WINK 11

The BIG Catch-Up: #19 – Central California and Southwest Florida.

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KGPE 47 / Fresno – Visalia – Merced (“CBS 47”)
WZVN-TV 26 (Cable 7) / Naples – Fort Myers – Cape Coral (“ABC 7”)
WINK-TV 11 (Cable 5) / Fort Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)
WFTX-TV 36 (Cable 4) / Cape Coral – Fort Myers – Naples (“FOX 4”)

We move on in the series and in post #19, just two markets, Central California (Fresno) and Southwest Florida. Let’s find out more…

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Catch-up post #21… KTVX, WINK/WXCW and WBRZ.

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KTVX 4 / Salt Lake City (“ABC 4 Utah”)
WINK-TV 11 (Cable 5) / Fort Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)
WXCW 46 (Cable 6) / Naples – Fort Myers – Cape Coral (“WXCW”)
WBRZ-TV 2 / Baton Rouge (“WBRZ News 2”)

Once again, the blog is bringing you these Catch-up posts series to keep you informed on everything that’s happened since our last post and we got more to tell you. This post focuses on Utah, Southwest Florida, and Baton Rouge.

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Recent weekend news changes in Southwest Florida.

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WINK-TV 11 / Fort Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)
WXCW 46 / Naples – Fort Myers – Cape Coral (“WXCW”)
WZVN-TV 26 / Naples – Fort Myers – Cape Coral (“ABC 7”; hence cable channel slot)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: There have been some recent changes in the Southwest Florida market, mainly involving weekend news at a duopoly and a different (uninvolved) station. Plus, it also involves both days (and different too).

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A small minor newscast change… #45

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WINK-TV 11 / Ft. Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: Another small change to report and this time from Southwest Florida.

WINK 11 (Cable 5) has recently added a half-hour 10:00 a.m. morning newscast on Saturdays to go on after CBS This Morning: Saturday. With the new half-hour, their Saturday morning newscast now runs from 6:00-8:00 and 10:00-10:30 a.m., which bookends the Saturday edition of CBS This Morning, remaining from 8:00-10:00 a.m. The new half-hour morning newscast competes against WBBH 20 (Cable 2)’s Saturday edition of NBC 2 News Today for local morning news in that same timeslot in the area.

Other than that, there are no major additions or expansions to report at this time.

Changes in Southwest Florida… involving WINK and WZVN.

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WINK-TV 11 / Ft. Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)
WZVN-TV 26 / Naples – Ft. Myers – Cape Coral (“ABC 7”)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: There have been some changes lately in Southwest Florida. There’s a small change from WINK to a major change on WZVN.

First off, the small change on WINK 11. WINK 11 has recently added a brand new half-hour newscast on Sundays at 6:00 p.m. Obviously titled as WINK News at 6:00, this breaks apart the simulcast that WINK 11 had with its news-sharing sister station WXCW 46 (Cable 6) for a few months after the 6:30 p.m. newscast expanded to weekends back in January of this year, something we told you about FIRST.

And now, WINK 11 airs a separate weekend newscast at 6:00 while WXCW 6 airs a separate weekend newscast at 6:30 p.m., as both now air newscasts at those times on those different stations, 7 nights a week. WINK 11’s 6:00 p.m. newscast competes against WBBH 2 for local weekend news in that timeslot. WXCW 6’s 6:30 p.m. newscast competes against WZVN 26 (Cable 7) in that timeslot.

And now the major change on the other station. WZVN 7 has discontinued its hour-long newscast at 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. Previously titled, ABC 7 News at 5:00/5:30, this now just leaves WINK 11 and WBBH 20 (Cable 2) as the ONLY local stations left in Southwest Florida to air weeknight news at 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. WZVN 7 has since replaced the local newscast with Extra at 5:00 and The Insider at 5:30. WZVN 7 does keep its weeknight 7:00 p.m. newscast, as well as the usual and traditional 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts, aside from their weekday morning newscasts from 5:00-7:00 and 9:00-10:00 a.m.

So there you go, Southwest Florida. I’m glad WINK 11 is still #1 in the market.

WINK’s 6:30 p.m. newscast expands to weekends on WXCW.

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WINK-TV 11 / Ft. Myers – Naples – Cape Coral (“WINK-TV”)
WXCW 46 / Naples – Ft. Myers – Cape Coral (“WXCW”)

FIRST ON THE BLOG: Back in April of 2014, WINK added a 6:30 p.m. weeknight newscast on its sister news station WXCW to compete against WFTX in the same timeslot. I guess its so popular in the area now that its on weekends as well.

Just recently, WINK 11 (Cable 5) has added a weekend edition of WINK News at 6:30 on WXCW (WXCW 46/Cable 6, changed their branding from TV 6 to just their call letters, last year.). The newscast, featuring WINK 11’s current weekend evening news team, now competes against WZVN 26 (Cable 7)’s ABC 7 News at 6:30 for weekend news in that timeslot. But only a Saturday edition was added as WXCW 46 now also simulcasts the Sunday edition of the news at 6:30 p.m. from WINK 11, which has been on at that time for years.

This does promise viewers, however, that WXCW 46 is the ONLY station in the market to air a 6:30 p.m. newscast, 7 nights a week, since WFTX 36 (Cable 4)’s hour-long FOX 4 News at 6:00 is only on weeknights while WZVN 7’s ABC 7 News at 6:30 is only aired on weekends.

WINK 11 is a very good station indeed and adding another newscast on WXCW 46 just proves it once again. But to answer as to who I like better, WINK 11 or WBBH 20 (Cable 2), that’s a tough one.

*NOTE: I added cable positions for every channel, since the Southwest Florida market has the highest use/rate of cable television, out of any market in America.