WZVN-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Montclair Communications, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Waterman Broadcasting, owner of Fort Myers–licensed NBC affiliate WBBH-TV (channel 20), for the provision of certain services. Both stations share studios on Central Avenue in Fort Myers, while WZVN-TV's transmitter is located along SR 31 in unincorporated southeastern Charlotte County. WZVN-TV is branded as ABC 7, in reference to its channel location on most cable systems in the market. History Sign-on and early years The station first signed on the air on August 21, 1974, as WEVU (a phonetic translation of "we view"); it was the third television station to sign on in Fort Myers. The station was owned by Gulfshore Television Corporation; it immediately took over the ABC affiliation which beforehand was relegated to off-hour secondary clearances through WBBH-TV (channel 20) and CBS affiliate WINK-TV (channel 11). However, viewers with a good antenna could also watch the full ABC schedule from either Miami's WPLG, West Palm Beach's WPEC (now a CBS affiliate), or WLCY-TV (now CBS affiliate WTSP) in St. Petersburg. The station's original studios were located off of US 41 in Bonita Springs; its original transmitter facilities were located southeast of Bonita Springs, near the Collier–Lee county line. This location allowed the station to provide a stronger signal into Naples and southern Collier County as compared with the market's other broadcast outlets. WEVU's early months quickly turned turbulent. In December 1974, founding general manager and majority Gulfshore owner G. Vernon Lundquist, who had previous broadcast experience in the market at WMYR radio and WINK-TV, was asked to take a leave of absence by the board of directors; his wife Marilyn, who was tapped to be the operations manager, was fired. Early the next month, Gulfshore's other members sued Lundquist, saying that the stock he held was illegally issued; at that same time, the station fired 15 staff, canceled its early evening news and began signing on at 11:30 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. In a summary judgment that March, a circuit court found in favor of the other stockholders. In a second lawsuit filed in May 1975, more details surfaced about Lundquist's tenure running the new station. According to the suit filed by Gulfshore's other stockholders, Lundquist solicited a WEVU employee to appear