WOTF-TV (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Grit.
After a years-long comparative hearing process that featured seven applicants, original owner Life Style Broadcasting entered into an agreement to share ownership and programming with WAYK (channel 56) in Melbourne.
WAYQ was bought out of bankruptcy by James McCotter and returned in 1996 as WNTO, whose primary programming source was the National Empowerment Television conservative talk channel.
The other three applicants were from out of state: Comark; Daytona Beach Family Television, primarily consisting of ownership interests from Nashville, Tennessee; and Metrovision, Inc., a Black-owned broadcasting firm from Stamford, Connecticut.
[5] Issues in the hearing primarily centered around comparative criteria such as integration of ownership and management as well as the technical question of finding a transmitter site that met a 205-mile (330 km) distance requirement to WEVU in Naples, also on channel 26.
[13] Tower construction began in April 1988; Volusia County granted a special exemption in spite of protests by pilots that visual flight rules aircraft traffic near the site had grown considerably since the original 1981 authorization.
[16] Shortly after debuting, Orlando-based independent station WOFL objected to channel 26's license, claiming that advertisers were told the WAYQ signal reached Orlando when it did not.
The largest cable system in the Orlando area, CableVision of Central Florida, never added WAYK–WAYQ to its lineup on a full-time basis, straining the station's ability to secure advertising revenue.
WAYK president Bill Varecha told Florida Today in July 1990, "We have been unable to act as a conventional television station because we can't disseminate over the entire area.
One stockholder in the company, Harry Handley, started the Star Television Network, which proposed to deliver classic TV shows and infomercials to affiliates including WAYK and WAYQ.
In the meantime, Beach Television Partners began seeking investors to assist in providing capital to the struggling stations; on the WAYK side, Robert Rich—former owner of KBJR-TV in Duluth, Minnesota—stepped in as a new manager.
[19] After lenders refused to give the company more time to make payments on broadcast equipment, in August 1990, Beach Television Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Losing WAYQ compounded Beach Television Partners's financial problems; the cost of repairs, estimated at $400,000 to $500,000, was dwarfed by the loss in advertising revenue to its operation, even as WAYK remained on the air.
[29] A particular highlight for Orlando-area viewers, beginning in 1998, were selected telecasts of the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team; these were the only games available to many Orlando households, as SportsChannel Florida was not carried locally.
It accused WNTO of reneging on agreements by insisting on cash payments not provided for by the original contract; noting that Orlando was a crucial market, it alleged "irreparable harm" at losing its only gateway to Central Florida viewers.
[34] Florida's News Channel won a "hefty" out-of-court settlement but was never carried by WNTO, forcing the service to close its Orlando bureau and dismiss nearly a dozen employees.
[39] In 1995, Bahía Honda sold the Tampa and Orlando Univision low-power stations to Latin Communications Group, which up until then had primarily been a print media company, owning New York City's El Diario La Prensa.