WNJU-TV signed on the air on May 16, 1965 as the first commercial UHF station in the New York television market (WNYC-TV was the first UHF station to sign on the air in 1961, but it was operated as a non-commercial educational station for its first 35 years of existence despite having a commercial license). The station originally broadcast from the Mosque Theater (now Newark Symphony Hall), located at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, in the former studios of WATV (channel 13). The station was owned by Henry Becton (son of Maxwell Becton, co-founder of Becton Dickinson) and Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. (son of Fairleigh S. Dickinson Sr., founder of Fairleigh Dickinson University and also the co-founder of Becton Dickinson). The general manager during WNJU's early years was pioneering UHF broadcaster Edwin Cooperstein. The station's initial schedule featured a mix of English, Asian, Spanish and Italian shows. During the mid-1960s, the station broadcast a live and locally produced teenage dance show called "Disc-O-Teen", hosted by John Zacherle; and a folk music program, "Rainbow Quest", hosted by Pete Seeger. WNJU was involved in some controversy when it aired bullfights, which some critics believed were too violent. The station was not profitable due to the lack of awareness of UHF stations in the New York metropolitan area. The market had seven VHF stations, six of which were commercial, at a time when most cities had an average of three commercial stations. WNJU already had two strikes against it, and served minority audiences with mostly brokered programming.