Early years
In 1977, interest began to increase in the unused channel 30 allocation to Jacksonville. Three groups applied for the channel: Malrite Communications; Crown Broadcasting, headed by Martin Stein, the founder of Jacksonville's Regency Square shopping center;[1] and Springfield Television. As a result, Malrite shifted its application to channel 47, also sought by Christian Television of Jacksonville.[2] Springfield withdrew its application in an agreement to buy 25 percent of Crown's stock,[3] clearing the way for Crown to receive a construction permit on November 2, 1978.[4] After a split between Crown and Springfield,[5] the station was still unbuilt by 1980, when Malrite—which had withdrawn its channel 47 application in 1978[6]—agreed to buy 51 percent of Crown's permit.[7]
From studios on Hogan Road, channel 30 began broadcasting as WAWS-TV on February 15, 1981. It was an independent station whose programming consisted of movies, classic TV series, and children's programs, including a local version of TV Powww.[8] Named for Ashley Wellhouse Stein, granddaughter of Martin Stein,[9] it was the second new television station for Jacksonville in six months; channel 47 had debuted on August 1, 1980, as WXAO-TV.[10] Even though channel 30 was the second of the two stations to come on air, it quickly drew a larger audience than WXAO-TV, which in its early years was a Christian-oriented station. A May 1981 ratings survey from the Nielsen Company measured total-day viewership for WXAO at 5,000 viewers and WAWS at 19,000.[11] Malrite became the sole owner of WAWS in 1984, when it agreed to acquire Crown Broadcasting's 49-percent stake.[12]
WAWS remained Jacksonville's leading independent station through the 1980s,[13] in spite of increased competition from channel 47,[14] which shed its Christian orientation and became a secular independent as WNFT in 1983.[15] In 1986, WAWS joined the new Fox network at its launch.[16]
Malrite put WAWS up for sale in early 1989 and negotiated with NewSouth Broadcasting, owners of WTSG-TV in Albany, Georgia, as to a possible purchase. After negotiations with NewSouth, which was speculated to have been disfavored by program syndicators, fell through,[17] Clear Channel Television agreed to acquire the station for $8.1 million in a deal announced in late June.[18] Clear Channel expanded its Jacksonville operations in 1995, when WNFT—by that time a UPN affiliate—was acquired by RDS Broadcasting. RDS signed a local marketing agreement for Clear Channel to manage most station operations with its own staff, with RDS employing a general manager and chief engineer. The WNFT programming lineup was changed to prevent it from competing with WAWS's higher-rated selections of children's programs and situation comedies.[19] In March 1996, that station changed its call sign to WTEV-TV.[20]
Entering the news business
Under Clear Channel, WAWS gained a news presence. The station contracted with Jacksonville's ABC affiliate, WJKS (channel 17), to produce a 10 p.m. local newscast. Fox 30 First Coast News at 10 debuted on October 7, 1991; it was the first full-length prime time newscast in the Jacksonville market and featured a dedicated producer, reporter, and videographer.[21] WJKS was the third-rated news operation in Jacksonville at the time,[22] and the newscast it produced for WAWS came to draw more viewers than WJKS's 11 p.m. news, twice as many by May 1996.[23]
In 1996, WJKS was announced to have lost its ABC affiliation to WBSG-TV (channel 21) in Brunswick, Georgia, beginning in 1997. WJKS's owner, Media General, gave up the fight to retain the network affiliation that August; at that time, channel 17's news employees were told the news operation would continue at least through December, because WJKS had to maintain a news department to meet its contractual obligations to WAWS.
Newport Television ownership
Clear Channel announced the sale of its television station portfolio to Newport Television, controlled by Providence Equity Partners, for $1.2 billion (equivalent to $ in ) on April 20, 2007. The sale was made so Clear Channel could refocus around its radio, outdoor advertising and live event units.[44][45] The sale received FCC approval on December 1, 2007; after settlement of a lawsuit filed by Clear Channel owners Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital against Providence to force the deal's completion, consummation took place on March 14, 2008.[46][47] When the FCC approved the transaction, it forced Newport to immediately divest itself of one of WAWS or WTEV within six months of completing the purchase. Though their ownership had previously been permissible, now they were both among the four highest-rated TV stations in the Jacksonville market and could not be sold to the same buyer. The FCC at the time did not permit the common ownership of "top four" stations.[48]
In March 2012, Providence Equity Partners announced it was seeking a buyer for the Newport Television stations. Four months later, it announced the sale of most of the stations, with Cox Media Group acquiring WAWS and WTEV as well as Newport's stations in Tulsa.[51] Unable to own the WTEV-TV license outright, Cox assigned it to Bayshore Television, owned by Bruce Baker, a former Cox Television president, but continued to program the station.[52]
Action News was aggressively overhauled in 2014 with the non-renewal of the contracts of five anchors, including Kelton—who stayed on in another capacity—and Mike Barz. Twenty positions were added, mostly in the newsroom; weekend early morning newscasts were launched; and the news product was reoriented around a faster pace.[54] New main news anchors, John Bachman and Tenikka Smith-Hughes, were hired from other Cox stations in Atlanta and Charlotte. The relaunch also included changes in call sign for WAWS and WTEV. On August 26, 2014, Cox announced their intention to change WAWS's call sign to WFOX-TV, contingent on FCC approval, through a request made in July. In an email to The Florida Times-Union, general manager Jim Zerwekh stated that the change would better associate the station with the Fox network.[55]
