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WTLF is the CW-affiliated television station for North Florida and South Georgia. Licensed to Tallahassee, Florida, it broadcasts a 720p high definition digital signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter at its studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida. Owned by MPS Media, it is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by New Age Media as sister station to Me-TV affiliate WTLH (the two outlets share studios together).

Both of the stations, in turn, are operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group (owner of NBC affiliate WTWC-TV) through a master service agreement. WTWC maintains separate facilities on Deerlake South in unincorporated Leon County, Florida northwest of Bradfordville (with a Tallahassee postal address). Although it is a full-powered outlet, all programming is provided through The CW Plus national service except for local commercials.

Even though its broadcasts a digital signal of its own, WTLF can also be seen in standard definition on WTLH's second digital subchannel. This can be seen on UHF channel 50.2 (or virtual channel 49.2 via PSIP) from a transmitter in unincorporated Thomas County, Georgia, southeast of Metcalf, along the Florida state line.

Digital channels

Channel Video Aspect PSIP short name Programming [1]
24.1 720p 16:9 WTLF-DT The CW Tallahassee
24.2 480i 4:3 Comet Comet TV

History

It began broadcasting operations on May 7, 2003 as a full-time satellite of UPN affiliate WFXU in Live Oak, Florida. Although that station had become Tallahassee's UPN affiliate a year earlier, its signal was not nearly strong enough to cover the entire market and WTLF was intended to make up for this shortfall in coverage.

WFXU had originally been established back in 1998 as a full-time satellite of WTLH for the same reason. WTLF was one of the first stations in the United States to sign-on as a digital-only station with no analog counterpart. Originally, this station was owned by KB Prime Media but operated by Pegasus Communications (owner of WFXU and WTLH at that time) under a local marketing agreement.

Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV (co-owned with Fox by News Corporation) over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite service to rural areas. On April 1, 2005, WFXU/WTLF switched to The WB through The WB 100+. As a result, UPN promptly signed with WCTV which launched a new second subchannel to carry the network.[2] Prior to this, The WB was carried on a cable-exclusive station (with the faux calls "WBXT") which was operated and promoted by ABC affiliate WTXL-TV in partnership with The WB 100+.

On January 24, 2006, CBS and Time Warner announced that they were "merging" their UPN and WB networks to create The CW effective September 2006. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent in addition to competing against The CW.

It was announced on April 24 that WTLH would create a new second digital subchannel to become Tallahassee's CW affiliate. These plans were later modified in August to make WFXU/WTLF the primary CW affiliate with a simulcast provided on WTLH-DT2. This arrangement took effect when the network premiered on September 18 while, back on September 5, WCTV's UPN subchannel joined MyNetworkTV. The Pegasus station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for $55.5 million.[3] Eventually, CP Media formed a new media company, New Age Media. Around this time, KB Prime Media sold WTLF to Mystic Broadcast Group which in turn promptly sold it to MPS Media.[4][5] Meanwhile, WFXU was eventually sold to Budd Broadcasting and became a separate outlet leaving WTLF and WTLH-DT2 as Tallahassee's CW affiliate.[6]

On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. In order to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, since Sinclair already owns WTWC, its partner company Cunningham Broadcasting planned to acquire the WTLH license but Sinclair was slated to operate the station (as well as WTLF, which would have been acquired by another sidecar operation, Deerfield Media) through shared services agreements.[7][8]

On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WTLH;[9] the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of WTLF and WTLH and began operating them through a master service agreement.[10][11] At some point after the transaction occurred, Sinclair moved WTLH's Fox affiliation to WTWC's second subchannel. At that point, Me-TV programming moved from WTLH's third digital subchannel to its main channel; the simulcast of WTLF continues on that outlet's second subchannel.

References

  1. ^ http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WTLF#station
  2. ^ Romano, Allison (March 29, 2005). "Pegasus wins OK for Tallahassee TV pair". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  3. ^ "WDSI FOX61 Bought By CP Media, LLC". The Chattanoogan. August 9, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  4. ^ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE (1)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. June 27, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  5. ^ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE (2)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. August 26, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  6. ^ "WFXU, this Budd's for you". Television Business Report. November 28, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  7. ^ Haber, Gary (September 25, 2013). "Sinclair Broadcast Group to pay $90M for eight New Age Media TV stations". Baltimore Business Journal. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  8. ^ "Sinclair To Buy 8 New Age Stations for $90M". TVNewsCheck. September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  9. ^ Kirkpatrick, Daniel A. (October 31, 2014). "Re: New Age Media of Tallahassee License, LLC…" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  10. ^ "Sinclair Reports Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results" (PDF) (Press release). Baltimore: Sinclair Broadcast Group. November 5, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  11. ^ "Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Form 10-Q". sbgi.edgarpro.com. November 10, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
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