branding star 64 local 12 news newscasts produced by wkrc tv slogan always entertaining channels digital 33 uhf virtual 64 psip subchannels 64.1 mynetworktv 64.2 antenna tv 64.3 comet tv 64.4 gettv affiliations mynetworktv owner deerfield media deerfield media cincinnati licensee llc operator sinclair broadcast group first air date january 28 1980 ; 36 years ago 1980 01 28 call letters meaning star 64 sister station s wkrc tv former callsigns wbti tv 1980 1985 wiii 1985 1990 former channel number s analog 64 uhf 1980 2009 translator 66 w66aq dayton former affiliations independent 1980 1993 fnn 1981 1985 pten 1993 1995 upn 1995 1998 the wb 1998 2006 transmitter power 360 kw height 337 m facility id 11204 transmitter coordinates 39 12 0 n 84 31 21.5 w 39.20000 n 84.522639 w 39.20000 ; 84.522639 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website star64.tv wstr tv virtual channel 64 uhf digital channel 33 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station located in cincinnati ohio united states . the station is owned by deerfield media but operated under a local marketing agreement by sinclair broadcast group which also owns cbs affiliate wkrc tv channel 12 . both stations share studios on highland avenue in the mount auburn section of cincinnati . wstr s transmitter star tower is located in the city s college hill neighborhood . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.2 network affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 newscasts 3.1 notable current on air staff 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message as an independent station edit on june 29 1979 permission was granted by the federal communications commission fcc for a new television station to be constructed and operated in cincinnati ohio . wbti tv signed on the air on january 28 1980 under the ownership of buford television of ohio inc. it transmitted at one million watts of power and operated from studios on fishwick drive . the station s original transmitter was located on chickasaw street in cincinnati . during the early days of wbti it signed on at 10 00 a.m. and operated as a general entertainment independent station until 7 p.m. each day . at that time the station s signal was scrambled as it carried programming from the ontv service which provided movies sports and live events to viewers through a paid subscription and required a decoder to receive ontv programs . eventually wbti expanded its broadcast day by signing on earlier ; the station began carrying movies and cartoons until 10 a.m. when the christian broadcasting network program the 700 club aired until 11 30 . the afternoon lineup consisted of movies cartoons and sitcoms such as i love lucy and the dick van dyke show . morning cartoons included underdog tennessee tuxedo and popeye . weekends were heavily laden with classic movies and adventure shows such as the outer limits the wild wild west and bonanza . wbti also began airing world championship tennis and notre dame football games . the weekly hollywood gold movies on saturdays and sundays were hosted by one time theater operator and hamilton ohio native fred baum who most recently owned the holiday auto theater ; baum died in 2007 . in january 1981 the station added more sitcoms to its lineup during the week such as mister ed the addams family the munsters and the beverly hillbillies . on tv programming expanded on weekend evenings signing on at 5 p.m. ontv ran for several hours each night usually ending around 2 a.m. on some nights wbti would resume unencrypted broadcasts and air general entertainment programs until it signed off . in august 1981 buford television changed its name to hen incorporated its initials standing for home entertainment network . in january 1982 hen became the official owner of wbti . on april 1 1982 the on tv service expanded to 20 hours per day . at that time the fcc required that broadcast stations be on the air for at least four hours per day . the station ran new zoo revue at 8 a.m. jimmy swaggart at 8 30 ptl club at 9 a.m. 700 club at 10 a.m. and inn midday edition at 11 30 . after 12 noon on tv now made up the rest of the broadcast day . the station at that point went 24 hours a day . there was a short time in january of 1983 when wbti extended some afternoon programming from noon to 2 p.m. running the hour edition of 700 club and a couple other religious shows but that was short lived when on tv began broadcasting close to 22 hours per day by march of that year . at that point wbti only carried the 90 minute edition of 700 club weekdays and on tv the rest of the day and weekends except for a few hours sunday morning for religious shows . but also in early 1983 and after much delay the warner amex cable service qube became available in the cincinnati city limits . this made the on tv subscription service less attractive to viewers . the subscription service was only one channel at close to the same price as the 60 channel warner amex qube service . hen tv sold the station in november of 1984 to 64 joint ventures . in january 1985 on tv programming was scaled back . new owners channel 64 joint venture relaunched the station on january 1 1985 ; on that date the station changed its call letters to wiii and adopted the slogan the eyes of cincinnati . the station began running general entertainment programming from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. on weeknights and 3 p.m. on weekends when the station switched to on tv programming . in april of 1985 on tv was further scaled back to 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily . wiii dropped on tv completely in june of that year . on weekdays the station ran older cartoons 7 to 9 a.m. ; religious shows 9 a.m. to noon and 6 to 7 a.m. ; some off network dramas and westerns noon to 2 30 p.m. recent cartoons 2 30 to 5 30 p.m. a mix of older and recent sitcoms 5 30 to 8 p.m. and a mix of dramas and movies after 8 p.m. weekends the station ran a mix of older movies drama shows and some first run syndicated shows . the station ran religious shows sunday mornings . late in 1985 as an ice storm hit the cincinnati area a section of ice on the station s tower broke free and cut through the station s transmission line from the transmitter to the antenna . wiii was off the air for several days and then operated at very low power for weeks . the station remained on the air after repairs were made but never quite recovered financially . it continued to run a lot of first run cartoons and some new ones such as the funtastic world of hanna barbera and the transformers and a few low budget movies some drama series and a few classic sitcoms . but the station was not able to get first rate syndicated programs . star 64 station identification in 1995 . wstr used variations of this logo from 1990 to 1998 . in the fall of 1986 the station had a proposed sale to the home shopping network but due to debt the station could not be sold excluding shows and debt . the station filed bankruptcy early in 1987 and soon after had been turned over to receivership under the ownership of stephen j. kent . in 1987 its license was involuntarily assigned to channel 64 joint venture debtor in possession . in march 1988 channel 64 acquisition inc. took over . in november 1989 the license was voluntarily assigned to cincinnati tv 64 limited partnership under the ownership of andrew banks and royce yudkoff . their initials served as the name for abry communications . soon after stronger programming was added to include more recent sitcoms and better movies . on september 15 1990 the station changed its callsign to wstr tv and its on air branding to star 64 . in 1992 control was officially transferred to abry communications lp . in 1994 the station increased its transmitter power from one to five million watts at a brand new tower and transmitter site in cincinnati s college hill neighborhood . that tower would be known as the star tower and would eventually be home to several radio stations and other communications services . network affiliation edit under abry s ownership the station acquired additional syndicated programs ; wstr then became a charter affiliate of the united paramount network upn on january 17 1995 a day after the network formally launched later branding itself as upn 64 . in 1996 sinclair communications now sinclair broadcast group acquired abry broadcasting s stations including wstr . in july 1997 sinclair signed an affiliation deal with the wb that resulted in a number of the company s upn affiliates and independent stations switching to the network . 1 in january 1998 wstr switched affiliations with class a low power station wbqc ca channel 25 with wstr becoming a wb affiliate while wbqc joined upn . on january 24 2006 the warner bros. unit of time warner and cbs corporation announced that the two companies would shut down the wb and upn and combine the networks respective programming to create a new fifth network called the cw . 2 3 on february 22 of that year news corporation announced the launch of a new sixth network called mynetworktv which would be operated by fox television stations and its syndication division twentieth television . mynetworktv was created to compete against the cw and to give upn and wb stations that were not mentioned as becoming cw affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations . 4 5 my64 logo until september 2009 . wstr seemed likely to become the cw s cincinnati affiliate being a full power station and wbqc being a class a low power outlet . on march 2 however sinclair announced that wstr would affiliate with mynetworktv . 6 7 the announcement seemingly opened the door for wbqc to potentially become the area s cw affiliate . instead the network agreed on april 19 to be carried on a new second digital subchannel of wkrc tv channel 12 forcing wbqc to become an independent station . with its new mynetworktv affiliation wstr adopted the my 64 brand similar to most of the network s other stations . on september 21 2009 wstr reintroduced its 1990s brand dropping the my branding in favor of star 64 while keeping the network s logo color and style scheme . 8 this followed a similar trend with some other mynetworktv affiliates after the network became a syndication service . on may 15 2012 sinclair broadcast group and fox agreed to a five year affiliation agreement extension for sinclair s then 19 fox affiliated stations until 2017 . this included an option exercisable between july 1 2012 and march 31 2013 for fox s then parent news corporation to buy a combination of six sinclair owned stations two cw mynetworktv duopolies and two standalone mynetworktv affiliates in three out of four markets ; wstr tv was included in the fox purchase option along with stations in raleigh wlfl and wrdc norfolk wtvz and las vegas kvcw and kvmy . 9 in january 2013 fox announced that it would not exercise its option to buy any of the sinclair stations in