WPLG
WPLG is an independent television station in Miami, Florida, United States. It is the sole television property owned by holding company Berkshire Hathaway. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembroke Park, and its transmitter is located in Miami Gardens, Florida.
WPLG signed on the air as WLBW-TV on November 20, 1961, as the replacement for WPST-TV, which was forced to shut down by the Federal Communications Commission following the revelation of bribery undertaken with one of the commissioners to secure that station's license. L. B. Wilson, Inc., was found to be the only bidder for the original channel 10 license not to have engaged in coercive action, and was thus awarded a temporary permit to begin telecasting. While WPST-TV's license was revoked in July 1960, WLBW-TV had to wait for nearly a year to finally sign on using entirely different facilities, but hired multiple former WPST-TV staffers and acquired the ABC affiliation WPST-TV held.
Sold to Post-Newsweek Stations in 1969, WLBW-TV was renamed WPLG the following year in honor of Philip Leslie Graham. Led by on-air talent including Ann Bishop, Dwight Lauderdale, Bryan Norcross, Michael Putney and Calvin Hughes, WPLG's news department emerged in the 1970s as a leader in local television ratings and has maintained that position ever since. WPLG has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2014, when Post-Newsweek divested it, but continues to maintain infrastructure and logistical ties to its previous ownership. After refusing to accept ABC's demands for increased reverse compensation, it disaffiliated from the network in August 2025; ABC moved to a subchannel of WSVN.
Prior history of channel 10
The first station to broadcast on channel 10 in the Miami market was WPST-TV, owned by Public Service Television, the broadcasting subsidiary of National Airlines. WPST-TV was the second ABC affiliate in the Miami market, having assumed it from UHF station WITV. WPST-TV first signed on the air on August 2, 1957, from a transmitter tower and facilities purchased from Storer Broadcasting when their UHF outlet, WGBS-TV, was taken off the air. A gala grand opening celebration for a purpose-built studio facility on Biscayne Boulevard took place on January 17, 1958. The same day, Drew Pearson's syndicated newspaper column alleged unethical behavior among FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack and Miami attorney Thurman A. Whiteside, working on behalf of National Airlines, who bribed the commissioner to help obtain the broadcast license.Investigations by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight and a rehearing on the WPST-TV license award by retired judge Horace Stern revealed a pattern of influencing behavior among three of the four bidders for the license, as well as lobbyists and legislators aligned with the bidders after learning of Mack's vote. Mack resigned his position and was later arrested with Whiteside on three counts of influence peddling, fraud and conspiracy. Stern, who was acting as an independent examiner on the FCC's behalf, recommended on December 1, 1958, that WPST-TV's license be revoked. The FCC agreed on July 14, 1960, revoking the license and awarding a temporary four-month operating permit to Cincinnati-area broadcaster L. B. Wilson, Inc., the only bidder for the license not to be implicated in the scandal, effective immediately on WPST-TV's closure.
L. B. Wilson, Inc. had been one of the four applicants for the channel in 1953. Owner of radio station WCKY in Cincinnati, its namesake was L. B. Wilson of that city, who wintered in Miami Beach. He died of a heart attack on October 28, 1954, in a Cincinnati hotel suite; this was credited with weakening the credibility of his business's application. Wilson's will split his stake in the business. One half went to his widow, Constance, and was voted on by three executives: Charles H. Topmiller, who had worked for Wilson for 24 years; Jeannette Heinze, Wilson's secretary of 23 years; and Thomas A. Welstead, manager of WCKY's office in New York City. The other went to Wilson's brother, Hansford; the three executives and another employee; and three friends, one of whom was Sol Taishoff, the publisher of Broadcasting magazine.
History
A new channel 10
As the temporary license granted to L. B. Wilson, Inc. was basically a "license by default", replacement station WLBW-TV was quickly assembled by company president Charles Topmiller, who assumed the role upon his death in 1954. Separate studio facilities and transmitter towers needed to be secured due to NAL founder/CEO George T. Baker refusing to sell any of WPST-TV's assets, valuing the studio building at more than five times the market value. WPST-TV was originally given a date of September 15, 1960, to vacate the airwaves and allow for WLBW-TV to broadcast, but a series of appeals filed by Baker delayed the process substantially, with the FCC temporarily suspending the order. WLBW-TV was given authority to transmit a test pattern during the overnight hours, doing so starting in November 1960, operating on a standby basis employing a minimum of staffers.After Baker exhausted his appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court denying a writ of certiorari to Judge E. Barrett Prettyman's ruling affirming the FCC's revoking order on October 9, 1961, the commission imposed a new deadline of 3 a.m. on November 20, 1961. WPST-TV's last day of operations on November 19 featured an on-air editorial delivered by Baker decrying the FCC's verdict and rejected the allegations levied against the station. Baker's editorial was reprinted in newspapers the next day alongside a "statement of policy" advertisement taken out by WLBW-TV. The marquee outside the former WPST-TV studios continued to be turned on every night for nearly 18 months after closure as a sign of defiance by Baker, only turning it off after agreeing to sell the building. The former WPST-TV transmitter site was repurchased by Storer, and later reused for WAJA-TV. Despite this severe license discontinuity and little connection between the two other than the ABC affiliation, what is now WPLG claims the National Airlines station's history as its own.
File:WLBW TV show "For Women Today".jpg|thumb|WLBW-TV For Women Today hosts Molly Turner and Gerry Burke with Luciana Pignatelli.
The first program to be seen on the new WLBW-TV was a short dedication led by Topmiller and short talks by a priest, a rabbi, and a minister. The studio facilities proved cramped from the start: in reviewing the first day of operations, which included a debate among Miami mayoral candidates, news and children's programs, The Miami News television critic Kristine Dunn noted that WLBW-TV already needed "more studio space, more storage space and more office space". Some of the people who were shown on WPST-TV moved to the new station, including Bill Bayer. Molly Turner, who had previously hosted a mid-morning interview show on WPST-TV, was hired by WLBW-TV to host a daily variety show modeled after The 50/50 Club with Ruth Lyons, a popular program in Cincinnati. It was also the first station in Miami to feature a weather girl, Virginia Booker.
However, with an initial operating authority to run for four months, L. B. Wilson, Inc., had to face competitors nearly immediately. In February 1962, the FCC opened the door to competing applications against Wilson's bid for a full-term license for WLBW-TV. In addition to Wilson, former WPST-TV owner Public Service Television applied, as did a group of former WPST-TV employees organized as the South Florida Television Corporation; Civic Television, headed by Charles Crandon; and the Miami Television Company, whose stakeholders included a string of local civic leaders. FCC hearing examiner H. Gifford Irion objected to South Florida Television in his initial decision, issued at the end of 1963, because of its experience and civic participation; but in July 1964, the full FCC opted to disagree on the examiner's choice and awarded a full-term license to Wilson on a 4–1 vote.
With its long-term prospects more secure, WLBW-TV began to plan for the future. In 1964, it began airing local color programming from film and tape. In 1965, the station acquired a parcel of land at Biscayne Boulevard and NE 39th Street to construct a purpose-built, color-equipped facility with two studios. Construction began that fall, and the studio formally opened in March 1967, allowing the station to broadcast local programs, including the dance show Saturday Hop, in color. The station became known as "Colorvision 10".
Post-Newsweek ownership
In March 1969, L. B. Wilson, Inc., announced the $20 million sale of WLBW-TV and WCKY radio to the Washington Post Company's Post-Newsweek Stations division for $20 million. It was the first broadcasting purchase for the Post since acquiring WJXT in Jacksonville in 1953. The FCC approved in September 1969, and one of the Wilson ownership's last acts was to deliver $250,000 in bonus checks to WLBW and WCKY employees with a year or more of tenure. News of Post-Newsweek's first changes came at the end of the year. On March 16, 1970, the station's call letters were changed to the current WPLG, the calls were chosen in honor of Philip L. Graham, husband of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who died by suicide in 1963. Similarly to L. B. Wilson, Graham also had local connections to the area: the oldest son of Ernest R. Graham, he had been a longtime resident of Miami and was the brother to former Florida senator Bob Graham.WPLG adopted its current "10" logo, which features four stripes of differing colors within the "0" that represent a sunset, in 1982.
Image:WPLG.svg|120x120px|thumb|left|WPLG logo, used from 1999 to 2004.
On January 1, 1989, the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market underwent a three-way network affiliation swap that saw CBS affiliate WTVJ becoming an NBC owned-and-operated station; independent station and charter Fox affiliate, WCIX becoming a CBS owned-and-operated station; and NBC affiliate WSVN becoming a Fox affiliate. WTVJ and WCIX later swapped channel positions on September 10, 1995, as compensation for an affiliation deal involving Group W, with WCIX moving to channel 4 as WFOR-TV and WTVJ moving to channel 6. Neither transaction affected WPLG, which retained its ABC affiliation as well as its channel 10 allocation. As a result, it was the only television station in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market that retained the same network affiliation throughout its history until August 2025. Possibly because of this consistency, WPLG remains one of the highest-rated stations in South Florida. In 2004, WPLG began branding itself as "Local 10" under the branding standardization adopted by Post-Newsweek for its stations.
From April 2007 to May 2009, WPLG was South Florida's most-watched English-language television station according to Nielsen; this can partially be attributed to its availability on Comcast's West Palm Beach system, which in turn had a potentially negative effect on the ratings for that market's ABC affiliate, WPBF. However, Comcast removed WPLG from its West Palm Beach area systems on April 13, 2011. After the May 2009 ratings period, the station switched to a single anchor format for its evening newscasts; WPLG's total-day viewership fell behind CBS-owned WFOR, which took the #1 position among the market's English-language stations. However, WPLG remains tied with WSVN for second/third.
On July 18, 2008, Post-Newsweek Stations announced that it would purchase WTVJ for $205 million. The purchase would have created a duopoly between WTVJ and WPLG, duopolies involving two "Big Three" stations ordinarily would be prohibited under the FCC's media ownership rules, which do not allow duopolies involving two of a market's four highest-rated stations in terms of audience share; however during the May 2008 Nielsen ratings period, WPLG ranked in first place and WTVJ ranked sixth in total-day viewership, allowing the possibility of a purchase. Under the proposal, WTVJ would have merged its operations with WPLG at the studio facility on Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembroke Park. However, the sale was cancelled on December 23, 2008, with NBC Universal and The Washington Post Company citing poor economic conditions and the lack of approval by the FCC.
File:On WPLG Channel 10 in Miami.jpg|thumb|2010 U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek being interviewed at the news studio
On March 28, 2009, WPLG relocated its studio facilities from 3900 Biscayne Boulevard to the new Pembroke Park facility. As a result of this relocation, all of the South Florida market's "Big Three" network stations are based outside of the Miami city limits.