WTVT

===CBS affiliation===
The station first signed on the air on April 1, 1955, becoming the third television station in Tampa Bay (after [[WSUN-TV]]—channel 38, frequency now occupied by [[WTTA]], and [[WFLA-TV]], channel 8), it is also currently the second-oldest surviving station in the market behind WFLA. Upon its launch, WTVT took over the [[CBS]] affiliation from WSUN-TV. WTVT was originally owned by Tampa Bay radio veteran Walter Tison and his Tampa Television Company. The [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) originally awarded the [[construction permit]] to build a station on channel 13 to the now-defunct ''Tampa Times'' newspaper, which owned [[WDAE|WDAE radio]] (then at 1250 AM, now at 620 AM). However, the FCC reversed its decision and awarded the license to the Tison group, which intended to open a studio facility in nearby [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]]. The ''Times'' appealed the FCC's decision, but lost. Although it appears that the station's call letters stand for "Television Tampa", they actually stand for the initials of Walter Tison and his wife, Virginia. Like many other stations located on [[Triskaidekaphobia|"unlucky" channel 13]], WTVT used a [[black cat]] as its mascot for several years.

In 1956, the Tampa Television Company merged with the [[Oklahoma City]]-based [[Oklahoma Publishing Company]]. OPUBCO's broadcasting subsidiary, the [[WKY|WKY Radiophone Company]], would later be known as [[Ryman Hospitality Properties|Gaylord Broadcasting]], named for the family that owned the company (Gaylord also owned what is present-day CBS O&O [[KTVT]] in [[Fort Worth]], but the "TVT" base callsign was only a coincidence).

The station's remote broadcast facilities were chosen for network pool coverage of [[Alan Shepard]] and [[John Glenn]]'s Mercury capsule [[Splashdown (spacecraft landing)|splashdowns]] (in 1961 and 1962, respectively).<ref name="wtvt-spacecoverage">{{cite news |title=FOX 13 memories from the Cape |url=http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/scitech/space/012809_Fox13_Cape_Canaveral |access-date=September 10, 2019 |work=MyFox Tampa Bay |date=January 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312001043/http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/scitech/space/012809_Fox13_Cape_Canaveral |archive-date=March 12, 2012}}</ref><ref name="youtube" /> The mobile unit recorded the recoveries on videotapes that were flown to the mainland.

Through its CBS affiliation, WTVT carried [[Super Bowl XVIII]], which was hosted at [[Tampa Stadium]], in 1984.

In 1987, Gaylord sold the station to [[Gillett Communications]] (which made it a sister station of those Gillett acquired from [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts|KKR]], most of which were stations owned by [[Storer Broadcasting]]). Gillett underwent a corporate restructuring in the early 1990s, changing its name to GCI Broadcast Services, Inc. In 1993, GCI filed for [[Bankruptcy in the United States|bankruptcy]], and its stations (including WTVT) were sold to [[New World Pictures#New World Communications|New World Communications]]. By that time, WTVT was preempting ''[[CBS This Morning]]'' for a locally produced morning newscast, as well as preempting all but one hour of the network's [[Saturday morning cartoon]]s and aired the weeknight edition of the ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' on a [[Broadcast delay|half-hour tape delay]] at 7 p.m. WTVT did not carry the CBS daytime dramas ''[[Capitol (TV series)|Capitol]]'' or ''[[The Bold and the Beautiful]]'' and instead aired ''[[The Young and the Restless]]'' at 1 p.m. on a half-hour delay. This was due to the popularity of its one hour midday newscast that dates back to the 1970s.