WHDF

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WHDF
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = The Valley's CW
analog = 15 (UHF)
digital = 14 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = The CW
network =
founded =
airdate = October 1957 [The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says October 29, while the Television and Cable Factbook says October 28.]
location = Florence/Huntsville/Decatur, Alabama
callsign_meaning = Huntsville
Decatur
Florence
former_callsigns = WOWL-TV (1957-2000)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Lockwood Broadcast Group
licensee = Huntsville TV, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = NBC (1957-2000)
UPN (2000-2006)
effective_radiated_power = 2510 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 431 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 65128
coordinates = coord|35|0|5.7|N|87|8|3.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.thevalleyscw.tv/ www.thevalleyscw.tv]

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

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 m) north of the Alabama state line.

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, along with NBC's termination of its affiliation with the station (resulting in WAFF becoming the sole NBC affiliate in the Huntsville DMA) probably played the decisive role in influencing WOWL-TV's local owners to sell to outside interests, who decided to redirect the signal and the coverage area eastward, toward the growing Huntsville-Decatur market and roll out UPN in the market under the new call letters WHDF. WAAY-TV packaged a 9 p.m. newscast for WHDF for its first two years with UPN.

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.)

Digital Television

The station's digital channel:

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.http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf]

References

External links

* [http://www.thevalleyscw.tv/ www.thevalleyscw.tv]
*TVQ|WHDF
*BIA|WHDF|TV|TV
*TitanTV|WHDF