WHDF

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WHDF
Florence/Huntsville/Decatur, Alabama
Branding The Valley's CW
Channels Analog: 15 (UHF)

Digital: 14 (UHF)
Affiliations The CW
Owner Lockwood Broadcast Group
(Huntsville TV, LLC)
First air date October 1957[1]
Call letters’ meaning Huntsville
Decatur
Florence
Former callsigns WOWL-TV (1957-1999)
Former affiliations NBC (1957-1999)
UPN (1999-2006)
Transmitter Power 2510 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
Height 431 m (both)
Facility ID 65128
Transmitter Coordinates 35°0′5.7″N, 87°8′3.9″W
Website www.thevalleyscw.tv

WHDF is The CW affiliate in northern Alabama, airing on channel 15. WHDF is under the ownership of Lockwood Broadcasting.

Contents

[edit] History

The station began in 1957 as WOWL-TV, based in Florence. The station was owned by Richard "Dick" Biddle. Up until late 1999, that station broadcast NBC programs to northwestern Alabama and portions of southern middle Tennessee and northeastern Mississippi; it carried also some popular CBS shows like the soap opera As the World Turns.

WOWL-TV always faced competing NBC affiliates in Huntsville or Decatur, whose signals reached much of its broadcast area; however, it retained viewership in the Shoals region by offering local newscasts, which for most of the station's 40-plus years were the only TV newscasts concerned with that area only. However, channel 15 lost much of that advantage when the Huntsville stations began opening news bureaus in the Shoals in the 1980s or so. That factor probably played the decisive role in influencing WOWL-TV's local owners to sell to outside interests, along with NBC giving them notice of dis-affiliation(WAFF fully services market) to redirect the signal and the coverage area eastward, toward the growing Huntsville-Decatur market and roll out UPN in the Huntsville market. WAAY-TV packaged a 9PM newscast for UPN15 for the first 2 years of operation.

WHDF's studios are located in Florence, and the station maintains a Huntsville sales office on Andrew Jackson Way, in the Five Points neighborhood. The station's transmitter is located southeast of Minor Hill, Tennessee, just 500 yards (450 meters) north of the Alabama state line.

In September 2006, both UPN and The WB television network ceased operations. A single new network, The CW, replaced those two struggling entities. WHDF, the UPN affiliate, was granted the northern Alabama affiliation rights for the new network earlier that year, and rebranded as The Valley's CW at Midnight on July 27, 2006. (The former WB affiliate, meanwhile, became WAMY-TV, affiliated with My Network TV.)

[edit] Digital Television

The station's digital channel:

Digital channels

Channel Programming
15.1 Main WHDF programming

In 2009, WHDF will leave channel 15 and move to channel 14 when the analog to digital conversion is complete. It will still use 15 as its virtual channel.[2]


[edit] References

  1. ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 29, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 28.
  2. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Broadcast television in the Huntsville / Decatur / Florence market  (Nielsen DMA #83)

WBCF 3 (A1) - WXFL 5 (Ind) - WTZT 11 (A1) - WHDF 15 (The CW) - W18BL 18 (Ind) - WHNT 19 (CBS) - WHIQ 25 / WFIQ 36 (PBS / APT) -
WYLE 26 (S@H) - WAAY 31 (ABC) - WMJN 43 (FamilyNet) - W46CF 46 / W59CF 59 (UBN) - WAFF 48 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) - WYAM 51 (Ind) - WZDX 54 (FOX) (MNTV on DT2 via "WAMY") - W64BJ 64 (TBN)
Significantly Viewed Out-of-Market Broadcast Stations
Reception may vary by geographical location
WMAE 12 (PBS / MPB) - WNGH 18 (PBS / GPB)
Cable television stations
"WAMY" (MNTV)
v • d • e
CW Network Affiliates in the state of Alabama
See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Alabama