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WYLE (TV)

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WYLE was a commercial television station in Florence, Alabama, broadcasting locally on UHF channel 26. The station was founded January 11, 1982 and went silent on February 8, 2007 due to financial difficulties. ETC Communications Inc.'s license to operate the station was canceled by the Federal Communications Commission on March 12, 2009 due to failure to transmit for a period of twelve consecutive months.[1]

History

The FCC granted a construction permit to Alabama Management Company on January 11, 1982, to build a full-service television station to serve Florence, Alabama on UHF channel 26. Originally given the call sign WTUK, it changed to WTRT in December 1985. On April 19, 1986, the station began broadcasting and was licensed November 24, 1986. Alabama Management Company sold the station to Bridgerland Television on December 1, 1988.

By 1993, the station was in financial trouble. ETC Communications Inc. bought the station out of bankruptcy on June 11, 1993 and changed its call sign to WYLE two weeks later, but being a small operation, ETC Communications was never able to steer the station away from financial danger. For a brief time in the mid '90s, it became an affiliate of The WB Television Network. WYLE was granted a permit to build digital television facilities on UHF channel 20 on December 11, 2001, but was forced to seek several extensions of its permit due to financial hardship and inability to secure financing.[2] The digital facilities were never built.

In 2005, the combination of losing their primary prime-time programming and the death of Lester White, president and CEO of ETC Communications, left the station in severe financial distress, and it was forced to go silent February 8, 2007.[3]

Unable to find an out-of-market buyer, ETC Communications sought to sell the station to the owners of WHDF, seeking a waiver of the rule which prohibited duopolies in a market with fewer than eight owners. The FCC denied the waiver. Despite broadcasting a 24-hour test signal beginning February 3, 2008, to avoid being silent for twelve consecutive months, the FCC ruled that the test signal was insufficient, and canceled the station's license and all outstanding applications and permits on March 12, 2009.[1][4] The loss of license and the fact WYLE never put out a digital signal on Channel 20, is the reason WHNT was allowed to move its digital broadcasts back to Channel 19 after the analog shutdown.

References

  1. ^ a b "Cancellation Notice" (PDF). FCC. 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  2. ^ "Form FCC 337". FCC CDBS database. March 1, 2002. Retrieved March 12, 2009.
  3. ^ "Request for Waiver of Local Television Ownership (Duopoly) Rule". FCC CDBS database. 2007-08-02. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  4. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/189860-FCC_Yanks_Station_License.php?rssid=20065
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