Телеканал Telemundo в Кливленде: История и развитие

Low power Telemundo affiliate in Cleveland

WTCL LD (channel 6) is a low power television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with Telemundo. It is owned by Gray Television alongside two full power sister stations: Shaker Heights–licensed CBS affiliate WOIO (channel 19) and Lorain–licensed CW affiliate WUAB (channel 43); WTCL LD also functions as an ultra high frequency (UHF) repeater for WOIO and WUAB. All three stations share studios at Reserve Square in downtown Cleveland; WTCL LD's transmitter is located in suburban Parma. WTCL LD's visibility is extended to the southern part of the Cleveland market via Canton–licensed WOHZ CD, which has a transmitter located northeast of Canton. Founded as a mostly obscure low power station in the Cleveland area on UHF channels 47 and 65, this station moved to channel 6 in 2012 after several failed attempts to convert the station for digital broadcasting, enabling it to operate as WLFM LP, a de facto radio station on After briefly carrying a hybrid modern rock/talk format, a lease to TSJ Media resulted in the installation of a Spanish language radio format as "La Mega 87.7", the first such format to operate on a full time basis in the market. Increasing technical complications and limitations forced WLFM LP to convert to digital in July 2020. A sale to Gray Television the following year saw the station relaunched as the market's first Telemundo affiliate.

This station signed on as a low power station on channel 47 on November 30, 1989, using the sequentially assigned W47BE call sign. Moving to channel 65 (which had been previously reserved for commercial UHF broadcasts in the early 1950s which were never built) on April 15, 1998, the calls were changed to W65DL, then adopted the WXOX LP calls on January 12, 2000. In the final years as WXOX, the station was affiliated with the Home Shopping Network (HSN). WXOX LP filed paperwork requesting the station move to channel 44 and increase power to 120 kW, but amended the request for digital conversion. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) findings stated channel 44 would cause interference with adjacent WNEO, prompting WXOX LP to request broadcasting over a subchannel of WCDN LP. WXOX LP was then forced off the air on October 27, 2009, when wireless carrier Verizon purchased the part of the wireless spectrum where the station had been broadcasting. An attempt was made to convert WXOX to a low power digital station on channel 31, which WJW broadcast from prior to the June 12, 2009, analog shutoff date. Due to potential co channel interference issues with CITY DT 2 in Woodstock, Ontario, which also broadcast on RF channel 31, the application was abandoned.

In May 2011, the station's then owner, Venture Technologies Group, filed a new FCC request to move the station to channel 6 analog, leading to speculation that it could carry the audio feed of an FM radio station due to analog transmissions on that frequency also being audible over After entering into an operating agreement with Murray Hill Broadcasting—headed by former WWWE, WRMR and WDOK co owner Tom Wilson and aligned with Venture executive Paul Koplin—Wilson announced the launch of a personality driven alternative rock/talk format, using the WLFM LP call sign which Venture transferred from their low power channel 6 station in Chicago. With studios located within the Cleveland Agora, what became known as "87.7 Cleveland's Sound" was originally scheduled to launch in July 2012, but did not debut until September 9, 2012. WLFM LP aired a taped loop of Cleveland themed sports songs and "My Town" as a prolonged stunt, while the TV signal displayed either a loop of slides of local landmarks, or a screensaver for Western Digital. A casting call was conducted for possible air talent, with former WKRK FM host Rachel Steele named as afternoon host and former WFBQ program director Marty Bender assuming like duties. Former WMMS personalities Dan Stansbury and Chad Zumock were later added to the airstaff. Readers of Cleveland Scene awarded WLFM LP as "Best Local Radio Station" in 2013. The station also featured area local music show Inner Sanctum but the program was cancelled in September 2013; host Pat Johnson said the station "was hoping for a big summer and that hasn't translated into sales yet".

Murray Hill Broadcasting announced a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cincinnati based TSJ Media on December 11, 2013, effectively changing WLFM LP to a Spanish language radio format, de facto becoming the first full time Hispanic radio station in Cleveland proper. Tom Wilson viewed Murray Hill's LMA with TSJ Media as "a significant upgrade of an opportunity sometimes you just don't realize what opportunity is there until somebody presents it to you. It's really the way to go". When the LMA took effect on January 1, 2014, WLFM LP was renamed "La Mega 87.7: Latino and Proud", boasting an airstaff that included several area disc jockeys. TSJ Media would later be acquired by Columbus based La Mega Media, Inc., on April 16, 2019. Beginning with the 2014–15 NBA season, WLFM LP carried Spanish language broadcasts of the Cleveland Cavaliers, then added Spanish language broadcasts of the Cleveland Browns in 2018; Rafael Hernandez Brito served as play by play announcer for both teams.

WLFM LP suspended operations on February 26, 2019, when WOUC TV in Cambridge, Ohio, moved to RF channel 6 during the repacking of broadcast spectrum initiated by the FCC's 2016 auction; WLFM LP returned to the air several days later with a power reduction to 3 watts. While low power television stations operating as "Franken FMs", including WLFM LP, had deadlines for digital conversion extended multiple times by the FCC, the spectrum repack forced the station to convert to digital broadcasting on RF channel 20. Thus, WLFM LP discontinued analog broadcasting on June 30, 2020, with the "La Mega 87.7" format moved to an internet only platform. On July 29, 2020, the renamed WLFM LD launched, carrying Jewelry Television as a temporary affiliation.

Murray Hill Broadcasting sold WLFM LD to WOIO and WUAB owner Gray Television on July 29, 2021, for $1.65 million, which the FCC approved on September 13. Shortly thereafter, Gray announced WLFM LD would adopt the WTCL call sign and join Telemundo on January 1, 2022; prior to this, Cleveland was the largest market in the United States not to have a dedicated Telemundo affiliate. The new station would also have evening newscasts in Spanish produced by WOIO, the first such newscasts to be broadcast in the Cleveland market, as Univision owned WQHS DT only carries remotely produced news briefs. WOIO previously produced a daily Spanish language newscast, Al Día, for their website, social media and OTT services, but was suspended due to the COVID 19 pandemic; WOIO retained both Al Día reporters and planned to hire two additional bilingual reporters. WLFM LD was renamed WTCL LP on October 15, 2021, and adopted the LD suffix on August 5, 2022.

WTCL LD is simulcast full time over WOHZ CD, licensed to Canton, Ohio. Originally licensed to Mansfield, Ohio, this station took to the air on May 7, 1990, as W50BE. An extension of locally owned WVNO FM and WRGM, W50BE was an independent station boasting a lineup of local newscasts and community programming for the Mansfield–Ashland–Bucyrus region, nearly equidistant from both the Cleveland and Columbus markets. After W50BE owner Mid State Television, Inc., headed by Robert Meisse, acquired the license to WCOM TV, that station was relaunched as WMFD TV "TV68/50" on June 1, 1992, simulcasting W50BE's programming. By the beginning of 1996, W50BE changed call signs to WOHZ LP and was relaunched as "Z 50", offering additional local programming as a WMFD TV extension alongside America One fare. Later upgraded to a Class A station as WOHZ CA, it also began to offer weather information and an audio simulcast of WVNO FM from a combined studio facility in Ontario, Ohio. The station was licensed for digital operation on February 26, 2015, assuming the call sign WOHZ CD. On October 8, 2020, Mid State Television sold WOHZ CD to Atlanta–based Gray Television, owner of WOIO and WUAB, for $450,000. The sale was completed on December 8, 2020. Upon taking over WOHZ CD, Gray Television changed the station's city of license to Canton, and has since used it as a repeater for WOIO, WUAB, and WTCL, increasing coverage for those stations in the southern part of the Cleveland television market.