| |
|---|---|
| City | Bainbridge, Georgia |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Operator | Sinclair Broadcast Group (select engineering functions viaLMA) |
| WTWC-TV,WTLF | |
| History | |
| Founded | March 21, 1985 |
First air date | February 12, 1989 (36 years ago) (1989-02-12) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | "Tallahassee" (alsoIATA airport code forTallahassee International Airport) |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 23486 |
| ERP | 560kW |
| HAAT | 600 m (1,969 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 30°40′50.3″N83°58′20.6″W / 30.680639°N 83.972389°W /30.680639; -83.972389 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
WTLH (channel 49) is atelevision station licensed toBainbridge, Georgia, United States, serving theTallahassee, Florida–Thomasville, Georgiamarket as an affiliate ofHeroes & Icons. It is owned by New Age Media, which provides certain services toCW affiliateWTLF (channel 24) under alocal marketing agreement (LMA) with MPS Media,LLC.Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of dualNBC/Fox affiliateWTWC-TV (channel 40), provides some engineering functions for both stations under a master service agreement and also programs WTLF.
WTLH, WTLF and WTWC-TV share studios on Deerlake South inunincorporatedLeon County, Florida, northwest ofBradfordville (with a Tallahasseepostal address); WTLH's transmitter is located in unincorporatedThomas County, Georgia, southeast ofMetcalf, along the Florida state line.
WTLH began on February 12, 1989, airing ananalog signal on UHF channel 49; the station immediately became Tallahassee's Fox affiliate. Originally owned by New South Television, it was put into receivership due to owner Timothy Brumlik's arrest on money-laundering charges. In 1990, it was sold to Paul Lansat ofSinger Island, Florida. In 1994, the station was sold to Pegasus Broadcasting. On June 15, 1998,WFXU inLive Oak, Florida was established as a full-timesatellite of WTLH in order to improve its coverage on the eastern side of themarket. Since Tallahassee did not have enough stations to legally permit aduopoly, WFXU was technically owned by L.O. Telecast but operated by Pegasus through a local marketing agreement.
That station was sold to KB Prime Media in 1999 and became wholly owned by Pegasus in 2002. The sale was ultimately approved because the company helped fund WFXU's construction.[3][4] In April of that year, WFXU became a separate station after becoming the area's firstUPN affiliate. Since its signal was not nearly strong enough to cover the entire market, WTLF in Tallahassee was established as a full-time satellite. That station was one of the first in the United States to sign-on as a digital-only outlet with no analog counterpart.
On January 24, 2006,The WB and UPN announced the networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents:CBS (the parent company of UPN) and theWarner Bros. unit ofTime Warner. It was made public April 24 that WTLH would create a new second digital subchannel to become Tallahassee's CW affiliate. The plan was later modified in August to make WFXU/WTLF the primary CW affiliates and have a simulcast provided on WTLH-DT2. This took effect when the network premiered on September 18, 2006.
Pegasus declaredbankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute withDirecTV (then co-owned with Fox byNews Corporation) over marketing of thedirect broadcast satellite service in rural areas. The station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC ofWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for $55.5 million.[5] Eventually, CP Media formed a new broadcasting company known as New Age Media.
The company purchased WTLH at the end of March 2007 but sold WFXU separately to Budd Broadcasting.[6] The latter dropped CW programming soon afterward leaving WTLF as Tallahassee's sole CW affiliate with the simulcast of that station continuing on WTLH-DT2. On February 17, 2009, WTLH shut-off its analog signal on UHF channel 49 and became digital-exclusive on UHF channel 50.
On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. In order to comply withFederal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, since Sinclair already owns WTWC, its partner companyCunningham Broadcasting planned to acquire the WTLH license but Sinclair was slated to operate the station (as well as WTLF, which would have been acquired by another sidecar operation,Deerfield Media) throughshared services agreements.[7][8]
On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WTLH;[9] the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of WTLH and WTLF and began operating them through amaster service agreement.[10][11] OnNew Year's Day 2015, Sinclair moved the Fox affiliation to WTWC's second subchannel. At that point, MeTV programming moved from its third digital subchannel to its main channel; the simulcast of WTLF continues on its second subchannel.
On April 30, 2018, WTLH switched toHeroes & Icons, after MeTV left to affiliate with WFXU and the seconddigital subchannel ofWCTV.[1]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | H&I | Heroes & Icons[1] |
| 49.2 | CW | The CW (WTLF) | ||
| 49.3 | 480i | Comet | Comet |