WITV was a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
that broadcast on channel 17 in
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 ...
, United States. Owned by the Gerico Investment Company, it was the third television station on the air in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale area and the fourth in South Florida, operating from December 1953 to May 1958. It was doomed by troubles that plagued
ultra high frequency
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequency, 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 ten ...
(UHF) television in the days before the
All-Channel Receiver 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 ...
and particularly the arrival of two additional
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
TV stations to Miami in 1956 and 1957. The WITV transmitter facility was purchased by the
Dade County School Board, eventually resulting in the reactivation of channel 17 as Miami-based
WLRN-TV
WLRN-TV (channel 17) is a secondary PBS member television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district alongside NPR member WLRN-FM (91.3); the two outlets are operated under a management ...
in 1962.
History
![Former governor Fuller Warren at WITV station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Former_governor_Fuller_Warren_at_WITV_station.jpg)
When the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) lifted its four-year-old freeze on television station applications in 1948, channels 17 and 23 were placed in Fort Lauderdale. Applications for both allotments were received, and on July 30, 1952, the FCC granted channel 23 to radio station WFTL and channel 17 to Gerico Investment.
Gerico, a group of local business interests, added television experience when Mortimer Loewi, a former executive of the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
, bought a stake in the firm at the start of 1953.
Construction took place that fall, with studios going up in the Hollywood Ridge Farms area and a transmitter being constructed at
Hallandale.
The station picked up affiliations with DuMont and
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
,
though first-call rights for any of these networks' programs were held by the original VHF station in the region,
WTVJ
WTVJ (channel 6) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Fort Lauderdale–licensed WSCV (ch ...
(channel 4). A 90-minute opening program on the evening of December 1, 1953, marked the start of channel 17's broadcasting life.
Former Florida governor
Fuller Warren
Fuller Warren (October 3, 1905September 23, 1973) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th governor of Florida.
Early life and education
Born in Blountstown, Florida, he attended the University of Florida in Gainesvil ...
joined the station in early 1954 as a political analyst
and hosted a weekly news commentary program on Sunday nights.
In August 1954, officials from WITV and WFTL-TV announced they were pursuing a merger agreement to combine forces and avoid competition among UHF stations with the threat of networks' preference for VHF stations looming.
Their announcement followed a more definite report by the ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'' that WITV was to buy out the other station, with channel 17 surviving the merger.
However, no final agreement could be reached as the parties differed on particulars of the combination of the two stations.
Three months later, WFTL-TV was sold to
Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the Northeastern United States. It was incorporated in Ohio 1927, and was broken up in 1986.
History 1920s–1940s
In 1927, George B. Storer ...
, which also purchased a construction permit for WMIE-TV channel 27 in Miami.
WFTL-TV moved to Miami as
WGBS-TV
WGBS-TV was a television station that broadcast on channel 23 in Miami, Florida, United States, from 1953 to 1957. Originally established as WFTL-TV in Fort Lauderdale, it moved south to Miami when it was purchased by Storer Broadcasting at the ...
by combining the assets and channel number of WFTL-TV with the Miami location and proposed facilities of the unbuilt WMIE-TV.
In 1957, WITV proposed to move to channel 6, which had just been allocated to Miami, claiming that the FCC's action "effectively deleted UHF service in the Miami area". The idea of a channel 6 station drew criticism to the north and south, from co-channel stations in
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
(
WDBO-TV) and
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. (CMQ-TV).
However, the commission rejected WITV's assertion that it was entitled to the channel, ordering it to file applications opposite other interested bidders, and denied its effort to bid on channels 7 and 10, whose statuses had been thrown into doubt due to illegal influence on their
comparative hearing
The comparative hearing process was used by the United States Federal Radio Commission from 1927 to 1934 and its successor, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), from 1934 to 1994 for the evaluation of mutually exclusive applications for bro ...
proceedings.
Meanwhile, the station was given what amounted to a death blow when the third VHF station for Miami appeared. WGBS-TV folded in April 1957 and sold its equipment to Public Service Television, a division of
National Airlines, which started up
WPST-TV
WPST-TV was a television station that broadcast on channel 10 in Miami, Florida, United States, from 1957 to 1961. Owned by Public Service Television, Inc., the broadcasting subsidiary of Miami-based National Airlines (NAL), and managed ...
on channel 10 that August and took away the ABC affiliation that had been held by WITV since its inception.
The station then adopted a "curtailed" schedule of programming,
broadcasting the minimum 28 hours a week. This continued until WITV limped off the air after its broadcast day on May 11, 1958; owner Loewi was reported to be on a yacht at sea and thus unavailable for comment.
The news was reported at the time by the ''Miami Herald'' and ''
The Miami News
''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...
'', but it was more than a month before it was "generally known" at the FCC and reported by trade publications. Bill Bayer, WITV's news director from the station's launch, joined WPST-TV in the same capacity and took his weekly Sunday night political debate program with him.
Channel 17 after WITV
Gerico retained the construction permit and had the option of selling the station or putting it back on the air at a later date. However, the losses it racked up also stayed with the firm. In July 1958, the American Research Bureau, Sterling Television Co., and
TelePrompTer Corporation
__notoc__
TelePrompTer Corporation was an American media company that existed from approximately 1950 until 1981. The company was named for its eponymous primary product, a display device invented by Hubert Schlafly which scrolls text to people on ...
sued to force the company into involuntary bankruptcy.
Assets exceeded liabilities by more than $200,000, per later statements in federal bankruptcy court.
Assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in March 1959.
The Lunar Corporation purchased the former transmitter site and entered into negotiations for its possible use as a transmission facility for educational television.
In 1959, the
Dade County school board purchased the site for $200,000 and received an exemption to use the site, too close to
Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...
's channel 2 station otherwise, to relocate WTHS-TV, its educational station, from a facility in Miami.
The project would expand the reach of the station, which had previously been limited to Dade, to include areas in
Broward County
Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 ...
and
Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous county ...
.
After purchasing the site, the school board got channel 17 dreams of its own. Since it owned the former WITV equipment and had its own studios, the Dade County school board authorized attorneys to prosecute a plan to reactivate channel 17 for educational use in 1960.
This application was designated for hearing by the FCC, along with the license renewal for WITV, in 1961.
An FCC hearing examiner sided with the school board,
and the channel was shifted from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and reserved for noncommercial use so that the school board could use the same Miami studios for both facilities. Operations of WSEC-TV, changed to
WLRN-TV
WLRN-TV (channel 17) is a secondary PBS member television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district alongside NPR member WLRN-FM (91.3); the two outlets are operated under a management ...
in 1973, began with program tests on June 26, 1962,
with several high school courses moving over from WTHS-TV and sets in the schools being fitted with UHF converters.
References
{{Miami TV
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1953 establishments in Florida
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1958
1958 disestablishments in Florida
Defunct television stations in the United States
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...