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| City | High Springs, Florida |
| Channels | |
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| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator |
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| WNBW-DT,WYME-CD | |
| History | |
| Founded | June 22, 1987 |
First air date | September 20, 1997 (28 years ago) (1997-09-20) |
Former call signs | WHSF (1987–1989) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Gainesville, Florida |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 7727 |
| ERP | 300kW |
| HAAT | 288 m (945 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 29°37′47.7″N82°34′24″W / 29.629917°N 82.57333°W /29.629917; -82.57333 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | mycbs4 |
WGFL (channel 28, cable channel 4) is atelevision station licensed toHigh Springs, Florida, United States, serving theGainesville area as an affiliate ofCBS andMyNetworkTV. It is owned by New Age Media alongsidelow-power,Class AAntenna TV affiliateWYME-CD (channel 45); New Age also provides certain services toNBC affiliateWNBW-DT (channel 9) under alocal marketing agreement (LMA) with MPS Media. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by theSinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios on Northwest 80th Boulevard (alongI-75/SR 93) in Gainesville; WGFL's transmitter is located on Southwest 30th Avenue nearNewberry.
WGFL was also used to provide full-market over-the-airhigh definition digital coverage of co-owned low-poweranalog MyNetworkTV affiliateWMYG-LP (simulcast over WGFL-DT2).[3] This ended when the low-power station's license was canceled on November 18, 2015; it now operates solely as a subchannel of WGFL.
The Gainesvillemarket is located between several other Florida TV markets. In these areas, local cable systems opt instead for the affiliate for their home market instead of WGFL. This includesCharter Spectrum and Cox inOcala (part of theOrlando market) that both offerWKMG-TV. InLake City (part of theJacksonville market),Comcast Xfinity providesWJAX-TV.
WGFL signed on September 20, 1997, offering ananalog signal on UHF channel 53.[4] It originally served as theWB affiliate for the Gainesville area and was known on-air as "WB 53". The station also maintained a secondary affiliation withUPN, carrying its programming at 10 p.m. following WB's regular prime time schedule.[5]
WGFL's daytime programming mainly consisted of classicsitcomreruns along with variousreality/talk shows such asQueen Latifah. Like most WB affiliates at the time, WGFL carried the afternoonKids' WB line up along with more youth oriented sitcoms likeSister, Sister during the evenings.[6]
In May 2002, WGFL announced its intention to affiliate with theCBS network on July 15, 2002; this came about as an affiliation switch arose involving then-CBS affiliateWJXT and then-UPN affiliate WTEV (nowWJAX-TV) in Jacksonville, which led WJXT to drop CBS programming and become anindependent. Up until that point, WJXT had served as the default CBS affiliate for Gainesville because its signal offeredcity-grade coverage into the area.[7]
When the switch took place, WGFL gained the CBS affiliation and the station re-branded to "CBS 4" (preferring to go by its cable channel number on Cox systems). Now displaced, the UPN programs were moved tolate night hours on WGFL while The WB moved over to a new cable-only station branded as "WB 10" (again referring to the Cox channel assignment).[8] The UPN programming would later move from WGFL in 2004 (see§ Former translators).
The CBS affiliation also broughtFlorida Gators football as well as theNFL to the station through the network's rights to airSEC (until 2023) andAFC football games. TheSEC games have been high ratings draws especially during the Gators' national championship seasons of 2006 and 2008. WGFL also aired theFlorida Gators men's basketball team's victories in the2006 and2007 NCAA national championship games as part ofCollege Basketball on CBS Sports coverage and in the2025 NCAA national championship game as part ofNCAA March Madness coverage.
During the mid 2000s, WGFL went through a couple of ownership changes. In 2004, the station was sold to Pegasus Communications due an earliertime brokerage agreement with then-owner Budd Broadcasting[9] A short time later, WGFL would become part of New Age Media after Pegasus filed for bankruptcy in 2005.[10]
On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WGFL and WMYG-LP, to theSinclair Broadcast Group. Concurrently, sister station WNBW-DT was slated to be sold toCunningham Broadcasting and was to continue to be operated by WGFL.[11][12] On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WGFL;[13] the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of the stations it planned to buy from New Age Media and began operating them through a master service agreement.[14][15]
After WGFL's acquisition by Sinclair, the station retired its 12 year old "CBS 4" logo in April 2016 and replaced it with a simplified logo identical to sister stationKDBC-TV inEl Paso, Texas.
In 2002, WGFL aired a weekly sports-oriented show on Friday evenings calledSports Showdown. The show mainly focused on theGator sports teams and was originally hosted by Larry Vettel with formerGainesville Sun sports columnist Pat Dooley.[16]
When the station became a CBS affiliate in 2002, there were plans to start a local news operation as early as the fall of that year.[17] In 2003, WGFL reached an agreement to simulcast the noon, 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts from fellow CBS affiliate WTEV in Jacksonville, beginning that November.[18] While WTEV's newscasts focused on the Jacksonville area, they did cover Gainesville during Gator football season or major news events. After a few years, WGFL quietly dropped the WTEV simulcasts in the fall of 2006 and replaced it with the nationally syndicatedINN News, produced byIndependent News Network.
On October 27, 2010, WGFL launched a local newscast produced by INN under the brandingGTN News (standing for "Gainesville Television Network"). The newscast was produced from INN's studios (initially inDavenport, Iowa, but laterLittle Rock, Arkansas) using centralized anchors, and footage from local reporters. WGFL simulcast withWNBW at 6 and 11 p.m.; the 11 p.m. newscast can bedelayed on either station due to network obligations. WGFL and WNBW also simulcast local news and weather cut-ins on weekday mornings during their respectivenational network shows. WGFL also aired a standalone 5:30 p.m. newscast which was canceled a few years later.[19] On April 4, 2016, it began using Sinclair's standardmusic and graphics package, and was renamedCBS 4 News.
By October 2019, production of the newscast had been taken over by Sinclair's West Palm Beach CBS affiliateWPEC, using a secondary studio and set previously used by Sinclair's defunctAmerican Sports Network.
On May 1, 2023, it was reported that WGFL would be discontinuing itsCBS 4 News newscasts, effective May 12, with plans to lay off the entire news operation. The station now runs "nationally syndicated programming", such as Sinclair's news programThe National News Desk, in lieu of locally produced newscasts.[20]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CBS | CBS |
| 28.2 | MyTV | MyNetworkTV | ||
| 28.3 | 480i | ROAR | Roar | |
| 28.4 | TheNest | The Nest |
WGFL ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 53, on July 18, 2008. The station's digital signal broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 28.[21] It was one of very fewbig three affiliates permitted by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to cease analog transmission prior to the nationaldigital switchover on June 12, 2009.
As part of therepacking process following the2016–2017 FCC incentive auction, WGFL moved its UHF channel allocation number from 28 to 29 on January 17, 2020.
WGFL formerly operated two analogtranslator stations, which rebroadcast its signal to other parts of thebroadcast market:
| Station | City of license | Channel | Former call signs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMYG-LP[a] | Lake City | 11 (VHF) | W15AG (1985–2001) WJXE-LP (2001–2002) WBFL-LP (2002–2003) WLCF-LP (2003–2006) | Became affiliate ofMyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006; license canceled on November 18, 2015 (now on WGFL-DT2) |
| WYPN-CA[b] | Gainesville | 45 (UHF) | W14CB (1994–1997) WJXE-LP (1997–2001) | NowWYME-CD and an affiliate ofAntenna TV |
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Florida | ||
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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. | ||||||||||||||||||
