WWHB-CD


WWHB-CD, virtual channel 48, is a low-powered, Class A Azteca América-affiliated television station licensed to Stuart, Florida, United States, serving the Gold and Treasure Coasts of South Florida. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, it is a sister station to West Palm Beach-licensed CBS affiliate WPEC, Fort Pierce-licensed CW affiliate WTVX, and Palm Beach-licensed Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CD. The four stations share studios on Fairfield Drive in Mangonia Park, Florida ; WWHB-CD's transmitter is located in unincorporated Martin County on the Jonathan Dickinson State Park boundary. On cable, the station is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 21 and channel 24, as well as on digital channel 611.
Due to WWHB's Class A status, the station's low-powered directional antenna pattern prevents it from reaching Vero Beach and Boca Raton. To expand the broadcasting radius, WWHB is simulcast in standard definition on WTVX's second digital subchannel from a transmitter, southwest of Palm City and I-95/SR 9, in unincorporated Martin County.

History

The original WWHB was licensed to channel 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana to the department store company William H. Block Co. in 1947. It had changed call letters by 1949.
WWHB began broadcasting on January 11, 1991 as an independent with the call sign W16AR. It was located on UHF channel 16 and was licensed to Stuart. Retired businessman August Gabriel began the station with $200,000 and three employees. From October 1996 until February 1997, it briefly produced a local morning show known as Good Morning Treasure Coast that was hosted by Tom Teter. Ed Birchfield also briefly hosted a 7 p.m. Treasure Coast News program from February to July 1997.
The station moved to UHF channel 15 in 2001 and then to UHF channel 14 in 2002. It added a translator on UHF channel 53 in order to reach West Palm Beach. At some point, the station received the present calls of WTCN-CA and switched to UHF channel 43. This aired from a transmitter at the western boundary of Johnathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County southwest of Jupiter Island. The call letters were originally used by two stations in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota that are now WCCO-TV and KARE.
Martin County businessman Bill Brothers purchased the station in 2001. It was Bill Brothers who revitalized the station creating the first Hispanic language local television service for the West Palm Beach market. Rebuilding the broadcasting facilities together with his sister station WTCN, WWHB served the Treasure Coast's rapidly growing Hispanic population. In 2005, Viacom bought WWHB and sister station WTCN Channel 43 from Brothers for $7.7 million. Viacom moved the studios back to West Palm Beach and improved the station's signal.
On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, which took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007. The deal closed on January 10, 2008. Although the URL for the WWHB website has not changed since the sale to Four Points, it now redirects to a separate section of WTVX's website. As of February 25, 2008, the station is now being operated out of Four Points' hub station KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On September 8, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million; Sinclair began managing the stations, including WWHB-CA, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval. The deal with Sinclair acquiring Four Points was completed on January 3, 2012.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
48.11080iWWHBMain WWHB-CD programming / Azteca América
48.2480iCHARGECharge!
48.3480iStadiumStadium
-480i---