.svg) | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Florence, Alabama |
| Channels | |
| Branding | North Alabama's CW 15;News 19 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WHNT-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | October 28, 1957 (68 years ago) (1957-10-28) |
Former call signs | WOWL-TV (1957–1999) |
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning | Huntsville, Decatur, Florence[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 65128 |
| ERP | 21kW |
| HAAT | 431 m (1,414 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°0′9″N87°8′9″W / 35.00250°N 87.13583°W /35.00250; -87.13583 |
| Translator(s) | WHNT-TV 19.2 Huntsville[3][4] |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | whnt |
WHDF (channel 15) is atelevision station licensed toFlorence, Alabama, United States, serving as theCW outlet for theHuntsville area. It isowned and operated by network majority ownerNexstar Media Group alongsideCBS affiliateWHNT-TV (channel 19). The two stations share studios on Holmes Avenue Northwest in downtown Huntsville; WHDF's transmitter is located southeast ofMinor Hill, Tennessee.
In addition to its own digital signal, WHDF issimulcast in720phigh definition on WHNT-TV's second digital subchannel (19.2) from a transmitter onMonte Sano Mountain.[3][4]
The station began on October 28, 1957, as WOWL-TV, based in Florence. The station was owned by Richard "Dick" Biddle's TV Muscle Shoals, Inc.[5] Up until late 1999, that station broadcastNBC programs to northwesternAlabama and portions of southern middleTennessee and northeasternMississippi; it also carried some popular CBS shows like thesoap operaAs the World Turns.
WOWL-TV always faced competing NBC affiliates in Huntsville–Decatur (in later yearsWAFF, channel 48) or evenTupelo (WTVA), whose signals reached much of its broadcast area. However, it retained viewership in northwest Alabama (Florence,Sheffield,Muscle Shoals,Tuscumbia and areas known as "The Shoals" in recent times and referred to as "The Quad Cities" years ago) by offering local newscasts, which for most of the station's 40-plus years were the only newscasts concerned specifically with northwestern Alabama. Over time, though, with the Huntsville stations, especially WAFF, expanding news bureaus of their own into the Shoals in the 1980s and 1990s, WOWL-TV lost much of its traditional advantage.
By the late 1990s, this duplication had progressed to the point that the station could no longer focus solely on northwest Alabama and remain viable. The owners opted to sell to outside interests, who dropped NBC in favor ofUPN in the fall of 1999, making WAFF the sole NBC outlet in north Alabama. Shortly before that, on July 19, the call letters were changed to the current WHDF, with a move of the transmitter and tower toGiles County, Tennessee. The new tower transmitted from a location high enough to provide a coverage area comparable to the other north Alabama stations, while remaining within 15 miles (24 km) of Florence as required by FCC regulations.
During the early 2000s, Viacom owned 17.5% of the station.
In 2004,Lockwood Broadcast Group acquired WHDF. Lockwood provided content delivery and back-office function from the company's headquarters in Virginia. Completed in 2007, the "hub" facility has remotely operated WHDF since that year.[6]
In September 2006, both UPN andThe WB ceased operations. A single new network,The CW, replaced those two struggling entities. WHDF, the UPN affiliate, was granted the northern Alabama affiliation rights for the new network earlier that year, and rebranded as The Valley's CW at midnight on July 27, 2006. (The former WB affiliate, meanwhile, became WAMY-TV, affiliated withMyNetworkTV.)
Local employees at WHDF's Florence and Huntsville facilities totaled fewer than ten, according toCensus business statistics in2010.
On July 15, 2018, Lockwood Broadcast Group reached an agreement to sell WHDF toNexstar Media Group for $2.25 million; Nexstar concurrently took over the station's operations through atime brokerage agreement.[7] The sale was completed on November 9,[8] creating aduopoly withFox affiliateWZDX (channel 54).
Only 24 days after the acquisition of WHDF by Nexstar closed, on December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets ofChicago-basedTribune Media—which has owned CBS affiliate WHNT-TV since December 2013—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. As Nexstar already owned WHDF and WZDX, the company agreed on March 20, 2019, to divest WZDX toTegna Inc. as part of a series of transactions with multiple companies that totaled $1.32 billion.[9][10] (As WHDF does not rank among the top four in total-day viewership and therefore is not in conflict with existing FCC in-market ownership rules, it was retained by Nexstar, thus creating a new duopoly with WHNT.) The sale was completed on September 19, 2019.[11]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WHDF-DT | The CW |
| 15.2 | 480i | CourtTV | Court TV | |
| 15.3 | Rewind | Rewind TV | ||
| 15.4 | Charge | Charge! |
WHDF shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 15, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[13] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14, usingvirtual channel 15.[14]
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Alabama | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Tennessee | ||
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** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
