WZVN-TV (channel 26, cable channel 7), known as Gulf Coast ABC, is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

licensed to

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,115, down from 19,539 at the 2010 census. Naples is a principal city of the Collier County, Florida, Naples–Marc ...

, United States, serving

Southwest Florida Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy. Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are genera ...

as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Montclair Communications, which maintains a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

(LMA) with

Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and the Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor ...

, owner of

Fort Myers A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

–licensed

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate

WBBH-TV WBBH-TV (channel 20, cable channel 2), known as Gulf Coast NBC, is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is owned by Hearst Television, which provides certain ...

(channel 20), for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on Central Avenue in Fort Myers; WZVN-TV's transmitter is located along SR 31 in unincorporated southeastern Charlotte County. Channel 26 went on the air in Naples on August 21, 1974, as WEVU, the first ABC affiliate in Southwest Florida. It operated from studios in Naples and suffered from turnover in ownership as well as poor local ratings. This continued even though the station moved its transmitter further north from its original location in the late 1980s in order to improve its signal in Fort Myers. In 1994, then-owner Ellis Communications entered into an LMA with then-WBBH owner Waterman Broadcasting by which WBBH began to provide the station's news programming. The station itself was then sold in 1996 to Montclair Communications, whose principal has family and business ties with the Waterman family. Though news ratings have remained low, the Waterman LMA gave the station access to additional resources and a path to profitability. The two stations have separate newscasts with separate anchors, though they share reporters, news resources, and—as of 2025—a common news brand.

History

Sign-on and early years

In May 1972, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) approved the addition of television channel 26 to Naples at the request of the Gulfshore Television Corporation. Three months prior, G. Vernon Lundquist, founder of Gulfshore, had resigned from his job at WINK-TV in Fort Myers after 20 years and petitioned for the addition of the channel in Naples. Gulfshore then applied for the channel, as did Gray Communications Systems of

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Geo ...

. The construction permit was granted to Gulfshore in July 1973, and the company immediately began to pursue affiliation with ABC. Construction then began on studios located off

US 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part i ...

Bonita Springs Bonita Springs is a city in Lee County, Florida, United States. The population was 53,644 at the 2020 census, up from 43,914 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, on the state's sou ...

; a change in the antenna site pushed back completion of the facility. WEVU first signed on the air on August 21, 1974. Its early months quickly turned turbulent. In December 1974, Lundquist was asked to take a leave of absence by the board of directors; his wife Marilyn, who was tapped to be the operations manager, was fired. Early the next month, Gulfshore's minority stockholders sued Lundquist, saying that the stock he held was illegally issued; at that same time, the station fired 15 staff, canceled its early evening news, and began signing on at 11:30 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. In a summary judgment that March, a circuit court found in favor of the other stockholders. In a second lawsuit filed in May 1975, more details surfaced about Lundquist's tenure running the new station. According to the suit filed by Gulfshore's other stockholders, Lundquist solicited a WEVU employee to appear in a sex movie; failed to pay the lease on the station's broadcast equipment; used his own company to make commercials, competing with WEVU's own advertising department; and hired relatives who were unqualified for their positions, jeopardizing the station's future. In addition, the minority owners of Gulfshore said that, by failing to obtain a direct link with ABC, the station had lost $200,000 in advertising business; WEVU obtained its ABC programming off-air from

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

's WXLT (channel 40, now

WWSB WWSB (channel 40) is a television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States, serving the Suncoast portion of the Tampa Bay market as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Gray Media, WWSB maintains studios on 10th Street in the Rosemary Dist ...

), leaving it at the mercy of WXLT's own preemptions of ABC network fare. In May 1976, Lundquist sold his controlling interest in WEVU to the other seven stockholders, after his shares were reinstated by an appeals court. With the other members of Gulfshore in control, the company set out to try and get WEVU on the right foot after the station nearly closed; they hired Joe Buerry, one of the founders of WBBH-TV, as the new general manager, and WEVU also restored the local news it had cut back earlier. In one embarrassing mishap, in May 1978, a film distributor mixup was responsible for the station airing 30 minutes of an X-rated film instead of its intended late feature, '' Daring Game''.

Home News era

In May 1978, Gulfshore announced the sale of channel 26 to Caloosa Television, a subsidiary of the Home News Company of

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. WEVU was the seventh broadcasting property owned by Home News and second TV station. For years, it had been a standing complaint of viewers, and southwest Florida's TV stations, that

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

games that did not sell out could not be aired in the Fort Myers–Naples market. In 1979, then-new news director Jack Speiss was surprised when the station did not air a ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' game because of a blackout; he eventually was able to telephone then-Dolphins owner

Joe Robbie Joseph Robbie (July 7, 1916 – January 7, 1990) was an American attorney, politician, and the principal founder of the Miami Dolphins. Early life Robbie was raised in Sisseton, South Dakota, the second of five children. His father was a Leban ...

, who told him in no uncertain terms, "I'm not going to allow you to broadcast it." Tension over what came to be known locally as the "Robbie Rule" boiled over in 1984 when the Dolphins blacked out WEVU again on Monday night. However, once WEVU's scheduled movie ended, and with the game still going on, channel 26 joined the network telecast in progress, and the general manager issued a statement criticizing the "Robbie Rule" which was read on the station's late newscast. The late 1980s saw two significant upgrades. In 1987, WEVU moved to new studio facilities in the Bonita Bay Executive Center, where the front entrance was designed to also double as an outdoor studio and the station would have more space to operate. (The previous studios were then occupied by WSFP-TV, giving the PBS station its first proper headquarters.) Its second upgrade, a new tower on the Lee–Collier county line, was more controversial. The

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

warned that the construction of the tower would cause potential harm to a sanctuary of

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large wading bird in the family (biology), family Ciconiidae (Ciconiiformes, storks). Originally described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, this stork is native to the subtropics and tropics of the Americas ...

s and asked the ABC network to intervene in the dispute, which it refused. In October 1987, Lee County approved the zoning for the new transmitter tower; a 1989 settlement brokered by Governor

Bob Martinez Robert Martinez (born December 25, 1934) is an American retired politician who served as the 40th governor of Florida from 1987 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, Martinez was the first Hispanic American governor since colonial Flori ...

enabled WEVU to finally build the facility and begin broadcasting from it that summer. The relocated tower improved WEVU's signal in the northern and eastern portions of the market, particularly in Charlotte County. However, by 1991, WEVU still had half the audience share of either WINK or WBBH. A side venture for WEVU began in the late 1980s with a low-power TV station permit in Fort Myers held by Caloosa that the station wasn't using. Ultimately, Caloosa sold 49 percent of it to Tim Pipher, and the station signed on in August 1988 as W07BR; the station was noted for its extensive affiliations with baseball team networks, carrying more than 180 games a season.

FCVS and Ellis ownership

In 1991, Home News put WEVU on the market in a bid to pay down long-term debt. Home News accepted a bid from

Young Broadcasting Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the out ...

in January 1992, but the deal fell apart that March, and Home News instead sold WEVU to FCVS Communications of

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

, for $9.925 million. FCVS, owned by two former ABC executives, promised to infuse resources into WEVU's news department. FCVS, which also owned WKCH-TV (now WTNZ) in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

, and WACH in Columbia, South Carolina, received an "offer it could not refuse" and sold itself to newly formed Ellis Communications in 1993. However, the station continued to struggle; it was understaffed and had outdated equipment.

Waterman and Hearst LMA

Effective June 1, 1994, Ellis entered into a

(LMA) with WBBH-TV, owned by Waterman Broadcasting, whereby WBBH would produce all news programming for WEVU. Some WEVU staffers were not retained by WBBH; in all, there were 20 firings, including WEVU's main news, weather and sports anchors. The local marketing agreement also saw WEVU leave Bonita Bay to join WBBH at its Central Avenue studios in Fort Myers; WTVK (channel 46) moved from Naples into the old WEVU facilities in 1995. After Waterman took over WEVU, both stations began identifying by their cable channel slots—WBBH as channel 2 and WEVU as channel 7. The station changed its call letters to the current WZVN-TV (a phonetic translation of "seven") on October 23, 1995, a move to establish credibility for a station whose name had a poor reputation. Former owners Caloosa, who still owned W07BR, promptly reclaimed the WEVU calls for what became WEVU-LP, later WEVU-CA. Ellis Communications merged with

Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom ...

in 1996; under a deal previously made by Ellis, WZVN-TV's license was sold to Montclair Communications, which continued the LMA with WBBH. Montclair was founded by Lara Kunkler, station manager for WBBH and WZVN and the goddaughter of Bernie Waterman, owner of Waterman Broadcasting. The deal allowed a once-money-losing station to become profitable. In 2001, Waterman attempted to merge with Montclair by way of a stock swap. However, instead of allowing the deal, the FCC let the application languish; at one point, it ordered the LMA unwound by 2004. On April 5, 2023,

announced that it had agreed to purchase WBBH-TV from Waterman for $220 million. Included in the purchase was Hearst assuming the LMA with Montclair for WZVN-TV. The sale was completed on June 30. Hearst rebranded WBBH-TV and WZVN-TV as Gulf Coast NBC and Gulf Coast ABC, with newscasts known as ''Gulf Coast News'', effective February 5, 2025.

News operation

WEVU's first news operation was known as ''Closeup News'' with daily 6:30 and 11 p.m. broadcasts; general manager Lundquist presented the weather. When the station fell into financial difficulties, the news department was cut back. After Lundquist was ousted in 1976, Gulfshore reinstated a local news service under the "Newscene" name, airing at 6 and 11 p.m. In 1981, under Home News ownership, Jack Wheeler, who had been one of the first anchors on ''Closeup News'' in 1974, returned to the station; WEVU hoped the new anchor would increase its perennially low ratings. Wheeler also hosted a talk show on WRCC radio at the time. However, when WEVU management changed over, Wheeler was removed from the newscast; he then hosted a morning talk show for channel 26 and later a late-night show before being shown the door in 1985. After having 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, WEVU added a 6 p.m. broadcast in the fall of 1989; the station made significant improvements in an attempt to lift its news out of third place. Within a year, the 5 p.m. show was discontinued, bringing the station back to two daily evening newscasts. In the immediate wake of the Waterman LMA, WEVU's news offerings were radically changed; in addition to the dismissals of its main presenting team, WEVU's early news moved to 4 p.m. and its 11 p.m. show was cut back to a five-minute update. Waterman also invested in facilities and equipment. WBBH–WZVN had the market's first

Doppler weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pu ...

installed in the mid-1990s, and in 1997, a studio expansion was completed allowing both stations to present simultaneous 11 p.m. newscasts. The stations have dedicated anchors but share reporters; during major hurricane coverage, the stations have often aired a single telecast using their combined news and weather resources. Despite the shared resources, news viewership has tilted strongly toward WBBH over WZVN, which primarily competes for third with WFTX-TV in local news ratings. From 2006 to 2007, WZVN produced ''ABC 7 Gulfshore News at 10'' for cable channel " WNFM", the

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

station in the market available only on

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

systems. It was canceled as not financially viable. In 2018, the Waterman stations cut back their sports department; weeknight sportscasts were eliminated, along with the position of sports director for WBBH-TV.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

On October 31, 2002, WZVN-TV and WBBH-TV began broadcasting high-definition television, the first stations in the market to do so. With the change to digital, WZVN moved north from its former site in southern Lee County to WBBH-TV's facility. WZVN-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 26, on February 17, 2009, the original

digital television transition The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...

date. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41, using

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...

26. Between October 2019 and March 2020, WZVN-TV broadcast on the WBBH-TV multiplex (physical channel 15) until WZVN began broadcasts on its post-repack channel coinciding with phase 8 of the repack; during construction, the WZVN-TV antenna was not available for use.

References

External links

WBBH-TV/WZVN-TV official websiteWZVN Non-News Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wzvn-Tv 1974 establishments in Florida American Broadcasting Company affiliates Dabl affiliates Hearst Television MeTV affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1974 ZVN-TV True Crime Network affiliates