The station began operating in 2005. In January of that year, after Equity Media Holdings's purchase of channel 13, the station was re-called WUMN-LP, to reflect its new Univision affiliation.[2] Under Equity ownership, all of the station's operations were controlled from Equity's hub in Little Rock, Arkansas, with only engineering staff in the area and no local programming outside of some reporters contributing local stories to a newscast anchored from the Little Rock hub by Independent Network News.
WUMN was sold to SP Television on June 2, 2009, in Equity's bankruptcy auction. The sale closed on August 17, 2009.[3] SP Television reached a deal to sell WUMN to Media Vista Group on December 21, 2012.[4]
On October 29, 2013, WUMN was granted a construction permit by the FCC to transition its broadcast signal to digital on UHF channel 17, formerly occupied by the analog signal of KTCI.[2] At the time, WUMN was the last television station broadcasting an analog signal in the Twin Cities market. Despite Twin Cities Public Television nominally being able to hold on to virtual channel 17, they instead chose to utilize KTCI as an extension of KTCA, and also number its stations as subchannels of channel 2. This allowed WUMN-LD the use of channel 17 as their new virtual channel number. In early November 2020, WUMN moved from RF channel 17 to their new allotment on RF channel 21, displaying as 21.1.[5]
On September 18, 2023, it was announced that WUMN-LD and sister station KUKC-LD in Kansas City would be sold to Bridge Media Networks, led by investor Manoj Bhargava, for $2.25 million; the sale does not include the stations' Univision affiliations.[1] The sale was completed on March 1, 2024.[6]
News
Equity also produced Spanish-language local newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m., originating out of the company's program production center in Davenport, Iowa. On June 6, 2008, Equity discontinued local newscasts at its six Univision affiliates, including WUMN.[7] In 2009, WUMN debuted its new local show Impacto Local. Airing on a weekly basis, the program visually documents and informs the Twin Cities community on education, politics, immigration, news, sports, culture and music events.[8]
