WHDF
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WHDF is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Florence, Alabama, United States, serving Huntsville and North Alabama's Tennessee Valley. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 14 (or virtual channel 15 via PSIP) from a transmitter located southeast of Minor Hill, Tennessee, just 500 yards (457 m) north of the Alabama state line. Owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group, the station is operated by Nexstar Media Group under a time brokerage agreement. This makes it a sister station to Huntsville-licensed Fox affiliate WZDX (channel 54); an outright sale of WHDF to Nexstar is pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[1] WHDF maintains studios on Cypress Mill Road in Florence, with a sales office on Andrew Jackson Way in Huntsville's Five Points neighborhood. The station is carried on channel 6 on most cable systems in the market.
History
The station began on October 28, 1957 as WOWL-TV, based in Florence. The station was owned by Richard "Dick" Biddle. Up until late 1999, that station broadcast NBC programs to northwestern Alabama and portions of southern middle Tennessee and northeastern Mississippi; it also carried some popular CBS shows like the soap opera As the World Turns.
WOWL-TV always faced competing NBC affiliates in Huntsville/Decatur (WAFF, channel 48) or even Tupelo (WTVA), whose signals reached much of its broadcast area. However, it retained viewership in northwest Alabama (Florence, Sheffield, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia and areas known as "The Shoals" recently and referred to as "The Quad Cities" years ago) by offering local newscasts, which for most of the station's 40-plus years were the only newscasts concerned specifically with northwestern Alabama. Over time, though, with the Huntsville stations, especially WAFF, expanding news bureaus of their own into the Shoals in the 1980s and 1990s, WOWL-TV lost much of its traditional advantage.
By the late 1990s, this duplication had progressed to the point that the station could no longer focus solely on northwest Alabama and remain viable. The owners opted to sell to outside interests, who dropped NBC in favor of UPN in the fall of 1999, making WAFF the sole NBC outlet in north Alabama. Shortly before that, on July 19, the call letters were changed to the current WHDF, with a move of the transmitter and tower to Giles County, Tennessee. The new tower transmitted from a location high enough to provide a coverage area comparable to the other north Alabama stations, while remaining within 15 miles (24 km) of Florence as required by FCC regulations.
In 2004, Lockwood Broadcast Group acquired WHDF. Lockwood Broadcast Group's Broadcast Operation Service Solution provides content delivery and back-office function from Lockwood's Richmond, Virginia Operation Headquarters. Completed in 2007, the "hub" facility has remotely operated WHDF since that year.[2]
In September 2006, both UPN and The WB ceased operations. A single new network, The CW, replaced those two struggling entities. WHDF, the UPN affiliate, was granted the northern Alabama affiliation rights for the new network earlier that year, and rebranded as The Valley's CW at midnight on July 27, 2006. (The former WB affiliate, meanwhile, became WAMY-TV, affiliated with MyNetworkTV.)
Local employees at WHDF's Florence and Huntsville facilities total fewer than ten, according to Census business statistics in 2010.
On July 15, 2018, Lockwood Broadcast Group reached an agreement to sell WHDF to Nexstar Media Group for $2.25 million; Nexstar concurrently took over the station's operations through a time brokerage agreement. The sale will create a duopoly with Fox affiliate WZDX (channel 54).[1]
Digital television
Digital channel
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WHDF-DT | Main WHDF programming / The CW |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WHDF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[4] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14,[5] using PSIP to display WHDF's virtual channel as 15 on digital television receivers.
References
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
fcc-saletonexstarwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ http://www.lockwoodbroadcast.com/
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WHDF
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
- ^ CDBS Print
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