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WJTC (channel 44) is an independent television station licensed to Pensacola, Florida, United States, serving northwest Florida and southwest Alabama. It is owned by Deerfield Media alongside Mobile, Alabama–licensed NBC affiliate WPMI-TV (channel 15); Deerfield maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Pensacola-licensed ABC affiliate WEAR-TV (channel 3) and Fort Walton Beach–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WFGX (channel 35), for the provision of certain services.
WJTC and WPMI-TV share studios on Azalea Road in Mobile; master control and some internal operations are based at the shared facilities of WEAR-TV and WFGX on Mobile Highway (US 90) in unincorporated Escambia County, Florida (with a Pensacola mailing address). WJTC's transmitter is located near Robertsdale, Alabama.
In 1991, Clear Channel Communications, then-owner of WPMI, entered into a local marketing agreement with WJTC. Mercury Broadcasting retained the license, but Clear Channel owned local rights to programming broadcast on the station. WJTC affiliated with the United Paramount Network (UPN) upon its debut on January 16, 1995. Clear Channel acquired WJTC outright in 2001, creating a duopoly with WPMI.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and WarnerMedia announced the shutdown of both UPN and The WB effective that fall. A new "fifth" network—"The CW" (named after its corporate parents), to be jointly owned by both companies, would launch in their place, with a lineup primarily featuring the most popular programs from both networks. 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006. UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006. On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that it would launch a network of its own called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006. WJTC was passed over for both the CW affiliation (which went to WBPG; channel 55, now WFNA) and that of MyNetworkTV (which went to WFGX), both former WB affiliates (from 2001 to 2006 and from 1995 to 2001, respectively). As a result, WJTC became an independent station once again on September 10, 2006, five days before UPN was to shut down.
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to Providence Equity Partners. On March 15, 2008, WJTC, WPMI and the other Clear Channel television properties were sold to Newport Television, a company created by Providence to run the newly acquired stations.
Newport announced on July 19, 2012, that it would sell five of its stations, including WJTC and WPMI, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. As Sinclair already owns WEAR-TV and WFGX in the Mobile–Pensacola market, which would violate FCC rules restricting the maximum number of television stations in a single market owned by one company to two, the stations' licenses were instead acquired by Deerfield Media; however, Sinclair began operating both stations through a local marketing agreement. The sale was completed on December 3, 2012. However, due to the stations' distance from Pensacola along with the Florida-Alabama border separating the two cities, the operations of WJTC and WPMI remain separate from those of WEAR-TV and WFGX.
Outside of promotions for WPMI's newscasts and simulcasts of that station's severe weather coverage, WJTC did not air any news programming. However, on September 23, 2013, WPMI began producing two half-hour evening newscasts on WJTC that air weeknights at 6:30 and 9 p.m.; WPMI to produce newscasts for WJTC... Florida NewsCenter, August 29, 2013. the 9 p.m. newscast competes with WALA's longer-established prime time newscast (which comparatively runs for one hour) and ironically, also competes with fellow sister station WFGX's 9 p.m. newscast that is produced by WEAR-TV (a half-hour program that debuted one month earlier on August 12, 2013).
WJTC canceled its 6:30 newscast on July 29, 2016, and replaced it with Inside Edition the following Monday. The 9 p.m. newscast was moved to 7 p.m. in June 2018.
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44.2 was silent until March 1, 2022, when it was reactivated with Rewind TV; it was the home of Grit from 2014 until 2021 when it moved to a fourth digital subchannel of WFNA.
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