But the region's television landscape is changing. Competition has increased because of cable and satellite TV as well as the entrance of such affiliates as UPN and WB, which both offer viewers new sitcoms and reruns throughout the day and evening. Technology is taking long-running affiliates into new territory. And partnerships typify issues the Federal Communications Commission is now tackling.

It was once unthinkable that two competing stations could work out of the same building, use the same equipment and share some of the same staff. But since 1994, that's how two Fort Myers affiliates-NBC 2 (WBBH-TV) and ABC 7 (WZVN-TV)-have approached newsgathering. The relationship, called a "duopoly," could become more entwined if the FCC agrees to allow Waterman Broadcasting, which owns NBC 2, to buy ABC 7 from its parent company, Montclair Communications. "It's really up to the Federal Communications Commission right now," says Steve Pontius, NBC 2's executive vice president and general manager.

In the 1980s, the FCC deregulated radio to allow one owner to have more than one station in the same market. The FCC now is considering doing the same with television. If it does, WBBH would be ahead of its competitors.

A decade ago, the ABC affiliate, which then had the call letters WEVU, was on the brink of folding. The station had had three owners in five years. When Ellis Communications took it over, the company approached Waterman Broad-casting. The proposal was to have Waterman run WEVU while Ellis continued as its owner. Both stations would operate out of the same building on Central Avenue in Fort Myers. "It was very cutting-edge back then," Pontius recalls. The following year, WEVU became WVZN, and then in 1996 it changed ownership once more when Montclair Communications purchased it for about $21 million.

NBC 2 and ABC 7 share equipment and managers, but each station has its own set of reporters and anchors, all of whom work in the same newsroom. The stations' news coverage differs slightly as well, Pontius says. ABC 7 tends to be more consumer oriented, leaning to news that helps viewers with busy lifestyles. NBC 2's philosophy is to cover news anytime, anywhere. "Our goal is very simple. We want to operate WVZN as the best ABC affiliate it can be, and we want to operate WBBH as the best NBC affiliate it can be," Pontius says. "We have the critical mass to cover a story whenever it happens, wherever it happens."

Waterman also has built a 1,500-foot tower to comply with an FCC mandate requiring stations to operate both analog and digital cable until most homes have access to digital. The tower also allows viewers with high-definition television sets to get sharper images.

The arrangement has helped keep a once-struggling ABC station afloat. "Now, we have more employees, more equipment to support the product than ever before," says Lara Kunkler, president of Montclair Communications and general manager of ABC 7.

The duopoly hasn't sat well with CBS affiliate WINK-TV. When WBBH petitioned the FCC for a waiver allowing Waterman to buy the ABC affiliate, WINK's parent company opposed it, claiming that the arrangement would unfairly tip the scale of competition, Pontius says. The FCC agreed with the CBS affiliate, leaving Waterman little choice but to file an appeal, which is still pending.

Others in the industry also remain doubtful about such partnerships. Viewers still receive the same type of information essentially from the same outlet because both stations share some resources, says Joe Glover, assistant professor of broadcast journalism at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The effect on the viewer as far as the free circulation of ideas is the same as if one of the stations had gone belly up, anyway," he says.

But Glover doesn't see the trend ending, especially if the FCC loosens its regulations. "They're just waiting for the rules to liberalize more," Glover says of the station owners. "Every time there's been a change in the rules recently, it's been to liberalize it for owners."

Meanwhile, NBC 2 is finding other ways to branch out. It's struck up a partnership, called convergence, with The News-Press in Fort Myers by promoting some of the newspaper's coming stories. Its anchors also have written pieces for the paper. Craig Wolf, for example, wrote a series of stories for The News-Press while he was on a naval destroyer covering a story for WBBH. Some of the paper's reporters also appear on the station's broadcasts to discuss their stories or other topics.

Glover isn't convinced convergence serves reporters and viewers as much as it does station owners. In larger markets such as Tampa and Orlando, where TV stations and newspapers have experimented with convergence longer, reporters are expected to write stories not only for the newspaper but for television and Web sites as well, Glover says, adding that the extra workload leaves reporters frazzled. "For the most part, they're trying to get people to do two or three jobs," he says of owners and managers.

Wink is trying to capture TV watchers in their 20s and 30s while maintaining its core of older viewers, says vice president and general manager Gary Gardner. The younger age group has the disposable income advertisers covet as the station strives to maintain its loyal older viewers.

The station offers sporting events such as the National Football League to lure men, and daytime programs to hook women. Some of CBS's top-rated programs also make ideal lead-ins to its evening broadcasts. Thursday night is a powerhouse-Survivor followed by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Without a Trace. "They all give us a promotional platform to that viewer," Gardner says.

The station isn't using programming alone to attract younger viewers. Many of its reporters, producers and other employees are in their 20s and 30s. Their perspectives help give a younger slant to the news that may bring viewers of that demographic. "If you're looking at WINK news and you see a reporter your age, there's a relationship that can be established," Gardner says. "When we promote to you . obviously the content has got to be of interest to you, of relevance to you."

WINK also will be updating its image with a revamped set and new graphics this year, he says.

Like NBC 2, WINK also has ventured into territory that just a few years ago would have seemed unthinkable-a partnership with print. The station promotes coming stories in the Naples Daily News while the paper promotes WINK on its Web site. Gardner calls it a "strategic partnership."

"It's a logical way of taking our core resources and theirs and sharing them to our benefit," he says.

While WINK and WBBH battle for viewers interested in news, FOX 4 is taking a different approach-going after younger viewers looking for entertainment. The station broadcasts reruns of Friends, Will & Grace and the like when its competitors air hours of afternoon and evening news programming.

"Our strategy is to be an alternative network," says Donita Todd, FOX 4's general manager and vice president.

The 6 p.m. news got lost among shows that didn't draw viewers into the broadcast, so management did away with the 6 o'clock news a few years ago in favor of reruns. "Our news was sitting there surrounded by kids' programming and sitcoms. That's really not a good lead-in," Todd says. "Canceling the 6 o'clock was not a cost-savings initiative. It was a programming-alternative initiative."

While its competitors show prime-time programs, FOX 4 broadcasts its sole news show at 10 p.m., a strategy employed by other FOX stations around the country. The idea is to give viewers the news of the day without them having to stay up late to get it. "The 10 o'clock news was really our franchise," Todd says.

With five reporters and seven photographers, FOX 4, owned by Emmis Communications, has a smaller staff than WINK and WBBH. It has no problem getting new talent to come here. Selling the sun-baked environment is a snap. The problem, as with other stations, is keeping reporters and anchors here after they've cut their teeth. After two or three years, anchors and reporters with whom viewers have come to identity are gone, off to bigger markets. "It's a recruiter's dream because it's easy to get them here, but it's an employer's nightmare," Todd says.