braves baseball games through a regional syndication package covering parts of the Southern United States. This arrangement ended with the introduction of Superstation TBS, which took over Braves regional broadcasts. Between 1977 and 1989, WTOG aired a variety of Major League Baseball games from several team networks daily—except on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays—including teams such as the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees, primarily during spring training in Florida. The station discontinued baseball telecasts after ESPN secured MLB cable rights in 1990. Looking ahead to 2025, WTOG has partnered with the Tampa Bay Rays and FanDuel Sports Network to simulcast 15 games.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTOG also aired numerous road matches and indoor soccer games featuring the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the professional NASL. Since 2024, it has broadcast home fixtures for the current Rowdies squad competing in the USL Championship.

In addition, WTOG carried preempted National Hockey League contests from NBC during the 1970s and later syndicated games from the NHL Network. From 1992 until 2003, WTOG was the flagship television station for the Tampa Bay Lightning before their broadcasts moved exclusively to cable channels.

News operations

From its inception until 1982, WTOG provided brief daily news updates primarily at sign-on and sign-off, featuring an announcer delivering headlines accompanied by a static slide. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station incorporated an on-camera news presenter within its morning show, Florida Daybreak. Although WTOG adopted the Eyewitness News branding in the late 1970s, its news coverage maintained a relatively subdued tone.

In 1982, Hubbard Broadcasting established a comprehensive news division for WTOG, launching a nightly newscast at 10 p.m. Initially branded as Eyewitness News, the program was co-anchored by Barbara Callahan and John Nicholson. The newscast underwent several rebrandings: it became Tampa Bay Tonight in the mid-1980s, was retitled 44 News at Ten in 1988, and later changed to WTOG 44 News at Ten in 1992. John Summer served as anchor from 1985 through 1995, partnering with various co-anchors including Callahan. Following Viacom’s acquisition of WTOG in 1996, the broadcast was renamed UPN44 10 O'Clock News, with Callahan and Patrick Emory as co-anchors. Additionally, from 1995 to 1996, WTOG aired a newscast at 11 a.m.

Due to financial constraints and competition from Fox affiliate WTVT’s 10 p.m. newscast, Viacom discontinued WTOG’s news department in 1998. Consequently, from that point until 2020, WTOG did not produce local news programming, making it one of seven CBS-owned stations without such broadcasts. During this interval, syndicated shows like The Daily Buzz occupied airtime until its cancellation in 2015; afterward, paid programming and children’s content filled the schedule.

On January 17, 2020, CBS Television Stations announced that WTOG would resume nightly newscasts at 10 p.m., produced by sister station WFOR-TV in Miami, with the relaunch set for March 9. This marked WTOG’s return to local news after a more than two-decade hiatus. In July 2022, the newscast adopted the CBS News Now branding under the title Tampa Bay Now News, continuing until August 31, 2023.

Prominent former on-air personnel

• Jane Akre – anchor (1996)
• Christine Chubbuck – reporter (early 1970s)
• Ray Perkins – host of The Buc Report
• Beasley Reece – sports anchor (1986–1988, 1997–1998)
• Carmen Roberts – reporter (1980s)
• Mary Rogers – anchor (??−1993)
• Rob Stone – sports anchor (late 1990s)
• Ken Suarez – reporter (1988–1998)

Subchannels

WTOG broadcasts multiple digital subchannels:

Channel	Resolution	Aspect ratio	Identifier	Content
44.1	1080p	16:9	WTOG	Primary programming
44.2	480p		StartTV	Start TV
44.3			FaveTV	Fave TV
44.4			DABL	Dabl
44.5			Catchy	Catchy Comedy
44.6			MeTOONS	MeTV Toons
44.7			Story	Story Television

Transition from analog to digital

On June 12, 2009, WTOG terminated its analog transmissions on UHF channel 44 as part of the federally mandated digital television transition. Its digital broadcast shifted from pre-transition UHF channel 59—a high-band UHF frequency (52–69) that was removed from service—to its original analog channel position at UHF channel 44.

Translators

• W26DP-D located in Inverness, Florida
• W36FJ-D based in Sebring, Florida

Previous translator

WTOG once managed translator W29AB (channel 29) in Ocala, which was sold in 1995 to First Media and subsequently repurposed as a translator for WCPX (currently WKMG-TV) in Orlando.