WTVJ-TV, Miami’s first television station, aired its first broadcast at noon on this date in 1949. It was the first television station in Florida and only the sixteenth in the entire country. The station was originally owned by Wometco Enterprises and carried all four major networks of that era (NBC, CBS, ABC, and Dumont). After 1964 the “Jackie Gleason Show” was produced at WTVJ. In 1984 Wometco sold the station to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), but in 1987 NBC purchased the station. WTVJ is also the home of local NBC News Channel 6 which received multiple local Emmys for their coverage of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
~Florida Historical Society
