| Key West, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Mega TV |
| Channels | Digital: 3 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 22.1 - Mega TV (1080i) |
| Translators | WSBS-CD 50 Miami, etc. |
| Affiliations | Mega TV |
| Owner | Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (WSBS Licensing, Inc.) |
| First air date | June 1993[1] |
| Call letters' meaning | Spanish Broadcasting System |
| Former callsigns | (see article) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 22 (1993-2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS TeleNoticias Telemundo Internacional Network One |
| Transmitter power | 1 kW (45kW CP) 15kW @ -1° for WSBS-CD |
| Height | WSBS-TV: 54 m (177 ft) WSBS-CD: 237.3 m (779 ft) |
| Facility ID | 72053 (-TV), 29547/167208 (-CD) |
| Transmitter coordinates | (-TV); (-CD) |
| Website | www.mega.tv |
WSBS-TV is a Spanish-language television station in Key West, Florida, broadcasting to the lower (western) Florida Keys on VHF channel 3 as an Mega TV flagship station. The station also operates a repeater in Miami, WSBS-CD channel 50, and has been available nationally on DirecTV since October 17, 2007 and in high definition on it since September 29, 2010. Both stations use virtual channel 22.1, as the main station was originally on analog channel 22.
WSBS is owned by Spanish Broadcasting System; Mega TV is SBS's only television network, as the company deals primarily in radio. While channel 22 itself first went on the air in June 1993, Mega TV was launched on March 1, 2006. Its original slate of programming includes productions aimed to young Hispanic viewers. Mega TV seems to be following the same pattern traced by rivals larger WSCV and WLTV nearly 25 years ago: creating its own television personalities.
Prior to 2005, WSBS (then known as WDLP-TV) was, under the ownership of Sonia Broadcasting, co-owned with another Key West station, WGEN-TV.
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On February 17, 2009, WSBS-TV left channel 22 and continued digital broadcasts on VHF channel 3 to complete its analog to digital conversion. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WSBS-TV's virtual channel as "22". It is one of the only stations in the country to use the VHF low band for digital operations, which are especially rare on channels 2 to 4 (54-72MHz). It chose to keep this channel in the first round of the digital channel election.
Analog WSBS-CA 50, having "Miami, etc." as its city of license, made a flash cut to digital in early 2010, and therefore had its broadcast callsign changed to WSBS-CD. This station has a class-A broadcast license, meaning that although it is low-power, it has protection from RF interference as full-power stations do. Like the main station, it uses virtual channel 22.1, as it is likely just an RF passthrough with no demodulation. It is located in the Andover section of Miami Gardens, immediately south of the massive tower that holds several stations, and has a [[directional antenna that aims mostly southeast and southwest, covering far northeastern Miami-Dade down to Miami, and far southeastern Broward up to just south of Fort Lauderdale.
WSBS-TV has had numerous name changes over the years. This has caused much confusion, both among viewers and writers. In many places, the station is still referred to as WEYS TeleNoticias, and WDLP Licensing, Inc. remained the licensee for several months after the call change to WSBS-TV. Some of these names have been reused by low-power repeater stations, themselves often subject to similar callsign shuffles (for instance, the WDLP callsign is currently used by a repeater for rival WGEN-TV).
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