WUFT (channel 5) is a PBS member television station in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is owned by the University of Florida alongside low-power weather-formatted independent station WRUF-LD (channel 10), NPR member WUFT-FM (89.1), emergency-formatted radio station WUFQ (88.5) and commercial radio stations WRUF (850 AM) and WRUF-FM (103.7). The six stations share studios at Weimer Hall on the university's campus on Stadium Road; WUFT's transmitter is located on Northwest 53rd Avenue in Gainesville.
WUFT serves 16 counties in north-central Florida. For decades, it has also been available on cable in Jacksonville, currently on Comcast Xfinity channel 25, providing a second choice for PBS programming alongside WJCT (which signed on two months before WUFT).
History
WUFT first signed on the air with instructional programming on November 10, 1958, becoming the third educational television station in Florida.
The station was a major beneficiary of a quirk in the FCC's plan for allocating stations. In the early days of broadcast television, there were 12 VHF channels available and 69 UHF channels (later reduced to 55 in 1983). The VHF bands were more desirable because they carried longer distances.