Branding Azteca 48 | Affiliations Azteca (2002–present) | |
Channels Analog: 48 (UHF)
Digital: 48 (UHF/PSIP) Subchannels 48.1 Azteca
48.2 Charge! Owner Sinclair Broadcast Group
(WTVX Licensee, LLC) First air date 1988; 29 years ago (1988) | ||
WWHB-CA is an Azteca affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, that is licensed to Stuart. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, WWHB is sister station to CBS affiliate WPEC, CW affiliate WTVX and Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA. It broadcasts on UHF channel 48 as a class-A (a form of low-power broadcasting) television station. It was Sinclair's first Spanish language station besides KEYE-DT2 in Austin, Texas, which carries Telemundo, before Sinclair began to acquire more stations in 2012. WWHB-CA is also carried on WTVX's second digital subchannel. On May 24, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted WWHB-CA a construction permit to digitally flash-cut on its current allotment on channel 48.
Contents
History
The original WWHB was licensed to channel 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana to the department store company William H. Block Co. in 1947. It had changed call letters by 1949.
WWHB began as W19AQ (known on-air as WAQ), a station that began broadcasting as channel 19 in West Palm Beach in October, 1988. The original owner was Palm Beach Broadcasting, led by William B. O'Donnell. WAQ had hoped to become an ABC affiliate when WPEC dropped ABC for CBS at the end of 1988, but instead the affiliation went to WPBF According to the Sun-Sentinel, WAQ's initial programming consisted of "morning cartoons (Beverly Hills Teens); old, public domain (and often silent) movies (Bachelor in Paradise, The Pickwick Papers); vintage TV series (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.); sports (Notre Dame football, Florida Marlins baseball); and music (Hit Video USA, which ran from 1 to 6 a.m.)." The station also later carried Howard Stern's original syndicated television program, and taped-delayed races from the Palm Beach Kennel Club.
The station struggled to pay its bills and after declaring bankruptcy in 1991, the license was transferred from the O'Donnell family's company, Palm Beach Broadcasting, to Main Street TV of Carle Place, New York. In 1996, Adelphia Cable removed WAQ from its channel lineup because of "continuing problems with the picture quality," and once again the station filed for bankruptcy. By this point the station was airing home shopping programming, old black and white movies, a local bowling show, and the Cliff Dunn Show, which was simulcast on a local radio station WPBR. The loss of cable caused station revenue to drop from $303,315 in 1995 to only $24,995 in 1996. Station advertising rates dropped from $95 for a 30-second spot to as low as $5.
After losing nearly $7 million in 1996, the station changed call letters to WINQ-LP and its studios were moved to the suburb of Lake Park. The station was sold to William B. Turner in 1999 for $875,000 including $175,000 in debt. Martin County businessman Bill Brothers purchased the station in 2002 and moved the licence to Stuart. It was Bill Brothers who revitialized the station creating the first Hispanic language local television service for the West Palm Beach market. Rebuilding the broadcasting facilities together with his sister station WTCN, WWHB served the greater Palm Beach, Martin, and St Lucie Counties rapidly growing Hispanic population. In 2005, Viacom bought WWHB and sister station WTCN Channel 43 from Brothers for $7.7 million. Viacom moved the studios back to West Palm Beach and improved the station's signal.
On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007.[1] The deal closed on January 10, 2008. Although the URL for the WWHB website has not changed since the sale to Four Points, it now redirects to a separate section of WTVX's website. As of February 25, 2008, the station is now being operated out of Four Points' hub station KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On September 8, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million; Sinclair began managing the stations, including WWHB-CA, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval. The deal with Sinclair acquiring Four Points was completed on January 3, 2012.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed: