Early years on channel 18 and swap to channel 68
WRES made a quiet debut on channel 18 on June 18, 1987.[2] The original owner was the Glorious Church of God in Christ, a Tampa-based church whose pastor had been known for promoting vegetable ice cream. The station broadcast with a low effective radiated power—1,000 watts—from a facility that had belonged to cable company Florida CableVision. Its initial broadcast schedule ran for just three hours a day, six days a week, consisting of family-oriented secular programming.[3]
Shortly after launching, WRES was sold to Press Broadcasting. Press, a division of the Asbury Park Press newspaper in New Jersey, then turned around and donated WRES to Brevard Community College (BCC). The deal was part of a plan by Press that foresaw the move of WRES to another channel number so that a commercial station could use channel 18.[4] In the deal, BCC received the TV station facility, $1 million in operating funds, and another $240,000 to forge partnerships with the University of Central Florida (UCF), the Florida Institute of Technology, and public schools.[5] Press owned WMOD (channel 43) in Melbourne, which it intended to be the second major independent station for Central Florida. In spite of a $7 million outlay on programming, it ran into considerable difficulty because WMOD's transmitter site could not provide adequate full-market coverage.[6] The deal called for a swap, but not necessarily with WMOD; Press Broadcasting hinted at further announcements on the matter.[7] Meanwhile, Brevard Community College had been providing educational programming on cable systems since May 1986, featuring a mix of pre-produced telecourses and college-produced programming.[8]
Two months later, in November 1987, Press acquired the construction permit for channel 68 at Clermont, which became the other half of the proposed swap arrangement.[9] Robert McAllan, the vice president of broadcasting for Press Broadcasting, declared that the channel 68 permit purchase "culminate[d] a two-year search for improved transmission facilities" for WMOD.[10] By August 1988, WRES was back on the air with a full schedule of educational programming: this included telecourses and instructional series as well as programs such as UCF Views the News and Florida's Backyard.[11] By 1990, the station offered 17 courses for BCC credit taken by some 500 students. Meanwhile, Press put WKCF on the air—on channel 68—in December 1988.[12][13]
Press Broadcasting and Brevard Community College then approached the FCC with the proposal to swap WKCF to channel 18 and WRES to channel 68. Two Orlando stations vehemently opposed the switch: WMFE-TV (channel 24), Orlando's public television station, and WOFL (channel 35), the market's established independent outlet. Both feared that the upgrades planned to channels 18 and 68 in the swap would create issues for them. WMFE feared that an upgraded WRES could become a competing public TV station, vying for viewers and donors with channel 24. WOFL believed Press Broadcasting had illegally controlled the channel 18 permit and that the two facilities did not serve the same area. Also objecting was a low-power TV station on channel 19 in Orlando, fearing displacement from the proposed WKCF facility in the Orlando-market tower farm at Bithlo.[14][15] The FCC approved the proposal in December 1989,[16] affirming the decision in October 1990 after further appeals from WOFL. This allowed Press to pay for WRES to relocate to a new tower site in the Deseret Ranch development.[17]
On October 7, 1991, the swap took place. WKCF moved to channel 18. WRES changed to channel 68 and simultaneously adopted the call sign WBCC.[18] That same year, WBCC qualified for funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, making it eligible for state and federal support.[19] Over the course of the 1990s, the station's audience and student count increased. In 1995, Time Warner Cable in Orlando added channel 68 to its lineup.[20] By 1997, Brevard Community College had 4,000 students in 91 courses offered over television and online.[21]
On January 1, 2002, the station became a secondary PBS member station, showing some limited programming from the network.[22] By that April, renovations began to accommodate WBCC-DT channel 30, which took to the air on November 4, 2003.[23] WBCC offered several digital subchannels shortly after launching. The University of Central Florida entered into a memorandum to use one of WBCC's subchannels in March 2004;[24] In September, BPS-TV launched with programming from Brevard Public Schools, which was produced and transmitted by WBCC.[25]
WBCC shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 68, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.[26] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, having used virtual channel 68 since 2005.[27]
"WUCF TV": Central Florida's primary public TV station
Prior to July 2011, WMFE-TV had been the flagship PBS station for central Florida. In fall 2010, WMFE's owner, Community Communications, announced that it had been forced to furlough several employees due to financial difficulties.[28] Fundraising for WMFE radio was strong, but donations faltered for WMFE's television service.[29] On April 1, 2011, WMFE announced that it would sell channel 24 and leave PBS due to these financial difficulties and "critical uncertainties in federal and state funding".[30] One cause of WMFE's financial difficulties was the "triple overlap" of WMFE-TV, WBCC-TV, and WDSC-TV (channel 15) in Daytona Beach. The latter two were secondary stations that paid less to PBS and only aired a selection of the network's programming.[31]
When news spread of the sale, a campaign was undertaken by local residents and students at UCF to try to keep an active PBS station in the Orlando market.[32]
Resuming independence
On June 21, 2012, Community Communications announced that it would sell all of WMFE-TV's assets, except the studio facilities, to the University of Central Florida.[38] With the acquisition of the WMFE-TV license, BCC and UCF announced that the operating agreement for channel 68 would be unwound once PBS programming returned to channel 24.[39] This took place on November 15, 2012, at which time WBCC ended its PBS membership and once again became an educational independent station, with its programming returning to the main subchannel.[40]
On July 1, 2013, Brevard Community College changed its name to Eastern Florida State College in conjunction with the offering of new four-year degrees. As part of the name change, WBCC changed its call sign to WEFS.[41][42]
