for the association football league see west lancashire football league . wlfl raleigh durham fayetteville north carolina united states city raleigh north carolina branding cw 22 general abc 11 eyewitness news wtvd produced newscasts slogan tv now general breaking news . breaking stories . news channels digital 27 uhf virtual 22 psip subchannels 22.1 the cw 22.2 asn affiliations the cw 2006 present owner sinclair broadcast group wlfl licensee llc first air date december 18 1981 ; 34 years ago 1981 12 18 call letters meaning light for living slogan used by original owner prior to sign on sister station s wrdc wmya tv wmyv wlos wxlv tv former callsigns wlfl tv 1981 1993 former channel number s analog 22 uhf 1981 2009 digital 57 uhf 2009 former affiliations independent 1981 1986 fox 1986 1998 the wb 1998 2006 transmitter power 725 kw height 610 m class dt facility id 73205 transmitter coordinates 35 40 28 n 78 31 40 w 35.67444 n 78.52778 w 35.67444 ; 78.52778 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website raleighcw.com wlfl virtual channel 22 uhf digital channel 27 is a cw affiliated television station located in raleigh north carolina united states and serves north carolina s triangle region . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate wrdc channel 28 . the two stations share studios on highwoods boulevard in raleigh and its transmitter is located in auburn north carolina . contents 1 history 1.1 cw affiliation 2 out of market cable and directv coverage 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 programming 5 news operation 6 references 7 external links history edit the analog uhf channel 22 allotment was in the planning stages as early as 1976 as a station with mostly christian oriented religious programs and some secular family shows . it was to have been operated by l.l. buddy leathers and his carolina christian communications a broadcasting company whose flagship was wggs in greenville south carolina . carolina christian had several construction permits in the carolinas . the station s permit was bought out by family television in 1980 with the intention to sign on in late september 1981 . however those plans were scuttled due to technical problems and bad weather . it finally went on the air as wlfl tv standing for light for living at 2 p.m. on december 18 1981 with the movie love is a many splendored thing as its inaugural program following a day of test patterns . it was the triangle s first full market independent station outlet . another earlier station with the same format wkft tv channel 40 now wuvc had signed on a few months before but did not have an adequate signal to most of the market at the time . wlfl was a typical uhf independent running cartoons dramas westerns older sitcoms and older movies in addition to religious programming . while licensed to raleigh its studios were initially at 2410 broad street in durham the same building where wtvd originally began operations in 1954 with its master control facility located with the transmission and tower facility near apex . in 1985 wlfl was purchased by the norfolk virginia based tvx broadcast group . the company upgraded the station s programming eventually resulting in channel 22 becoming the third highest rated station in the triangle area . a year later tvx moved wlfl s operations into new studios on front street in raleigh just inside the beltline i 440 . on october 9 1986 wlfl became a charter affiliate of fox along with the other tvx stations . the station also replaced its original 1 000 foot 300 m transmitter tower and one megawatt erp transmission facility with a new 1 700 foot 520 m tower and five megawatt visual 500 kw aural erp transmission antenna . tvx sold off most of its mid size market stations in 1988 following its purchase of taft broadcasting s independent stations and fox affiliates . it held onto wlfl until its merger with paramount pictures in 1991 after which the group was renamed paramount stations group . by this time it was one of the strongest fox affiliates in the country . in 1993 the station became one of the first to drop the tv suffix from its call sign . former logo as a wb affiliate used from 1998 to 2006 . paramount sold wlfl to the sinclair broadcast group in 1994 and entered into a local marketing agreement lma with wrdc the following year . that station was owned by glencairn ltd. a separate entity that was majority owned by the smith family founders and owners of sinclair . for all intents and purposes sinclair had a duopoly in the market even before sinclair purchased wrdc outright in 2001 . while wlfl was the senior partner in the deal it vacated its front street studios that year and moved the combined operation to wrdc s new facility in the nearby highwoods office complex . wncn which acquired the market s nbc affiliation from wrdc in september 1995 moved into wlfl s old studios at the same time . in 1996 fox announced it would not renew its affiliation contract with the station when it got involved in a dispute with sinclair over programming issues during the 10 p.m. slot . even though fox later relented it still managed to seek a new affiliation with wraz in 1998 leaving wlfl to pick up programming from the wb . cw affiliation edit on january 24 2006 cbs corporation and time warner announced that they would shut down upn and the wb and would move the higher rated programs from those two networks onto a new service the cw . 1 2 on february 22 news corporation announced it would start up another new network called mynetworktv . 3 this service which would be a sister network to fox would be operated by fox television stations and its syndication division 20th television . mynetworktv was created in order to give upn and wb stations that were not mentioned as becoming cw affiliates another option besides becoming independent stations and was also created to compete against the cw . it was initially seen as a foregone conclusion that wlfl would be the cw s triangle affiliate as it was by far the stronger of the two stations in sinclair s triangle duopoly . network representatives were on record as favoring the strongest stations among the wb and upn s affiliate slates . however when the new network announced its first group of stations outside the core group of tribune company and cbs corporation owned stations wlfl was not on the list . in february wrdc was announced as an affiliate of mynetworktv . it was not until may 2 when sinclair and the cw signed an affiliation deal for all sinclair operated wb affiliates not slated to join mynetworktv . as a cw affiliate wlfl airs the network s children s programming block branded as one magnificent morning since october 2014 two hours earlier than most other eastern time zone affiliates of the cw from 5 to 10 a.m. sinclair was involved in a retransmission dispute with time warner cable the triangle s largest cable provider . wlfl and wrdc s original carriage agreement ended on december 31 2010 . the issue involved fees that twc was willing to pay for programming on wlfl and wrdc . 4 negotiations between the two parties were extended for another two weeks and were set to expire on january 15 until an agreement was finally reached . any blackout would in effect have limited access for both wlfl and wrdc to a number of cable households within the market . however both stations are also available through satellite providers directv and dish network along with at & t s u verse service . 5 on may 15 2012 sinclair and fox agreed to a five year affiliation agreement extension for the group s 19 fox affiliated stations until 2017 . this included an option that was exercisable between july 1 2012 and march 31 2013 for fox parent news corporation to buy a combination of six sinclair owned stations two cw mynetworktv duopolies and two standalone mynetworktv affiliates in three out of four markets ; wlfl and wrdc were included in the fox purchase option along with sinclair stations in cincinnati wstr tv norfolk wtvz and las vegas kvcw and kvmy . 6 in january 2013 fox announced that it would not exercise its option to buy any of the sinclair stations in the aforementioned four markets . it chose instead to purchase the charlotte cw mynetworktv duopoly of wjzy and wmyt tv and converted wjzy into a fox o & o in july 2013 displacing that market s fox affiliate wccb . 7 on january 8 2016 sinclair announced that american sports network would launch as a dedicated digital multicast network under the american sports network name with 10 stations including wlfl on january 11 2016 . 8 out of market cable and directv coverage edit in recent years wlfl has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the greensboro and greenville media markets in north carolina . 9 on directv wlfl is carried in the wilmington market since the cw affiliate for that market wway dt2 was previously carried on cable only . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 10 22.1 720p 16 9 wlfl hd main wlfl programming the cw 22.2 480i 16 9 wlfl d2 american sports network analog to digital conversion edit wlfl discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 22 on february 17 2009 five months ahead of the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . it was one of three stations in the triangle market along with wrdc and independent station wray tv that decided to switch on that date even though the official transition date had been changed to june 12 2009 . although it had an assigned digital channel that it would move to post transition that differed from its original digital channel wlfl continued to broadcast its digital signal on its pre transition allocation uhf channel 57 . the station s digital signal relocated to uhf channel 27 at noon on june 12 2009 as the station s original digital channel allocation was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition . 11 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 22 . programming edit syndicated programming on the station includes how i met your mother hot in cleveland the simpsons family guy and maury . the station can also be seen on time warner cable channel 2 and in high definition on digital channel 1122 . news operation edit after fox required most of its affiliates to air local newscasts in the early 1990s or face disaffiliation wlfl established a news department and launched a nightly primetime show entitled the fox 22 ten o clock news in 1992 . it was the second attempt at a local news program in the 10 p.m. timeslot since an independent outlet in fayetteville wkft cancelled the area s first prime time newscast back in 1989 . unlike wlfl s operation that station s newscasts focused more on the southern parts of the triangle market and sold advertising seen during the production specifically to those areas . it began having newscast competition in september 1995 shortly after the sign on of wraz . from the start this effort was produced by wral and was also seen every