WLFI-TV: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=FebruaryMarch 20192023}}

| branding = {{ubl|WLFI 18; ''(general)''<br />''News 18'' ''(newscasts)''<br />|Lafayette's CW18 ''(DT2)''}}

| affiliations = {{ubl|'''18.1:''' [[CBS]]<br />|'''18.2:''' [[The CW Plus|CW+]]<br />|'''18.3:''' [[Ion Television]]<br />|'''18.4:''' [[GetTV]]}}

| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|'''Analog:'''<br />|59 ([[Ultra high frequency|UHF]], 1953–1957)<br />|18 (UHF, 1957–2009)}}

| former_affiliations = {{ubl|'''Secondary:'''<br />|[[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] (1953–1956)<br />|[[NTA Film Network|NTA]] (1956–1961)<br />'''DT2:'''<br />[[TheCoolTV]] (2011–2013)}}

The station first signed on the air at 6:00&nbsp;p.m. on June 15, 1953, as '''WFAM-TV''',<ref>http://www.wlfi.com/Global/story.asp?S=6512244</ref> broadcasting on [[Ultra high frequency|UHF]] channel 59. It was founded by O.E. Richardson, owner of radio station [[WASK (AM)|WASK]] (1450 AM).<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://uhfhistory.com/articles/wfam.html|title=History of UHF Television: WFAM-TV/59, Lafayette IN|access-date=June 11, 2019}}</ref> The station originally operated as a primary CBS and DuMont affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the [[NTA Film Network]].<ref name="Boxoffice7">{{Citation| title = Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films| journal = Boxoffice| pages = 13| date = November 10, 1956| url = http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1}}</ref>

In 1957, both the television station and the radio station were sold to assistant station manager Henry Rosenthal and his partners, who filed with the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) to move WFAM-TV to channel 18, but the station instead went dark in May 1959. Rosenthal sold the station to [[Sarkes Tarzian]], a radio manufacturer based in [[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]], which also owned primary [[NBC]]/secondary [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] affiliate [[WTTV]] (now a CBS affiliate) in [[Indianapolis]] and ABC affiliate [[WPTA]] in [[Fort Wayne, Indiana|Fort Wayne]]. It was Tarzian who finished the relocation to channel 18, returning WFAM-TV to the air on that channel on November 15 of that year.<ref name="auto"/> (The channel 59 allocation remained dormant until the FCC later reassigned the allotment to Indianapolis used by WPDS-TV—now [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliate [[WXIN]]—in February 1984.) The station changed its call letters to '''WLFI-TV''' in 1967. In 1979, the station was purchased by [[Block Communications]]. In 2000, [[LIN Media|LIN TV Corporation]] acquired WLFI from Block in exchange for a 67% ownership interest in ABC affiliate [[WAND]] (now an NBC affiliate) in [[Decatur, Illinois]] (LIN TV later sold off its remaining 33% interest in WAND to Block Communications).