City Naples, Florida | Call letters' meaning W
UniVisión
Florida | |
Branding Univision Southwest Florida Channels Digital: 18.1 / WLZE-LD 51.1 (UHF) Fort Myers Affiliations 18.1 / 51.1: Univisión
18.2 / 51.2: UniMás Owner Media Vista Group, LLC
(Media Vista SW Florida, LLC) | ||
Univision Southwest Florida or WUVF-LD is a network affiliate of Univision serving the Fort Myers-Naples DMA. WUVF is licensed to Naples, Florida and was upgraded to High Definition television service in early 2014. The station is owned by Media Vista Group, LLC, which also owns and operates Univision affiliates in Minneapolis and Kansas City. WUVF maintains studio facilities in Naples FL, and its transmitter is located in Bonita Springs. WUVF's programming is simulcast on low-power translator station WLZE-LD (channel 51) in Fort Myers.
Contents
Univision Southwest Florida airs D'Latinos Monday-Friday 6-6:30P and 11-11:30P, the first local Spanish Television program to air regularly in Ft. Myers-Naples, which debuted in August 2002. D'Latinos opens with Local News and offers Weather, Sports, community affairs, interviews and features.
History
On April 4, 2008 Equity Media Holdings announced the sale of all five of its Southwest Florida stations (including WUVF and WLZE) to Luken Communications for $8 million. Equity has cited corporate financial losses as a reason for the sale. Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008; offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn.
WUVF and WLZE were sold at auction to private equity firm Silver Point Capital on April 16, 2009. The sale was finalized on August 17, 2009. Following the purchase, WUVF surrendered its class A classification.
WLZE began to be carried on Dish Network on October 7, 2009; the satellite provider had earlier obtained WUVF's programming via sister station WEVU-CA (channel 4), which had served as a WUVF satellite since 2006 (and simulcast the 6 p.m. newscast for some time before adding the remainder of WUVF's schedule), that station was taken silent on August 14, 2009 – three days before the completion of the sale to Silver Point. SP Television reached a deal to sell WUVF and WLZE to Media Vista Group on December 21, 2012.
Newscasts
During the mid-2000s after joining Univision, WUVF began airing half-hour Spanish-language local newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. The broadcasts were produced out Equity Media's headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, with news reports filed by reporters based in Southwest Florida. The newscasts were canceled in June 2008, after Equity instituted a companywide suspension of news programs as a cost-cutting measure. Local News returned to the station in 2013 as part of the D'Latinos program, produced and aired locally by Media Vista.