case SelecTV. Miami STV was granted a construction permit in July 1980, with the FCC turning down an application for a high-power satellite of WCIX in the process, and the owners proposed a hybrid service of ad-supported and subscription programs, similar to what WKID-TV was already broadcasting on channel 51. The call letters WBFS-TV were assigned under Block in January 1983, but no other activity took place until later in the year when The Shlenker Group, which owned KTXH in Houston and KTXA in Fort Worth, Texas, filed to buy a majority stake in the unbuilt station from Miami STV for $46,250. Shlenker would finance construction; in exchange, plans for STV operation would be dropped. At the end of 1983, the WCIX channel 33 translator was shut down. From the new Guy Gannett tower adjacent to US 441, WBFS-TV began broadcasting on December 9, 1984. It operated from studios on Northwest 52nd Avenue in Miami Gardens, converting a former Beck's brewery. By the time it went on the air, investment had turned over: Milt Grant, a stockholder in the Shlenker Group, had become the outright owner, and WBFS-TV's sign-on heralded the start of the Grant Broadcasting System of independent stations. Unlike most stations, WBFS-TV was not heavily reliant on movies in prime time. Grant, an aggressive buyer of syndicated programming sometimes years in advance, brought this style to the Miami market. The station promoted its maximum-power signal of 5 million watts, enough to reach into West Palm Beach, with slick imaging and the slogan "Florida's Super Station". The marketing blitz for WBFS's launch was said to have cost $2 million over 60 days. The station also aired Miami Hurricanes football and men's basketball. Grant bankruptcy and Combined ownership The Grant Broadcasting System sold the Dallas and Houston stations in early 1985 and expanded to new startup independents in two larger markets, Philadelphia (WGBS-TV) and Chicago (WGBO-TV). By March 1986, WBFS had tied WCIX as the top independent station in South Florida. However, the new stations and WBFS-TV had to grapple with their high promotional expenses and rapidly rising programming costs. The other Miami stations saw Grant's strategy coming and matched his bids, blunting the impact of his spending. Equally importantly, the Grant-Shlenker group was highly leveraged and ill-prepared for a slowdown in advertising. Syndicators began to come calling at a group that did not have the resources to pay. Programs