WFUT-DT

WFUT-DT, virtual channel 68, is a Spanish-language television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, which serves as an affiliate of the Telefutura network for the New York City market. Owned by the Univision Broadcast Group along with WXTV (channel 41), the stations share studios in Secaucus, New Jersey and transmitting facilities at the Empire State Building.

WFUT's programming is rebroadcast on a satellite station, WFTY-DT (virtual channel 67) in Smithtown, New York, which serves the eastern areas of Long Island.

History

WFUT first signed on September 29, 1974 as WBTB-TV (named for original owners Blonder-Tongue Broadcasting; its calls before that were WWRO-TV as a construction permit, but the calls were changed by the first transmission, a test card with a drawing of a shade tree with the WBTB calls). Unfortunately, the station went dark in February 1975 because many cable systems refused to carry the signal and few viewers were either aware of, or simply did not care much for a UHF television station at the upper end of the dial.

However, in July 1975, financial adviser Eugene Inger and broadcaster Keith Houser teamed up to resurrect the station. The new WBTB-TV became the first "specialty station" as defined by the Federal Communications Commission with niche programming -- daily reports and updates from the New York financial exchanges. Keith Houser was the G.M. Mr. Houser negotiated with the NY-SEC office to get the ticker tape to crawl across the bottom of the screen on a 2-hour delay, due to the SEC worrying that it might "destablize" the market. The ticker ran across the lower third of the screen, with stock prices on the top (white) band and index prices on the bottom (blue) band. After the first year of programming the SEC permitted just a 20-minute delay.[1]When the stock markets were closed, WBTB offered shows such as the Grand Ole Opry during late afternoons, a locally-produced variety series called The Uncle Floyd Show hosted by Floyd Vivino, and Christian programming hosted by Keith Houser at night. Saturdays were ethnic programs from Bulgaria and Spain as well as religious programming during the day on Sunday and on weekday mornings before the stock market opened.

In late 1976 Wometco Enterprises, the founding and longtime owners of WTVJ in Miami, purchased the station and initially changed its call letters to WTVG. In 1977 Wometco launched a nationwide, over-the-air subscription television service called Wometco Home Theater, and opted to use WTVG as its flagship station. In 1978, the station's calls were changed to WWHT to match the program service. Viewers who subscribed to WHT were given set-top converter boxes (created by, ironically, Blonder-Tongue) which descrambled the channel 68 signal.

By 1980, WWHT was running religious shows from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., WHT programming 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 8 p.m. through the overnight, more religious shows from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., general entertainment from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and business news from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

On weekends the station ran children's programming early Saturday morning followed by brokered programming from late morning to about 4 p.m. Sundays consisted of religious shows until 4 p.m. WHT began after 4 p.m. on weekends at that point. Also, at that point, WSNL-TV (channel 67, now WFTY-DT) in Smithtown, New York, was purchased by Wometco and began simulcasting WWHT.

In the spring of 1981, WWHT dropped afternoon programming and began running Financial News Network from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. In the spring of 1983, WHT began offering programming 24 hours a day. WWHT at this point 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 were dropped, with Uncle Floyd 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 all 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). KKR was looking to sell all of its broadcast properties. The 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, in the fall of 1986, WWHT and WSNL were sold to the Home Shopping Network and became WHSE and WHSI, respectively, and aired the HSN format full-time for the next sixteen years. When Barry Diller bought the USA Network, the company was renamed USA Broadcasting.

By the late 1990s, HSN's broadcasting arm, known as USA Broadcasting, planned to switch their HSN stations to an independent format, with WHSE/WHSI slated to switch in 2000 as WORX "The Worx 68". Promos and station IDs were actually produced for the station, and classic series such as Taxi and Cheers were acquired for the station. Several sister stations did indeed switch. However, due to financial troubles in late 2000, USA Broadcasting, who owned HSN by that time, scrapped these plans, meaning that WHSE would switch to AIN/UATV, networks generally used by low-powered stations. USA planned to sell WHSE to The Walt Disney Company, which would have made it a sister station to ABC owned-and-operated WABC-TV, but Univision Communications outbid its competition in a close race. It later became a charter Telefutura affiliate on January 14, 2002, re-called as WFUT-TV.

Digital television

WFUT-DT broadcasts on digital channel 30.

Digital channels

On June 12, 2009, WFUT discontinued regular analog programming on channel 68. ^[1] The station moved its digital broadcasts to channel 30.^[2] using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 68.

See also

• All Channels Act
• WFTY-DT

References

External links

• Univision
• TeleFutura
• More information about Wometco Home Theater
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WFUT