Business/Economy

MIRAMAR (CBS4) ― Florida's first television station, WTVJ-NBC6, has been put up for sale by owner NBC Universal along with another television station in Hartford, Connecticut. The decision was revealed Wednesday in a memo to employees of the station. NBC is not selling WSCV-51, an affiliate of the NBC-owned Telemundo network, which shares the NBC broadcast center in Miramar with WTVJ.

The decision was revealed Wednesday to WTVJ employees in a memo  from John Wallace, President of the NBC Local Media division which operates NBC's television stations.

Telling employees the television business is undergoing a period of 'tremendous change', Wallace said NBC is changing it's focus from traditional TV stations to full service local media companies, including the purchase of two digital media businesses in the past year.

"These growth investments are an important part of ensuring our long-term viability," Wallace said in his memo. "They also need to be self-funded. As a result, we've taken a hard look at our portfolio and made some difficult decisions about what's best for our business going forward. To that end, we are putting two of our NBC stations, WTVJ in Miami and WVIT in Hartford."

Employees at WTVJ were told that there is no immediate buyer for the stations, which both operate in communities which are outside the nation's 10 largest media markets. The sale will leave NBC with 8 owned in operated television stations, all in major markets with the exception of a station in San Diego.

NBC's remaining presence in South Florida will be it's Telemundo network, which is headquartered in Hialeah, and Telemundo affiliate WSCV, which shares the Miramar facility with WTVJ.

Employees were not told what might happen with that shared facility if and when a sale is completed. WTVJ and Telemundo share South Florida's most modern television station facility, built from the ground up for digital television less than 10 years ago.

Just 2 weeks ago WTVJ became the first television station in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market to present local newscasts in high-definition.

WTVJ went on the air on Channel 4 59 years ago this week, March 21, 1949, as the first television station in Florida and only the 16th station in the nation. 

As the state's first TV station, it has racked up a long tradition of broadcast firsts, and for decades dominated the South Florida television newscasts with the Ralph Renick Report, the area's first TV newscast.

At the start, the station owned by movie-theatre company Wometco carried programming from all of the new TV networks, but eventually became solely a CBS affiliate until January 1, 1989, when it changed networks to NBC in what became known as "The Big Switch.

Following NBC's purchase of WTVJ in 1987, CBS purchased then-independent WCIX and as a result, CBS programs were moved from WTVJ to  CBS-Owned WCIX, NBC programs were moved from WSVN to NBC Owned WTVJ, and WSVN became a Fox affiliate, taking the role from WCIX. 

The move left viewers confused about where to find their television shows, but gave the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market two network-owned television stations and new importance as a media center.

However, just as viewers were starting to feel comfortable with the network changes, NBC and CBS shook things up again, in 1995 swapping dial positions between the two stations as part of a larger corporate realignment of TV stations in Philadelphia.

WCIX became WFOR Channel 4, placing CBS back on the same channel it had held for 40 years, and WTVJ became NBC6.

NBC left it's original location at a the former Capitol Theater in downtown Miami in 2000 for new facilities in Miramar, which it shared with WSCV-51 when NBC purchased the Telemundo network. It now serves as a production center for NBC television stations in other cities.

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