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WSFL-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WSFL-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Miami / Fort Lauderdale, Florida | |
| Branding | CW South Florida |
| Channels | Analog: 39 (UHF) Digital: 19 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | Tribune Broadcasting (Channel 39, Inc.) |
| Founded | October 16, 1982 |
| Call letters meaning | South FLorida |
| Former callsigns | WDZL (1982-1998) WBZL (1998-2006) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1982-1995) The WB (1995-2006) The Tube (2006-07 on DT2) |
| Transmitter Power | 5,000 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 276 m (analog) 239 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 10203 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | cwsfl.trb.com |
WSFL-TV is the CW-affiliated television station for South Florida. Licensed to Miami, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 39 and a digital signal on UHF channel 19. WSFL's transmitter is located in Miramar. The station is owned by Tribune Broadcasting and has studios that are located on Lee Street in Hollywood. WSFL is known on-air as "CW South Florida".
In addition to KSWB from San Diego (CA), WSFL is carried nationwide by DirecTV and Dish Network systems in markets that lack local CW affiliates. This feed is not to be confused with a custom feed of the CW that has been shown on DirecTV channel 385 since the start of 2007. Channel 385 appears to contain some WSFL programming such as Atlantic Coast Conference basketball but it does not have any newscasts and more closely resembles The CW Plus.
Along with Comcast cable, WSFL can be seen on DirecTV channel 39 and Dish Network channel 8834. The station aired The Tube on its DT2 digital subchannel and Comcast digital cable channel 224 until October 1, 2007, when the network closed. In addition to CW primetime, the station airs off-network sitcoms and cartoons from Kids' WB. There are also first run syndicated talk, court, and reality shows.
Channel 39 signed on as WDZL-TV on October 16, 1982. It was owned by Channel 39 Broadcasting Ltd. As an independent station, it aired a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons, off-network dramas, old movies, a few old off-network sitcoms, and religious shows. Michael Finkelstein of "Odyssey Partners", who owned WTXX in Waterbury, Connecticut, owned an interest in WDZL.
In 1984, WBFS-TV (owned by Grant Broadcasting System II) signed on with a stronger general entertainment lineup and surpassed WDZL in the ratings immediately. Still, WDZL was profitable especially with the huge amount of barter cartoons available to the station.
WDZL was still running shows other stations passed up until the wave of affiliation switches in 1989. By then, the station was owned by Renaissance Communications which was also headed by Michael Finkelstein. When WCIX (now WFOR-TV) was sold to CBS and dropped most of its syndicated shows, FOX programming moved to WSVN. The rest of the programming dropped from WCIX moved to WDZL.
By the early-1990s, WDZL had become a far stronger independent station. It acquired FOX Kids programming from WSVN in 1993. WDZL became a charter WB affiliate on January 11, 1995.
In 1997, the Tribune Company acquired the six television station group that was owned by Renaissance Communications. Kids' WB programming on WDZL expanded to 3 hours on weekdays and the station dropped FOX Kids (which moved to Home Shopping Network station WYHS (now WAMI).
WDZL changed its call letters to WBZL in 1998 to emphasize its affiliation with The WB. By then, WBZL began airing more first-run talk and reality shows during the day along with children programming and off-network sitcoms in the evenings. By 2005, it was the only remaining station to run children's shows weekday afternoons with Kids' WB (a practice which ended on January 6, 2006).
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced they would end broadcasting and merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its soon-to-be corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister 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.
Tribune announced that most of its WB affiliates, including WBZL, would become affiliated with The CW.
On May 1, 2006, CBS initially announced that WBFS, along with its Boston sister station WSBK-TV, would not seek affiliation with MyNetworkTV. It is believed that CBS's initial decision to deny its larger UPN stations MyNetworkTV affiliation was in retaliation against FOX for refusing to affiliate any of their UPN affiliates with The CW. However, on July 12, it was announced that WBFS would become the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate.
Throughout the summer, WBZL started using their CW logo for local television ads and also began referring to itself as "CW South Florida". WBFS began broadcasting MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006.
On September 17, 2006, WBZL changed its call letters to the current WSFL-TV to remove the reference to the no-longer-existent WB in its calls and genericize them to its geographic location. The next day, The CW debuted on WSFL.
The area's NBC affiliate WTVJ, along with the Sun-Sentinel, produce a daily 10 PM newscast for WSFL called CW News at 10. WTVJ produces the newscast from a separate news set at its facilities. Although WSFL's website features news video from WSFL newscasts, Sun-Sentinel online does as well. The WTVJ production on WSFL is a similar operation to: WCAU (NBC) and WPHL-TV (MyNetworkTV) in Philadelphia as well as KNSD (NBC) and KSWB (The CW) in San Diego.
In addition, WSFL airs a local public affairs program called South Florida Voices on Sundays at 6 AM. The show is hosted by Deborah Ally.
Weekdays
- Anchor:
- Julia Yarbough
- Weather:
- Paul Deanno
- Sports:
- Joe Rose
Weekends
- Anchor:
- Joel Connable
- Weather:
- John Gerard
- Sports:
- Andrea Brode
WSFL uses additional news personnel from WTVJ. See that article for a complete listing.
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Miami-Dade / Fort Lauderdale, Florida stations Local television stations In Key West Local digital television channels |
| See also: Broadcast television stations in West Palm Beach and Bahamas |
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WJHG-DT 7.2 (Panama City) - WCWJ 17 (Jacksonville) - WKCF 18 (Clermont) - WCJB-DT 20.2 (Gainesville) - WTVX 34 (Fort Pierce) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida |
