WUTF-TV

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WUTF-TV
Marlborough / Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	Telefutura 66 Boston
Channels	66 (UHF) analog, 23 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Telefutura
Owner	Univision (managed by Entravision)
Founded	1983
Call letters meaning	W Univision TeleFutura
Former callsigns	WVJV (1983-87) WHSH-TV (1987-2000) WHUB-TV (2000-01) WFUB (Nov.-Dec. 2001)
Former affiliations	Music videos (1983-87, Home Shopping Network (1987-2000, 2001-02), Independent (2000-01)

WUTF-TV is a television station in the Boston market. Owned by the Univision Broadcast Group and managed locally by Entravision, the station is an affiliate of the Telefutura network. As such, they have an advertising relationship with Univision affiliate WUNI-TV.

Contents 1 History 2 Logos 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] History

WUTF-TV signed on in 1984 as WVJV ("V-66, the Beat of Boston"), playing music videos at a time when they were a major part of the American culture (this was just three years after MTV signed on). At that time, the owner was John Garabedian (current host of the nationally syndicatd radio show Open House Party), who also owned WGTR (now WBIX)both of which were located in Natick MA. The music format was a cross between progressive rock WBCN and urban contemporary Kiss 108, in a style appealing to those who were fans of BOTH progressive rock and urban contemporary. Despite a must carry rule requiring cable systems to carry the station, many cable systems freely chose to carry V66 as opposed to VH1. It was also the first station in the Boston area to transmit in Stereo. By mid 1986, music videos were starting to wane in popularity, so the station was sold to the Home Shopping Network, who changed the callsign to WHSH-TV. For the next thirteen years, WHSH ran HSN's shopping programs for the majority of the day, along with some local feature segments between the shopping programs.

In the late 1990s, Barry Diller, who was the owner of HSN and their broadcast television arm (Silver King Television), began plans to turn his stations into true independents. On August 1, 2000, this format was implemented on channel 66 under the new WHUB-TV callsign, with a main focus on many of the types of programming that appeared for a long time on WSBK, as well as some first-run syndicated programs and WABU/WBPX's old rights to Boston University ice hockey games, which included the annual Beanpot tournament. However, what had become USA Broadcasting was preparing to sell its stations to the right buyer, which ended up to be Univision. As such, the station reverted to WHSH-TV's old HSN programming on February 1, 2001 [1], although the callsign remained WHUB-TV. (The Beanpot moved to AT&T 3 -- now CN8 New England -- for 2001, and have since switched to NESN. WHUB's independent format did not last long enough to actually air the tournament.)

By November 2001, WHUB-TV changed to the new Telefutura callsign of WFUB, likely for "TeleFUtura Boston". However, for reasons only known to Univision, the station changed the callsign again just one month later, to the current WUTF-TV ([2], [3]) -- both while still running the HSN programming. It wasn't until January 14, 2002 that channel 66 finally became a charter Telefutura affiliate.

There were rumors that Tribune Company would buy WUTF-TV from Univision, essentially creating a duopoly in Boston with CW affiliate WLVI-TV (channel 56). As of 2006, this has not occurred.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Logos

The original WVJV logo 1983-1986

Current WUTF logo used since Jan 2002

[edit] See also

• WUNI-TV

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WUTF