WOTF-TV

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WOTF-TV
Melbourne / Orlando / Daytona Beach, Florida
Channels	43 (UHF) analog, 20 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	TeleFutura
Owner	Univision
Founded	July 1982
Call letters meaning	W Orlando TeleFutura
Former affiliations	Independent (1982-88) HSN (1988-2002)

WOTF-TV Channel 43 is the Telefutura station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by Univision, and offers a Spanish language entertainment format featuring movies, dramas, comedy shows, and kids shows.

[edit] History

The station began operation in July 1982 on Channel 43 as WMOD, licensed to Melbourne. It was owned by Press Broadcasting, and programmed a general entertainment format with an emphasis on movies and drama, along with some game shows. The station added sitcoms and cartoons in 1984, and became a more traditional independent station.

Being licensed to Melbourne placed the station at a disadvantage, as it was located 50 miles southeast of Orlando, and only reached Orlando with a grade B signal. It did not even reach Daytona Beach at all. As a result, the station received low ratings despite decent programming.

Soon afterwards, the FCC allocated a commercial license to Clermont, a western suburb of Orlando, on Channel 68. Press applied for the license in 1985, and received it in March 1986. The company was planning to sell off WMOD by the time the new station on Channel 68 was built. In the meantime, WMOD gradually increased the amount of programming from the Home Shopping Network on its lineup.

In January 1988, WMOD was sold to Blackstar Broadcasting. It began to run HSN full time, and changed its call letters to WBSF. Its existing programming was moved to WKCF Channel 68 (now Channel 18), which launched in November of that year.

When the television station ownership restrictions were lifted in 1996, Blackstar sold its stations, including WBSF, to HSN. Barry Diller, owner of the USA Network, bought HSN soon afterwards, and a new plan for WBSF emerged. The station was to become a general entertainment outlet by 2002, along with other USA Broadcasting stations.

That plan, however, did not materialise, as Univision purchased the station in 2001. The sale was finalized in January 2002, and the station became an affiliate of Telefutura under the new callsign of WOTF. (The WBSF calls were since reassigned to a CW affiliate in Bay City, Michigan.)

[edit] External link

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WOTF