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WFTV
WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ (channel 27), an independent station. The two stations share studios on East South Street (SR 15) in downtown Orlando; WFTV's primary transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.
Channel 9 began broadcasting as WLOF-TV on February 1, 1958, after a four-year application process; it brought full three-network broadcasting to Central Florida. The call sign changed to WFTV in 1963. It was originally granted to the Mid-Florida Television Corporation, owned by the Brechner family and other investors. However, the same year the station went on the air, it was discovered as part of investigations into corruption at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that an Orlando attorney had made unethical ex parte contact on behalf of Mid-Florida to FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack. The resulting investigation triggered more than two decades of proceedings that swung between the FCC, a federal court of appeals, and the Supreme Court. A wide range of issues came under discussion, including what Mid-Florida knew about the ex parte contact; what preference should be given to minority ownership of broadcast stations; and the character of a lawyer who was partially paralyzed in a murder-suicide and indicted on gambling charges in the same week.
Under a court order, Mid-Florida ceded operational control of WFTV in 1969 to Channel Nine of Orlando, Inc., a consortium of the five companies vying for the full-time broadcast license. After enduring a fatal collapse of its tower in 1973 and returning to full power in 1975, WFTV rode the rising fortunes of the ABC network in the late 1970s to become the top-rated station in Central Florida. The five companies agreed to a settlement, approved in 1981, that gave all of them varying shares of the station and ended what was then the longest proceeding in FCC history, filling 55 volumes. Many of their 67 shareholders became millionaires when SFN Companies purchased WFTV in 1984 as part of its expansion into the broadcasting industry.
SFN made a $60 million profit within a year by selling the station to Cox in 1985. Cox moved the station to newer, larger studios at its present site in 1990. Although it has faced renewed ratings competition since 2000, WFTV continues to lead ratings in the Orlando–Daytona Beach market.
Channel 9 was assigned to Orlando in 1952, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted a four-year freeze on television station grants. Throughout 1952, several applications were received for channel 9 from local radio stations: WHOO, WORZ, and WLOF. Applications poured in for channel 9, while groups were initially reticent to challenge WDBO for channel 6. However, channel 6 and ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 18 also gained competing proposals. By April 1953, seven groups were seeking three channels, and Orlando was still without television.
In November 1953, WLOF was sold to a group led by Joseph Brechner and John Kluge, and its original application for channel 9 was replaced by one filed by the new ownership under the name Mid-Florida Television Corporation. The new owners also moved the radio station to a new site in Orlo Vista in preparation for eventual television operations. WHOO's owner, Ed Lamb, became caught up in a proceeding questioning his loyalty to the American government and alleged associations with communist groups. His character became a point of discussion in hearings called for the three applicants for channel 9 in July 1954. On November 2, WHOO bowed out of the contest, leaving WLOF and WORZ competing for channel 9. The remaining applicants attended hearings in Washington in December.
FCC hearing examiner Basil Cooper recommended WORZ's application for approval in an initial decision released in August 1955. He noted that WORZ was locally owned and had rendered better service to Orlando than WLOF, whose owners were from the Washington area. Mid-Florida Television appealed the decision. The chair of the FCC's Broadcast Bureau refuted many of Cooper's findings as "erroneous" in a report released in October, and the case came to the full FCC in June 1956. There, both parties questioned the other's conduct. Mid-Florida emphasized the role of Will O. Murrell, a lawyer suspended for a year by the Florida Bar, in the WORZ application, while WORZ noted a letter sent by WLOF principal Hyman Roth on the matter. With a final decision from the FCC pending, in January 1957, Washington businessman Harris H. Thomson moved to buy a controlling interest in WLOF radio but not Mid-Florida Television.
On June 7, 1957, the FCC voted to grant channel 9 to Mid-Florida Television, the WLOF group, reversing the 1955 Cooper initial decision in favor of WORZ. It cited Murrell's involvement in ownership. Mid-Florida announced it would begin negotiating for an affiliation with the NBC network "immediately" and constructing the television station. WORZ appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, believing the FCC to have overemphasized positive aspects of WLOF's application. In August, WLOF-TV filed for a maximum-power and maximum-height tower facility and initiated talks with ABC for network affiliation instead of NBC. Despite WORZ's protest, the FCC approved the technical changes in November.
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WFTV
WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ (channel 27), an independent station. The two stations share studios on East South Street (SR 15) in downtown Orlando; WFTV's primary transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.
Channel 9 began broadcasting as WLOF-TV on February 1, 1958, after a four-year application process; it brought full three-network broadcasting to Central Florida. The call sign changed to WFTV in 1963. It was originally granted to the Mid-Florida Television Corporation, owned by the Brechner family and other investors. However, the same year the station went on the air, it was discovered as part of investigations into corruption at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that an Orlando attorney had made unethical ex parte contact on behalf of Mid-Florida to FCC commissioner Richard A. Mack. The resulting investigation triggered more than two decades of proceedings that swung between the FCC, a federal court of appeals, and the Supreme Court. A wide range of issues came under discussion, including what Mid-Florida knew about the ex parte contact; what preference should be given to minority ownership of broadcast stations; and the character of a lawyer who was partially paralyzed in a murder-suicide and indicted on gambling charges in the same week.
Under a court order, Mid-Florida ceded operational control of WFTV in 1969 to Channel Nine of Orlando, Inc., a consortium of the five companies vying for the full-time broadcast license. After enduring a fatal collapse of its tower in 1973 and returning to full power in 1975, WFTV rode the rising fortunes of the ABC network in the late 1970s to become the top-rated station in Central Florida. The five companies agreed to a settlement, approved in 1981, that gave all of them varying shares of the station and ended what was then the longest proceeding in FCC history, filling 55 volumes. Many of their 67 shareholders became millionaires when SFN Companies purchased WFTV in 1984 as part of its expansion into the broadcasting industry.
SFN made a $60 million profit within a year by selling the station to Cox in 1985. Cox moved the station to newer, larger studios at its present site in 1990. Although it has faced renewed ratings competition since 2000, WFTV continues to lead ratings in the Orlando–Daytona Beach market.
Channel 9 was assigned to Orlando in 1952, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted a four-year freeze on television station grants. Throughout 1952, several applications were received for channel 9 from local radio stations: WHOO, WORZ, and WLOF. Applications poured in for channel 9, while groups were initially reticent to challenge WDBO for channel 6. However, channel 6 and ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 18 also gained competing proposals. By April 1953, seven groups were seeking three channels, and Orlando was still without television.
In November 1953, WLOF was sold to a group led by Joseph Brechner and John Kluge, and its original application for channel 9 was replaced by one filed by the new ownership under the name Mid-Florida Television Corporation. The new owners also moved the radio station to a new site in Orlo Vista in preparation for eventual television operations. WHOO's owner, Ed Lamb, became caught up in a proceeding questioning his loyalty to the American government and alleged associations with communist groups. His character became a point of discussion in hearings called for the three applicants for channel 9 in July 1954. On November 2, WHOO bowed out of the contest, leaving WLOF and WORZ competing for channel 9. The remaining applicants attended hearings in Washington in December.
FCC hearing examiner Basil Cooper recommended WORZ's application for approval in an initial decision released in August 1955. He noted that WORZ was locally owned and had rendered better service to Orlando than WLOF, whose owners were from the Washington area. Mid-Florida Television appealed the decision. The chair of the FCC's Broadcast Bureau refuted many of Cooper's findings as "erroneous" in a report released in October, and the case came to the full FCC in June 1956. There, both parties questioned the other's conduct. Mid-Florida emphasized the role of Will O. Murrell, a lawyer suspended for a year by the Florida Bar, in the WORZ application, while WORZ noted a letter sent by WLOF principal Hyman Roth on the matter. With a final decision from the FCC pending, in January 1957, Washington businessman Harris H. Thomson moved to buy a controlling interest in WLOF radio but not Mid-Florida Television.
On June 7, 1957, the FCC voted to grant channel 9 to Mid-Florida Television, the WLOF group, reversing the 1955 Cooper initial decision in favor of WORZ. It cited Murrell's involvement in ownership. Mid-Florida announced it would begin negotiating for an affiliation with the NBC network "immediately" and constructing the television station. WORZ appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, believing the FCC to have overemphasized positive aspects of WLOF's application. In August, WLOF-TV filed for a maximum-power and maximum-height tower facility and initiated talks with ABC for network affiliation instead of NBC. Despite WORZ's protest, the FCC approved the technical changes in November.