united states branding sfl tv general newsfix sfl newscast slogan south florida s cw primary for the fun of it secondary channels digital 19 uhf virtual 39 psip affiliations .1 the cw .2 justice network .3 antenna tv .4 this tv owner tribune broadcasting wsfl llc first air date june 1 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 06 01 call letters meaning we re in south florida former callsigns wdzl 1982 1998 wbzl 1998 2006 former channel number s analog 39 uhf 1982 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1982 1995 pten 1993 1995 the wb 1995 2006 secondary fox 1990 1997 dt2 the tube 2006 2007 azteca america 2007 2015 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 276 m facility id 10203 transmitter coordinates 25 58 8.3 n 80 13 19.2 w 25.968972 n 80.222000 w 25.968972 ; 80.222000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website sflcw.com wsfl tv virtual channel 39 uhf digital channel 19 is a cw affiliated television station located in miami florida united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of tribune media company . wsfl tv maintains studio facilities which are shared with the sun sentinel newspaper located on east las olas boulevard and southeast 2nd street in fort lauderdale ; its transmitter is located between northwest 210th and 207th streets in andover . on cable the station is carried on comcast xfinity s system in west palm beach despite the presence of in market cw affiliate wtvx . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.2 as a wb affiliate 1.3 as a cw affiliate 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 newscasts 4 references 5 external links history edit as an independent station edit the station first signed on the air on june 1 1982 as wdzl . it was originally owned by channel 39 broadcasting ltd. operating as an independent station the station maintained a general entertainment format consisting of cartoons off network dramas classic movies a few older off network sitcoms and religious programs . odyssey partners which would later evolve into renaissance broadcasting and which had owned wtxx now wcct tv in waterbury connecticut owned an interest in wdzl . in december 1984 grant broadcasting system signed on competing independent wbfs tv channel 33 with a stronger general entertainment lineup and surpassed wdzl in the ratings immediately . still wdzl was profitable especially with the large amount of barter cartoons that was available to the station . it was still running programs that other area stations passed on until the wave of affiliation switches in january 1989 . when wcix channel 6 now wfor tv on channel 4 was sold to cbs and dropped most of its syndicated programs fox programming moved to wsvn channel 7 which lost its nbc affiliation to wtvj channel 4 now on channel 6 which became an nbc owned station at that time . a couple of the cartoons that wcix held rights to were acquired by wsvn to air on weekend mornings . most of wcix s movie packages also were purchased by wsvn . a couple of syndicated programs also remained on wcix . but the rest of the programs that were dropped from wcix mostly cartoons and sitcoms were acquired by wdzl . this helped wdzl to become a far stronger independent station by the early 1990s . the station acquired the rights to fox kids after wsvn dropped the programming block in 1993 . as a wb affiliate edit wdzl became a charter wb affiliate when the network debuted on january 11 1995 . in 1997 the tribune company acquired renaissance communications six television stations . 1 as kids wb formerly the fun zone programming expanded to three hours on weekdays the station dropped fox kids which moved to home shopping network station wyhs channel 69 now wami tv . channel 39 altered its call letters to wbzl simply replacing the d with a b in 1998 to emphasize its affiliation with the wb . 2 throughout its affiliation with the network the station was branded on air as wb 39 . by that point wbzl began airing more first run talk and reality shows during the daytime hours along with children s programming and off network sitcoms in the evenings . by 2005 it was the only remaining station in south florida that still ran children s programs on weekday afternoons due to the presence of kids wb which would discontinue its weekday afternoon block nationwide on december 30 2005 leaving only a five hour lineup on saturday mornings . wsfl s cw logo used from september 17 2006 to september 1 2008 . wsfl s logo as sfl used from september 1 2008 to february 2012 . as a cw affiliate edit on january 24 2006 the warner bros. unit of time warner and cbs corporation announced that the two companies would shut down the wb and upn and combine the networks respective programming to create a new fifth network called the cw . 3 4 on the day of the announcement tribune broadcasting signed a ten year agreement to affiliate 16 of its wb affiliates including wbzl with the cw . however it would not have been an upset had wbfs which is owned by cbs corporation subsidiary cbs television stations been chosen as miami s cw station . representatives for the network were on record as preferring the strongest wb and upn stations to become the cw s charter affiliates and miami fort lauderdale was one of the few markets where the wb and upn stations both had relatively strong viewership . throughout the summer wbzl started using the cw logo in station promotions and also began referring to itself as cw south florida . on september 17 the station changed its call letters to wsfl tv to reference to its geographic location . wsfl became a charter cw affiliate with the network debuted the next day on september 18 . on september 1 2008 in a corporate move by tribune to de emphasize references to the cw in the branding of its cw affiliated stations channel 39 was rebranded as sfl and it debuted a logo featuring the stylistic capital s in the sun sentinel nameplate logo . around the same time wsfl moved its operations into the fort lauderdale offices of the sun sentinel newspaper . 5 by february 2012 the station rebranded as sfl tv to de emphasize its connection to the sun sentinel as wsfl no longer offers full scale local newscasts . 6 on july 10 2013 tribune announced plans to spin off its publishing division into a separate company . the split was finalized in 2014 and wsfl tv remain with the tribune company which retain all non publishing assets including the broadcasting digital media and media services units while its newspapers including the sun sentinel became part of the similarly named tribune publishing company . 7 digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 39.1 1080i 16 9 wsfl dt main wsfl tv programming the cw 39.2 480i 4 3 justice justice network 39.3 ant tv antenna tv 39.4 this tv this tv 9 in 2006 the station began carrying the tube a 24 hour music video network on its digital subchannel 39.2 and comcast digital cable channel 224 . the network was dropped on october 1 2007 when that network ceased operations due to a multitude of factors including issues with other station groups regarding carriage of e i programming and financial issues . analog to digital conversion edit wsfl tv terminated its analog signal on uhf channel 39 on june 12 2009 as part of federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 10 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 19 . through the use of psip digital television receivers display wsfl tv s virtual channel as 39 . newscasts edit in 1997 nbc owned and operated station wtvj and the sun sentinel entered into a partnership to co produce a nightly 10 00 p.m. newscast on wdzl titled wb 39 news at 10 . 11 when the station became a cw affiliate the newscast s title was changed accordingly to cw news at 10 . on march 5 2008 wtvj began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition ; the 10 00 p.m. broadcast on wsfl was included in the upgrade . for the duration of the 2008 summer olympics wsfl s newscast utilized a two anchor format and closely mirrored the format of the newscasts airing on wtvj . the 10 00 p.m. newscast during this time was broadcast from wtvj s primary news set at peacock plaza in miramar with the only alterations being differences in the set s duratrans for the wsfl newscast . the wtvj produced newscast on wsfl was one of a handful of newscasts that were produced through news share agreements with tribune owned stations including newscasts airing sister stations wphl tv in philadelphia whose 10 00 p.m. newscast was originally produced by nbc owned wcau and has since transferred production to abc owned wpvi tv and krcw tv in portland oregon whose primetime newscast is produced by nbc affiliate kgw . on august 26 2008 wtvj and wsfl agreed to terminate their news share agreement most likely due to wtvj s planned acquisition by post newsweek stations owner of abc affiliate wplg channel 10 which was later aborted due to financial issues and lack of fcc approval ; the final broadcast of the 10 00 p.m. newscast aired on august 31 . wsfl later began to produce a weekday morning news program which aired for four hours from 5 00 to 9 00 a.m. on april 13 2009 ; the program was broadcast out of the sun sentinel s former auditorium on the first floor of the sun sentinel building on las olas in fort lauderdale . the morning show was canceled on august 4 2010 due to low ratings . 12 the station continues to produce the public affairs program south florida voices on sunday mornings at 6 a.m. which is hosted by deborah ally ; this program was relaunched with a new host and under a new title in september 2010 . 12 wsfl also began producing nightly news updates in mid august 2010 which air five times a day . 12 wsfl also produces local news inserts that appear during its broadcast of eyeopener which is produced by dallas sister station kdaf on weekday mornings . 6 on september 28 2015 wsfl tv became the third station to launch the tribune developed news format newsfix launching a half hour prime time newscast newsfix sfl at 10 00 . the format de emphasizes the traditional use of anchors and reporters in favor of using footage featuring those involved and continuity provided by a narrator to help illustrate the story . 13 14 references edit tribune closes tv purchases south florida sun sentinel march 26 1997 . channel 39 changes its call letters south florida sun sentinel april 27 1998 . gilmore girls meet smackdown ; cw network to combine wb upn in cbs warner venture beginning in september cnnmoney.com january 24 2006 . upn and wb to combine forming new tv network the new york times january 24 2006 . tv station paper to share offices south florida sun sentinel march 20 2008 . a b malone michael february 10 2012 . tribune s wsfl rebrands in miami . broadcasting & cable . retrieved february 10 2012 . tribune co. to split in two . new york times . retrieved july 10 2013 . rabbitears tv query for wsfl http tvlistings.zap2it.com tvlistings zcsgrid.do stnnum 68675 & channel 39.3 list of digital full power stations permanent dead link ch . 39 adds ch . 6 newscast at 10 south florida sun sentinel december 13 1996