| Decatur/Springfield/ Champaign/Urbana, Illinois |
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| City of license | Decatur |
| Branding | CW 23 This Illinois (on DT2) |
| Slogan | TV to Talk About |
| Channels | Digital: 22 (UHF) Virtual: 23 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 23.1 The CW 23.2 This TV |
| Owner | GOCOM Media of Illinois, LLC |
| First air date | May 1984 [1] |
| Call letters' meaning | The WB University of Illinois (allusion to service to Champaign/Urbana) |
| Sister station(s) | WRSP-TV/WCCU |
| Former callsigns | WFHL (1984–1998) WPXU (1998–1999) |
| Former channel number(s) | 23 (UHF analog, 1984–2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent/Religious (1984-1998) Pax (1998-1999) The WB (1999-2006) UPN (secondary) |
| Transmitter power | 325 kW |
| Height | 401 m |
| Facility ID | 16363 |
WBUI is a television station licensed to Decatur, Illinois and serving the Central Illinois market, including the cities of Springfield, Champaign, and Urbana. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in Oreana along I-72. WBUI is affiliated with The CW Television Network (on virtual channel 23.1) and This TV (23.2). Owned by GOCOM Media of Illinois, the station is sister to the area's Fox affiliates WRSP-TV/WCCU. WBUI's studios are located on South Main Street in Decatur, with some support operations handled at WRSP's studios in Springfield.
This station's on-air run began in May 1984 as WFHL, owned and operated by the local Foursquare Church. In 1997, the station was sold to Paxson Communications, who re-called the station as WPXU. ACME Communications would acquire the station from Paxson in 1999 and change it to WB affiliate WBUI. (The WPXU call letters are now used by a ION Media Networks station in Jacksonville, North Carolina.) WBUI remained affiliated with The WB until September 18, 2006, when the station joined the new CW Network, an amalgamation of The WB and UPN networks.
On June 20, 2007, GOCOM Media announced its intent to purchase this station from ACME Communications.[2] The sale was approved on September 14 by the Federal Communications Commission, which waived its duopoly rules for the sale; the Central Illinois TV market did not have enough station owners at the time to legally permit another duopoly under normal conditions (there was already an existing duopoly in the market as Nexstar Broadcasting owns both WCIA and WCIX), but ACME claimed it was losing money on WBUI and could not find a buyer that did not require a duopoly waiver. The sale to GOCOM Media officially closed on October 25, 2007.[3]
Current WBUI programming includes the full CW network lineup; original syndicated programming including The Daily Buzz, The Dr. Oz Show, Family Feud, and Swift Justice with Nancy Grace; and reruns including My Name Is Earl and The Office. Meteorologists from WICS provide hourly "Cmore Weather" updates every weekday from WICS' facilities on East Cook Street in Springfield. WBUI was previously Central Illinois' over-the-air home to select St. Louis Cardinals broadcasts, a relationship that ended after the 2010 season when Cardinals broadcasts moved exclusively to Fox Sports Midwest. On September 11, 2009, WBUI added the classic movie channel This TV to subchannel 23.2, branded as This TV Illinois.[4] This TV is available on local cable (Mediacom digital channel 115, and Comcast digital channel 232). WBUI's website is currently a subsection of WRSP's FoxIllinois.com website, and has been since Broadcast Interactive Media took over WRSP's website in 2010 (clicking on WBUI's former URL, CentralIllinoisCW.com, takes the browser to the WBUI section of the WRSP site).
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