Branding NewsChannel 5 Plus | Translators 5.2 (VHF) Nashville | |
Channels Digital: WTVF-DT 25.2 (UHF)
Virtual: 5.2 (PSIP)
Webcast: Watch 5+ Live Affiliations Independent (2002–present)
CBS (alternate) Owner E.W. Scripps Company
(NewsChannel 5 Network, LLC) First air date September 1996 (as a cable-only channel)
June 21, 2009; 7 years ago (2009-06-21) (over-the-air relaunch) | ||
WTVF-DT2 is an Independent television station that is licensed to and located in Nashville, Tennessee. The station is a second digital sub-channel of CBS affiliate WTVF owned by the E.W. Scripps Company. Over-the-air, it broadcasts a standard definition signal on digital UHF channel 25.2 (or 5.2 via PSIP) from a transmitter located near Whites Creek just off Interstate 24 in northern Davidson County. WTVF-DT2’s parent station has studios located at 474 James Robertson Parkway in downtown Nashville.
Contents
- History
- Programming
- Locally produced programs
- Middle Tennessee
- West Tennessee
- Southern Kentucky
- References
WTVF-DT2 can also be seen worldwide via its internet web stream during its broadcasts of its local programming.
History
It began as a local-oriented cable-only channel, with an on-air identity, “News Channel 5+,” or as pronounced, “News Channel 5 Plus.” It was introduced and launched in September 1996 as an all-news and information cable channel for the Nashville area. In addition to locally produced shows and newscast repeats, News Channel 5+ also carried programming from All News Channel until that service folded in September 2002. After that point, the channel’s programming schedule relies mostly on original content.
NewsChannel 5+ was relaunched as an over-the-air digital sub-channel on June 21, 2009, nine days after the Digital TV transition of 2009, when WTVF began utilizing digital multi-casting on its digital signal. Since then, News Channel 5+ is being broadcast on digital channel 5.2. In mid-2014, WTVF-DT2’s standard definition picture was upgraded to 16:9 SD widescreen to accommodate widescreen TVs.
Programming
This channel features locally produced programming, repeats of local news from the main channel, and a few syndicated shows that may not fit on the program schedule of the main channel. There is also live gavel-to-gavel coverage of high-profile criminal trials in the Nashville area including those of Paul Dennis Reid, Perry March, Mary Winkler, and Lindsey Lowe. WTVF-DT2 goes live during severe weather and will sometimes air local newscasts if CBS programming preempts the main channel, such as during the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, which has been a staple in CBS Sports programming since 1982.
Since the Saturday edition of CBS This Morning does not run on the main channel, it is being carried on WTVF-DT2 on a one-hour delay, so it is being run from 8 to 10 a.m. C.T. Saturday mornings. CBS Overnight News is also run almost in its entirety during the wee hours of every weekday morning, usually from 1:35 to 3:30 a.m., since the main channel airs certain syndicated programming, and doesn’t join the overnight news program until 2:37 a.m. It also carries the full hour of CBS' Face the Nation, since WTVF only shows the first half-hour of the program; the main channel airs religious programming from 10 to 11:00 a.m. Children’s educational programming on WTVF-DT2 is a replay of the children’s programming block that is run on WTVF-DT3 on Sunday Mornings; WTVF-DT2 rebroadcasts that programming on Sunday afternoons.
WTVF-DT2 also replays most, if not all, newscasts and editions of their locally produced show, Talk of the Town. In addition, WTVF-DT2’s parent station also produces five hours of newscasts each week for NewsChannel 5+ in the form of an hour-long extension of WTVF's weekday morning newscast airing from 7 to 8 a.m. Supreme Justice is the only syndicated program that is shown on the channel.
Beginning in June 2015, WTVF-DT2 broadcast Union Wrestling Latin America's lucha libre-like shows under the traditional brokered format of most local wrestling promotions. UWLA specifically targeted the area's Hispanic-American population. That show was removed from programming in late July, 2015.
Locally produced programs
Middle Tennessee
Throughout Middle Tennessee, it is carried on Charter cable channel 182, and on Comcast Channel 250. In Clarksville and Montgomery County, it is carried on cable channel 50 via CDE Lightband. In Macon County and northeastern Sumner County, WTVF-DT2 is carried on North Central Telephone Cooperative cable channel 7. In Columbia/Maury County, the station is also available on cable channel 6 on CPWS PowerNet Cable. Other cable companies carrying WTVF-DT2 includes:
West Tennessee
WTVF-DT2 is available on Jackson EnergyAuthority’s EPlus Broadband Cable channel 198.
Southern Kentucky
Time Warner Cable carries WTVF-DT2 on its systems in Hopkinsville, Christian County and Bowling Green, Warren County on channels 101 and 422, respectively. In Barren County, the Glasgow Electric Plant Board and the South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative (SCRTC) both carry WTVF-DT2 on Glasgow EPB Channel 196, and SCRTC channel 92. The SCRTC carries the channel on both their Glasgow and Tompkinsville systems. Although Mediacom carries the main channel on its systems in Butler and Edmonson counties in Kentucky, WTVF-DT2 is not carried on those systems.
In Russellville, Kentucky, the station is viewed on Russellville (KY) Electric Plant Board cable channel 6.