Construction and early years
Channel 62 was allocated to Venice, Florida, in 1984 at the petition of the Davis family and Holiday Group Limited, which sought to build an independent station in the area.[1][2] Six other groups applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the channel by September,[3] and by June 1985 there were five applicants.[4] Two groups dropped out in July ahead of comparative hearing,[5] which took place in September. By November, only Holiday Group and Venice Broadcasting were in contention.[6]
On March 26, 1986, FCC administrative law judge Walter Miller awarded the construction permit to Venice Broadcasting, finding that the ownership makeup of Holiday Group "has proven to be a sham"; an American Indian man, was stated to be the director but found my Miller to be "nothing more than a front ... [and] a shill" for the other investors.[7] Holiday Group appealed Miller's ruling to the FCC,[8] whose review board encouraged the parties to settle. They did in November 1986, clearing the way for Venice Broadcasting.[9]
With a permit in hand, the construction of channel 62—given the call sign WBSV-TV (Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice[10])—was delayed by problems in siting its tower. Venice Broadcasting originally proposed a 1023 ft tower near the intersection of Interstate 75 and State Road 72, which was to be the tallest structure in Sarasota County. The Florida Department of Transportation objected, claiming that the site lay on direct paths between airports and would create an air hazard.[11] That same year, the state imposed a moratorium on new tall towers after a plane struck a cable television tower in Venice, killing three. No construction work had taken place by March 1989, when Venice Broadcasting asked to assign the permit to DeSoto Broadcasting, which included state legislator Jim Lombard, magazine publisher Danford L. Sawyer Jr., and others.[12]
DeSoto announced in May 1990 that it would begin broadcasting in January 1991 from a 572 ft tower in Venice. Proposed programming was targeted at viewers over 50, with 12 hours of programming from the Star Television Network and local news coverage which would compete with WWSB (channel 40) in Sarasota.[13] The station missed that launch date—during which time Star ceased programming in January 1991[14]—but began on May 3, 1991.[15] The station was not a financial success. The 5 p.m. newscast failed to find an audience and was dropped, while several programs from Blab TV were added to the lineup.[16] The 10 p.m. news remained on the air, utilizing its own resources as well as those of Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-TV.[17] By 1994, WBSV was airing brief news updates along with hours of
In 1997, DeSoto Broadcasting agreed to sell the station for $11 million to Global Broadcasting Systems of New York. Global, which intended to broadcast home shopping programming on WBSV, filed into bankruptcy protection, and the agreement to buy the station from DeSoto was included in Global's bankruptcy auction.[19] No bidder bought the agreement.[20]
WVEA-TV: Univision for Tampa Bay
Meanwhile, in Tampa, a new station began on June 13, 1982, on channel 50 as a satellite-fed translator for what was then known as the Spanish International Network (SIN).[21] It was owned by Joaquín Blaya, the former vice president of Miami's WLTV and at the time president of SIN, and the station was named Bahía Honda, after a bay in Cuba.[22] In November 1987, the station moved to channel 61 to make way for a new full-service station authorized on channel 50 for the Home Shopping Network.[23]
Bahía Honda built a second low-power station, W63BH in Orlando, permitted in 1988 and on the air in 1992.[24][25]
