WFOR-TV
WFOR-TV, branded CBS Miami, is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WBFS-TV. The two stations share studios on Northwest 18th Terrace in Doral; WFOR-TV's transmitter is located in Andover, Florida.
The history of this station begins with the assignment of channel 6 as the fifth very high frequency channel for Miami in 1957. However, unlike the previously available channels, channel 6 would need to broadcast from a site further south because it operated on the same frequency as a full-service station in Orlando. After a multiple-year proceeding, the Federal Communications Commission granted a construction permit to Coral Television for WCIX-TV in 1964. Coral's earlier attempts to build the transmitter on one of the upper Florida Keys failed to materialize, and the station began broadcasting in September 1967 from a tower in Homestead. Even though over-the-air reception proved difficult in much of Broward County, WCIX-TV largely thrived as an independent station, and later the market's first Fox affiliate, under General Cinema Corporation and Taft Broadcasting ownership and featured a nightly 10 p.m. newscast.
Taft's 1987 sale of WCIX and five other stations to the TVX Broadcast Group came at the same time NBC purchased long-standing CBS affiliate WTVJ; after CBS failed to finalize a contract with outgoing NBC affiliate WSVN, the network purchased WCIX from TVX in January 1989, with channel 6 becoming the new CBS station in Miami. Because of the weak signal in Broward, CBS induced an affiliation switch in the West Palm Beach market to a station that offered signal coverage in the northern part of the market. CBS also expanded the news department, though it continued to rate in last place among the English-language stations in the market. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the station lost the use of its Homestead tower for nearly two years and set up a charitable organization, now known as Neighbors 4 Neighbors, to promote volunteer efforts in South Florida.
A complicated transaction between CBS and NBC saw WTVJ and WCIX swap transmitter sites and broadcast licenses in September 1995, with WCIX "moving" to channel 4 and becoming WFOR-TV. CBS's 2000 merger into the first iteration of Viacom added then-UPN affiliate WBFS-TV as a sister station. The local news offered by WFOR-TV generally continued to lag in the ratings after the move to channel 4 but has been more competitive since the late 1990s.
WCIX-TV, channel 6
Channel 6 in Miami
In June 1956, the Federal Communications Commission proposed adding a fifth very high frequency channel to Miami: channel 6, in addition to channels 2, 4, 7, and 10. The proposal met with some puzzlement among Miami television officials. Channel 6 had been assigned to Orlando and was used by WDBO-TV. A new channel 6 station in Miami would need to locate its transmitter at least from the Orlando station, which would force the tower to be sited as far south as Homestead and have a height limit to accommodate nearby Homestead Air Force Base.The addition of channel 6 brought a glimmer of hope to WITV, a flagging ultra high frequency station on channel 17 which applied to the FCC in July 1957 and sought to move to channel 6. New applicants also made overtures of interest in the channel in late 1957 and early 1958, including Publix Broadcasting ; the South Florida Amusement Company, which operated movie theaters; and Coral Television Corporation, whose principal, Leon McAskill, was the president of a company that published a weekly in Miami Beach. The owners of the now-closed WITV, Gerico Investment Co., unsuccessfully appealed in hopes of getting the right to automatically move to channel 6, but in January 1959, an appeals court decided that it must face other potential applicants.
In May 1959, hearings opened among South Florida Amusement, Publix, and Coral. A tentative decision was recommended by a hearing examiner in September 1960 and announced in March 1961, favoring South Florida Amusement on the grounds that it had greater experience in broadcasting. The president of South Florida Amusement, Sherwin Grossman, soon came under closer scrutiny for his actions while running WBUF-TV in Buffalo, New York. WBUF-TV had operated at a loss from 1953 to 1955, shut down, and then was sold to NBC and revived for another three years. Coral alleged that Grossman had ordered program logs from 1955, immediately prior to the NBC takeover, not be made available to anyone; that his Buffalo station had aired a bingo program in contravention of the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters and never delivered promised prizes; and that WBUF-TV had aired excessive commercials during movies. While the FCC initially did not admit the evidence, the uncovering of new data led the commission to reopen the record in the first week of 1962, with new charges that letters from Buffalo civic leaders supporting the addition of VHF stations there had been forged. Despite the initial nod and after being cleared of allegations of wrongdoing, Grossman was allowed to withdraw from contention in November 1963, paving the way for the other applicant, Coral Television Company, to receive the construction permit on May 1, 1964. The station then took the call sign WCIX-TV on May 21.
Tower siting
Coral had originally proposed to locate its tower on one of the Ragged Keys, due east of Black Point. The Florida Cabinet agreed in December 1964 to lend Coral the land to erect a tower, with the company hoping that the site from WDBO-TV would receive an FCC waiver. Nearly immediately, however, a problem arose: an attorney lobbied the state for a delay, and property owners on Key Biscayne and Ragged Key filed objections. The Zoning Appeals Board approved, only for the director of planning and zoning to appeal the decision to the Metro Commission; other local interests, including the Dade County Port Authority, the Izaak Walton League, and the Audubon Society, also opposed. Meanwhile, Coral asked for approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. It also acquired a color production truck, dubbed "Cortez 6", and leased it to clients such as public broadcaster WTHS-TV.However, the company opted to change its plans and instead build a tower near Redlands, Florida, at Coconut Palm and Tennessee roads. This site received federal and Dade County approval in April 1966, though final FCC approval took longer to secure, in part because WLBW-TV charged that there had been a transfer of control and because the FCC had originally assigned it to cover South Miami, not Miami. In March 1967, the station began moving into its first studio facility: a round, midcentury structure at 1111 Brickell Avenue which had previously been built as a law office. This replaced temporary station offices in the Dupont Plaza Hotel which had previously been earmarked for development as permanent quarters.
The early years
WCIX-TV finally signed on the air on September 20, 1967. It was Miami's first independent station and promoted itself as a "Carousel of Color"; local programming included a children's show hosted by the "White Baron", who also drove a white custom car and flew a white biplane over South Florida, and the station's first local 10 p.m. newscast, hosted by newspaper columnist Hy Gardner. In addition, WCIX-TV offered two Spanish-language programs on weekends; by March 1969, it also had a weeknight 11 p.m. newscast in Spanish. The station's financial picture became a question in September 1968. After an appeals court ruling in favor of WLBW-TV on its objection, the FCC set a hearing as to whether there had been an unauthorized transfer of control of Coral. WCIX-TV was not cleared in the transfer of control case until October 1971.General Cinema Corporation acquired more than $1 million in debentures in Coral Television from American Viscose Corporation at the end of 1968. General Cinema then opted to convert its debentures into majority control of Coral Television in 1972.
The southerly location of the WCIX-TV transmitter meant that many areas north of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County did not receive an acceptable signal. The station made up for this shortfall in its coverage area by signing on translator stations throughout Broward County and in Boca Raton in 1972. Initially broadcasting on channel 61 from the First National Bank building in Fort Lauderdale, channel 64 from atop the Boca Raton Hotel, and channel 69 from the Home Federal building in Hollywood, WCIX added a 1,000-watt translator on channel 33 transmitting from Hallandale in 1974. The channel 33 translator was shut down in early 1984 to allow WBFS-TV to sign on; as a result, WCIX lost significant circulation in Palm Beach County.
WCIX-TV also grew its reach through cable systems in South Florida. As early as 1968, cable systems in Lehigh Acres and Fort Myers Beach on the west coast fed the station to their subscribers; it was added to the system in West Palm Beach on a part-time basis in March 1975 and to systems in southern and central Brevard County that September. In West Palm Beach and Brevard County, it shared time with WKID. As this happened, the station grew its audience share in the Miami area of dominant influence. In May 1975, it captured the tenth-highest audience share of any independent station in the United States. By May 1979, Star Trek reruns on WCIX-TV at 6 p.m. successfully tied WCKT's hour-long local newscast in the ratings. WCIX-TV added an all-night movie showcase hosted by veteran radio host Big Wilson in June 1979; Night Owl Movies became a fixture at the station for the next five years, highlighted by Wilson's live piano performances, ad-libbing and commercial pitches. Chuck Zink, a longtime children's show host at WTVJ, also joined WCIX-TV in 1982 to host an afternoon movie and interstitials during The Mike Douglas Show.