After more than 50 years of broadcasting in the Tampa Bay area, WUSF-TV will soon be leaving the airwaves.
USF officials announced on Wednesday that they have sold the public broadcast license for WUSF-TV for $18.7 million as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadcast Incentive Auction.
As a result of USF’s decision to sell its license, WUSF-TV will go off the air later this year after proceeds from the auction are received, though officials did not say when that will occur.
The station first broadcast on September 12, 1966.
In October of 2015, USF voted to explore placing the television station into the FCC’s spectrum auction in 2016. The possibility of that happening led to the possibility that it could share a channel with another local station, move its signal to a VHF channel, or cease operations altogether, which is exactly what will now happen.
The decision does not affect WUSF 89.7 radio, the NPR affiliate in the Tampa Bay region, nor WEDU, the Public Broadcasting System affiliate.
