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| Channels |
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| Branding | My TV 8 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Defunct |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Comcast |
| History | |
| Founded | January 11, 1995 (30 years ago) (1995-01-11) |
Last air date | July 2015 (9 years ago) (2015-7) |
Former call signs | "WSWF" (1995–1998) WEVU-LP (official, 1998–2004) |
Former channel number(s) | cable channel 10 (1995–1998) |
| The WB (1995–1998) UPN (1998–2006) Jewelry Television (overnights) MyNetworkTV (2006–2015) This TV (2009?–2015) | |
Call sign meaning | Naples/Fort Myers |
"WNFM" was acable channel servingFort Myers andNaples, Florida, United States, affiliated withMyNetworkTV. Thecall sign is fictional as the channel was notlicensed by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC). It was broadcast exclusively onComcast channel 8 (hence theMy TV 8 branding) and was operated from Comcast'sSouthwest Florida headquarters south ofNaples Manor on Tower Road alongSR 951/Collier Boulevard. WNFM was the largest cable-only MyNetworkTV affiliate.
This channel began on January 11, 1995 as aWB affiliate. It aired exclusively onMediaOne channel 10 (then Southwest Florida's cable provider) and was not available over-the-air. It used the fictional call letters "WSWF" (for Southwest Florida) and was branded as "WB 10". In March 1998, WSWF switched affiliations with WTVK (nowWXCW) and became aUPN affiliate.
However, anyone in themarket that did not have cable could not get "TV 10" as it was later called, so UPN made an affiliation deal withlow-poweredWEVU-LP which would allow for additional coverage over-the-air. Several months later, WEVU owner Caloosa Television made a deal with MediaOne to have the cable system take over programming of the off-air station on analogVHF channel 7.
MediaOne then discarded the faux WSWF call letters in favor of WEVU-LP (already in use officially as assigned by the FCC) and adopted the on-air moniker "UPN 8" after changing its cable channel to that location (previously used by over-the-air WEVU). MediaOne replaced the over-the-air station's non-network programming with its own thus unifying the UPN affiliates in the market. During this period, the network could also be seen in Naples on low-powered WBSP-LP on VHF channel 9 because thistranslator repeated WEVU-LP's weak signal to the market's southern locations.
The working relationship lasted until midnight on September 1, 2004 shortly afterHolston Valley Broadcasting (then owner of over-the-air WEVU-LP) struck a deal for carriage of the station onDirecTV. However, this forced VHF channel 7 to seek UPN programming via microwave from UPNowned-and-operated stationWTOG inSt. Petersburg, Florida. Eventually, Comcast merged with MediaOne and took over as the area's cable provider. The company continued to operate the UPN affiliate on cable channel 8 which resumed using fictional call letters, "WNFM".
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the merger of the two networks into the new networkThe CW in September 2006. On March 9,ACME Communications announced all of its WB stations (including WTVK) would affiliate with The CW, an effectively default decision as thegroup's CEO was a former WB executive. WNFM was unlikely to have any chance at a CW affiliation even without ACME's connections, as the network looked to have over-the-air carriage the cable channel would never have. WNFM would not confirm its affiliation with the competingFox Television Stations-ownedMyNetworkTV until August 10. At the network's inception on September 5, WNFM changed its branding to "My TV 8" and Comcast debuted a new website for the station featuring a new logo. At one point, WNFM was the official "broadcast" home of theFlorida Everbladesice hockey team, airing every Saturday night home game.
As time went on and MyNetworkTV went from a full network to a programming service in the fall of 2009, Comcast began to reduce the syndicated programming on the station. By 2013, WNFM was effectively a near full-day affiliate ofThis TV, while continuing to carry MyNetworkTV's programming in prime time. As both programming agreements ended, Comcast quietly took WNFM off the air by the start of July 2015.[1] MyNetworkTV would not return to southwest Florida until March 2019, whenWINK-TV picked up the network for its second subchannel associated withAntenna TV.
At one point as a UPN affiliate, WNFM aired an hour-long lifestyle/entertainment magazine program calledD'Latinos Morning News inSpanish on weekday mornings from 7 until 8. Eventually, the show moved to low-poweredAzteca América affiliateWTPH-LP. In late-August 2006 through a news share agreement,ABC affiliateWZVN-TV began producing a nightly half-hour prime time newscast calledABC 7 Gulfshore News at 10 on My TV 8. This was the second show established in the time slot behind long dominant Fox affiliateWFTX-TV. Since WZVN shares a news department withNBC affiliateWBBH-TV, some personalities seen on that station were also seen on the WNFM broadcast.
On March 26, 2007, CBS affiliateWINK-TV began airing a 10pm newscast on WXCW only a few weeks after WINK entered into a shared services agreement with WXCW's new owner. Within mere days, it leapfroggedGulfshore News at 10 and became competitive with WFTX in a manner WNFM's newscast could not. The show was quietly discontinued at the end of the 2006-07 television season on May 25, 2007.
