JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Thursday marks a big milestone for a member of the News4JAX family.
Our sister station CW-17, which is owned by our parent company, Graham Media Group, officially began broadcasting exactly 60 years ago as WJKS on this date in 1966.
As President Lyndon Johnson passed 800 days in office, there was a big launch of the Apollo-Saturn 201 rocket at Cape Canaveral on Feb. 19, 1966.
WATCH: Press play below for a documentary from the 50th anniversary of Channel 17
That same day, 160 miles up the coast, something else launched: Channel 17, which has brought a variety of programming to the Jacksonville community for six decades now.
When it began as WJKS, it was the newest addition to Jacksonville’s television scene, an ABC affiliate with programming that screamed 1960s and ’70s. The old studio was on Hogan Road near Southside Boulevard.
During coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign, Channel 17 got an unexpected shout-out from incumbent President Richard Nixon during a visit to the River City.
“ABC. Well, I’m glad to see you. 17. Howard Smith’s station, right? He’s a great commentator,” Nixon said, referring to longtime ABC News anchor Howard K. Smith.
Channel 17 was also a big supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, with then-General Manager Ralph Becker agreeing in 1973 to let everyone who donated $50 – including employees – smack him with a pie in the face.
The Channel 17 News for Little People segment was also popular in the early 1970s, when it featured “Dusty the Dragon” – a puppet voiced by Production Manager Terry Waldon.
In the 1980s and ‘90s, Channel 17 featured a face that might be familiar to News4JAX viewers: Reporter Jim Piggott, who retired from Channel 4 in July 2024, after nearly 30 years at WJXT.
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When he joined the crew at Channel 17, it was an NBC affiliate. When he met for our interview about his time at WJKS, Piggott was wearing his original shirt from the station.
“I’m proud of this shirt,” he said. “It was my first job here in Florida.”
He said viewers needed a special UHF antenna to pick up Channel 17. According to a documentary made for the station’s 50th anniversary, Channel 17 even sold the antennas for $1.50 to viewers who mailed in to the station to request one.
Piggott said the station was on the air 24 hours, and the crew made it worth the effort to watch with their coverage of local news.
“At one time, we were No. 3. We moved up to No. 2,” Piggott said proudly. “It was a hard-working team.”
News4JAX anchor Jennifer Waugh worked behind the scenes at Channel 17 before she joined her Channel 4 family.
And longtime Jacksonville sports fixture Jeff Prosser also spent time at Channel 17 at the beginning of his career.
“I look back on my time here at Channel 17 with a ton of great memories,” Prosser said during the 50th anniversary documentary. “How much fun I had learning on the run here. How competitive and serious we took ourselves, but we always worked as hard as the guys across the street. We thought we did just as good a job and worked with a ton of great people who have gone on to great things from here.”
As the years went by, the news department of Channel 17 shut down, and the TV station was sold, changing its call letters to WJWB when it became an affiliate of the old WB network.
When it was sold again in 2017 to Channel 4’s parent company, it changed its letters to what it’s known as today: WCWJ, which brings you programming of all sorts from The 10 O’clock News to CW programming to live sports and wrestling, and other unique programs, seven nights a week.