UniMás
UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. The network's programming, which is ...
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...
affiliate
Affiliation or affiliate may refer to:
* Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law
* Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship
* Affiliate marketing
* Affiliate network or affiliation pla ...
WFTY-DT (channel 67). The stations share studios on Frank W. Burr Boulevard in Teaneck, New Jersey; WFUT-DT and WXTV-DT share transmitter facilities at the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
on WFTY's second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
The station first signed on the air on September 29, 1974 as WBTB-TV, an
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
, but upon Blonder-Tongue's acquisition of the permit from Atlantic Video Corporation in 1972, the calls were changed; the first transmission was a test pattern with a drawing of a shade tree with the WBTB-TV calls. Channel 68 was the third commercial UHF station to sign-on in the northern New Jersey portion of the New York market, after
WNJU-TV
WNJU (channel 47) is a television station licensed to Linden, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting Telemundo programming to the New York City area. It is one of two flagship stations of the Spanish-language network (the other being WSCV i ...
(channel 47) and future sister station WXTV. Blonder-Tongue's long-term plans for channel 68 was to offer an over-the-air subscription television service to the New York area, consisting of movies, sports and cultural programming. Due to financial issues, the station was forced to go dark on December 27, 1974.
Nine months later, on September 28, 1975, WBTB-TV returned to the air and became the first "specialty station" as defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with niche programming—featuring daily reports and updates from the New York financial exchanges. When the
stock market
A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...
s were closed, channel 68 offered shows such as the ''
Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...
'' during the late afternoon hours, a locally-produced variety series called ''
The Uncle Floyd Show
Floyd Vivino (born October 19, 1951), also known as Uncle Floyd, is an American television, film, and stage performer primarily known for his comedy/variety TV show ''The Uncle Floyd Show'' (1974–1998).
Early life
Vivino was born in Paterso ...
'' hosted by Floyd Vivino, and Christian programming hosted by Keith Hauser at night. Saturdays featured various ethnic programs, as well as
religious programming
Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...
during the day on Sunday and on weekday mornings before the stock market opened.
In 1976 Wometco Enterprises, the founding and longtime owners of WTVJ in Miami, purchased the station originally with the intent of making it more of a general entertainment station, and changed the station's
callsign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
to WTVG in 1977. WTVG acquired the rights to some programs such as ''
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a full-length novel called ''Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fic ...
Green Acres
''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...
'' and '' Speed Racer''. However, due to high program costs in the New York City market, and the presence of six existing commercial VHF stations—including then-independents WNEW-TV (channel 5, now WNYW), WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR-TV), and WPIX (channel 11)—WTVG was at too much of a disadvantage to grow into a major player.
In the fall of 1977, Wometco launched a national over-the-air subscription television service called Wometco Home Theater, and opted to use WTVG as its
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
station. On July 16, 1979, the station's calls were changed to WWHT to match the program service (the WTVG call letters are now used by the ABC affiliate and one-time network O&O in Toledo, Ohio). Viewers who subscribed to WHT were given set-top converter boxes which descrambled the channel 68 signal. In a twist of irony, the converter boxes were manufactured by Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, thus fulfilling their original ambitions for the station they launched only three years earlier.
By 1980, WWHT's program lineup consisted of a mixture of religious shows (such as '' The PTL Club'') during mornings and middays and general entertainment programs (including a one-hour business news show) in late afternoon and early evenings. WHT programming aired during late mornings, primetime and late nights. On weekends, the station ran children's, religious and ethnic brokered programs, with the subscription service beginning in late afternoons. Around this same time, Wometco purchased Smithtown-based WSNL-TV (channel 67, now WFTY-DT), which began simulcasting WWHT.
In the spring of 1981, WWHT dropped afternoon programming and began running Financial News Network from 9 to 10 a.m. and from 1 to 5 p.m. In the spring of 1983, WHT began offering programming 24 hours a day. By this time, WWHT only ran some religious programming from 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays and Sundays, and WHT programming the rest of the time. FNN, brokered shows and the few entertainment shows it had were dropped, with the ''Uncle Floyd Show'' moving to the New Jersey Network. In 1984, a year after Wometco's founder Mitchell Wolfson died, WWHT/WSNL and the other Wometco stations were sold to investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which also bought the Storer Broadcasting group of stations.
By 1985 WHT folded, due to huge losses as a result of the expansion of cable television; as a result, the station switched to music videos as ''U68'', programmed by Steve Leeds (later at
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
). U68's music video format was short-lived but had a much broader eclectic playlist than MTV and was highly regarded among recording artists of the era. Nevertheless, KKR was looking to sell all of its broadcast properties. The former Wometco stations were sold to separate buyers, with WTVJ eventually going to NBC. (The other Storer stations picked up by KKR went to Gillett Broadcasting). However, during Autumn 1986, WWHT and WSNL were sold to the
Home Shopping Network
HSN, an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Qurate Retail Group, which also owns catalog company Cornerstone Brands. Based in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Flor ...
becoming WHSE and WHSI, respectively, and aired HSN programming full-time for the next sixteen years. When Barry Diller bought the USA Network (and effectively HSN), the company was renamed USA Broadcasting.
By the late 1990s, USA Broadcasting planned to switch its HSN stations to a general entertainment independent format, with WHSE/WHSI slated to switch in 2000 as WORX (which would have been branded as "The Worx 68"). Promos and station IDs were actually produced for the station, and classic series such as '' Taxi'', ''
I Love Lucy
''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...
'' and ''
Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...
'' were acquired for the station. Several of its sister stations had switched to the entertainment format in the prior two years. However, only weeks before the planned switch, USA put all its stations up for sale; The Walt Disney Company was originally the leading bidder for the stations, which would have made WHSE/WHSI a sister station to ABC owned-and-operated WABC-TV (channel 7), but
Univision Communications
TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American media company headquartered in New York and Mexico City, which owns the American Spanish language broadcast network Univision. 45% of the company is held by the ...
outbid its competition in a close race. USA Broadcasting, as a result of the pending sale, scrapped the format switch, with WHSE remaining with HSN for a few more months as a result.
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001, the station temporarily broadcast WABC-TV.
In the fall of 2001, WHSE began carrying programming from AIN/ UATV, two networks that generally affiliated with low-powered stations elsewhere in the country. Once Univision completed the purchase of the USA Broadcasting over a year after it was announced, the station became a charter affiliate of its new secondary network Telefutura (which would later relaunch as UniMás in January 2013) on January 14, 2002, and accordingly had its call letters changed to WFUT-TV.
Newscasts
From the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, channel 68 aired daily financial news and reports. By the late 1990s through early 2000s, an hour of financial news was added back to the schedule, as Bloomberg Information Television started to air in the early morning hours on weekdays.
In 2009, sister station WXTV began producing an hour-long extension of its weekday morning newscast (currently branded as ''Noticias 41 Al Despertar'') for WFTY/WFUT, airing at 7:00a.m.
WFUT discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 68, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.List of Digital Full-Power Stations /ref> The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 58 to channel 30 (originally, its final digital channel assignment was to be UHF channel 41),CDBS Print /ref> using PSIP to display WFUT's virtual channel as 68 on digital television receivers, which (as with its original digital channel allocation) was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
See also
*
All Channels Act
The All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 (ACRA) (), commonly known as the All-Channels Act, was passed by the United States Congress in 1961, to allow the Federal Communications Commission to require that all television set manufacturers must include ...