WTOG originally signed on the air on November 4, 1968, as an independent station on UHF channel 44. Licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, the station was owned-and-operated by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting. The diamond arrangement in this logo is reminiscent of the 1965-1969 logo of Hubbard flagship KSTP-TV.
In 1984, WTOG's 1970 numerals became italicized. In October 1986, WTOG became one of the Fox network's charter affiliates. In 1988, however, the station disaffiliated from the network due to its weak program offerings which were affecting its successful lineup (WFTS-TV would become Tampa Bay's Fox affiliate). WTOG would remain an independent until joining UPN at the network's January 16, 1995 launch.
WTOG was acquired Spring 1996 by the Paramount Stations Group from Hubbard in exchange for two NBC affiliates in New York state (WNYT/Albany and WHEC-TV/Rochester). WTOG would adopt this logo after its acquisition by Paramount.
In 2006, UPN and The WB were both shutdown and merged to form The CW. The CW went to The E.W. Scripps Company-owned WB affiliate WFTS (which later became a network owned and operated station in 2022). MyNetworkTV, a new network launched to fill the void left by stations that did not join The CW, went to the Sinclar-owned independent station WTTA. Because the CW and MyNetworkTV were already getting affiliates in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area, CBS opted to run channel 44 as an independent station, with the current branding "Tampa Bay 44" first unveiled on July 4 of that year, with their new logo being similar to the one used by fellow CBS-owned Independent station, KTXA (channel 21) in Dallas, Texas, while keeping the 44 from the previous logo.
2023–present[]
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
TT Norms
Launched:
August 28, 2023
On September 12, 2023, WTOG introduced an new logo as part of a company-wide rebranding of its CW stations, as they transitioned into independent stations on September 1; the logo is similar in "city + channel" form to sister stations in WKBD-TV/Detroit, WUPA/Atlanta, KSTW/Tacoma-Seattle and WPSG/Philadelphia.
In January 2025, as part of a company-wide rebranding of CBS' Independent Stations, WTOG will introduce a new logo, as part of Paramount's new branding for their Independent Stations, which included a modified design of Paramount's print mountain design, and the stations' callsign and channel number in the Paramount Peak Sans font, and its branding now matches the aesthetics used for sister streaming service Paramount+. The rebrand will officially take place on January 13, 2025 (3 days before the 30th Anniversary of the now defunct UPN, which WTOG was a charter affiliate of that network in the Boston area during its lifespan).
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