Three unbuilt construction permits
Channel 33, allocated to Miami since the introduction of ultra high frequency (UHF) channel assignments in 1952, went unused by a full-power station for more than 30 years. There had been some activity around it when it was first assigned, drawing two applicants;[1] the Miami Biscayne Television Corporation obtained the construction permit, but it went unbuilt.[2] In the 1960s, three bids were made to start a channel 33 station, by Gem Broadcasting, proposing an all-Spanish-language station; and Supreme Broadcasting;[3] Gem was replaced by Gateway Television Corporation, led by Miamian and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attorney Vincent B. Welch.[4] Gateway was awarded the construction permit in 1964 after the other two firms dropped out of the running.[5]
Gateway abandoned its bid by 1966,[6] and Hialeah food processor Budd Mayer filed for the channel, proposing subscription television (STV) operation using the Telemeter system.[7] Gold Coast obtained a construction permit in March 1967,[8] though no station ever materialized. In the meantime, beginning in 1974, WCIX (channel 6), hampered by a poor signal in Broward County, began operating a translator on channel 33.[9]
"Florida's Super Station"
In 1977, Miami STV Inc., a company owned by the Block family of Milwaukee, filed with the FCC for authority to build channel 33. Like Gold Coast of a decade earlier, Miami STV was aligned with a subscription television operation, in this case SelecTV. Miami STV was granted a construction permit in July 1980, with the FCC turning down an application for a high-power satellite of WCIX in the process; the owners proposed a hybrid service of ad-supported and subscription programs, similar to what WKID was already broadcasting on channel 51.[10]
The call letters WBFS-TV were assigned under Block in February 1983;[11] that November, the Shlenker Group, which owned KTXH in Houston and KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas, filed to buy a majority stake in the unbuilt station from Miami STV for $46,250. Shlenker would finance construction; in exchange, plans for STV operation would be dropped.[12] At the end of 1983, the WCIX channel 33 translator was shut down.
Grant bankruptcy and Combined ownership
The Grant Broadcasting System sold the Fort Worth and Houston stations in early 1985 and expanded to new startup independents in two larger markets, Philadelphia (WGBS-TV) and Chicago (WGBO-TV). By March 1986, WBFS had tied WCIX as the top independent station in South Florida.[19] However, the new stations and WBFS-TV had to grapple with their high promotional expenses and rapidly rising programming costs. The other Miami stations saw Grant's strategy coming and matched his bids, blunting the impact of his spending. Equally importantly, when the television advertising market slowed down, the highly leveraged Grant-Shlenker consortium faced financial difficulties.[20] Syndicators began to seek payment from a group that did not have the resources to pay. Programs were hastily pulled from the WBFS-TV schedule because their syndicators, such as Embassy Pictures, were threatening to pull the programs and already shopping them to channel 33's competitors.[21]
On December 8, 1986, all three Grant television stations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Philadelphia.[22]
Sale to Paramount and affiliation with UPN
In October 1994, Combined reached an agreement to sell WBFS-TV and WGBS-TV to Paramount Stations Group. As a consequence, Paramount announced that the two stations would join the forthcoming United Paramount Network (UPN), which was created through a programming partnership with Chris-Craft, and that WBFS-TV and WDZL would swap proposed affiliations to leave WBFS-TV with UPN and WDZL with The WB.[38] Even though the deal did not close for nearly a year—as it was dependent on Paramount selling another Philadelphia station, WTXF—WBFS joined the new UPN at its launch on January 16, 1995.[39][40][41]
As UPN expanded in programming offering, the sports teams left. The Heat had returned to WBFS-TV in 1993, but they signed a deal with WAMI-TV (channel 69) in 1998.[42]
Transition to MyNetworkTV, independence and The CW
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (which had been formed from the split of Viacom in two) and Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment division announced that they would dissolve UPN and The WB, moving some of their programming to a newly created network, The CW.[48][49] Twelve CBS-owned UPN stations were chosen as charter affiliates of The CW; WBFS-TV was not included, as the deal also included a long-term affiliation pact with 16 Tribune Broadcasting stations—including WBZL (the former WDZL, later renamed WSFL).[50]
To serve affiliates of the two networks not selected for The CW—namely its own—News Corporation announced the creation of MyNetworkTV on February 22, 2006. After initially announcing plans that May to take WBFS-TV independent,[51]
