Storer Broadcasting, another bidder forced to withdraw early on, sold to NAL the studio facilities and tower of WGBS-TV (channel 23), which was taken dark in advance of WPST-TV's sign-on on August 2, 1957.

After FCC commissioner and Miami native Richard A. Mack—directly influenced by close friend and practicing attorney Thurman A. Whiteside to vote for NAL—resigned in the scandal's wake, the bidding process for the channel 10 license was reopened.

[11] WGBS was the first applicant to withdraw on April 9, 1953; Storer had agreed to purchase WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, which would be its fifth TV station and place it at the limit under FCC regulations.

[14] A sixth applicant entered the picture on October 28, 1953: Public Service Television, controlled by George T. Baker, founder and CEO of Miami–based National Airlines (NAL), which owned the new company's stock.

[21] North Dade Video attracted attention when vice president Angus Graham, who had been the chairman of the Miami-Dade school board, resigned his position after a referendum on funding for an educational TV station failed the previous November,[22] over which he was cross-examined.

When the hearings concluded on March 30, 1955, examiner Herbert Sharfman recommended the channel 10 license be granted to the WKAT concern, favoring the group's local ties, community involvement, and broadcasting experience.

[32] The FCC rejected this petition in July 1955, prompting Storer and Gerico to file for an injunction with the United States Court of Appeals in Washington forcing the commission into agreeing to a policy of all-VHF or all-UHF transmissions in a given market, referred to as "deintermixture".

[50] Gerico filed a final petition requesting that WITV move to channel 6 (recently allocated to Miami by the FCC), claiming WCKT and WPST-TV "effectively deleted UHF service" in the market.

Assuming WGBS-TV's facilities, WPST-TV was launched under severe space constraints until the permanent studios on Biscayne Boulevard could be completed;[55]an existing warehouse on the property was torn down to make way for the new building.

[58] Molly Turner, who already had prior on-camera experience as a freelancer for multiple Miami stations,[60] joined WPST-TV as an in-studio commercial host and was eventually promoted to weather reporter.

[64] 500 civic leaders and dignitaries attended the gala event, including George B. Storer and actress Jayne Mansfield; they watched filmed messages from vice president Richard Nixon, Florida governor LeRoy Collins, FCC chairman John C. Doerfer, ABC head Leonard Goldenson, and ABC vice president of television Oliver Treyz.

[68] Pearson's column, which also claimed that Mack made a promise to Whiteside that he would vote for NAL,[67] helped spur the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight into furthering an investigation into the commission's practices.

"[80] With the channel 10 scandal in public view, the FCC selected retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice Horace Stern to preside over a rehearing for the WPST-TV license, the first time an examiner outside of the commission's staff had ever been appointed.

[88] Among the issues Stern was tasked with resolving for the FCC: if Mack needed to recuse himself from voting; if any candidates attempted to influence the commissioners; if the license was voidable; and if any of the applicants should be disqualified.

[95] All of those [lobbying on behalf of Katzentine]... to whom Mack was obligated, by reason of friendship or political support... actually sought his vote for WKAT, however vigorously both he and they denied, they asked him for it in so many words.

[99] A brief from U.S. Attorney General William P. Rogers urged Judge Stern to void the WPST-TV license, institute a new bidding process, and disqualify NAL, Katzentine and North Dade Video from consideration based on prior attempts to influence Mack.

[100] FCC associate general counsel Edgar W. Holtz largely concurred, calling the WPST-TV decision "improperly made"[101] and asking the judge to make an example with a ruling establishing ethical standards.

[102] Stern's ruling, delivered on December 1, 1958, sided with Rogers and Holtz and urged a full voiding of the license, determining Mack was the only commissioner influenced by direct lobbying and viewed his personal loans with Whiteside as possible extortion.

[113] Senator Kefauver also testified, revealing that, in addition to having lobbied McGregor Smith and Ben Fuqua to persuade Mack, he had also talked to several FCC members in the interest of having a ruling on the merits.

[117] Television Digest criticized the trial for its dullness and slow pace and having not revealed any new information other than what had already been established; it noted that its "cast of characters was ready for full rerun"[112] and declared that "...the end of the marathon construction job was nowhere near in sight".

[132] On June 1, the FCC heard final oral arguments in the channel 10 case, with government lawyers arguing that the license should be revoked and that WKAT and North Dade Video, for their influence, be disqualified.

President Charles Topmiller began meeting with area civic leaders, pledged to hire as many WPST-TV employees as possible, and announced the new station would be named WLBW-TV, in tribute to Wilson.

[144] While the FCC moved the changeover to October 1, stay requests were denied for both WPST-TV[145] and WHDH-TV (channel 5) in Boston, whose license had also been revoked but allowed to continue under special temporary authority.

[149] By November 1960, WLBW-TV began transmitting a test pattern nightly at 2:00 a.m. when WPST-TV was not in operation[150] but otherwise functioned as a shell, employing a minimum of staffers during the interregnum and spending $8,000 a week to run a television station which could not broadcast.

[132] The appeals court ruled in favor of the FCC in July 1961, with Judge E. Barrett Prettyman writing:[153] Surreptitious efforts to influence an official charged with the duty of deciding contested issues upon an open record in accord with the basic principles of our jurisdiction eat at the very heart of our system of government—due process, fair play, open proceedings, unbiased, uninfluenced decision... We do not have here an ordinary case of 'unclean hands', in which counterbalancing considerations of public interest in the service involved might justify awards despite misbehavior.

[154] With Baker having exhausted all remaining legal options, the FCC imposed a changeover time of 3:00 a.m. on November 20, 1961,[155] marking the first revocation of a broadcast license for a television station in the United States.

"[157] Molly Turner was hired as public service director and host of a daily local variety show pattered after Ruth Lyons' 50/50 Club in Cincinnati.

[161] WPST-TV's final air date of November 19, 1961, was punctuated by a "farewell editorial" delivered on-camera by George T. Baker at 7:00 p.m. and repeated at midnight prior to closedown.

"[165] Jack E. Anderson, the television editor of the Herald, commented that the station's legal troubles were in no way reflected in its output and credited WPST-TV with a "record of responsible telecasting".

[183][184] The permanent license was again shrouded by accusations of favoritism at the FCC, as Drew Pearson criticized the WLBW-TV bid for Broadcasting publisher Sol Taishoff's ownership interest in the company.