WEFS is a educational independent television station serving Orlando, Florida, United States. Owned by Eastern Florida State College, formerly Brevard Community College, it is based at EFSC's campus in Cocoa, the station's city of license. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 30 (or virtual channel 68 via PSIP) from a transmitter near Bithlo, Florida.
History[]
Early years[]
WEFS began on June 18, 1987 as WRES on channel 18. The station's original slogan was "WRES, Your Educational Resource;" the call letters were derived from the word "resource." It was originally an educational independent station. In 1991, the station changed its call letters to WBCC and swapped channel positions with commercial WKCF, moving to channel 68.
PBS membership and digital conversion[]
On January 1, 2002, the station became a secondary Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station, showing some limited programming from the network. By that April, renovations began to accommodate WBCC-DT channel 30, which took to the air on November 4, 2003.
Partnerships with University of Central Florida, Brevard Public Schools, Florida Knowledge Network and The Florida Channel filled out the channel lineup.
Carriage of WUCF-TV[]
Prior to July 2011, WMFE-TV had been the flagship PBS station for central Florida. In fall 2010, WMFE's owner, Community Communications, announced that it had been forced to furlough several employees due to financial difficulties. On April 1, 2011, WMFE announced that it would sell channel 24 and leave PBS due to these financial difficulties and "critical uncertainties in federal and state funding".
When news spread of the sale, a campaign was undertaken by local residents and students at UCF to try to keep an active PBS station in the Orlando market. On May 26, 2011, the UCF Board of Trustees approved a partnership with BCC to create WUCF-TV, the new primary PBS station for Central Florida. The new station would lease WBCC's primary digital channel, and operate from WBCC's facilities. However, WBCC would retain its license and call letters. On June 2, PBS approved the creation of WUCF and announced that it would become Central Florida's primary PBS channel. The station served as the Orlando market's only PBS station, as WDSC-TV in Daytona Beach left PBS on July 1, concurrent with WMFE's departure from PBS and the launch of WUCF.
Resuming independence[]
On June 21, 2012, Community Communications announced that it would sell all of WMFE-TV's assets, except the studio facilities, to UCF. However, UCF will rent the studios from Community on an as-needed basis.
The purchase of WMFE's license by UCF and the subsequent approval of WUCF-TV's license by the FCC on August 15, 2012 led to the creation of WUCF as a separate entity. UCF dissolved its partnership with BCC on November 15, 2012, moving all operations of WUCF-TV to the stronger channel 24. At the same time, WBCC ended its PBS membership and is once again an educational independent station.
In July 2013, Brevard Community College changed its name to Eastern Florida State College in order to advertise the offering of new four-year degrees. As a result, on July 1, WBCC changed its call letters to WEFS.
| TV stations in Florida | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami – Fort Lauderdale | Tampa – St. Petersburg | Jacksonville | Orlando – Daytona Beach – Melbourne | Gainesville | West Palm Beach – Fort Pierce | Panama City | Fort Myers – Naples | Pensacola / Mobile |
| WCAY-CD, Key West | WPDS-LD, Largo | WJXT, Jacksonville | WDSC, Daytona Beach | WRUF-LD, Gainesville | WWCI-CD, Vero Beach | WPCT, Panama City Beach | WGPS-LP, Fort Myers | WRBD-LP, Pensacola |
| WURH-CD, Miami | WARP-CD, Tampa | WQXT-CD, St. Augustine | WOTF, Daytona Beach | WBXG-CA, Gainesville | WHDT, Stuart | WBQP-CD, Pensacola | ||
| WBEC, Ft. Lauderdale | WTAM-LD, Tampa | WBXJ-CD, Jacksonville | WRDQ, Orlando | WYME-CD, Gainesville | WBEC, Boca Raton | WJTC, Pensacola | ||
| WMOR, Lakeland | W39DF-D, Jacksonville | WFEF-LD, Orlando | WXOD-LD, Wabasso | WFBD, Destin | ||||
| WZRA-CA, Oldsmar | WEFS, Cocoa | W05DH-D, Jupiter | WPAN, Fort Walton Beach | |||||
| WHDO-CD, Orlando | WAWD, Fort Walton Beach | |||||||
| WZXZ-CD, Orlando | ||||||||
| TV stations in East Central Florida and the Space Coast, including Orlando, Daytona Beach and Melbourne |
|---|
| WESH 2 (NBC) WKMG 6 (CBS) WFTV 9 (ABC) WDSC 15 (ETV) WKCF 18 (CW) W21AU-D 21 (ATeVe) WUCF 24 (PBS) WOTF 26 (Grit) WRDQ 27 (Ind) WFEF-LD 28 (Comet) WRCF-CD 29 (UMas) WTMO-CD/WKME-CD/WMVJ-CD 31 (TLM) W32DJ-D 32 (3ABN) WOFL 35 (Fox) WZXZ-CD 36 (SSN) WHDO-CD 38 (Biz) WVEN 43 (UNI) WTGL 45 (Rel) WATV-LD 47 (AZA) WDTO-LD 50 (Daystar) WHLV 52 (TBN) WACX 55 (Rel) WOPX 56 (Ion) WRBW 65 (MNTV) WEFS 68 (ETV) |