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WIFR-LD
WIFR-LD (channel 23) is a low-power television station in Rockford, Illinois, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station is owned by Gray Media alongside Freeport-licensed CW affiliate WSLN (channel 19). The two stations maintains studios and transmitter facilities on North Meridian Road in Rockford.
Until 2017, WIFR operated as a full-power television station licensed to nearby Freeport. Under its current low-power license, WIFR-LD continues to use channel 23 as its virtual channel. WIFR is the only television station in the Rockford market to retain the same network affiliation since it first signed on.
Since WIFR's over-the-air coverage area is effectively limited to Rockford itself and close-in suburbs in Winnebago County, it relies mostly on cable and satellite for its viewership. Its primary CBS channel is simulcast on a subchannel of NBC affiliate WREX (VHF channel 13.6, mapped to virtual channel 23.10).
The station went on the air as WCEE-TV on September 12, 1965. It was the third station in the Rockford market, and was originally locally owned by Rock River Television Corporation. The area's previous CBS affiliate, WREX-TV, switched to ABC full-time, sending CBS to WCEE-TV, whose calls and branding were inspired by the CBS Eyemark logo. It has been with CBS ever since, and is the only station in the market to have never switched affiliations. The call letters were changed to the present WIFR on June 1, 1977. General Media sold the station to Worrell Newspapers of Charlottesville, Virginia, in September of that year. Worrell sold all three stations WIFR, WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and now-defunct WBNB-TV in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Benedek Broadcasting in 1986. When Benedek went bankrupt in 2002, WIFR and WHSV were acquired by current owner Gray Television.
On the morning of July 5, 2003, a severe wind storm swept through Rockford. WIFR's transmitter tower, located behind the studio and office building on North Meridian Road in Rockford, collapsed, with various sections of the tower falling harmlessly onto a field behind the studio facility and causing no damage to the building, nor any injuries. Four months later, a new tower was erected and WIFR's signal was restored to full power. The concrete guy footings of the former tower around the property have not been removed and remain in situ as removing them would be impractical and superfluous.
Gray Television sold WIFR's spectrum in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s incentive auction for $50,060,965; at the time, the station indicated that it planned to enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement. On April 21, 2017, Gray requested special temporary authority to move the license of W22EE-D (channel 22), a low-power station it owns in Rockford, to channel 41 with the intent of using it to maintain CBS service in the market; in its request, Gray disclosed that the full-power WIFR license would be surrendered on May 31, 2017, though WIFR's existing transmitter would be still be used, but with its power restricted to meet the transmitting requirements for W22EE-D. The full-power license was cancelled on that date. Gray had acquired W22EE-D from DTV America in an eight-station deal in 2016; it had never commenced any previous on-air operations since the call letters were issued on May 17, 2011, nor constructed any facilities.
On November 18, 2019, WIFR-LD attempted a transfer to its post-reallocation channel 28 from a temporary lower-power antenna lower on their transmitter tower, but moved back to 41 in a matter of days with the permission of T-Mobile, which would eventually hold that spectrum. This is due to channel 28 also being allocated to the northeast in Milwaukee to full-power ABC affiliate WISN-TV and causing cross-channel interference in portions of Boone and McHenry counties. The station again transitioned to channel 28 permanently on January 15, 2020, this time arranging with Weigel Broadcasting to simulcast 23.1 over their low-power station in the market, WFBN-LD (channel 35) as subchannel 23.11 to address those over-the-air viewers experiencing interference from WISN-TV. Gray's transition of WIFR-LD's regular higher-power signal at the former position of the channel 41 antenna was delayed several months from spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a lack of tower maintenance crews across the United States.
Through all of this, on-air operations continued mostly unchanged, though viewers were asked to rescan their sets to continue watching the station. In practice, few viewers lost access to CBS programming due to the high penetration of cable and satellite, along with streaming options, including the station's livestream on CBS All Access/Paramount+.
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WIFR-LD
WIFR-LD (channel 23) is a low-power television station in Rockford, Illinois, United States, affiliated with CBS. The station is owned by Gray Media alongside Freeport-licensed CW affiliate WSLN (channel 19). The two stations maintains studios and transmitter facilities on North Meridian Road in Rockford.
Until 2017, WIFR operated as a full-power television station licensed to nearby Freeport. Under its current low-power license, WIFR-LD continues to use channel 23 as its virtual channel. WIFR is the only television station in the Rockford market to retain the same network affiliation since it first signed on.
Since WIFR's over-the-air coverage area is effectively limited to Rockford itself and close-in suburbs in Winnebago County, it relies mostly on cable and satellite for its viewership. Its primary CBS channel is simulcast on a subchannel of NBC affiliate WREX (VHF channel 13.6, mapped to virtual channel 23.10).
The station went on the air as WCEE-TV on September 12, 1965. It was the third station in the Rockford market, and was originally locally owned by Rock River Television Corporation. The area's previous CBS affiliate, WREX-TV, switched to ABC full-time, sending CBS to WCEE-TV, whose calls and branding were inspired by the CBS Eyemark logo. It has been with CBS ever since, and is the only station in the market to have never switched affiliations. The call letters were changed to the present WIFR on June 1, 1977. General Media sold the station to Worrell Newspapers of Charlottesville, Virginia, in September of that year. Worrell sold all three stations WIFR, WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and now-defunct WBNB-TV in the U.S. Virgin Islands to Benedek Broadcasting in 1986. When Benedek went bankrupt in 2002, WIFR and WHSV were acquired by current owner Gray Television.
On the morning of July 5, 2003, a severe wind storm swept through Rockford. WIFR's transmitter tower, located behind the studio and office building on North Meridian Road in Rockford, collapsed, with various sections of the tower falling harmlessly onto a field behind the studio facility and causing no damage to the building, nor any injuries. Four months later, a new tower was erected and WIFR's signal was restored to full power. The concrete guy footings of the former tower around the property have not been removed and remain in situ as removing them would be impractical and superfluous.
Gray Television sold WIFR's spectrum in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s incentive auction for $50,060,965; at the time, the station indicated that it planned to enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement. On April 21, 2017, Gray requested special temporary authority to move the license of W22EE-D (channel 22), a low-power station it owns in Rockford, to channel 41 with the intent of using it to maintain CBS service in the market; in its request, Gray disclosed that the full-power WIFR license would be surrendered on May 31, 2017, though WIFR's existing transmitter would be still be used, but with its power restricted to meet the transmitting requirements for W22EE-D. The full-power license was cancelled on that date. Gray had acquired W22EE-D from DTV America in an eight-station deal in 2016; it had never commenced any previous on-air operations since the call letters were issued on May 17, 2011, nor constructed any facilities.
On November 18, 2019, WIFR-LD attempted a transfer to its post-reallocation channel 28 from a temporary lower-power antenna lower on their transmitter tower, but moved back to 41 in a matter of days with the permission of T-Mobile, which would eventually hold that spectrum. This is due to channel 28 also being allocated to the northeast in Milwaukee to full-power ABC affiliate WISN-TV and causing cross-channel interference in portions of Boone and McHenry counties. The station again transitioned to channel 28 permanently on January 15, 2020, this time arranging with Weigel Broadcasting to simulcast 23.1 over their low-power station in the market, WFBN-LD (channel 35) as subchannel 23.11 to address those over-the-air viewers experiencing interference from WISN-TV. Gray's transition of WIFR-LD's regular higher-power signal at the former position of the channel 41 antenna was delayed several months from spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a lack of tower maintenance crews across the United States.
Through all of this, on-air operations continued mostly unchanged, though viewers were asked to rescan their sets to continue watching the station. In practice, few viewers lost access to CBS programming due to the high penetration of cable and satellite, along with streaming options, including the station's livestream on CBS All Access/Paramount+.