states branding wfft local general wfft local news newscasts channels digital 36 uhf virtual 55 psip subchannels 55.1 fox 55.2 bounce tv affiliations fox 1986 2011 and since 2013 owner nexstar broadcasting group sale to heartland media pending nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date december 21 1977 call letters meaning we re fifty five television former analog and current psip channel number former channel number s analog 55 uhf 1977 2009 former affiliations primary independent 1977 1986 and 2011 2013 secondary upn 1995 2003 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 219 m facility id 25040 transmitter coordinates 41 6 33.4 n 85 11 42.2 w 41.109278 n 85.195056 w 41.109278 ; 85.195056 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fortwaynehomepage.net wfft tv virtual channel 55 uhf digital channel 36 is a fox affiliated television station located in fort wayne indiana united states . the station is owned by the nexstar broadcasting group . wfft s studios and transmitter are both located on hillegas road in fort wayne . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.2 joining disaffiliating and rejoining fox 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 4 out of market carriage and removal from out of market cable providers 5 references 6 external links history edit as an independent station edit the station signed on the air on december 21 1977 as an independent station . many shows on wfft during its early days had not been seen in the market since their original airing on network television ; among the classic series it aired were the little rascals superman batman battlestar galactica star trek night gallery the wild wild west and mchale s navy . for a time the station carried abc shows that were preempted by wpta which usually included shows that were part of the abc late night block . in january 1978 just one month after it signed on the midwestern united states suffered through a snowstorm known as the great blizzard of 1978 . due to the severity of the storm engineers were trapped at the station and rather than sign off the air as they normally would they got permission from management to simply continue transmitting . they filled the time with information about the weather situation to the degree that they could given their limited resources and public domain films and videos from the station s library . the appeal of 24 hour broadcasting was so popular it would later end up staying on the air all night each friday and saturday on a regular basis during a time when the other fort wayne stations would sign off for the night around 1 00 or 2 00 a.m. ; it filled the overnight timeslot with a feature film showcase called nite owl theatre which began with the beginning refrain of i ve been searching so long by chicago as its theme music . in later years friday late nights featured classic horror movies such as frankenstein dracula the wolfman the mole people and invasion of the body snatchers hosted by a character called the shroud on nightmare theatre of which only one episode is currently known to exist 1 . the station provided a much needed alternative to viewers in the fort wayne area particularly younger viewers with its array of cartoons movies and old sitcoms . this was especially important for those who did not have cable and could not watch regional or national superstations such as wttv from indianapolis or wgn tv from chicago illinois . at one time wfft was voted the 1 independent station in the united states a feat that was especially remarkable since fort wayne was one of the smallest markets in the country at the time to have an independent station . beginning in 1982 the station carried programming from cnn headline news during various parts of the day including the overnight hours on weekdays . it also provided some coverage of local events such as the three rivers festival . the station also served as the official fort wayne outlet for chicago cubs baseball . wfft was also remembered for its happy s place and froggy s pad children s programs in the 1980s and 1990s . happy s place was known for its two hour block of syndicated children s programs that initially aired from 3 00 to 5 00 p.m. during programming breaks happy the hobo would emcee children s activities from the wfft studios . also on the broadcast were characters such as froggy chester t. fox and lawn boy . froggy s pad was a morning show spun off from happy s place that featured the raspy voiced frog puppet presenting animated shows . joining disaffiliating and rejoining fox edit wfft became a charter affiliate of fox at the network s launch on october 6 1986 and was branded as super 55 fox in the early to mid 1990 s. in the late 1990s amidst the station s shift away from programming that was produced locally at its studios the happy s place program was retooled . segments were taped on location and sometimes even in transit and featured area attractions such as the fort wayne children s zoo . this format did not last long and the show was later cancelled . after this point wfft s programming apart from the fox schedule was centered around syndicated fare including daytime talk and court shows and reruns of network sitcoms . after the launch of upn on january 16 1995 wfft began carrying the fledgling network through a secondary affiliation . the network s programming eventually moved to cbs affiliate wane tv channel 15 full time on a new second digital subchannel by the mid 2000s ; when upn and rival netlet the wb were shut down to form a combined network in 2006 wpta channel 21 gained the resulting cw affiliation for its own subchannel . wfft changed its on air branding from fox 55 to fox fort wayne on january 1 2008 to reflect its various cable channel positions in the market . fox announced on june 20 2011 that it would end its affiliation with wfft and sister station ksfx tv now kozl tv in springfield missouri ; its fort wayne affiliation moved to mynetworktv affiliate wise dt2 on august 1 . nexstar had earlier lost the fox affiliation for wtvw in evansville indiana following a dispute with the network over retransmission consent fees that it wanted its stations to pay to the network . 2 3 wfft along with wxin in indianapolis had been the longest tenured fox affiliates in indiana nexstar would later voluntarily disaffiliate another indiana station wfxw now wawv tv in terre haute from fox in favor of switching the station s affiliation back to abc the network it was affiliated with until 1995 . the last fox program to air on wfft was a repeat of american dad on july 31 2011 . on july 25 2011 nexstar broadcasting filed an antitrust lawsuit against granite broadcasting claiming that the company tried to monopolize advertising sales through its shared services agreement with wpta owned by malara broadcast group and the five network affiliations shared between wpta and wise tv wpta carries abc on its primary channel and the cw on a second digital subchannel while wise tv carries nbc on its primary channel as fox and mynetworktv shared that station s second digital subchannel . nexstar sought a judgment to force either wpta tv or wise tv to give up at least one of the three big four affiliations they had 4 the impetus of the lawsuit became ironic as nexstar which itself maintains outsourcing agreements with stations it does not own outright in most of the markets where it does own a tv outlet later created a virtual quadropoly composed of four network affiliated stations in little rock through its 2012 acquisition of 15 stations from newport television . 5 wfft reverted to independent status on august 1 2011 which made fort wayne one of the only television markets in the united states with all three historical broadcast networks abc cbs and nbc with primary affiliations and all three current post 1986 networks fox the cw and the mynetworktv program service carried as digital multicast channels in a market with four commercial full power stations . as an independent the station filled its primetime schedule with a mix of entertainment newsmagazines and sitcoms on weeknights a two hour saturday crimetime block of police procedural series on saturdays and family movies on sundays . 6 on february 6 2013 as part of a settlement of nexstar s lawsuit against granite the company announced that the fox affiliation would return to wfft ; the switch was effectively reversed on march 1 2013 making wfft the only former fox affiliate owned or managed by nexstar that was affected by the 2011 dispute with fox to rejoin the network . 7 8 9 the first fox program to air on wfft when it rejoined the network was an episode of kitchen nightmares . nexstar announced on june 13 2016 that it would sell wfft tv and four other stations to heartland media through its usa television midamerica holdings joint venture with msouth equity partners for 115 million . the sale was required as part of nexstar s planned merger with media general to comply with federal communications commission fcc ownership caps ; media general is the owner of rival wane tv . 10 digital television edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 11 55.1 720p 16 9 wfft hd main wfft tv programming fox 55.2 480i 4 3 bounce tv 12 13 analog to digital conversion edit wfft began broadcasting its digital signal on uhf channel 36 in 2003 . until december 2007 the signal transmitted programming only in standard definition at an effective radiated power of 980 watts limiting reception to within miles of the station . in may 2009 the digital signal was upgraded to full power . it now broadcasts high definition programming in the 720p format although it aired in 1080i between leaving and rejoining the fox network . 14 wfft shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 55 at 6 01 p.m. on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 36 . 15 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 55 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition . on january 1 2014 wfft began carrying bounce tv on a newly created digital subchannel 55.2 . 16 news operation edit wfft presently broadcasts seven hours of locally produced newscasts each week with one hour each on weekdays saturdays and sundays ; in addition the station also airs a half hour weekly sports wrap up show titled the locker room airing on sunday evenings after the 10 p.m. newscast . 6 for most of the station s history wfft did not have a regular newscast . in 1980 it formed its initial news department and aired a half hour primetime news program known as the 10 o clock report ; this was established during a time of heavy competition from other newscasts . as an independent wfft did not have network shows that could lead into its newscast so consistent viewership and ratings were difficult to maintain . the news team consisted of only five people and personnel would shoot and edit their own video . 17 after that broadcast s cancellation a year later wfft delivered news bulletins in primetime for almost two decades . on