Due to financial issues, the station was forced to go dark on December 27, 1974. Nine months later, on September 28, 1975, WBTB-TV returned to the air and became the first "specialty station" as defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with niche programming—featuring daily reports and updates from the New York financial exchanges. When the stock markets were closed, channel 68 offered shows such as the "Grand Ole Opry" during the late afternoon hours, a locally-produced variety series called "The Uncle Floyd Show" hosted by Floyd Vivino, and Christian programming hosted by Keith Hauser at night. Saturdays featured various ethnic programs, as well as religious programming during the day on Sunday and on weekday mornings before the stock market opened. In 1976 Wometco Enterprises, the founding and longtime owners of WTVJ in Miami, purchased the station originally with the intent of making it more of a general entertainment station, and changed the station's callsign to WTVG in 1977. WTVG acquired the rights to some programs such as "Lassie", "Mister Ed", "Green Acres" and "Speed Racer". However, due to high program costs in the New York City market, and the presence of six existing commercial VHF stations—including then-independents WNEW-TV (channel 5, now WNYW), WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR-TV), and WPIX (channel 11)—WTVG was at too much of a disadvantage to grow into a major player. In the fall of 1977, Wometco launched a national over-the-air subscription television service called Wometco Home Theater, and opted to use WTVG as its flagship station. On July 16, 1979, the station's calls were changed to WWHT to match the program service. Viewers who subscribed to WHT were given set-top converter boxes which descrambled the channel 68 signal. In a twist of irony, the converter boxes were manufactured by Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, thus fulfilling their original ambitions for the station they launched only three years earlier. By 1980, WWHT's program lineup consisted of a mixture of religious shows](such as "The PTL Club") during mornings and middays and general entertainment programs (including a one-hour business news show) in late afternoon and early evenings. WHT programming aired during late mornings, primetime and late nights. On weekends, the station ran children's, religious and ethnic brokered programs, with the subscription service beginning in late afternoons.