WEVU[]
1974–1976[]
Signing on the air on August 21, 1974 as WEVU (a phonetic translation of "we view"), it was the third television station to sign on in Fort Myers. The station was owned by Gulfshore Television Corporation; it immediately took over the ABC affiliation which beforehand was relegated to off-hour secondary clearances through WBBH-TV (channel 20) and CBS affiliate WINK-TV (channel 11). However, viewers with a good antenna could also watch the full ABC schedule from either Miami's WPLG, West Palm Beach's WPEC (now a CBS affiliate), or WLCY-TV (now CBS affiliate WTSP) in St. Petersburg.
1976–1977[]
1977–1978[]
In May 1978, Gulfshore announced the sale of channel 26 to Caloosa Television, a subsidiary of the Home News Company, for a total of $3.3 million. WEVU was the seventh broadcasting property owned by Home News and second TV station.
1978–1980[]
1980–1987[]
The "cable 7' logo resembles the 'circle 7' used by ABC's O&Os on channel 7. This is also the first logo by the station to refer to its cable channel position by most area cable providers.
1984–1987[]
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1987–1992[]
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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 in January 1992, but the deal fell apart that March and Home News instead sold WEVU to FCVS Communications of Columbia, South Carolina for $9.925 million. FCVS, which also owned WKCH-TV (now WTNZ) in Knoxville, Tennessee, and WACH in Columbia, South Carolina, received an "offer it could not refuse" and sold itself to newly formed Ellis Communications in 1993.
.jpg "Cheers - WEVU Florida Commercial (1989).jpg (59 KB)")
.jpg "The Judge - WEVU Florida Commercial (1989).jpg (60 KB)")
1992–1994[]
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Effective June 1, 1994, Ellis entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with WBBH-TV, owned by Waterman, whereby WBBH would produce all news programming for WEVU.
1994–1995[]
When Waterman took over WEVU, both stations began identifying by their cable channel slots, with channel 26 starting to use a variant of the circle 7 logo.
WZVN-TV[]
1995–1999[]
The station changed its call letters to the current WZVN-TV (a phonetic translation of "seven") on October 23, 1995. It kept its 'circle 7' logo with the change. Ellis Communications merged with Raycom Media in 1996; WZVN's license was spun off to Montclair Communications, which continued the LMA with WBBH.
.png "WZVN - The New Channel 7 ID (1995).png (507 KB)")
1999–2013[]
2013–present[]
On April 5, 2023, Hearst Television 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.
External links[]
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