Editing WFTY-DT (section)

{{Short description|Television station in Smithtown, New York}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{About|the television station in Smithtown, New York|the Washington, D.C., television station formerly called WFTY|WDCW}}
{{Infobox television station
| callsign = WFTY-DT
| digital = 23 ([[UHF]])
| virtual = 67
| affiliations = {{ubl|'''67.1:''' [[True Crime Network]]|'''[[WFUT-DT|67.2]]:''' [[UniMás]]|'''[[WXTV-DT|67.3]]:''' [[Univision]]|''for others, see {{Section link||Subchannels}}''}}
| owner = [[TelevisaUnivision]]
| licensee = Univision New York [[LLC]]
| location = [[Smithtown (CDP), New York|Smithtown, New York]]
| country = United States
| airdate = {{Start date and age|1973|11|18|p=y|br=y}}
| callsign_meaning = Telefutura New York (former name for UniMás)
| sister_stations = {{hlist|[[WFUT-DT]]|[[WXTV-DT]]|[[WADO]]|[[WXNY-FM]]}}
| former_callsigns = {{ubl|WSNL-TV (1973–1987)|WHSI (1987–1998)|WHSI-TV (1998–2002)|WFTY (2002–2003)|WFTY–TV (2004–2009)}}
| former_channel_numbers = '''Analog:''' 67 (UHF, 1973–2009)
| former_affiliations = {{ubl|[[Independent station|Independent]] (1973–1975; 1979–1986)|[[Dark (broadcasting)|Dark]] (1975–1979)|[[Wometco Home Theater]] (1980–1985)|[[HSN]] (1986–2001)|[[American Independent Network|AIN]] (2001–2002)|Telefutura/UniMás (2002–2017; now on 67.2)}}
| erp = 655 [[kW]]
| haat = {{convert|219|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id = 60553
| coordinates = {{coord|40|53|23|N|72|57|11|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
}}
'''WFTY-DT''' (channel 67) is a [[television station]] licensed to [[Smithtown (CDP), New York|Smithtown, New York]], United States, serving [[Long Island]] and owned by [[TelevisaUnivision]]. Its main channel broadcasts the [[True Crime Network]]; it also rebroadcasts the main channels of its New York City–area [[Univision]] and [[UniMás]] stations, [[WXTV-DT]] (channel 41) and [[WFUT-DT]] (channel 68), from its transmitter in [[Middle Island, New York]].

Channel 67 was originally assigned to [[Patchogue, New York]], where television producer Theodore Granik obtained the construction permit for a new TV station in September 1968. Granik envisioned a group of [[ultra high frequency]] (UHF) stations carrying public affairs programming, but he died in 1970 with channel 67 unbuilt. The permit was acquired by the Suburban Broadcasting Corporation, which believed it could fill a void in providing news, sports, and entertainment programming from and for Long Island. On this basis, WSNL-TV began broadcasting on November 18, 1973. As much as 70 percent of its lineup consisted of live, local programming, ranging from local news and sports to children's and cooking shows and a Long Island–set soap opera. The station struggled to build a viewer and advertiser base owing to reception difficulties—lampooned so frequently by ''[[Newsday]]'' writer [[Marvin Kitman]] that he was sued—and economic troubles. It left the air on June 20, 1975, and filed for bankruptcy the next year.

In 1978, [[CanWest]] Capital Corporation, a Canadian company whose U.S. subsidiary Universal Subscription Television was in the [[subscription television]] (STV) business, paid off all of Suburban's debts in exchange for the rights to broadcast STV programming on channel 67. CanWest then entered into a joint venture with [[Wometco Enterprises]], majority owner of channel 68 and operator of the [[Wometco Home Theater]] (WHT) STV service that served the New York City area and northern New Jersey. Beginning in June 1980, WSNL-TV began providing WHT on Long Island. Wometco terminated the joint venture in 1981 and became the sole owner of channel 67. At its peak, WHT served more than 111,000 subscribers and was the fourth-largest STV system in the nation.

The death of Wometco majority owner [[Mitchell Wolfson]] in 1983 triggered a [[leveraged buyout]] by [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts]] (KKR). As subscriptions declined due to rising cable [[market penetration|penetration]], Wometco sold off the WHT business but kept channels 68 and 67, which began broadcasting a music video service known as U68 on June 1, 1985. U68 was a locally programmed competitor to [[MTV]] with a more eclectic mix of music. The stations were put on the market in December 1985 because KKR executed a second leveraged buyout, this time of [[Storer Communications]], and chose to retain Storer's cable systems in northern New Jersey and Connecticut over WWHT and WSNL-TV. The two stations were sold to the [[Home Shopping Network]] (HSN) as part of its foray into broadcasting; renamed WHSE and WHSI, they broadcast home shopping programming for the next 15 years. While an attempt by company owner [[Barry Diller]] to convert the stations to general-entertainment independents was slated as late as 2000, Diller ultimately sold WHSE and WHSI and other [[USA Broadcasting]] stations to Univision in 2001. Many of these stations formed the backbone of Telefutura (now UniMás), which launched in January 2002, at which time WHSE and WHSI became WFUT and WFTY.