WIFR-LD

WIFR-LD
Rockford, Illinois
United States
Branding 23 WIFR (general)
23 News (newscasts)
Slogan Working for You
Channels Digital: 41 (UHF)
Virtual: 23 (PSIP)
Subchannels 23.1 CBS
23.2 Antenna TV
23.3 Justice Network
Affiliations CBS
Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date September 12, 1965 (1965-09-12)
Call letters' meaning Wisconsin/Illinois
Freeport/Rockford
Sister station(s) KCRG, KWQC, WMTV, WNDU, WEAU
Former callsigns Former license:
WCEE-TV (1965–1977)
WIFR-TV (1977–1991)
WIFR (1991–2017)
Current license:
W22EE-D (2011–2017)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
23 (UHF, 1965–2009)
Transmitter power 15 kW
Height 219.7 m (721 ft)
Facility ID Current license: 183744
Former license: 4689
Transmitter coordinates 42°17′47.90″N 89°10′14.60″W / 42.2966389°N 89.1707222°W / 42.2966389; -89.1707222
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.wifr.com

WIFR-LD is a low-powered CBS-affiliated television station serving Rockford, Illinois, United States. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter at its studios on North Meridian Road in Rockford. Until 2017, WIFR operated as a full-power television station licensed to nearby Freeport; until 2009, it broadcast an analog signal on channel 23, which WIFR-LD continues to use as its virtual digital channel via PSIP. It is owned by Gray Television. WIFR is the only television station in the Rockford market to retain the same network affiliation since it first signed on.

History

The station went on the air as WCEE-TV on September 12, 1965. It was originally owned by Rock River Television Corporation. The area's previous CBS affiliate, WREX-TV, switched to ABC full-time, sending CBS to WCEE. It has been with CBS ever since, and is the only station in the market to have never switched affiliations. The call letters were changed to the present WIFR in 1977 and stand for "Wisconsin-Illinois-Freeport-Rockford." General Media sold the station to Worrell Newspapers of Charlottesville, Virginia in September of that year. Worrell sold all three stations WIFR, WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg, Virginia and now-defunct WBNB-TV in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands to Benedek Broadcasting in 1986. When Benedek went bankrupt in 2002, WIFR and WHSV were acquired by current owner Gray Television.

On the morning of July 5, 2003, a severe wind storm swept through Rockford. WIFR's transmitter tower, located behind the studio and office building at 2523 North Meridian Road in Rockford, collapsed. Pieces of the tower fell onto a field behind the station's headquarters. No one was injured or killed. Nearly four months later, a new tower was erected and WIFR's signal was back to full power once again.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[1]
23.1 1080i 16:9 WIFR-HD Main WIFR programming / CBS
23.2 480i 4:3 Ant TV Antenna TV
23.3 JustNet Justice Network

Analog-to-digital conversion

WIFR shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, at noon on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41.[2][3] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 23.

WIFR added Tribune Broadcasting's Antenna TV as their second subchannel on December 17, 2012, replacing Local AccuWeather (known on-air as "23 WeatherNow"). The subchannel carries live local and regional sports, including Rockford IceHogs hockey, along with regional telecasts from WGN Sports of selected Chicago Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox games. On May 28, 2015, its third subchannel launched, taking an affiliation with the Justice Network on July 27; in the interim it carried that year's Rockford Public School District 205 graduation and overflow games unable to be aired on 23.2. 23.3 currently carries White Sox WGN games, with 23.2 carrying all Cubs games.

Spectrum reallocation

Gray Television sold WIFR's spectrum in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s incentive auction for $50,060,965; at the time, the station indicated that it planned to enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[4] On April 21, 2017, Gray requested special temporary authority to move W22EE-D (channel 22), a low-power station it owns in Rockford, to channel 41 with the intent of using it to maintain CBS service in the market; in its request, Gray disclosed that the full-power WIFR license would be surrendered on May 31, 2017, though WIFR's existing transmitter would be still be used, but with its power restricted to meet the transmitting requirements for W22EE-D.[5][6] The full-power license was cancelled on that date.[7] Gray had acquired W22EE-D from DTV America in an eight-station deal in 2016; it had never commenced any previous on-air operations since the call letters were issued on May 17, 2011.[8]

References

  1. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WIFR-LD
  2. ↑ DTV Switch in Rockford Still on for February 17th, WIFR, Feb 5, 2009]
  3. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  4. ↑ "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  5. ↑ "LPTV Engineering STA Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. April 21, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Request for Special Temporary Authority" (PDF). Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. April 21, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
  7. ↑ Station Search Details - Federal Communications Commission
  8. ↑ "Station Trading Roundup: 1 Deal, $720,000". TVNewsCheck. August 2, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
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