Renaissance Broadcasting, founded in 1982 by Michael Finkelstein, was a company that owned several UHF television stations, it was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1997. The company was headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. History Renaissance Broadcasting began operations in February 1982 under the name Odyssey Media Partners, a partnership headed by Greenwich businessman Michael Finkelstein with the purchase of WATR-TV in Waterbury, Connecticut, an NBC affiliate that was nearing disaffiliation after New Britain-based WVIT upgraded its transmitter to cover the whole state of Connecticut. For the previous five years or so, the Hartford/New Haven television market had been without a general independent station after the donation by RKO General of WHCT-TV to Pastor Ray Schoch's Faith Center in 1972. That station gradually evolved from a mix of about 15 hours a day of general entertainment and religious programming from 1973 to mostly religious shows and on the air about 8 hours a day by 1977. Dr. Eugene Scott took over Faith Center in 1975 and WHCT was only running Doctor Gene Scott programming by 1981. This left a massive hole in the market and the rise of cable television had Connecticut viewers watching independent stations from New York City and Boston; however, a hole for a locally-based independent station in the market—the largest without such a station—existed. However, the Hartford/New Haven market still had 2 NBC affiliates. When WATR-TV's affiliation with NBC expired in March 1982, the station filled that hole and took on the new calls of WTXX (now WCCT-TV), a general entertainment independent who would soon undergo their own upgrade to cover the entire state. As the only independent in the state, WTXX was an instant success and the success allowed Odyssey to sign on a second station, WDZL (now WSFL-TV) channel 39 in Miami, later that year. Unlike Connecticut, Miami had a more competitive TV market including an established VHF independent station and a wider variety of stations on the air. As a result, WDZL was profitable but not to the degree as WTXX had been. The success of WTXX and WDZL led Finkelstein and partners to expand into other markets. In 1986, the group started buying existing stations, and reincorporated Odyssey Media Partners as Renaissance Broadcasting. That year, Renaissance would buy three stations: NBC affiliate WPCQ channel 36 (now WCNC-TV) in Charlotte from Group W, and independent stations WPMT channel 43 in York/Harrisburg/Lancaster from Idaho-based Mohawk Broadcasting