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|---|---|
| City | Hollywood, Florida |
| Channels | |
| Branding | UniMás Miami |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WLTV-DT,WAMR-FM,WRTO-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | August 10, 1988 (37 years ago) (1988-08-10) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Miami |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 60536 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 297 m (974 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 25°59′10″N80°11′36.3″W / 25.98611°N 80.193417°W /25.98611; -80.193417 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | UniMás |
WAMI-DT (channel 69) is atelevision station licensed toHollywood, Florida, United States, serving as theMiami-area outlet for the Spanish-language networkUniMás. It isowned and operated byTelevisaUnivision alongsideUnivision stationWLTV-DT (channel 23). The two stations share studios known as "NewsPort" (a converted studio facility that also housesNoticias Univision) on Northwest 30th Terrace inDoral; WAMI-DT's transmitter is located in the Dale Villagemobile home park inPembroke Park, Florida.
WAMI is one of twocommercial television stations with acity of license inBroward County, the other beingTelemundo stationWSCV (channel 51), licensed toFort Lauderdale. The station also serves as thede facto UniMás outlet for theWest Palm Beach market.
Prior to being used by a full-power station, the channel 69 allocation was occupied by W69AA, a translator forWCIX (channel 6). The analog channel 6 transmitter was located inHomestead because of station spacing restrictions tochannel 6 inOrlando; W69AA and two other translators, all commissioned in 1972, provided WCIX programming to areas in Broward County and Boca Raton.[2] As applications proceeded on the full-power allotment, W69AA was displaced; it went silent and returned as W58BU, a translator ofWTVJ, on March 10, 1994.[3]
In 1981, four applications were received for a full-power television station on channel 69, from Whitco Broadcasters; Family Television 69, owned by Hialeah pastor Adib Eden, Sr.; Golden East Broadcasters; and Christian Media of Florida.[4] In April, the FCC selected Whitco over the other applicants, saying that Christian Media of Florida's three pastor owners would not be able to balance ministry and station operations; Whitco offered $111,000 to its competitors to end the proceeding.[5]
Whitco, owned by Eddie Whitehead and Thomas Coates, proposed the first African-American-owned television station in South Florida, aimed at the same audience.[6] The construction permit took the call letters WDEM and secured space on the new tower being built byGuy Gannett Communications inPembroke Park.[7]
An attempt to sell a majority stake in the construction permit to an investor group that sought to program channel 69 as a Spanish-language station fell through in early 1985.[8] On February 19, 1987, the Home Shopping Network (HSN) announced that it was acquiring a majority stake in WDEM,[9] with the option to buy the facility outright upon completion for $10 million.[10]
WAMI first signed on the air on August 10, 1988, as WYHS-TV. Before the station launched, WYHS-TV simulcast audio fromWHYI-FM (Y-100) with live telecasting views of Miami before signing on. When it signed on, WYHS-TV carried programming from the Home Shopping Network. Two months later, HSN's broadcasting division, Silver King Communications, acquired the remainder of the station.[11] The primary purpose of these stations was to force carriage of HSN on cable providers in eachmarket through theFederal Communications Commission'smust-carry provisions asQVC was taking away a large slice of HSN's audience as several providers had held an ownership interest in QVC, but not HSN. Eventually, Silver King Communications acquired an ownership interest in theUSA Network, and as a result, later becameUSA Broadcasting, the broadcast arm of media companyUSA Networks, Inc. In the fall of 1997, channel 69 began carryingFox Kids programming, after it was dropped by the market'sWB affiliate WDZL (channel 39, later WBZL and nowWSFL-TV), which acquired the block in 1993 after Fox affiliateWSVN (channel 7) decided to stop carrying Fox's children's programming.
On June 8, 1998, at 6 a.m., channel 69 became anindependent station; the station also changed its call letters to WAMI-TV. The relaunch of channel 69 was known as the "Birth of a Station",[12] where a soon-to-be mother was giving birth to the "Miami" thought-bubble station logo (the entire day before, the channelstunted with the picture of asonogram of the new logo as a lead into the introduction). Immediately after that sketch, real-time traffic and weather reports were shown. The revamped station adopted a general entertainment format with a strong focus on locally produced programs including a daily news program calledThe Times; the sports discussion showSportsTown;Generation ñ, a program targeted at bilingual, 2nd generation Latinos in the U.S.; the lifestyle programsOcean Drive (which was based on the magazine of the same name) andTen's (which was also broadcast onDallas sister stationKSTR-TV from 1999 to 2001); the dance programBarcode; an alternative lifestyle program calledKenneth's Frequency; and the talk showOut Loud, which was hosted by Bill Teck and produced by Miami producer and media personalityPaul Bouche. The station's programming was mostly aimed at teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 34. The format heavily took after the groundbreakingCITY-TV in Toronto, which carried a similar mix of syndicated shows and movies with locally-produced programming.
WAMI repackaged the Fox Kids block, incorporating it into the live, locally produced interactive children's showWAMI on Miami. The hosts of that program would hold up a "WAMI" hand sign, holding up both hands, making "L" shapes, and crossing their hands together to form a "W", shouting; "Wami, baby!" to its on-air audience. Children would show up at WAMI-sponsored Fox Kids/Power Rangers events that were held throughoutMiami-Dade and Broward counties, mimicking their favoriteWAMI on Miami on-air host. Another pickup for the station wasPolitically Incorrect with Bill Maher, which had not been cleared by the area's ABC affiliate,WPLG.[citation needed]
The station soon began to heavily incorporate local remote interstitials that were broadcast live. WAMI-TV often shot its interstitials, "live" at remote locations all over Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with the WAMI interstitial host often literally pulling passers-by off the streets to read the cue cards announcing the programs that would be shown on the station during the next hour. Another short program not seen on most other USA-owned stations was the topical programLips, featuring a pair of ruby red lips in front of a black background, teasing the day's stories or issues, a concept that was thought to be inspired byThe Rocky Horror Picture Show.[13]
WAMI-TV prominently used the on-air station "bug" or WAMI station ID logo, a variation of the WAMI "thought bubble"; thestation ID graphic would flash on the lower part of the screen, at the top, and bottom of the hour, or each time a program returned from commercial break, and then fade out. WAMI's vice president of promotions ordered that the logo bug remain on-screen during its programs, around the clock, and to give it a translucent appearance so that it was seen constantly. WAMI also featured "WAMI-cams", which were three to five-second on-air spots that were used to fill airtime, usually catching a glimpse ofSouth Beach street life, scenic views, or interesting goings-on in Miami, followed a "pop" sound and the appearance of the WAMI "thought bubble" graphic. The rest of WAMI-TV's programming schedule was supplemented with some first-run syndicatedreality andtalk shows, syndicated reruns of networksitcoms, movies (under theWAMI Movie Palace banner),cartoons and a fewreligious programs.
By December 1998, after only six months on the air, WAMI-TV had outbidUPN owned-and-operated stationWBFS-TV (channel 33) and WB affiliate WBZL to land an exclusive six-year contract for the local television rights toMajor League Baseball games from theFlorida Marlins. WAMI had also procured the rights to broadcastMiami HeatNBA games prior to the station's relaunch.[14]
By late 1999, WAMI had grown into its role as the "flagship station" of what was to become the USA Broadcasting Network, comprising thirteen stations scattered around the country in major U.S. cities, twelve of which were former HSN affiliates. All of these stations, which were owned byBarry Diller, were to gradually be converted to follow WAMI's format, called "CityVision".[15] The "CityVision" concept was based on Diller's theory that local programming was being ignored on most broadcast stations, and that the general public wanted a sense of what is going on in their communities on television. A scaled-down version of the format was adopted by USA Broadcasting-owned sister stations KHSX-TV in Dallas (which became KSTR-TV and rebranded as "K-Star 49"), WHSH-TV inBoston (which became WHUB-TV and rebranded as "Hub 66"; it is nowWUTF-TV) and WHOT-TV inAtlanta (which rebranded as "Hotlanta 34"; it is nowWUVG-TV). The rest of the former HSN-affiliated stations owned by USA that were due to be converted were WHSE-TV (nowWFUT-DT) and WHSI (nowWFTY-DT) in the New York City market (whose calls were to be changed to WORX and rebranded as "The Works" upon the format change), WEHS (nowWXFT-DT) inChicago (which was to become WNDE and be rebranded as "Windy"),WQHS-TV inCleveland, KHSC-TV (nowKFTR-DT) in Los Angeles (whose calls were to be changed to KLIK and be rebranded as "Click"), WHSP (nowWUVP-DT) inPhiladelphia, WHSW (nowWUTB) inBaltimore, KHSH (nowKFTH-DT) inHouston and WBHS (nowWFTT-DT) inTampa.
Due to financial problems that USA Networks began facing in 2000, the company began looking to divest some of its assets. USA Broadcasting, as one of these assets, was considered for divestiture as part of a deal to help USA Networks repair its financial footing. In 2001, the remaining entertainment units of USA Broadcasting were sold toVivendi Universal, along with $10.3 billion worth of shares held by Barry Diller. The television stations were to be sold toThe Walt Disney Company, butUnivision Communications outbid its competition in a close race. The sale was finalized on January 3, 2002.[16]
On January 14, 2002, WAMI-TV became a charter owned-and-operated station of Univision's fledgling Spanish-language secondary network, Telefutura (which rebranded asUniMás eleven years later on February 7, 2013).WPXM-TV (channel 35) and West Palm Beach sister stationWPXP-TV acquired the rights to the Marlins telecasts (which were now produced byFox Sports), which aired through the Florida Marlins Television Network, eventually dropping them in2005 after Pax TV relaunched asi: Independent Television (the rights to Marlins and Heat telecasts are held by Sun Sports, nowBally Sports Sun).
In late 2009, most Univision-owned television stations, including WAMI and sister station WLTV, upgraded their main digital signals to transmit programming in1080ihigh definition. TeleFutura's sister network Univision became the last major over-the-air television network in the United States to begin offering high definition programming onDecember 31, 2009.
Univision owned-and-operated sister station WLTV produces an hour-long weekday morning newscast for WAMI calledNoticias 23 Al Amanecer en UniMás Miami, which airs Monday through Fridays at 7 a.m. and is an extension of WLTV's two-hour morning newscast. In addition, that station produces apublic affairs program calledAhora en Nuestra Comunidad, which airs on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. on WAMI-DT with a rebroadcast on WLTV at 11:30 a.m.
WAMI-TV during its2+1⁄2 year run under USA Broadcasting ownership, received 18 Suncoast RegionalEmmy Awards and 22Promax Awards.
The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 69.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WAMI-DT | UniMás |
| 69.2 | 480i | Confess | Confess | |
| 69.3 | 4:3 | getTV | Get | |
| 69.5 | 16:9 | QUEST | Quest | |
| 6.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Oxygen | Oxygen (WTVJ) |
WAMI ended programming on its analog signal, onUHF channel 69, On June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 47, usingvirtual channel 69.[22] Like all Univision-owned stations, it also retained the "-DT" suffix on their calls at the time of transition.
Includes Spanish-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Florida | ||
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