WHFT-TV (channel 45) is a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

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 ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, United States,

owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

by the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

(TBN). The station's studios and

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

are located at the Lakeside Park (formerly Lake Trinity Estates) complex on Pembroke Road in Pembroke Park (with a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

mailing address).

History

The station first signed on the air on March 17, 1975, as WFCB-TV; it originally operated as a religious

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 ...

that was owned by Florida Christian Television. The sign-on took place more than five years after the original construction permit was issued on August 29, 1969. The station aired programming for five hours a day, running a few local church services, Bible instruction programs, children's Christian programming, and programs from nationally known

television evangelists Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

. Florida Christian Television's owners were unable to keep the station solvent, so they put the station up for sale in early 1976, with a request to sell it to a Christian ministry. The Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association (later known as

LeSEA Broadcasting Family Broadcasting Corporation, formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting, is an American Christian television network. Founded by Lester Sumrall in 1972, Family Broadcasting Corporation is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, and broadcasts Chris ...

) acquired the station in July 1976, after Florida Christian Television opted to sell for lack of capital. The station's call letters were changed to WHFT-TV (standing for "World Harvest Florida Television"), and the station switch from viewer- to advertiser-supported. Initially, the station's schedule expanded to nine hours a day with the addition of more Christian programming, much of it added by LeSEA, along with televangelist programs such as ''

The 700 Club ''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, con ...

''; a further expansion soon after added additional secular family entertainment shows. In 1980, a month after Sumrall declared that the station was not for sale, it was announced that WHFT would be purchased by the

. While TBN promised to increase programming from local religious ministries, the station dropped all of its secular programs as part of the sale. Productions from the studios included the national Monday-night broadcast of '' Praise the Lord'' and a significant portion of TBN's Spanish-language output. The Pembroke Park mobile home park—mostly home to seasonal

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

residents—where WHFT's tower and former studios are located—was purchased by TBN in 1983 to reduce conflicts with neighbors and was known as Trinity Towers. The complex was renamed Lakeside Park Estates in 2017. The tower has been climbed on several occasions—including twice by the same man, ten years apart.

Subchannels

The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 46. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...

, digital television receivers display the station's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as its former UHF analog channel 45.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whft-Tv HFT-TV Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1975 Family Broadcasting Corporation HFT-TV 1975 establishments in Florida