WEVU-LP (channel 4) was a
low-power television station
Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...
in
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...
, United States. Owned by
Silver Point Capital
Silver Point Capital is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund that focuses on credit and special situations investments.
It was founded in 2002 by former Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational inve ...
, it was a
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
of
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
-based
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...
affiliate
WUVF-LP
WUVF-LD (channel 2) is a low-power television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of the Spanish-language networks Univision and UniMás. Locally owned by Sun Broadcasting, it is sister ...
.
History
Caloosa Television, the owners of
WEVU (channel 26) in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, was awarded a construction permit for a new low-power TV station in Fort Myers on December 16, 1986. The station went on the air in August 1988 as W07BR (a.k.a. WBR) on channel 7, after Tim Pipher sought out the unused permit; Pipher owned a minority stake and also gave up his Canadian citizenship to be able to own the station.
At the time, with no
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
team in Florida, the station was able to affiliate with the networks of multiple Major League teams, carrying as many as 188 games a year. In the baseball offseason, WBR carried
Fort Myers Sun Sox games, using just one camera, plus college sports from several teams,
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern C ...
basketball, and other syndicated sports fare, along with a local sports talk call-in show, ''Southwest Florida Sportsline'', hosted by Pipher and former WEVU sports anchor Chris Barnes. Non-sports programming came from
Channel America
Channel America (CA), officially Channel America Network, Inc., was the first United States terrestrial broadcast television network to be intentionally assembled out of LPTV, or low-power television licensees. The network was founded by David P ...
.
As the station was no longer able to obtain the baseball rights after the
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park.
The ...
began play, WBR shifted its focus to community programs and launched a repeater, W09BS (channel 9) in Naples. In 1994, local output included karaoke and gospel shows, a Spanish-language newscast, and community discussion programs; at other times, the station aired
National Empowerment Television
National Empowerment Television (NET), later known as America's Voice and eventually The Renaissance Network, was a cable TV network designed to rapidly mobilize politically conservative individuals for grassroots lobbying on behalf of the mov ...
programming. On September 1, 1995, W07BR became WBRP-LP, while W09BS became WBSP-LP.
Just one month after the adoption of the WBRP and WBSP call letters, WEVU—which Caloosa had sold in 1991—became
WZVN-TV
WZVN-TV (channel 26, cable channel 7), known as Gulf Coast ABC, is a television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Montclair Communi ...
. Caloosa promptly reclaimed the WEVU-LP call letters on November 6, 1995.
In March 1998, WTVK (now
WXCW
WXCW (channel 46), branded on-air as WINK CW, is a television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of The CW. It is locally owned by Sun Broadcasting alongside two low-power stations: Uni ...
), at that time the
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...
affiliate, dropped UPN for
The WB
The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
. The original WB affiliate, cable-only "WB 10" (owned by
MediaOne
Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which US ...
, now
Comcast
Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
, and branded with the faux calls of "
WSWF") picked up UPN. However, not everyone in the market could get "TV 10" (as it was later called), so UPN also made an affiliation deal with WEVU, which would allow for wider coverage.
It wasn't until later in 1998 when Caloosa Television made a deal with MediaOne to have the cable system take over the station's programming. MediaOne dropped the faux call letters of "WSWF" in favor of WEVU and incorporated WEVU-LP's local programming into their lineup, thus unifying the UPN affiliates in the market. WEVU moved to channel 4 in 2001 and WBSP to channel 7, due to digital television shuffles; WBSP had to move off channel 9 to allow
WINK-TV
WINK-TV (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a hand ...
to begin digital broadcasts on the channel.
This working relationship lasted until midnight on September 1, 2004. This occurred shortly after Caloosa struck a deal for carriage of the station (then known on-the-air as "UPN 8") on
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
. This forced WEVU to seek UPN programming via microwave from UPN
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
WTOG
WTOG (channel 44) is an independent television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group, and maintains studios on Northeast 105th Terrace in St. Pete ...
out of
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...
; they also aired WTOG's three-hour
E/I block. All other programming on the station consisted of
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...
s. Comcast continued to operate its own UPN affiliate, which began going by the faux call letters of "
WNFM". WEVU was later picked up by
Dish Network
DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
The company was originally establ ...
.
When UPN ended broadcasting in September 2006, WEVU filled the time slot with more infomercials. By this time, the stations had been sold to
Equity Broadcasting
Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name late ...
, and were simulcasting the 6 p.m. newscast from
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...
affiliate and sister station
WUVF-CA
WUVF-LD (channel 2) is a low-power television station licensed to Naples, Florida, United States, serving Southwest Florida as an affiliate of the Spanish-language networks Univision and UniMás. Locally owned by Sun Broadcasting, it is sister ...
. Equity subsequently decided to rebroadcast WUVF's entire schedule on WEVU (since WEVU, unlike WUVF, is available via
DBS).
In 2007, Equity struck a deal with LatinAmerican Broadcasting to carry
LAT TV
LAT TV was a Spanish-language television network emphasizing family-oriented and educational programming. It was owned by Latin America Broadcasting of Houston, Texas and launched in May 2006, initially on five low-power television stations in ...
on its group of stations beginning May 30, 2007; WEVU was to be one of the stations. However, WEVU continued to rebroadcast WUVF.
WBSP signed off March 11, 2008, after suffering technical problems.
On April 4, 2008, Equity announced the sale of all five of its Southwest Florida stations (including WEVU and WBSP) to Luken Communications, LLC for $8 million. Equity cited corporate financial losses as a reason for the sale. However, Equity Media Holdings entered
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...
that December, and
offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were withdrawn.
WEVU was sold at auction to
Silver Point Capital
Silver Point Capital is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund that focuses on credit and special situations investments.
It was founded in 2002 by former Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational inve ...
on April 16, 2009.
The sale closed on August 17, 2009.
WBSP was not named in the sale. WEVU then surrendered its previous
class A classification, which it had held since 2002.
Three days before the completion of the sale to Silver Point, WEVU was taken silent.
As a result,
Dish Network
DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
The company was originally establ ...
began to obtain WUVF's programming via another satellite station,
WLZE-LP (channel 51), on October 7, 2009. On March 10, 2011, WEVU-LP's license was cancelled by the FCC.
WBSP's license had been cancelled on June 15, 2010.
References
{{Ft. Myers TV
1986 establishments in Florida
2009 disestablishments in Florida
EVU-LP
EVU
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009
Television channels and stations established in 1986
EVU-LP