WUVN

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WUVN
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = Univision 18
Univision Hartford-New Haven
Univision Nueva Inglaterra
analog = 18 (UHF)
digital = 46 (UHF)
other_chs = WHTX-LP 43 Springfield MA
affiliations = Univision
network =
founded =
airdate = August 4, 1954
location = Hartford/New Haven, Connecticut
callsign_meaning = UniVisioN
ticker symbol of Univision before purchase by private group in 2007
former_callsigns = WGTH-TV (1954-1955)
WHCT-TV (1955-1999)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Entravision Communications Corporation
licensee = Entravision Holdings, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = ABC (1954-1955)
DuMont secondary (1954-1956)
CBS (1955-1958)
independent (1958-1985)
"silent" (1985)
independent (1985-1991)
"silent" (1991-1996)
independent (1996-1999)
effective_radiated_power = 3160 kW (analog)
217 kW (digital)
HAAT = 299 m (analog)
269 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 3072
coordinates = coord|41|46|30|N|72|48|2.1|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wuvntv.com/ www.wuvntv.com]

WUVN is the Connecticut affiliate for the Spanish language Univision television network. It is licensed to Hartford. Owned by Entravision, the station broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 18, and its digital signal on UHF channel 46. Its tower is located on Deercliff Road in Avon.

It largely simulcasts Boston's Univision affiliate, WUNI-TV, and operates a full-time satellite in Springfield, Massachusetts, WHTX on channel 43. The three stations are branded as Univision Nueva Inglaterra (Univision New England).

History

The station began operation on August 4, 1954 as WGTH-TV, a DuMont/ABC affiliate. It was initially owned by "The Hartford Times" newspaper, but was sold to CBS in 1955, shortly after Hartford and New Haven merged into a single market. The station's call letters were changed to WHCT, for "Hartford CBS Television" (or, alternatively, "Hartford, CT" or "Hartford Christian Television" according to some).

As a CBS station, WHCT's ratings were astonishingly low because television sets weren't required to come with UHF tuners until 1964. Even with a very expensive converter, UHF signals were very unclear at the time. In 1957, Travelers Insurance Company, the owners of longtime Hartford CBS radio affiliate WTIC-AM, signed on WTIC-TV on Channel 3. By 1958, CBS had concluded that it was better to have its programming on a VHF station, even if it were only an affiliate. It moved its Hartford affilition to WTIC-TV, and sold WHCT to RKO General, which turned it into an independent station. Channel 3, which is now WFSB, has been Hartford's CBS affiliate since then. WHCT became RKO's only UHF station.

As an independent, WHCT's schedule consisted of cartoons, movies, off-network sitcoms and dramas, sports, public affairs programming, and religious shows. From 1962 to 1969, the station ran a subscription television service from 7pm to midnight with scrambled first-run movies and sports events from Madison Square Garden. A decade before the 1972 premiere of HBO, WHCT's programming was an experiment between RKO and Zenith, who provided the descrambler boxes. WHCT-TV could be seen by all viewers with a UHF tuner and antenna during regular broadcast hours viewers needed a decoder box in order to view the signal during the pay tv program block. The first pay-TV movie was "Sunrise At Campobello," starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson. The subscription television service was deemed a failure, and RKO dropped it in 1968." [cite news
url=
publisher=The Grand Rapids Press
title=Pay TV started in 1961
date=November 20, 2005] The station now signed on in the afternoon and signed off late at night everyday. Charles Osgood, now the host of CBS Sunday Morning, was General Manager of the station. [cite news
url=
publisher=The New Haven Register
title=CBS newsman will speak Sept. 25
date=September 17, 2002]

By 1972, RKO donated the station to California's Faith Center, led by Dr. Eugene Scott. Under Scott, the station began to air religious programming in the morning and evening hours, while continuing to air general entertainment programming from noon to 8pm. Along with shows such as "PTL Club" and "The 700 Club", WHCT also aired programming featuring Dr. Scott himself. For a time, WHCT also broadcast games of the National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers. The general entertainment programming was gone from the station by 1979. The station's transmitter was vandalized in the same year, forcing it to broadcast at low power. By 1981 the station aired Dr. Scott's shows full time. Scott would provide ramling discourses on wide ranging topics.. [cite news
url=
publisher=The New Haven Register
title=WHCT (Channel 18) in bankruptcy court
date=November 8, 1988Author=Joe Amarante ]

WHCT was put up for a "distress" sale in 1985, with stipulation from the FCC that the station be sold to a group of minority ownership. After some legal wranglings, Astroline Communications took ownership of the station, and WHCT returned to air in September of that year with a lineup of movies, re-runs, and syndicated programming not shown on the other two Connecticut independents, WTXX-TV and WTIC-TV. The station continued to underperform in the ratings, and was in serious financial trouble by the fall of 1987. Syndicated shows were pulled off the station daily because program distributors weren't being paid and therefore, the syndicated programming was being displayed on WTWS Channel 26, now WHPX-TV. The station gradually increased the amount of paid programming and infomercials to 18 hours a day.

WHCT filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990, and by 1991, the station was ordered off the air by the Federal Bankruptcy Court, with its equipment repossessed to satisfy the creditors' demands.

WHCT stayed dark for five years until Paxson Communications purchased the license in 1996, and the station returned to air in the spring of that year, airing Valuevision home shopping and other paid programming. The station was sold to Entravision in 2001 for *18 million, and began to air Spanish-language programming that year. [cite news
url=
publisher=The New Haven Register
title=Channel 18 to become Spanish TV
date=January 6, 2001]

References

* [http://www.geocities.com/radiojunkie1/whct.html RadioDXer.com]

ee also

*RKO Pictures
*RKO General
*Eugene Scott

External links

* [http://www.wuvntv.com/ Official website]
* [http://wuvn.entravision.com/ Advertising information site (from WUVN owner Entravision)]
* [http://www.necrat.com/whct_protv.html WUVN's tower and transmitters]
* [http://www.kylebookholz.com/ History of the old WHCT, by former staff member Kyle Bookholz]
*TVQ|WUVN
**TVQ|WHTX-LP
*BIA|WUVN|TV|TV