History
WTVY's first broadcast was on February 12, 1955, originally on channel 9, as a CBS affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
The station moved to channel 4 around 1960, where it still remains today. When the station moved to channel 4 in 1960, it also relocated to new studios with a 1,209 ft (368.5 m) tower in Webb, five miles (8 km) east of Dothan. At the time, the tower was the tallest structure in the state of Alabama. In the early 1970s WTVY became one of the first stations in the country to broadcast 24 hours a day. WTVY-FM still utilizes the tower to transmit its signal.
In 1978, WTVY moved to its current 2,035 ft (ASL) tower in Bethlehem, Florida (28 miles/45 km southwest of Dothan). The tower is the tallest structure in the state of Florida and one of the tallest broadcasting towers in North America. The tower is so tall that on clear nights the strobe warning lights on the tower have been seen as far as 50 miles away in certain locations. The move was made in part to improve its signal in Panama City, where it had been the default CBS affiliate since the early 1960s. The new tower gave WTVY one of the largest coverage areas in the Southeast. It provides at least grade B coverage to much of the Florida side of the Mobile/Pensacola market, including Fort Walton Beach and Destin. It also provides grade B coverage to much of the Montgomery market.
In 1993, WTVY moved its studios to the historic Houston Hotel building in downtown Dothan (now known as the Woods Building). WTVY operates on the first two floors. The news studio is actually located in what used to be the grand ballroom of the hotel. The building is tall enough (eight stories) that the station's studio-to-transmitter microwave dish is located on top of the building, not requiring a smaller tower to be built on the property.
For many years Charles Woods, a perennial aspirant to the governorship of Alabama, owned WTVY, through his Woods Communications company. The station ownership was transferred to Chemical Bank and operated under the corporate name of Dothan Holdings, LLC Benedek Broadcasting bought WTVY from Chemical Bank/Dothan Holdings in 1995 for a price of $28 million. WTVY was one of the Benedek stations that was purchased by Gray Television in 2002.
Read more about this topic: WTVY (TV)
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