WEVU-CA
 |
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| Fort Myers, Florida | |
|---|---|
| Channels | Analog: 51 (VHF) |
| Translators | WBSP-CA Naples (7, VHF) |
| Affiliations | defunct |
| Owner | Silver Point Capital (SP Ft. Myers LLC) |
| Founded | 1980s |
| Call letters' meaning | Former calls of WZVN-TV |
| Former callsigns | W07BR (1986-95) WBRP-LP (1995) |
| Former channel number(s) | 7 |
| Former affiliations |
Channel America (1980s-1990s) AIN (1990s) Network One (1990s) NET (1990s-1998) UPN (1998-2006) Univision (2006-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 3 kW |
| Class | Class A |
| Facility ID | 64579 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 26°38′47.0″N 81°52′6.0″W / 26.646389°N 81.868333°W |
WEVU-LP was a low-power television station in Fort Myers, Florida, broadcasting locally on channel 4. The station was last owned by Silver Point Capital; it was most recently a rebroadcaster of Univision affiliate WUVF-LP.
WEVU began in the late 1980s as W07BR channel 7; the station also maintained a repeater in Naples, W09BS channel 9. The stations were originally a part of the Channel America network. In the early 1990s, they switched to American Independent Network; a few years later, they dropped AIN for Network One. On September 1, 1995, W07BR became WBRP-LP, while W09BS became WBSP-LP. One month later, WEVU channel 26 dropped those call letters in favor of WZVN-TV. In response, Caloosa Television, the then-owners of the low-power stations, picked up the WEVU-LP calls for channel 7 on November 6, 1995. At that time, the station referred to itself as "The Real Channel 7" (this was a result of WZVN billing itself as "ABC 7" after their cable channel placement; WEVU-LP was on cable channel 8 on the Fort Myers cable system). WEVU-LP picked up National Empowerment Television some time before N1 shut down.
In March 1998, WTVK (now WXCW), at that time the UPN affiliate, dropped UPN for The WB. The original WB affiliate, cable-only "WB 10" (owned by MediaOne, now Comcast, and branded with the faux calls of "WSWF") picked up UPN. However, not everyone in the market could get "TV 10" (as it was later called), so UPN made an affiliation deal with WEVU, which would allow for wider coverage.
It wasn't until later in 1998 when Caloosa Television made a deal with MediaOne to have the cable system take over the station's programming. MediaOne dropped the faux calls of "WSWF" in favor of WEVU, and replaced WEVU-LP's non-network programming with their own, thus unifying the UPN affiliates in the market.
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