WPBF

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WPBF (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Tequesta, Florida, United States, serving the West Palm Beach area as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on RCA Boulevard in the Monet section of Palm Beach Gardens and a transmitter in Palm City southwest of I-95. Thirteen applicants sought channel 25 in Tequesta, which was awarded to a group that proposed closed-captioned news programming. Nearly all of the company was then sold to a partnership of John C. Phipps and Alan Potamkin. While channel 25 intended to be an independent station, the ABC affiliation unexpectedly became available as a result of an affiliation switch that started in the Miami market and spread to West Palm Beach. Even though it was not on the air, WPBF obtained the ABC affiliation—surprising industry observers—and set television precedent as the first station to pay a network to affiliate. After hastily building its facilities and news department, WPBF launched on January 1, 1989, with ABC programming from its first day on air. However, it debuted at third in the local news ratings and struggled economically for several years. Channel 25 was owned in the mid-1990s by Florida-based Paxson Communications Corporation, though Paxson soon focused on developing its own national network and decided to sell WPBF, its only major network affiliate. Hearst acquired channel 25 in 1997 and lifted the station from third to second place in local news audience.