WBIF (channel 51) is areligious television station licensed toMarianna, Florida, United States, serving thePanama City area as anowned-and-operated station of theDaystar Television Network. The station's transmitter is located onSR 20 inunincorporatedYoungstown, Florida.

Founded in December 1998 and began broadcasting in September 2001, the station was originally owned byEquity Media Holdings. It started as an affiliate ofPax TV until it joinedUPN in 2004, before this, UPN programming was originally seen onWPCT from 1995 to 1998, and then UPN signed a deal withGray Television, and as a result, between 1998 and 2006,WJHG-TV in the Panama City market aired UPN programming during the overnight hours. During this period, UPN programming was also seen on Panama City–area cable services via off-market stations, includingWBFS-TV inMiami andWJTC inMobile–Pensacola.

On January 24, 2006,Time Warner andCBS announced thatThe WB and UPN would merge to form a new network,The CW. As WJHG-TV took an affiliation with both The CW andMyNetworkTV, WBIF became an owned-and-operated station of theRetro Television Network. In addition to its main programming, WBIF also showedTampa Bay Rays baseball from the Rays Television Network until the team became exclusive toFox Sports Florida.

On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity andLuken Communications (who had acquired RTN in June 2008) interrupted the programming on many RTN affiliates.^[2] As a result, Luken moved RTN operations to its headquarters inChattanooga, Tennessee, and dropped all Equity-owned affiliates, including WBIF, immediately, though Luken vowed to find a new affiliate for RTN in the area.^[3] On January 5, 2009, after a day of airing a red slide alerting viewers to the disruption of the RTN service, WBIF briefly signed off the air. Shortly thereafter, WBIF converted to aThis TV affiliation that would turn out to be temporary.

On April 16, 2009, the station was auctioned and sold to Daystar and was taken dark upon Daystar's assumption of operations to build-out the digital facilities.^[4] It returned to the air onOctober 31.

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

WBIF shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 51, and "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 51.^[6] Because it was granted an originalconstruction permit after theFCC finalized theDTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station.^[7]

According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition forbankruptcy relief underchapter 11 of thefederal bankruptcy code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval beforedigital facilities may be constructed. The station [was originally going to] ceaseanalogue broadcasting onFebruary 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remainsilent if so required by the FCC."^[8]

While theDTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity has applied for an extension of the digital construction permit in order to retain thebroadcast license until the station can be sold and digital facilities constructed by a new owner.

After completing the station's digital facilities, Daystar signed WBIF back on October 30, 2009.^[9]

• Daystar Television Network stations
• Television channels and stations established in 2001
• Television stations in Florida

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