WTLF
Encyclopedia
WTLF is the CW
-affiliated television station
for Southwestern
Georgia
and Tallahassee, Florida
. The station broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter at its studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida
. WTLF can also be seen on Mediacom
channel 2 and Comcast
channel 6. Owned by MPS Media, it is operated through a local marketing agreement
(LMA) by New Age Media, LLC as sister station to Fox
affiliate WTLH
(the two share studios).
Although it is a full-powered outlet, all programming on the station is provided through The CW Plus
. Like all stations with the service in the Eastern Time Zone
, WTLF offers the nationally syndicated
morning show The Daily Buzz
on weekdays from 6 until 9. Although its broadcasts a digital signal of its own, the station can also be seen in standard definition on WTLH's second digital subchannel
. This airs on UHF channel 49.2 from a transmitter in Metcalf, Georgia
near the Florida
state line.
affiliate WFXU
. 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, it was owned by KB Prime Media but operated by Pegasus Communications (owner of WFXU and WTLH) 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. Prior to this, The WB was carried on a cable-exclusive station ("WBXT") which was operated and promoted by ABC
affiliate WTXL-TV
in partnership with The WB 100+.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the "W"arner Bros.
unit of Time Warner
. 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. It was also created to compete against The CW.
It was announced on April 24 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 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. 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.
Meanwhile, WFXU was eventually sold to Budd Broadcasting and became a separate outlet leaving WTLF and WTLH-DT2 as Tallahassee's CW affiliate. The station cannot be seen on Mediacom in Thomasville, Georgia
due to the presence of fellow CW Plus affiliate "WBSK". At some point in time after being a cable-only station, it had promotional and advertising duties taken over by CBS affiliate WSWG
in Valdosta, Georgia
. "WBSK" was also added to a new third digital subchannel of the over-the-air outlet to offer more access to The CW. Although technically serving as the network's Albany, Georgia
affiliate, "WBSK" on WSWG-DT3 has a coverage area overlapping with WTLF.
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Southwestern
Southwest Georgia
Southwest Georgia is a thirteen-county region in the U.S. state of Georgia. A common acronym used is SOWEGA.The largest city is Albany. Counties include Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, and Worth.In 1995, 25% of the...
Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...
. The station broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter at its studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida
Midway, Florida
Midway is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Florida:*Midway, Gadsden County, Florida*Midway, Santa Rosa County, Florida*Midway, Seminole County, Florida...
. WTLF can also be seen on Mediacom
Mediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
channel 2 and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 6. Owned by MPS Media, it is operated through a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LMA) by New Age Media, LLC as sister station to Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate WTLH
WTLH
WTLH is the Fox-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida, in the United States. Licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter in Metcalf, Georgia near the Florida state line. The station...
(the two share studios).
Although it is a full-powered outlet, all programming on the station is provided through The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....
. Like all stations with the service in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, WTLF offers the nationally syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
on weekdays from 6 until 9. Although its broadcasts a digital signal of its own, the station can also be seen in standard definition on WTLH's second digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
. This airs on UHF channel 49.2 from a transmitter in Metcalf, Georgia
Metcalf, Georgia
Metcalf is a small village in southwestern Georgia. Near Metcalf there is the WCTV Tower, the tallest structure in Georgia. A lumberyard is located on the main highway. There are two churches located in Metcalf, Friendship Baptist and Metcalf Methodist Church. Friendship Baptist is one of the...
near the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
state line.
History
It began broadcasting operations on May 7, 2003 as a full-time satellite of UPNUPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate WFXU
WFXU
WFXU is a television station serving southwest Georgia and the Tallahassee, Florida area, licensed to Live Oak, Florida. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter in Hamilton County, Florida, between Jasper and Jennings...
. Although that station had become Tallahassee's UPN affiliate a year earlier, its signal was not nearly strong enough to cover the entire market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to sign-on as a digital-only station with no analog counterpart. Originally, it was owned by KB Prime Media but operated by Pegasus Communications (owner of WFXU and WTLH) under a local marketing agreement.
Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
(co-owned with Fox by News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
) over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
service to rural areas. On April 1, 2005, WFXU/WTLF switched to The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
through The WB 100+
The WB 100+ Station Group
The WB 100+ Station Group was a group of primarily non-broadcast local cable television outlets for The WB Television Network, for markets below the top 100 television media markets in the United States. Dayparts with no WB programming were programmed by the network...
. As a result, UPN promptly signed with WCTV
WCTV
WCTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for southwest Georgia and Tallahassee, Florida that is licensed to Thomasville, Georgia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter in Metcalf along the Georgia and Florida state line. This is 609.6 meters high...
which launched a new second subchannel to carry the network. Prior to this, The WB was carried on a cable-exclusive station ("WBXT") which was operated and promoted by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate WTXL-TV
WTXL-TV
WTXL-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Tallahassee, Florida. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a transmitter northwest of Monticello, Florida along the state line with Georgia. It can also be seen on Charter channel 3 as well as Mediacom and Comcast...
in partnership with The WB 100+.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the "W"arner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
. 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. It was also created to compete against The CW.
It was announced on April 24 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 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
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
for $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
55.5 million. 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.
Meanwhile, WFXU was eventually sold to Budd Broadcasting and became a separate outlet leaving WTLF and WTLH-DT2 as Tallahassee's CW affiliate. The station cannot be seen on Mediacom in Thomasville, Georgia
Thomasville, Georgia
Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The city is the second largest in Southwest Georgia after Albany.The city deems itself the City of Roses and holds an annual Rose Festival. The town features plantations open to the public, a historic downtown, a large...
due to the presence of fellow CW Plus affiliate "WBSK". At some point in time after being a cable-only station, it had promotional and advertising duties taken over by CBS affiliate WSWG
WSWG
WSWG is the CBS-affiliated television station for Southwestern Georgia, licensed to Valdosta. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter northeast of Adel in Cook County. The station can also be seen on Mediacom channel 6 and in high definition on digital...
in Valdosta, Georgia
Valdosta, Georgia
Valdosta is the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 54,518. The Valdosta metropolitan area, according to the 2010 estimate, has a population of 139,588...
. "WBSK" was also added to a new third digital subchannel of the over-the-air outlet to offer more access to The CW. Although technically serving as the network's Albany, Georgia
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
affiliate, "WBSK" on WSWG-DT3 has a coverage area overlapping with WTLF.