History
Channel 35 originally had its start in 1989 as W35AJ, which presented general entertainment programming from the Channel America network (which owned the station). However, the station was on only intermittently, and would be off the air for weeks at a time. W35AJ was already dark for a couple of years when St. Petersburg acquired the station in February 1995. Until that point, St. Petersburg's government-access television channel, first established in January 1990, was seen exclusively on cable television on cable channel 15 (since moved to digital channel 615 in December 2007). Prior to then, the city presented some programs as part of a Local Origination channel on Paragon Cable (since succeeded by Bright House Networks).
Under the ownership of the City of St. Petersburg, the station broadcasted City Council meetings and other public service programming for St. Petersburg residents, including the standard 3 hours weekly of children's E/I educational programming mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In December 1999, the calls were changed to WSPF-LP. It became a class A station, making its call sign WSPF-CA, in 2001.
On November 3, 2011, it was announced that the City of St. Petersburg was in discussion of selling WSPF-CA to Prime Time Partners, a broadcaster based in Miami Lakes; the company had placed a $500,000 bid to buy the station. Prime Time Partners immediately announced plans to convert the channel to digital, with a Spanish-language service broadcasting on 35.1, and the city's programming remaining on WSPF through a subchannel. The city announced that the station was up for sale in July 2011, due to the expense of converting the station to digital. The sale to Prime Time Partners was approved by the FCC on May 29, 2012.
On or around June 30, 2012, WSPF-CA started broadcasting in digital on channel 38, the former frequency held by WTTA; ironically, the city of St. Petersburg originally founded the previous occupant of the channel 38 frequency, WSUN-TV, in 1953. In converting to digital operations, the call sign was modified to WSPF-CD. In addition, the station relocated its transmitter site to the antenna farm in Riverview. Shortly after digital transmissions began, WSPF-CD began broadcasting MundoFox on 35.1 and infomercials on 35.2 and 35.3; despite its early announcement, the City of St. Petersburg declined to use a subchannel as originally planned, though its government access channel continues to broadcast on cable television within the city as StPeteTV. It is unknown if the Fox owned and operated station, WTVT, would be involved in the new venture. It is not clear if the area cable systems will pick up the new network.
Read more about this topic: WSPF-CA
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—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)