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WLFL
WLFL (channel 22) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Durham-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDC (channel 28). The two stations share studios in the Highwoods Office Park, just outside downtown Raleigh; WLFL's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina.
WLFL began broadcasting in December 1981 after years of work by Christian groups. It was the Triangle's first full-market independent station, airing secular and some religious programs. It was purchased by TVX Broadcast Group in 1985; TVX made WLFL the area's first Fox affiliate when the network launched in 1986 and upgraded its programming. TVX was sold to Paramount Pictures between 1989 and 1991; Paramount invested in a 10 p.m. local newscast for channel 22, which debuted in September 1992.
Sinclair acquired WLFL from Paramount in 1994; the next year, after a dispute with Sinclair and Fox over programming, Fox agreed to move its programming to WRAZ (channel 50) beginning in 1998. At that time, WLFL became an affiliate of The WB. The local newscast continued, but ratings fell behind WRAZ's competing effort; it was converted to the News Central hybrid format and discontinued in March 2006, replaced shortly thereafter with a program produced by ABC affiliate WTVD. That year, WLFL also joined The CW when The WB and UPN merged. The WTVD newscast was discontinued in 2022.
Channel 22 had been allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to Raleigh as an educational reserved channel in 1952. However, it was unreserved by the mid-1960s, and in 1965, two groups that had sought the channel alone merged. The groups were Crescent Broadcasting Company, led by former governor Terry Sanford, and the Springfield Television Broadcasting Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. The merged company found itself waiting on the FCC for approval of its application. The main issue was that the FCC was busy revamping the table of UHF television allocations nationally. The merged Springfield-Crescent group had hoped for channel 22 because Springfield Television already owned two channel 22 stations (WWLP-TV in Springfield and WKEF in Dayton, Ohio), but they instead received channel 28 along with the call letters WJHF when the construction permit was granted. That June, the FCC let them move back to channel 22. Springfield became the full owner of the construction permit at year's end, and the station even began purchasing movie packages, but ownership soon reverted to the Sanford group, which discontinued its plans for WJHF.
Channel 22 was then used by WRDU (channel 28), a new UHF station in Durham, for its Raleigh translator; established on channel 70 in 1969, it moved to channel 22 in 1972.
Interest in building a full-service station on channel 22 began in 1976 when Carolina Christian Communications, a group formed by Durham TV service shop owner L. L. "Buddy" Leathers, began raising funds with the goal of building a station with family-oriented and religious programs. Shortly before Christmas 1976, the group filed for a construction permit to build channel 22; a possible contender, Durham Life Broadcasting, had instead opted against filing for channel 22 and bought channel 28. Leathers expressed hope that any facilities vacated by an expanding WRDU could be reused by his station.
A construction permit was awarded in 1977, and Leathers selected the call sign WLFL—"Light for Living". WTVD in Durham also gifted its Broad Street studio, which it had used since 1954 and was about to vacate, to Carolina Christian Communications; prior to being a television studio, it had served as a jail and a sanitorium. However, Carolina Christian soon found that the former WRDU transmission facility was inadequate to cover the Raleigh–Durham area, and the group sought to raise $1 million in temporary financing to get the station going. It was still waiting for FCC approval to move its transmitter in May 1979.
Because lenders were reluctant to loan money to a non-profit, Leathers had the construction permit transferred for $633,000 from Carolina Christian Communications to Family Television Inc., in which Leathers also owned a stake. Despite the change to a more commercial operation, the gift of WTVD's studio carried no restrictions forbidding its use by a for-profit company. In August 1981, a start date of the following month was announced; however, delays in constructing the station's tower at Apex held up completion.
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WLFL
WLFL (channel 22) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Durham-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDC (channel 28). The two stations share studios in the Highwoods Office Park, just outside downtown Raleigh; WLFL's transmitter is located in Auburn, North Carolina.
WLFL began broadcasting in December 1981 after years of work by Christian groups. It was the Triangle's first full-market independent station, airing secular and some religious programs. It was purchased by TVX Broadcast Group in 1985; TVX made WLFL the area's first Fox affiliate when the network launched in 1986 and upgraded its programming. TVX was sold to Paramount Pictures between 1989 and 1991; Paramount invested in a 10 p.m. local newscast for channel 22, which debuted in September 1992.
Sinclair acquired WLFL from Paramount in 1994; the next year, after a dispute with Sinclair and Fox over programming, Fox agreed to move its programming to WRAZ (channel 50) beginning in 1998. At that time, WLFL became an affiliate of The WB. The local newscast continued, but ratings fell behind WRAZ's competing effort; it was converted to the News Central hybrid format and discontinued in March 2006, replaced shortly thereafter with a program produced by ABC affiliate WTVD. That year, WLFL also joined The CW when The WB and UPN merged. The WTVD newscast was discontinued in 2022.
Channel 22 had been allocated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to Raleigh as an educational reserved channel in 1952. However, it was unreserved by the mid-1960s, and in 1965, two groups that had sought the channel alone merged. The groups were Crescent Broadcasting Company, led by former governor Terry Sanford, and the Springfield Television Broadcasting Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. The merged company found itself waiting on the FCC for approval of its application. The main issue was that the FCC was busy revamping the table of UHF television allocations nationally. The merged Springfield-Crescent group had hoped for channel 22 because Springfield Television already owned two channel 22 stations (WWLP-TV in Springfield and WKEF in Dayton, Ohio), but they instead received channel 28 along with the call letters WJHF when the construction permit was granted. That June, the FCC let them move back to channel 22. Springfield became the full owner of the construction permit at year's end, and the station even began purchasing movie packages, but ownership soon reverted to the Sanford group, which discontinued its plans for WJHF.
Channel 22 was then used by WRDU (channel 28), a new UHF station in Durham, for its Raleigh translator; established on channel 70 in 1969, it moved to channel 22 in 1972.
Interest in building a full-service station on channel 22 began in 1976 when Carolina Christian Communications, a group formed by Durham TV service shop owner L. L. "Buddy" Leathers, began raising funds with the goal of building a station with family-oriented and religious programs. Shortly before Christmas 1976, the group filed for a construction permit to build channel 22; a possible contender, Durham Life Broadcasting, had instead opted against filing for channel 22 and bought channel 28. Leathers expressed hope that any facilities vacated by an expanding WRDU could be reused by his station.
A construction permit was awarded in 1977, and Leathers selected the call sign WLFL—"Light for Living". WTVD in Durham also gifted its Broad Street studio, which it had used since 1954 and was about to vacate, to Carolina Christian Communications; prior to being a television studio, it had served as a jail and a sanitorium. However, Carolina Christian soon found that the former WRDU transmission facility was inadequate to cover the Raleigh–Durham area, and the group sought to raise $1 million in temporary financing to get the station going. It was still waiting for FCC approval to move its transmitter in May 1979.
Because lenders were reluctant to loan money to a non-profit, Leathers had the construction permit transferred for $633,000 from Carolina Christian Communications to Family Television Inc., in which Leathers also owned a stake. Despite the change to a more commercial operation, the gift of WTVD's studio carried no restrictions forbidding its use by a for-profit company. In August 1981, a start date of the following month was announced; however, delays in constructing the station's tower at Apex held up completion.