WLFL

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WLFL
Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina
Branding	CW22
Channels	22 (UHF) analog, 57 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Founded	December 18, 1981
Call letters meaning	W Light For Living (slogan used by original owners prior to sign-on)
Former affiliations	Independent (1981-1986) Fox (1986-1998) The WB (1998-2006)
Transmitter Power	5 MW visual/500 kW aural
Website	www.raleighcw.com

WLFL, channel 22, is The CW affiliate for the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina television market. It is licensed to Raleigh and is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, along with sister station and MyNetworkTV affiliate WRDC-TV (channel 28).

[edit] History

WLFL first signed on on December 18, 1981 as a general entertainment independent station, running cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, drama shows, and religious shows. While licensed to Raleigh, its studios were initially located at 2410 Broad Street in Durham, the same building where WTVD (channel 11) set up shop in 1954, and its master control facility was located with the transmission and tower facilities near Apex, North Carolina.

WLFL was locally owned until 1985, when it was purchased by the TVX Broadcast Group. TVX upgraded WLFL's programming until it was actually the third-highest rated station in the Triangle. In 1986 moved to a new studio at 1205 Front Street in Raleigh, just inside the Beltline. Later that year, it became a charter affiliate for the Fox television network, along with all the other TVX stations. The station also replaced its original 1000 foot tower and 1 megawatt ERP transmission facilities with a new 1550 foot tower and 5MW visual, 500 kW aural ERP transmission facilities. The transmitter site remained at its original location located near Apex.

TVX sold off most of its medium market stations in 1988, following its purchase of Taft Broadcasting's independent stations and Fox affiliates. However, TVX held onto WLFL until its merger with Paramount Pictures in 1991, after which the group was renamed "Paramount Stations Group." By this time, WLFL was one of the strongest Fox affiliates in the country.

WLFL launched a news operation in 1992. It was known as the FOX 22 10 O'Clock News, featuring North Carolina's first 10 PM newscast since WKFT (channel 40) in the late 80s. Paramount sold WLFL to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1994 and entered into a local marketing agreement with WRDC-TV the following year. WRDC itself was owned by Glencairn Broadcasting, a separate entity which the Smith family (who also owned Sinclair) had a majority stake in, thus creating a duopoly in the market even before Sinclair purchased WRDC outright in 2001. While WLFL was the senior partner in the deal, it vacated its Front Street studio that year and moved to WRDC's new studios in the nearby Highwoods office complex. WNCN-TV (channel 17), which acquired the market's NBC affiliation from WRDC in 1995, moved into WLFL's old studios at the same time.

In 1996, Fox announced that it would not renew its contract with WLFL when it got involved in a dispute with Sinclair over programming issues during the 10 PM slot. Even though Fox later relented, it still managed to seek a new affiliation with WRAZ-TV (channel 50) in 1998, leaving WLFL to pick up programming from the WB.

When the WB and UPN merged in January 2006 to form the CW, it was initially seen as a foregone conclusion that WLFL would be the new network's Triangle affiliate. It is by far the stronger of the two stations in Sinclair's Triangle duopoly, and network officials were on record as favoring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations. However, when the new network announced its first group of stations outside the core group of Tribune Company and CBS Corporation-owned stations, WLFL was not on the list. In February, sister station WRDC was announced as an affiliate of the newly-formed MyNetworkTV, controlled by the News Corporation. [1]. It wasn't until May 2 that Sinclair agreed to affiliate all of its non-My Network WB affiliates, including WLFL, with the CW.

[edit] News Programming

March 30, 2006 marked the last official broadcast for the WB22 News at Ten. After a fourteen-year run, the news operation at WLFL was closed, the result of a cost-cutting move implemented by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The newscast, which had been one hour in length and used Sinclair's controversial News Central format for the previous four years, was cut down to thirty minutes in September 2005 in an attempt to boost its anemic ratings against WRAZ, which still has a 10 PM newscast.

WB22 News at Ten had been anchored by Bob Vernon on weekdays, and Tamara Gibbs (now with WTVD) on weekends. Alternate anchors included Ric Swiner and Kami Carrmann. Weather reports were done Sunday-Thursday by chief meteorologist Kristen Emery, and on Friday and Saturday by Susan Shrack.

Other notable alumni of WLFL's news operation (partial list):

• David Alan (now at WVEC-TV in Norfolk, Virginia)
• Andrea Arcenaux (once worked at CNN prior to arrival)
• Varen Black
• Carolyn Clifford (now at WXYZ-TV in Detroit)
• Bobby Estill
• Paul Furr (floor camera, floor director & News Photographer; Now at WTVD-TV)
• Tom Foolery (Real last name, but was always referred on air as just "Tom")
• Lori Geary (now at WSB-TV in Atlanta)
• Amy Hockert
• Robert Judson (former fill in sports anchor; now at WTVD-TV)
• Captain Jim Kilpatrick (Full-time American Airlines pilot & weekend meteorologist)
• Carlos McCormick
• Rachel McNeill
• Bryan Moore (now a Manager with Northrop Grumman Newport News, Virginia)
• Mark Mottern (now a producer and freelancer in Hollywood, Ca)
• Steve Noble (former reporter for a L.A. based tabloid show)
• Bill Reh (who now works at WNCN-TV, Raleigh's NBC station)
• Suzanne Robinson
• Mike Solarte (now sports reporter for News 14 Carolina, also hosted radio talk show at WRBZ)
• Rick Sullivan (now at UNC-TV)
• Keenan Smith (now at WGN-TV in Chicago)
• Steve Swencowski
• Dallas Woodhouse (now with Americans for Prosperity)
• Nancy Yamada (Now a Washington D.C. based Reporter)

On June 26, 2006, WLFL began airing a new 10pm newscast produced by WTVD entitled ABC11 Eyewitness News at Ten on CW 22. [2].

[edit] External links

• WLFL-TV Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLFL

Broadcast television in the Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville market  (Nielsen DMA #29)
WUNC 4 / WUNU 31 / WUNP 36 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WRAL 5 (CBS) - WTVD 11 (ABC) - WNCN 17 (NBC) - WLFL 22 (The CW) - W24CP 24 (3ABN) - WTNC 26 (TFU) - WRDC 28 (MNTV) - WRAY 30 (S@H/JTV) - WACN-LP 34 (DS) - WUVC 40 (UNI) - WHFL-LP 43 (Worship) - WZGS 44 (Telemundo) - W45CN 45 / W45CO 45 / W63CW 63 / W64CN 64 (TBN) - WRPX 47 / WFPX 62 (i) - WRAZ 50 (Fox) - WWIW-LP 66 (DS) - W67CD 67 (A1) - W68BK 68 (Educational)
Local cable television channels
News 14 Carolina
Out-of-market broadcast television available on cable in some parts of the market
WECT 6 (NBC, Wilmington)