WUCF-TV

WUCF-TV (channel 24) is a PBS member television station in Orlando, Florida, United States. Owned by the University of Central Florida (UCF), it is the region's sole PBS member station, reaching an estimated population of 4.6 million people in its viewing area.[1] WUCF-TV is sister to WUCF-FM (89.9), Central Florida's secondary NPR station. The two outlets share studios on Research Parkway on the UCF campus. Through a channel sharing agreement with religious station WTGL (channel 45), the two stations transmit using WUCF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

Channel 24 had previously been WMFE-TV, the main ETV and PBS outlet for Central Florida from 1965 to 2011, when then-owner Community Communications dropped PBS programming in preparation for a sale. In response, UCF and Brevard Community College (BCC) partnered to approve the creation of WUCF-TV, a new PBS station to serve the Central Florida market. The station operated on the primary digital channel of BCC's PBS station, WBCC.[2][3] Days after the agreement was reached to replace WMFE, Daytona Beach PBS station WDSC-TV announced that it would cease its membership due to financial hardship, leaving WUCF as the only PBS member station in Central Florida.

History

WMFE-TV (1965–2012)

In 1963, the public school systems of Orange, Volusia, Lake, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard and Flagler counties formed Florida Central East Coast Educational Television with the goal of winning the license for channel 24. In the meantime, WDBO-TV (now WKMG-TV) and WLOF-TV (now WFTV) donated air time for educational Spanish-language and Florida history programs produced by the group.

WMFE-TV finally went on the air on March 15, 1965, from the campus of Mid Florida Tech.[8] After only two years of operation, Orange County Public Schools became the sole operator of the station. In the early 1970s, the school district sold the station to Community Communications, a non-profit organization that would continue to operate the station for nearly four decades. In 1978, WMFE moved to the Union Park neighborhood east of Orlando, on the corner of SR 50 and O'Berry Hoover Road at the studios previously used by defunct independent station WSWB-TV (channel 35, now Fox owned-and-operated station WOFL).[9][10]

In Fall 2010, Community Communications indicated it was suffering financial hardships that had led to furloughs.[11][12] On April 1, 2011, WMFE announced that it would sell the station due to these financial difficulties and "critical uncertainties in federal and state funding".[13] After WMFE-TV disaffiliated from PBS, V-me became the station's primary programming.[14] Community Communications initially planned to sell the station to Community Educators of Orlando, a nonprofit controlled by Marcus Lamb, head of the Daystar Television Network. The new owners planned to air Daystar programming, but also intended to partner with UCF to air educational programming. In April 2012, WMFE ended the planned sale, saying "the current deal we had in place was being drawn out longer than we anticipated" and that "The market conditions have changed in a favorable way to be able to pursue other options for WMFE."[15] The deal had foundered when the Federal Communications Commission questioned whether Lamb and the Daystar-aligned nonprofits were qualified to buy WMFE and another former PBS outlet,

WUCF-TV (2011–present)

When news spread of the sale of WMFE in 2011, a campaign was undertaken by local residents and students at UCF to try to keep an active PBS station in the Orlando market.[17][18] On May 26, 2011, the UCF Board of Trustees approved a partnership with BCC to create WUCF-TV, the new primary PBS station for Central Florida. The new station leased the primary digital channel of WBCC, the PBS outlet owned by Brevard Community College (now Eastern Florida State College), and operated from WBCC's facilities. However, BCC retained its license and the WBCC call letters.[2] On June 2, PBS approved the creation of WUCF and announced that it would become Central Florida's primary PBS channel.[19] The new station became the Orlando market's only PBS station, as WDSC-TV in Daytona Beach left PBS on July 1, concurrent with WMFE's departure from PBS and the launch of WUCF.[4]

callsign	WUCF-TV
branding	WUCF PBS
digital	34 (UHF)
virtual	24
affiliations	24.1: PBS for others, see
airdate	Station: March 15, 1965 WUCF intellectual unit: July 1, 2011
location	Orlando, Florida
country	United States
callsign meaning	University of Central Florida
former callsigns	WMFE-TV (1965–2012)
former channel numbers	Analog: 24 (UHF, 1965–2009) Digital: 23 (UHF, until 2020)
owner	University of Central Florida
licensee	University of Central Florida Board of Trustees
sister stations	WUCF-FM
former affiliations	NET (1965–1970) PBS (1970–2011) V-me (2011–2012)
erp	1,000 kW
haat	379.6 m
facility id	12855
coordinates	28.60222°N, -81.09333°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://www.wucftv.org/

History

WMFE-TV (1965–2012)

WUCF-TV (2011–present)

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

External links

References