Construction and subscription television years
On June 30, 1977, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit to Buford Television of Ohio, Inc., for a new channel 64 television station in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1] WBTI signed on the air on January 28, 1980.[2] It broadcast with one million watts of power and operated from studios on Fishwick Drive in the Bond Hill area; the station's original transmitter was located on Chickasaw Street.
WBTI was conceived and began broadcasting as a hybrid. During the day, it was an advertiser-supported, general-entertainment independent station from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, with a program schedule primarily consisting of classic reruns.[3] In the late evening hours, the station's signal was scrambled as it carried programming from the ON TV service, which provided movies, sports, and live events to viewers through a paid subscription and a decoder to receive ON TV programs. (Buford, which had planned a multi-city expansion into subscription television and even a national network of translators through its Residential Entertainment subsidiary,[4] licensed the ON TV name from Oak Communications in the Cincinnati market and also would build STV operations in Chicago and Minneapolis under the brand name Spectrum; it created the Home Entertainment Network division for this business.[5]) Local sports programming included a small package of Cincinnati Reds home games, a major advance for a team that had not permitted the telecast of more than three home games in a season on television since 1966.[6]
WBTI's ratings were less than stellar, while ON TV was being well received but already sensed that competition with cable was going to increase and present a difficulty in keeping subscribers. The subscription operation examined increasing to 20 hours a day—then the maximum amount of hours of non-free programming permitted by the FCC—as early as December 1981, and it carried out that expansion on April 1, 1982, relegating ad-supported WBTI programming to weekday mornings.[7] In June 1983, the station cut back its commercial programs to the 90-minute edition of The 700 Club on weekdays, with ON TV the rest of the day and weekends except for three further hours of religious programs on Sunday mornings.[8] It was able to do so because the FCC had abolished the so-called "28-hour rule"—which required stations to provide a minimum of, on average, four hours a day of non-subscription programming—in June 1982.[9]
ON TV was beginning to face a tough road. After much delay, the Warner-Amex cable service QUBE became available within the Cincinnati city limits in early 1983, making ON TV less attractive to viewers. In October 1983, United Cable, which had acquired 80 percent of Buford's three STV operations, wrote down the entire unit and offered the systems for sale.[10] All of this programming was also seen in Dayton, where Buford established translator W66AQ in 1981 to extend the marketing area of ON TV and WBTI's commercial fare.[11][12]
Emerging from STV
United sold 90 percent of WBTI in November 1984 to Channel 64 Joint Venture for $9.4 million, at which time ON TV had just 12,500 local subscribers (75 percent of which subscribed to adult programming), compared to 45,200 in June 1982. The station relaunched as WIII, "The Eyes of Cincinnati", on January 1, 1985; it restored a general-entertainment schedule, with ON TV programming being relegated to overnight hours only.[14] At that time, general manager and Channel 64 Joint Venture part-owner Stephen Kent said the STV service "virtually runs itself" and could break even with just 2,600 customers.[15] However, with a mere 3,200 subscribers remaining and Oak shutting down its satellite feed, ON TV in Cincinnati ended on June 1, 1985, at which time WIII converted into a full-time general-entertainment independent station.[16]
Channel 64 soon ran into financial trouble. In April 1986, the station almost went off air after United Cable, which had retained a 10 percent stake after the 1984 sale to Channel 64 Joint Venture, sued the other partners, who refused to accept funding provided by the company to keep the station going. In a proceeding that saw the appointment of general manager Stephen A. Kent as receiver, it was revealed that the station owed more than $175,000 to program suppliers and had less than $5,000 in the bank.[17]
Network affiliation
Under ABRY's ownership, the station acquired additional syndicated programs; WSTR then became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN) on January 16, 1995.[31] In 1996, Sinclair Communications (now Sinclair Broadcast Group) acquired WSTR-TV (for $22 million) and KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, after already having purchased the remainder of the company's stations in 1993.[32] In July 1997, Sinclair signed an affiliation deal with The WB, that resulted in a number of the company's UPN affiliates and independent stations switching to the network, among them WSTR,[33] which began broadcasting WB programming in January 1998.[34] The former WB outlet—low-power WBQC-LP (channel 25), with its limited signal and cable carriage—joined UPN nine months later.[35]
