WPBI-LD (channel 16) is a low-power television station in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

, United States, affiliated with

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC alongside

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate

WPBY-LD WPBY-LD (channel 35) is a low-power television station in Lafayette, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC alongside dual Fox/NBC affiliate WPBI-LD (channel 16). Both stations s ...

(channel 35). Both stations share studios on South 18th Street in Lafayette, while WPBI-LD's transmitter is located on McCarty Lane on the city's east side; the signal is oriented to the northwest.

History

The station's

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

was issued by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) on February 22, 2011, under the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

of W16DB-D. The station's call sign was changed back and forth between WPBH-LD and WPBI-LD in August and October 2016 until October 18, 2016, when WPBI was settled upon. WPBI-LD started airing on October 25, 2016. The station signed on from the start as the Lafayette area's Fox affiliate, with NBC being launched on the second subchannel. Prior to the launch of WPBI-LD its owner, Lafayette TV LLC purchased four Lafayette market radio stations from Artistic Media Partners Inc. WPBI-LD's two subchannels are the first Fox and NBC affiliates ever based in the Lafayette

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

; before the station signed on, Indianapolis television stations

WXIN WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington, Indiana, Bloomington-licensed C ...

and

WTHR WTHR (channel 13) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power, Class A MeTV affiliate WALV-CD (channel 46). Both stations share studios on North Meridian S ...

served as the default Fox and NBC affiliates for Lafayette via cable and satellite. Cable television providers

Comcast Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...

and Metronet began carrying WPBI in November 2016. Despite discontinuing carriage of Indianapolis-based Fox and NBC affiliates, satellite television provider

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

has said it plans to carry WPBI-LD and WPBI-LD2 but has not announced its timetable for doing so. From 1953 until WPBI's 2016 launch,

WLFI-TV WLFI-TV (channel 18) is a television station in Lafayette, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Entertainment Studios, Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Yeager Road in West Lafayette, I ...

had been the only " Big Three" (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and NBC—or, including Fox, "big four") network television broadcaster in the Lafayette market.

Programming

Sports programming

WPBI-LD1 carries select

Purdue Boilermakers football The Purdue Boilermakers football team represents Purdue University in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. Purdue plays its home games at Ross–Ade Stadium on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. ...

games via ''

Fox College Football ''Fox College Football'' (or ''Fox CFB'' for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2. Initial college football broadcasts on th ...

''. WPBI-LD2 blacks out NBC's live broadcast of the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

to prevent Indianapolis market viewers from driving to Lafayette to see the race, and airs it on tape delay along with WTHR.

News operation

After beginning local weather coverage on January 1, 2017, WPBI aired its inaugural ''Star City News'' broadcast on May 29, 2017. WPBI presently broadcasts 7½ hours of local newscasts each week, all on weekdays. The newscasts air at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. on NBC 16 and at 10:00 p.m. on Fox 16. The 6 p.m. newscast is exclusive to WPBI-LD2, while the 11 p.m. newscast also simulcasts on WPBY-LD. Chris Morisse Vizza, a 10-year veteran of WLFI-TV, is WPBI's first news director. Sarah Blakely is the station's inaugural news anchor, broadcasting from a Media Gateway-owned studio in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, airing segments from Lafayette-based Vizza. Blakely also anchors similar newscasts on sister station

KJNB-LD KJNB-LD (channel 39) is a low-power television station in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with Fox and CBS. Owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, the station maintains a small office in the Regions Bank Building ...

Jonesboro, Arkansas Jonesboro is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 78,576 and is the f ...

. Radio tie-ins of the newscasts are planned for

WSHY WSHY (1410 AM) is a commercial radio station in Lafayette, Indiana. It broadcasts a conservative talk radio format. WSHY is owned by Star City Broadcasting (a joint venture between Waypoint Media and Vision Communications) as part of a cl ...

, WBPE,

WYCM WYCM (95.7 FM "Y95") is a radio station in Lafayette, Indiana, owned by Star City Broadcasting (a joint venture between Waypoint Media and Vision Communications) as part of a cluster with Fox/ NBC affiliate WPBI-LD, ABC affiliate WPBY-L ...

, and

WAZY-FM WAZY-FM (96.5 MHz "Z96-5") is a radio station in Lafayette, Indiana, owned by Star City Broadcasting (a joint venture between Waypoint Media and Vision Communications) as part of a cluster with Fox/NBC affiliate WPBI-LD, ABC affiliate WPBY-LD, ...

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

References

External links

* {{NBC Indiana Low-power television stations in the United States Fox network affiliates NBC network affiliates PBI-LD Television channels and stations established in 2016 2016 establishments in Indiana