florence branding the valley s cw channels digital 14 uhf virtual 15 psip subchannels 15.1 the cw affiliations the cw 2006 present owner lockwood broadcast group huntsville tv llc first air date october 28 1957 ; 58 years ago 1957 10 28 call letters meaning huntsville decatur florence 1 former callsigns wowl tv 1957 2000 former channel number s analog 15 1957 2009 former affiliations nbc 1957 2000 upn 2000 2006 transmitter power 1000 kw height 431 m facility id 65128 transmitter coordinates 35 0 5.7 n 87 8 3.9 w 35.001583 n 87.134417 w 35.001583 ; 87.134417 website www.thevalleyscw.tv whdf is the cw affiliated television station for the tennessee valley area of north alabama . licensed to florence the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 14 from a transmitter located southeast of minor hill tennessee just 500 yards 450 m north of the alabama state line . owned by lockwood broadcast group whdf maintains studios on cypress mill road in florence with a huntsville sales office on andrew jackson way in the five points neighborhood . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 references 4 external links history edit the station began on october 28 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 or even tupelo wtva whose signals reached much of its broadcast area . however it retained viewership in the shoals region florence sheffield muscle shoals tuscumbia and areas known as the shoals recently and referred to as the quad cities years ago by offering local newscasts which for most of the station s 40 plus years were the only tv newscasts concerned specifically with northwestern alabama . over time though with the huntsville stations expanding news bureaus of their own into the shoals wowl lost much of its traditional advantage in that regard . put together with nbc s ratings declines of the 1990s the owners opted to sell to outside interests who swapped network affiliation to the upstart united paramount network upn and moved the transmitter and tower to giles county tennessee . the relocation was undertaken in order to re position the station to serve the entire huntsville decatur florence market not just northwestern alabama as in the past . in 2004 lockwood broadcast group acquired whdf . lockwood broadcast group s broadcast operation service solution provides content delivery and back office function from lockwood s richmond virginia operation headquarters . completed in 2007 the hub facility has remotely operated whdf since that year . 2 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 . local employees at whdf s florence and huntsville facilities total fewer than ten according to census business statistics in 2010 . digital television edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 15.1 1080i 16 9 whdf dt main whdf programming the cw analog to digital conversion edit whdf shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 15 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 4 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 14 5 using psip to display whdf s virtual channel as 15 on digital television receivers . references edit nelson bob 2008 10 18 . call letter origins . the broadcast archive . retrieved 2008 10 31 . http www.lockwoodbroadcast.com rabbitears tv query for whdf list of digital full power stations cdbs print external links edit www.thevalleyscw.tv query the fcc s tv station database for whdf biafn s media web database information on whdf tv program information for whdf at titantv.com v t e television stations in northern alabama including huntsville decatur florence and the shoals reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations wxfl ld 10.1 dream tv wtzt cd 11.1 cozi tv whdf 15.1 cw whnt tv 19.1 cbs 19.2 whnt2 hd 19.3 antenna tv whiq wfiq 25.1 36.1 pbs apt 25.2 36.2 world 25.3 36.3 create wmjn lp 29.1 heartland 29.2 retro tv waay tv 31.1 abc 31.2 wx 31.3 qvc over the air wnal ld 32.1 pbj w17dj d 38.1 3abn 38.2 3abn proclaim 38.3 dare to dream 38.4 3abn latino 38.5 3abn radio 38.6 3abn radio latino 38.7 radio 74 wbcf ld 39.1 me u tv 39.2 youtoo america 39.3 biz tv waff tv 48.1 nbc 48.2 bounce tv 48.3 grittv wyam ld 51.1 launch tv 51.2 azteca 51.3 wyam am simulcast wzdx 54.1 fox 54.2 mntv asn 54.3 metv 54.4 escape whvd ld 67.1 daystar adjacent locals wmae 12 pbs mpb wngh 18 pbs booneville ms gpb dalton ga cable channels wamy 8 mntv defunct stations wyle 26 the wb s h jtv w46cf 46 w59cf 59 ubn w64bj 64 tbn w67co 67 tbn via wtjp tv gadsden al see also memphis tv nashville tv chattanooga tv atlanta tv birmingham tv tupelo tv v t e cw network affiliates in the state of alabama wtvy dt 4.3 dothan whdf 15 florence wtto 21 wdbb 17 homewood bessemer birmingham wbmm 22 montgomery wfna 55 gulf shores mobile see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in alabama v t e lockwood broadcast group abc network affiliate kake klby kupk wichita kten dt3 sherman ada cw network affiliates kten dt2 sherman ada wcwg greensboro whdf huntsville independent station wknx knoxville wsky norfolk nbc network affiliate kten sherman ada retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title whdf & oldid 739519645 categories the cw affiliatesupn network affiliateslockwood broadcasting grouptelevision channels and stations established in 1957florence muscle shoals metropolitan areatelevision stations in alabama navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 september 2016 at 05 00 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms 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