WLTV-DT

WLTV-DT
Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Branding Univision 23
Channels Digital: 23 (UHF)
Subchannels 23.1 Univision
Owner Univision Communications, Inc.
(WLTV License Partnership, GP)
First air date November 14, 1967
Call letters' meaning Latin American TeleVision
Sister station(s) WAMI-DT
Former callsigns WAJA-TV (1967-1971)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
23 (1967-2009)
Digital:
24 (2002-2009)
Former affiliations Independent (1967-1971)
Transmitter power 535 kW
Height 297 m
Facility ID 73230
Website Univision 23

WLTV-DT is a Univision owned and operated station serving Spanish-speaking viewers in South Florida. The station is located in Doral, where Univision's production facilities are also located. The transmitter is located in Miami Gardens. WLTV-TV offers a Spanish programming format featuring news, talk shows, dramas, movies and other first rate Spanish programming.

Contents

History

Channel 23 signed on initially on December 24, 1954 as WFTL-TV and licensed to Fort Lauderdale[1], originally affiliated with the NBC and DuMont networks. It was owned by Storer Broadcasting, who bought the WFTL studio facility and the construction permit for WMIE-TV (channel 23) in Miami (which never signed on under that call sign) shortly before WFTL's first sign-on. A few days after WFTL's launch, Storer renamed it WGBS-TV (which stood for George B. Storer). In 1956, WGBS became an independent station after DuMont ceased operations and after it lost the NBC affiliation to the new WCKT-TV channel 7 (now WSVN). Its new programming initiative was unsuccessful; it went dark April 13, 1957. (The WGBS-TV calls were later used on Philadelphia's channel 57, now CBS-owned The CW Television Network affiliate WPSG; the two stations are unrelated.)

The channel 23 license remained active for many years after the first incarnation of that channel went off the air largely because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was reluctant at the time to delete the licenses of silent stations. During this period, channel 23 was used intermittently for FCC-sponsored tests.

The present-day incarnation of Channel 23 signed on November 14, 1967 as WAJA, an independent station. By that time, Storer sold the station to Al Lapin, Jr. Making the first great contribution to Latin-American Television in Miami, including shows such as "Bozo the Clown" as an afternoon show with a recorded version in Spanish for a Saturday morning rerun, which included Bozo, and his latin helper "Petunia" (played by Ileana Garcia). It also included very popular Spanish shows back in the day, such as "Solo Para Bailadores", a live musical show hosted by Omar Marchant with live bands (A Spanish Equivalent of Soul Train) featuring live local bands, and many locals who came to dance an be seen on television. The WAJA Studios at that time were located on 441 and Northwest 199th Street in Miami-Dade County, Florida. In January 1971, Lapin sold the station to Spanish International Communications Corporation (forerunner of today's Univision Communications). The station's call letters were changed to WLTV as the station concentrated more on Spanish-language programming, especially from the Spanish International Network (SIN, later to be renamed Univision in 1987-1988).

The WLTV calls were previously used by Atlanta's WXIA-TV from 1951 to 1953, then by Bowling Green, Kentucky's WBKO-TV from 1962-1971.

All Univision-owned full-service television stations, including WLTV, officially added the -DT suffix to their call signs on June 23, 2009, 11 days after the analog television shutdown and digital conversion was completed.

In December 2009, WLTV along with most other Univision-owned stations upgraded their signals to 1080i high definition in preparation for the arrival of new HD programming from Univision and sister network TeleFutura, which occurred in January 2010.

News operation

Newscasts

Weekdays

Saturdays

Sundays

News team

Anchors

Weather team

Sports team

Reporters

Alumni

(Incomplete)

News department

References

External links