RadioVision and Lincoln Lounge were not so great hits... including the Super 70's Café with shows that never really mixed.  RadioVision was scattered across our air... to do it we placed cameras everywhere.  We mated the b-roll with old radio shows, where we got them, who the hell knows!?!  Lincoln Lounge was supposed to be a late night riot, but that show didn't make it past its pilot.  The Super 70's Café wasn't that great as our original programming show hosts introduced the slate... Charlie's Angels and Baretta were on the playlist with other shows that we'd just rather miss.

City Desk: The Herald showed our broadcasting gist as we showed newspaper reporters gathering stories for an unusual twist.  We followed the journalists all over town with cameras taping all they found and wrote down.

All of these shows died from the lot including T.J. Hooker and Alfred Hitchcock which added to the old syndicated stock.  For a while we even had Politically Incorrect which the ABC affiliate in Miami (WPLG) will not soon forget.

10's was a show with T&A, something the markets would watch everyday.  Daniel Tosh and Jennifer Cole led the way, up and down South Florida beaches holding the hotties at bay.  They interviewed some, and others much less, but the show seemed to continue with little duress.  Our location has nightclubs which completed the mix, but all that did was introduce drunks trying to pick up chicks.  Despite all of that it "lived up to the call."  For every station in the group, it was scheduled 1999-Fall.  Miami grew old and the show had to move, out to Los Angeles for more shake and groove.  Jennifer left the show as she couldn't stand Daniel, to flip cards for the next new show USAB was going to panhandle.

Strip Poker went on and boy it did impress, even going to USA Cable no less.  It showed young guys and girls playing a game, that actually showed we had no shame.  The game was played almost like at home, making people sigh and moan.  To compress time one minor change was made... the deuces through eights were given the spade.  Although all the clothes never totally came off, the viewers at home surely didn't scoff.

10 PM brought us the last of our programming joys.  The last of CityVision's original ploys.  A 30 minute sportscast of network caliber, but the first two hosts seemed like Rodney Dangerfield (Chris McWatt) and Gallagher (Kathleen Murphy.)  It wasn't long after the Heat returned from a lock out, that Sportstown needed anchors with skills and some clout.  Jeff Tavss (the Executive Producer) obtained ESPN's Mark Jones, whose rappin'-and-rhymin' was a hit with the folks.  He needed a partner, but one with some Emmies, so from Phoenix came Brad Steinke to remove the raspberries.  But what would happen if one should not appear, they brought along Tim Ring to avoid such a fear.  Dave Benz joined in as a reporter from there, who progressed to an anchor with a charismatic flare.  "The Home of the Home Teams" was their slogan to fame, but the post-Series Marlins proved much of a shame.  SportsCenter it wasn't, and it would never be... this was a show with its own identity.  South Florida sports were moving in Dolphin Cheerleader leaps-and-bounds, with two new arenas and more divisional crowns.  This would be why it's the last thing to go.  Damn good people, and a damn good show.  As the end came near the people left... Mark Jones and Tim Ring gave it up, but not enough said.  July 12, 2001 was the last show, with not enough people left to keep all systems go.  Tim came back to say his final farewells, a day before we dismantled the shell.  It was a finale that we'll never forget, leaving us all with sorrow and regret.  With this all of our original shows came to an end, to which we must say goodbye to our friends.  This was the longest lasting show out of all WAMI had stacked, and now it is gone... the "CityVision" fades to black.

Midnights had a sordid affair, with Kenneth's Freakquency hitting the air.  It had an assortment of weirdos and freaks, and the occasional one or two pencil-necked geeks.  If it was in Miami, they said this is it... its final show aired a horse taking a shit.  Keeping it real for all to see, even appealed to a guy like me.  It had 3 runs, probably too much for the masses, but it would have done better on cheap cable access.  The shows had hosts that were rather strange... each night was themed, though poorly arranaged.  One night we'd have goths, the next would be gays; we had some with porno, and some left you in dismay.  The best part about it was you wouldn't know what was next, the patterns we had made left a PR mess.  The show was too underground for the mainstream to catch on, USAB though it would be best if we just moved along.

Of course we had shows that filled in the gaps... occasional black holes and episodes of M*A*S*H.  Roseanne and A-Team sucked up more of our cash, and who could forget Knight Rider, a flash from the past.  If all of this seemed run of the mill, don't forget several showings of Married with Children, Hawaii Five-O and Benny Hill.  Syndication was a part of our life that flourished, and eventually what WAMI's budgets continued to encourage.  Keeping it live for 12 hours a day, continued to put finances in dismay.  As shows got bumped off, one-by-one, syndication came and it finally won.  We launched 3 other stations from this model that "worked," but when things totaled up, they all got jerked.

Univision came to seal a $1.1 billion deal, to which TELEFUTURA is the reason this story is revealed.  Many of us hate to see these ships go down, but we soon came to realize, the ratings were down.  USA Networks, Inc. wanted to divest, and USA Broadcasting was just one of its units making up all of the rest.  As we later found out, the remaining entertainment units would be sold to Vivendi Universal anyway, and all $10.3 billion worth of them under Barry Diller would be sold away.  So on January 3, 2002 at 6PM, the plug was pulled, Univision brought USA Broadcasting to its end.

May the WAMI and USA Broadcasting names and memories live forever...

Authored by: Donald A. Hansen, Jr.

WAMI-TV and  USA Broadcasting Productions

USA Broadcasting Group Promotions Engineering

Tricia Laine Porter - Producer and Editor

Calder "Mr. Awesome" Sloan - Son of Promotions SVP

Gilbert Stafford - "Kenneth's Freakquency" Host

Freddy Valderamma - Studio Audio Engineer / A1

Brian Dennehy - "Arrest & Trial" Host

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