Azteca América affiliate in Stuart, Florida
WWHB-CD (virtual channel 48, UHF channel 33) is a low-power, Class A Azteca América-affiliated television station serving West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, that is licensed to Stuart. Owned by Hunt Valley, Maryland–based Sinclair Broadcast Group, it is a sister station to CBS affiliate WPEC (channel 12), CW affiliate WTVX (channel 34), and Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CD (channel 43). The stations share studios on Fairfield Drive in Mangonia Park, Florida (with a West Palm Beach postal address), while WWHB-CD's transmitter is located southwest of Hobe Sound, Florida.
Due to WWHB's Class A status, the station's low-powered directional antenna pattern prevents it from reaching Vero Beach (to the north) and Boca Raton (to the south). To expand the broadcasting radius, WWHB is simulcast in standard definition on WTVX's second digital subchannel (34.2) from a transmitter southwest of Palm City.
WWHB-CD is the ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) transmitter for West Palm Beach, hosting its main subchannel and the four major network stations. In exchange, its subchannels are broadcast on four full-power stations in the market.
History
WWHB began broadcasting on January 11, 1991 as an independent with the call sign W16AR. It was located on UHF channel 16 and was licensed to Stuart.[2] Retired businessman August Gabriel began the station with $200,000 and three employees.[3][4] It changed its call sign to WTCN-LP in 1995. From October 1996 until February 1997, it briefly produced a local morning show known as Good Morning Treasure Coast that was hosted by Tom Teter. Ed Birchfield also briefly hosted a 7 p.m. Treasure Coast News program from February to July 1997.[5][6]
The station moved to UHF channel 15 in 2001 (when it converted to Class A and changed its calls to WTCN-CA in February of that year) and then to UHF channel 14 in 2002.[7] It added a translator on UHF channel 53 in order to reach West Palm Beach.[8] On January 15, 2003, the station changed its calls to the current WWHB-CA and switched to UHF channel 43. This aired from a transmitter at the western boundary of Johnathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County southwest of Jupiter Island.
Martin County businessman Bill Brothers purchased the station in 2001. It was Brothers who revitalized the station creating the first Hispanic language local television service for the West Palm Beach market. Rebuilding the broadcasting facilities together with his sister station WTCN, WWHB served the Treasure Coast's rapidly growing Hispanic population.[9] In 2005, Viacom bought WWHB and sister station WTCN (channel 43) from Brothers for $7.7 million.[10] Viacom moved the studios back to West Palm Beach and improved the station's signal.[11]
On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its smaller-market stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million.[12] Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, which took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007.[1] The deal closed on January 10, 2008. Although the URL for the WWHB website has not changed since the sale to Four Points, it now redirects to a separate section of WTVX's website. As of February 25, 2008, the station is now being operated out of Four Points' hub station KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On September 8, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million; Sinclair began managing the stations, including WWHB-CA, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval.[13] The deal with Sinclair acquiring Four Points was completed on January 3, 2012.[14]
