WFLA-TV (channel 8) is the NBC affiliate for the Tampa Bay area, having signed on the air on February 14, 1955, making it the region's longest-serving television outlet still in operation. Originally owned by The Tampa Tribune, the station has been an NBC affiliate since its inception and surged to first place in local ratings in 1989, a position it has largely held ever since. An interesting quirk in its history includes a temporary callsign change to WXFL from 1983 to 1989, forced by FCC regulations that prohibited co-owned TV and radio stations from sharing similar call letters. The station was part of Media General for decades, but after the company sold the Tribune in 2012, it was acquired by Nexstar Media Group in 2017 as part of a $4.6 billion merger. In August 2025, Nexstar announced a deal to acquire Tegna Inc., which would bring rival station WTSP under the same corporate umbrella. Today, WFLA-TV shares studios with sister station WTTA and transmits its signal from a tower in Riverview, Florida, via a channel-sharing agreement.