please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wtvj miami fort lauderdale florida united states city miami florida branding nbc 6 general nbc 6 news newscasts slogan nbc 6 or team 6 is everywhere channels digital 31 uhf virtual 6 psip affiliations .1 nbc o & o .2 cozi tv owner nbcuniversal nbc telemundo license llc first air date march 21 1949 ; 67 years ago 1949 03 21 call letters meaning none ; assumed backronym for television journalism sister station s wscv former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1949 1995 6 vhf 1995 2009 former affiliations primary cbs 1949 1989 secondary nbc 1949 1956 abc 1949 1957 dumont 1949 1956 dt2 nbc weather plus 2004 2008 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 311 m 1 020 ft facility id 63154 transmitter coordinates 25 58 7 n 80 13 20 w 25.96861 n 80.22222 w 25.96861 ; 80.22222 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.nbcmiami.com wtvj virtual channel 6 uhf digital channel 31 is an nbc owned and operated television station located in miami florida united states . the station is owned by the nbcuniversal owned television stations subsidiary of nbcuniversal as part of a duopoly with wscv channel 51 flagship station of the co owned telemundo network . the two stations share studio and office facilities located on southwest 27th street off i 75 in miramar ; wtvj s transmitter is located between northwest 210th and 207th streets in the andover neighborhood of miami gardens northeast of sun life stadium . contents 1 history 1.1 florida s first television station 1.2 acquisition by kkr 1.3 acquisition by nbc 1.4 move to channel 6 1.5 failed sale to post newsweek 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 repeaters 5 news operation 5.1 notable current on air staff 5.2 notable former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit florida s first television station edit archived wtvj news tape as seen from the florida moving image archive . the logo shown was adopted shortly before the switch to nbc in 1989 before the station officially switched to nbc the 4 was used by itself . the station first signed on the air on march 21 1949 at 12 00 p.m. wtvj was the first television station to sign on in the state of florida and the 16th station in the united states . originally broadcasting on vhf channel 4 the station was founded by wometco enterprises a national movie theater chain that was headquartered in miami . the station s original studio facilities were located in the former capitol theater on north miami avenue in downtown miami which was the first theater operated by wometco when the company was founded in 1926 . the station was a primary cbs affiliate but also carried programming from the other three major broadcast networks of that era abc nbc and dumont . during the late 1950s the station was also briefly affiliated with the nta film network . 1 wtvj was the only commercial television station in the miami market until fort lauderdale based wftl tv channel 23 signed on the air on december 24 1954 operating as an nbc affiliate . however wftl had no success whatsoever in competing against wtvj in part because television sets were not required to have uhf tuning capability until the all channel receiver act went into effect in 1964 . nbc continued to allow wtvj to cherry pick programs broadcast by the network until wckt channel 7 now wsvn signed on in july 1956 and wftl went dark that station s former channel 23 allocation is now occupied by univision owned and operated station wltv dt . channel 4 shared abc programming with wckt by way of an arrangement with the network to allow both stations to cherry pick programming . although abc had a full time affiliate in witv channel 17 due to the aforementioned lack of uhf penetration at that time this arrangement continued until wpst tv channel 10 now wplg signed on in august 1957 . wtvj also served as the de facto cbs affiliate for west palm beach until wtvx channel 34 now a cw affiliate signed on in 1966 . citation needed wtvj served as the producing station for cbs s jackie gleason show after gleason moved the program from new york city to miami beach in 1964 . citation needed acquisition by kkr edit wometco founder and president mitchell wolfson died in 1983 and a long rumored secret plan to run the company after his death was never found . remaining wolfson heirs had no desire to keep the company in the family and it quickly unraveled making it a ripe takeover target . investment firm kohlberg kravis roberts & co. took over wometco in 1984 in a 1 billion deal the largest corporate buyout in history to that date . kkr sold most of wometco s entertainment assets to the latter company s chief operating officer arthur hertz in 1985 . with the cash from this sale kkr then purchased storer broadcasting s station properties shortly after the federal communications commission raised the television station ownership limit from seven stations with no more than five located on the vhf band to twelve . kkr s intent was to sell the properties within a few years at a higher price . citation needed in 1986 kkr opted to put wtvj and the storer stations on the market . the firm had plans to sell channel 4 for a record price of close to 500 million as part of a 1.85 billion group deal with six of the storer stations although the station was actually worth far less . cbs saw a chance to acquire an owned and operated station in the fast growing miami market . however it lost a bidding war to television syndication company lorimar telepictures . 2 cbs however tried to block the deal ; lorimar produced dallas knots landing falcon crest and other shows for the network and did not want them controlling the clearance rights of those particular programs . thus cbs threatened to yank its affiliation with wtvj if the lorimar deal went through which would force the station to become an independent . 3 lorimar then walked away from the group deal in may 1986 3 4 cbs then made an offer to buy wtvj for 170 million which was far below kkr s asking price of at least 270 million . 3 wtvj s newsroom . acquisition by nbc edit over the next few months the only offers to buy wtvj came from companies that owned large groups of independent stations such as tribune broadcasting pappas telecasting companies and chris craft industries united television . these and other companies wanted to convert wtvj into an independent station or a fox affiliate for a price far lower than kkr s asking price . the only way that kkr could make such a large profit was to sell wtvj to another network as the only potential buyers that had no interest in keeping cbs while paying the asking price were abc and nbc . 3 cbs did not believe that kkr would sell wtvj to another network so it returned with a very low offer . kkr turned cbs s offer down almost out of hand and then approached the other networks . abc was not interested since it was more than satisfied with its longtime affiliate wplg . however nbc was very interested because its longtime affiliate wsvn heavily preempted the network s daytime lineup including programs that the network aired in the noon timeslot in favor of running a local newscast as well as an occasional prime time show . nbc was far less tolerant of preemptions than cbs and abc at the time and was particularly annoyed at losing valuable advertising in such a fast growing market . this had not been a problem at first since most of the programs that were preempted by wsvn aired on west palm beach based wptv which provided at least grade b signal coverage to nearly the entire miami fort lauderdale market and had been available on cable in the area for decades . in the few cases where wptv and wsvn both turned down an nbc program the network usually arranged for other stations in the area to carry its programming . however by 1985 wptv had been dropped from most miami cable systems to make way for new cable channels partly due to limited headend channel capacity resulting in some nbc programs that were preempted by wsvn being unavailable to some viewers . nbc realized that purchasing its own station with less restrictive ownership laws would guarantee that all of its shows would make it to air . hence it made an offer almost as high as telepictures did a few months before and in 1987 kkr agreed to sell wtvj to nbc for 270 million . 5 nbc assumed control of wtvj in mid september 1987 . however both wtvj s and wsvn s respective affiliation contracts with cbs and nbc did not expire until december 31 1988 . as a result nbc faced the prospect of having to run wtvj as a cbs affiliate for over a year . this did not sit well with either nbc or cbs and both approached wsvn s parent sunbeam television about ending the station s nbc affiliation contract early . however sunbeam balked ; its owner edmund ansin did not want to lose nbc s strong lineup of sports programming that year including the major league baseball world series and the summer olympics . sunbeam also made an unsuccessful play to take the cbs affiliation . nbc did strip nearly all cbs branding from channel 4 and began airing nearly all nbc programs that were preempted by channel 7 . in turn this resulted in wtvj preempting some cbs programs with the affected shows airing instead on wcix . cbs then formally approached channel 6 despite the fact that it would have provided a much weaker signal to fort lauderdale than that provided by wtvj or wsvn . wcix s transmitter was located near homestead 20 miles 32 km southwest of downtown miami giving fort lauderdale only a weaker grade b signal . accordingly west palm beach s longtime abc affiliate wpec was persuaded by cbs to switch to the network in order to ensure full coverage in fort lauderdale and northern broward county . in august 1988 cbs announced that it would purchase wcix from the tvx broadcast group which itself had purchased the station from taft in 1987 . 6 wtvj ended its 40 year affiliation with cbs on january 1 1989 and became the third station in miami to have carried programming from nbc . cbs moved the rest of its programs over to wcix while wsvn became the new fox affiliate for south florida ; most of wcix s syndicated programs such as most of its cartoons and sitcoms with exceptions such as i love lucy family ties star trek the next generation and a few others went to wdzl channel 39 now cw affiliate wsfl tv . in a bit of irony wtvj also continued to preempt nbc s noon offerings in favor of carrying a local newscast . that timeslot would be given back to the network s affiliates in 1991 . citation needed shortly after the switch the station debuted an image campaign based on the bobby mcferrin song don t worry be happy that lasted until 1993 . 7 additionally beginning in 1989 wtvj became the primary home station for the nfl s miami dolphins which continued until 1997 when wfor tv gained the rights to most games thanks to