WUVN

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WUVN
Hartford / New Haven, Connecticut
Branding	Univision 18/Univision Nueva Inglaterra
Channels	18 (UHF) analog, 46 (UHF) digital
Translators	WHTX-LP Springfield, Massachusetts (43, UHF)
Affiliations	Univision
Owner	Entravision
Founded	1954
Call letters meaning	"UniVisioN" (also UVN-stock symbol for Univision)
Former callsigns	WGTH-TV (1954-55), WHCT (1955-91, 1996-99)
Former affiliations	ABC (1954-55), DuMont (1954-56, secondary) CBS (1955-58) Independent (1958-85, 1986-91, 1996-99)
Transmitter Power	3.16 MW (analog) 4 kW (digital)
Website	www.wuvntv.com

WUVN is the Connecticut affiliate for the Spanish language Univision television network. It is licensed to Hartford. Owned by Entravision, the station broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 18, and its digital signal on UHF channel 46. Its tower is located on Deercliff Road in Avon.

It largely simulcasts Boston's Univision affiliate, WUNI-TV, and operates a full-time satellite in Springfield, Massachusetts, WHTX on channel 43. The three stations are branded as Univision Nueva Inglaterra (Univision New England).

Contents 1 History 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] History

The station began operation on August 4, 1954 as WGTH-TV, a DuMont/ABC affiliate broadcasting on UHF channel 71. It was initially owned by The Hartford Times newspaper, but was sold to CBS in 1955, shortly after Hartford and New Haven merged into a single market. The station's call letters were changed to WHCT, for "Hartford CBS Television" (or, alternatively, "Hartford, CT" or "Hartford Christian Television" according to some). By the time CBS acquired the station, it was broadcasting on channel 18.

As a CBS station, WHCT's ratings were astonishingly low because television sets weren't required to come with UHF tuners until 1964. Even with a very expensive converter, UHF signals were very unclear at the time. In 1957, Travelers Insurance Company, the owners of longtime Hartford CBS radio affiliate WTIC-AM, signed on WTIC-TV on Channel 3. By 1958, CBS had concluded that it was better to have its programming on a VHF station, even if it was only an affiliate. It moved its Hartford affilition to WTIC-TV, and sold WHCT to RKO General, which turned it into an independent station. Channel 3, which is now WFSB, has been Hartford's CBS affiliate since then. WHCT became RKO's only UHF station.

As an independent, WHCT's schedule consisted of cartoons, movies, off-network sitcoms and dramas, sports, public affairs programming, and religious shows. From 1962 to 1969, the station ran a subscription television service from 7pm to midnight with scrambled first-run movies and sports events from Madison Square Garden. A decade before the 1972 primier of HBO, WHCT's programming was an experiment between RKO and Zenith, who provided the descrambler boxes. WHCT-TV could be seen by all viewers with a UHF tuner and antenna during regular broadcast hours viewers needed a decoder box in order to view the signal during the pay tv program block. The first pay-TV movie was "Sunrise At Campobello," starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson. The subscription television service was deemed a failure, and RKO dropped it in 1968."^[1] The station now signed on in the afternoon and signed off late at night everyday. Charles Osgood, now the host of CBS Sunday Morning, was General Manager of the station.^[2]

By 1972, RKO donated the station to California's Faith Center, led by Dr. Eugene Scott. Under Scott, the station began to air religious programming in the morning and evening hours, while continuing to air general entertainment programming from noon to 8pm. Along with shows such as "PTL Club" and "The 700 Club", WHCT also aired programming featuring Dr. Scott himself. For a time, WHCT also broadcast games of the National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers.

The general entertainment programming was gone from the station by 1979. The station's transmitter was vandalized in the same year, forcing it to broadcast at low power. By 1981 the station aired Dr. Scott's shows full time. Scott would provide ramling discourses on wide ranging topics..^[3]

WHCT was put up for a "distress" sale in 1985, with stipulation from the FCC that the station be sold to a group of minority ownership. After some legal wranglings, Astroline Communications took ownership of the station, and WHCT returned to air in September of that year with a lineup of movies, re-runs, and syndicated programming not shown on the other two Connecticut independents, WTXX-TV and WTIC-TV. The station continued to underperform in the ratings, and was in serious financial trouble by the fall of 1987. Syndicated shows were pulled off the station daily because program distributors weren't being paid. The station gradually increased the amount of paid programming and infomercials to 18 hours a day.

WHCT filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990, and by 1991, the station was ordered off the air by the Federal Bankruptcy Court, with its equipment repossessed to satisfy the creditors' demands.

WHCT stayed dark for five years until Paxson Communications purchased the license in 1996, and the station returned to air in the spring of that year, airing Valuevision home shopping and other paid programming. The station was sold to Entravision in 2001 for *18 million, and began to air Spanish-language programming that year.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Pay TV started in 1961", The Grand Rapids Press, November 20, 2005.
2. ^ "CBS newsman will speak Sept. 25", The New Haven Register, September 17, 2002.
3. ^ "WHCT (Channel 18) in bankruptcy court", The New Haven Register, November 8, 1988 Author=Joe Amarante.
4. ^ "Channel 18 to become Spanish TV", The New Haven Register, January 6, 2001.

• RadioDXer.com

[edit] See also

• RKO Pictures
• Eugene Scott

[edit] External links

• Official website (same content as the WUNI-TV site)
• Advertising information site (from WUVN owner Entravision)
• WUVN's tower and transmitters
• History of the old WHCT, by former staff member Kyle Bookholz
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WUVN
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHTX-LP