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| City | Cleveland, Tennessee |
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| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator | New Age Media, LLC viaLMA (certain services provided bySinclair Broadcast Group, outright sale pending[1]) |
| WDSI-TV,WTVC | |
| History | |
| Founded | November 12, 1985; 40 years ago (1985-11-12) |
First air date | May 25, 1987 (38 years ago) (1987-05-25) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | taken from formersisterradio station |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 72060 |
| ERP | 550 kW |
| HAAT | 306 m (1,004 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°9′38.7″N85°19′5.8″W / 35.160750°N 85.318278°W /35.160750; -85.318278 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | chattanoogacw |
WFLI-TV (channel 53) is atelevision station licensed toCleveland, Tennessee, United States, serving theChattanooga area as a dual affiliate ofThe CW andMyNetworkTV. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains alocal marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age Media, owner ofTrue Crime Network/Comet affiliateWDSI-TV (channel 61), for the provision of certain services.Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of dualABC/Fox affiliateWTVC (channel 9), provides some engineering functions for both stations under a master service agreement and also programs WFLI-TV.
WFLI-TV and WDSI-TV share studios onEast Main Street (SR 8/US 41/US 76) in Chattanooga'sHighland Park section;master control and some internal operations for the two stations are based at WTVC's facilities on Benton Drive in Chattanooga. WFLI-TV's transmitter is located onSignal Mountain in the town ofWalden.
Although parts of the Chattanooga market are in theCentral Time Zone, all schedules are listed inEastern Time.
The station signed on May 25, 1987, as anindependent co-owned withWFLI radio (1070 AM) (hence the television station call sign). It aired ananalog signal on UHF channel 53 from a transmitter inCohutta, Georgia. On January 16, 1995, WFLI joinedUPN as a charter affiliate. In 1997, the station was sold to Lambert Broadcasting, LLC. It addedThe WB in 1999 as a secondary affiliation; two years later, WFLI dropped UPN and became a full-time WB affiliate. TheMeredith Corporation acquired WFLI in 2004.
Between 2001 and 2003, the station sold late-night Saturdaypaid programming time to an independent producer, out of which eventually arose the format and style of Fuel TV (nowFox Sports 2), which went by that name on WFLI.Fox Cable Networks eventually bought the trademarks and concept of Fuel TV in 2003 to launch it as a full-fledgedcable network in July of that year, and the originalFuel TV program on WFLI ended in September 2003.[3][4]
On March 7, 2006, WFLI was announced as Chattanooga's CW affiliate at the network's launch on September 18 in the wake of the merger of The WB and UPN into The CW.[5] Meanwhile, WDSI launched a new seconddigital subchannel to serve as the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate beginning September 5. On November 26, 2007, Meredith announced the sale of WFLI to MPS Media which closed April 1, 2008.[6] Shortly thereafter, New Age Media (owner of WDSI) began operation of the station through an LMA. On May 23, 2011, WFLI signed on a new third digital subchannel of its own to offerMeTV.[7]
Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased the non-license assets of WFLI-TV and WDSI-TV from New Age Media for $1.25 million in September 2015 and began operating them under a master services agreement.[8]
On July 28, 2021, the FCC issued a Forfeiture Order stemming from a lawsuit against MPS Media. The lawsuit, filed byAT&T, alleged that MPS Media failed to negotiate for retransmission consent in good faith for the stations. Owners of other Sinclair-managed stations, such asDeerfield Media, were also named in the lawsuit. MPS was ordered to pay a fine of $512,288.[9]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53.1 | 720p | 16:9 | CW | The CW |
| 53.2 | 480i | MyTV | MyNetworkTV | |
| 53.3 | MeTV | MeTV | ||
| 53.4 | Charge! | Charge! |
WFLI-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 53, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42, usingvirtual channel 53.[11]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofTennessee | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Tennessee | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the U.S. state ofGeorgia | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Georgia | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
