Blab TV is a local television channel in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, United States. It airs local programming as well as locally produced

infomercials An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

for businesses in the Florida Panhandle. Blab TV programming airs on local cable systems and on

WPAN WPAN (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, United States, serving northwest Florida and southwest Alabama. Its main channel primarily airs programming from Blab TV, a locally based channel that produces ...

(channel 53), a broadcast station serving the Mobile–Pensacola region.

History

Blab TV (originally stylized BLAB-TV, a

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

for Basic Local Area Broadcasting or Basic Local Audience Broadcasting) was started by Fred Vigodsky and debuted on February 1, 1984, with a 90-minute program aired through local cable systems; Vigodsky owned the network until its 2016 sale to a consortium of Doug Bunze, John Tolan, and Eric Ober. During the time he owned it, Vigdosky expanded its reach from the Florida panhandle to the broader Gulf Coast region; it even briefly expanded beyond to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

. It also appeared on broadcast television for the first time when it leased 37 hours a week from WPAN, at the time an inactive station. By 1994, 400,000 Mobile–Pensacola-area cable viewers had access to BLAB. The next year, BLAB moved into new studios in the former J. C. Penney store in downtown Pensacola.

Joe Scarborough Charles Joseph Scarborough (; born April 9, 1963) is an American television host and former politician who is the co-host of ''Morning Joe'' on MSNBC with his wife Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. He previously hosted '' Scarborough Country'' ...

used Blab TV in his 1994 campaign to run for Florida's 1st congressional district. In 2011, Blab TV leased a subchannel on WFBD, a regional television station, expanding its reach. Since October 2020, it has returned to WPAN, airing as its main subchannel. In 2024, Blab TV announced an agreement to air some

Pensacola Blue Wahoos The Pensacola Blue Wahoos are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League (1964–present), Southern League and the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. They are based in Pensacola, Florida, and play their home ga ...

games. The Blue Wahoos are the Double-A affiliate of the

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...

References

External links

*{{official site, https://www.blabtv.com/ Television stations in the Mobile–Pensacola market Television channels and stations established in 1984 1984 establishments in Florida