WTLH

WTLH, virtual channel 49 (UHF digital channel 19), is a Heroes & Icons-affiliated television station licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia, United States, serving Southwest Georgia and the Big Bend of Florida (including the capital city of Tallahassee). The station is owned by New Age Media, which also operates Tallahassee-licensed CW affiliate WTLF (channel 24, which WTLH simulcasts on its second digital subchannel) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with owner MPS Media, LLC. Both stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Tallahassee-licensed dual NBC/Fox affiliate WTWC-TV (channel 40).

WTLH
Bainbridge, Georgia/Tallahassee, Florida
United States
CityBainbridge, Georgia
ChannelsDigital: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 49 (PSIP)
BrandingDT2: The CW Tallahassee
Programming
Affiliations49.1: Heroes & Icons[1]
49.2: The CW Plus
49.3: Comet
Ownership
OwnerNew Age Media, LLC
(New Age Media of Tallahassee License, LLC)
OperatorSinclair Broadcast Group
(via master service agreement)
Sister stationsbroadcast: WTWC-TV, WTLF
cable: Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Sun, Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southeast[2]
History
FoundedMarch 21, 1985
First air dateFebruary 12, 1989 (1989-02-12)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
49 (UHF, 1989–2009)
Digital:
50 (UHF, until 2020)
Former affiliationsFox (1989–2014)
MeTV (2014–2018)
Secondary:
UPN (1995–1997)
Call sign meaningTaLlaHassee (also IATA airport code for Tallahassee International Airport)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID23486
ClassDT
ERP560 kW
HAAT503 m (1,650 ft) (STA)
600 m (1,969 ft) (CP)
Transmitter coordinates30°40′50.3″N 83°58′20.6″W
Translator(s)Valdosta, GA:
WBFL-CD 13 (VHF)
WBVJ-CD 35 (UHF)
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS

WTLH and WTLF share studios on Commerce Boulevard in Midway, Florida; master control and some internal operations are based at WTWC's facilities on Deerlake South in unincorporated Leon County, Florida northwest of Bradfordville (with a Tallahassee postal address). WTLH's transmitter is located in unincorporated Thomas County, Georgia, southeast of Metcalf, along the Florida state line.

History

WTLH signed-on February 12, 1989, airing an analog 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 of Singer Island, Florida. In 1994, the station was sold to Pegasus Broadcasting. On June 15, 1998, WFXU in Live Oak, Florida was established as a full-time satellite of WTLH in order to improve its coverage on the eastern side of the market. Since Tallahassee did not have enough stations to legally permit a duopoly, 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 first UPN 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 the Warner Bros. unit of Time 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 declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV (then co-owned with Fox by News Corporation) over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite service in rural areas. The station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-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 with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, since Sinclair already owns WTWC, its partner company Cunningham 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) through shared 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 a master service agreement.[10][11] At some point after the transaction occurred, Sinclair moved the Fox affiliation to WTWC's second subchannel. At that point, MeTV programming moved from WTLH's third digital subchannel to WTLH's main channel; the simulcast of WTLF continues on its second subchannel.

On April 30, 2018, WTLH switched to Heroes & Icons, after MeTV left to affiliate with WFXU and the second digital subchannel of WCTV.[1]

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP short name Programming [12]
49.11080i16:9H&IMain WTLH programming / Heroes & Icons[1]
49.2CWSimulcast of WTLF / The CW
49.3480iCometComet

Repeaters

In addition to its main signal, WTLH can also be seen on two low-powered Class A digital repeaters serving Valdosta, Georgia:

Station City of license Channel
(RF / VC)		 ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates Transmitter location Public license information
WBFL-CD Valdosta, Georgia 13 (VHF)
13 (PSIP)		 2 kW 103 m (338 ft) 48763 30°40′9″N 83°19′31″W on Madison Highway/GA 31 between unincorporated Clyattville, Georgia and Florida state line Profile
CDBS
WBVJ-CD Valdosta, Georgia 35 (UHF)
35 (PSIP)		 1.5 kW 84 m (276 ft) 23487 30°58′14″N 83°17′12″W unincorporated northern Lowndes County, Georgia between Hahira and Moody Air Force Base Profile
CDBS
gollark: No.
gollark: TOML? StrictYaml?
gollark: Besides, radians ARE the best angle unit in all ways.
gollark: Just passing `y/x` to `atan` to do `atan2` is wrong because it doesn't get the right quadrant.
gollark: And you missed atan2.

References
  1. "Where to Watch". H&I Network Limited Partnership. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  2. Miller, Mark K. (August 23, 2019). "Sinclair Closes $10.6B Disney RSN Purchase". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  3. "Application Search Details (1)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  4. McConnell, Bill (April 2, 2002). "Pegasus wins OK for Tallahassee TV pair". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  5. "WDSI FOX61 Bought By CP Media, LLC". The Chattanoogan. August 9, 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  6. "WFXU, this Budd's for you". Television Business Report. November 28, 2006. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  7. Haber, Gary (September 25, 2013). "Sinclair Broadcast Group to pay $90M for eight New Age Media TV stations". Baltimore Business Journal. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  8. "Sinclair To Buy 8 New Age Stations for $90M". TVNewsCheck. September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  9. Kirkpatrick, Daniel A. (October 31, 2014). "Re: New Age Media of Tallahassee License, LLC…" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  10. "Sinclair Reports Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results" (PDF) (Press release). Baltimore: Sinclair Broadcast Group. November 5, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  11. "Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Form 10-Q". sbgi.edgarpro.com. November 10, 2014. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  12. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WTLH#station
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