WIFR-LD
 | |
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|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | WIFR; Stateline CW (LD5) |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WSLN | |
| History | |
First air date | May 31, 2017 |
Former call signs | W22EE-D (2011–2017)[a] |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call signmeaning |
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| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 183744 |
| Class | LD |
| ERP | 15kW |
| HAAT | 215.8 m (708 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°17′48.3″N89°10′15″W/ 42.296750°N 89.17083°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | LMS |
| Website | www |
| Former license | |
| WIFR | |
| History | |
First air date | September 12, 1965 |
Last air date |
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Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 4689 |
| ERP | 170kW |
| HAAT | 219.7 m (721 ft) |
WIFR-LD(channel 23) is alow-power television stationinRockford, Illinois,United States, affiliated withCBSandThe CW Plus.The station is owned byGray Television,and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on North Meridian Road in Rockford.
Until 2017, WIFR operated as a full-power television station licensed to nearbyFreeport.Under its current low-power license, WIFR-LD continues to use channel 23 as itsvirtual channel.WIFR is the only television station in the Rockford market to retain the same network affiliation since it first signed on.
Since WIFR's over-the-air coverage area is effectively limited to Rockford itself and close-in suburbs inWinnebago County,it relies mostly on cable and satellite for its viewership. Its thirddigital subchannelis simulcast on a subchannel ofNBCaffiliateWREX(VHF channel 13.6, mapped to virtual channel 23.10).
History
[edit]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 toABCfull-time, sending CBS to WCEE-TV, whose calls and branding were inspired by the CBS Eyemark logo. 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 on June 1, 1977. General Media sold the station to Worrell Newspapers ofCharlottesville, Virginia,in September of that year. Worrell sold all three stations WIFR,WHSV-TVinHarrisonburg, Virginia,and now-defunctWBNB-TVin theU.S. Virgin IslandstoBenedek Broadcastingin 1986. When Benedek wentbankruptin 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 on 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.
Spectrum reallocation
[edit]Gray Television sold WIFR's spectrum in theFederal Communications Commission(FCC)'sincentive auctionfor $50,060,965; at the time, the station indicated that it planned to enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[3]On April 21, 2017, Gray requestedspecial temporary authorityto move the license of 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.[4][5]The full-power license was cancelled on that date.[6]Gray had acquired W22EE-D fromDTV Americain 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, nor constructed any facilities.[1]
On November 18, 2019, WIFR-LD attempted a transfer to its post-reallocation channel 28 from a temporary lower-power antenna lower on their transmitter tower, but moved back to 41 in a matter of days with the permission ofT-Mobile,which would eventually hold that spectrum. This is due to channel 28 also being allocated to the northeast inMilwaukeeto full-power ABC affiliateWISN-TVand causing cross-channel interference in portions ofBooneandMcHenrycounties. The station again transitioned to channel 28 permanently on January 15, 2020, this time arranging withWeigel Broadcastingto simulcast 23.1 over their low-power station in the market,WFBN-LD(channel 35) as subchannel 23.11 to address those over-the-air viewers experiencing interference from WISN-TV. Gray expects to transition to their regular higher-power signal at the former position of the channel 41 antenna soon,[when?]after theCOVID-19 pandemicforced it to delay its completion from spring 2020 due to a lack of tower maintenance crews across the United States.[7]
Through all of this, on-air operations continued mostly unchanged, though viewers were asked to rescan their sets in order to continue watching the station. However, few viewers lost access to CBS programming due to the high penetration of cable and satellite.
Gray Television acquisition of Quincy Media
[edit]On February 1, 2021, Gray Television announced it had acquiredQuincy Media,owner ofNBCaffiliateWREX,for $925 million in a cash transaction.FCCrules governing televisionduopoliespermit the common ownership of a full-power station and a low-power station in the same market.[8]Despite this, Gray elected to retain WIFR and sell WREX to Allen Media Broadcasting, a subsidiary ofLos AngelesbasedEntertainment Studios,on April 29, in a $380 million transaction that included several of WREX's Quincy Media sister stations in overlapping markets, includingWKOW/Madison,WAOW/Wausau,WXOW/La Crosse(and its semi-satelliteWQOW/Eau Claire),KWWL/Waterloo–Cedar Rapids,andWSIL-TV/Carbondale(and its satellite KPOB-TV/Poplar Bluff).[9]While Gray will not have any direct ownership or control of WREX, it hammered out a 10-year agreement with Allen Media which called for WREX to carry WIFR-LD's main channel on a WREX subchannel, which would give WIFR full-market coverage for the first time since it went to low-power status in 2017.[10]
Technical information
[edit]Subchannels
[edit]The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CBS | CBS |
| 23.3 | 480i | Circle | Outlaw | |
| 23.4 | ION TV | Ion Television | ||
| 23.5 | 720p | CW+ | The CW Plus(WSLN) | |
| 23.6 | 480i | Defy | Defy TV |
As noted in the last section, channel 23.11 is the fourth subchannel ofWeigel Broadcasting's WFBN-LD (channel 35), which utilizes physical channel 23 post-spectrum.
WIFR addedTribune Broadcasting'sAntenna TVas their second subchannel on December 17, 2012, replacingLocal AccuWeather(known on-air as "23 WeatherNow" ). The subchannel carries live local and regional sports, includingRockford IceHogshockey. Until the 2020 move of all market sports rights to cable viaNBC Sports ChicagoandMarquee Sports Network,it carried the regional telecasts fromWGN Sportsof selectedChicago Bulls,Cubs,andWhite Soxgames. On May 28, 2015, its third subchannel launched, taking an affiliation with theJustice Networkon July 27; in the interim it carried that year'sRockford Public School District 205graduation and overflow games unable to be aired on 23.2. 23.3 would carry White Sox games, with 23.2 carrying all Cubs games. During September 2017, WIFR announced via commercials running on the main signal that the subchannel would change affiliation toCozi TVthat month. 23.5 began carryingStateline CWafter it moved from WREX-DT2 in 2021.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[edit]WIFR shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 23, at noon on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41,[12][13]usingvirtual channel23.
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ab"Station Trading Roundup: 1 Deal, $720,000".TVNewsCheck.August 2, 2016.Archivedfrom the original on February 20, 2019.RetrievedMay 15,2017.
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WIFR-LD".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission.April 4, 2017.Archived(PDF)from the original on April 14, 2017.RetrievedMay 15,2017.
- ^"LPTV Engineering STA Application".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.April 21, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on October 20, 2017.RetrievedMay 15,2017.
- ^"Request for Special Temporary Authority"(PDF).Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.April 21, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on October 20, 2017.RetrievedMay 15,2017.
- ^"Station Search Details - Federal Communications Commission".Archivedfrom the original on October 20, 2017.RetrievedJune 5,2017.
- ^"WIFR Spectrum Reallocation FAQ".WIFR-LD. November 22, 2019.RetrievedFebruary 6,2020.
- ^Goldsmith, Jill (February 1, 2021)."Gray Television Acquires Quincy Media For $925 Million In Cash".Deadline Hollywood.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedFebruary 21,2021.
- ^"Byron Allen's Allen Media Will Buy 7 Stations From Gray TV for $380 Million".Variety.April 29, 2021.RetrievedMay 6,2021.
- ^"FCC Monitor: More Low-Power TV Sales, Extensions,"from Northpine.com, May 16, 2021
- ^"RabbitEars TV Query for WIFR".RabbitEars.info.RetrievedJuly 17,2024.
- ^DTV Switch in Rockford Still on for February 17thArchivedFebruary 8, 2009, atarchive.today,WIFR, Feb 5, 2009]
- ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.