WPDF-LP (channel 56) was a low-power television station in

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

, United States, which broadcast from January 1989 to March 2002. Until November 1996, the station was the

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 ...

affiliate for parts of northeastern South Carolina.

History

The station began broadcasting on January 31, 1989, as W56CC. It was owned by WELY, Inc., which in turn was named for owner Edward L. Young, a former congressman. In 1991, Young had filed to buy the construction permit for a new full-power station on channel 21 in Florence, WFIL, though no sale ever materialized. Known first by its translator call letters and then as "WELY-TV", the station became known as WEYB-LP on December 5, 1995. However, some cable systems continued to carry Fox programming not through the local station but via

Foxnet Foxnet was an American cable television channel that was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group division of News Corporation. Serving as a national feed of the Fox Broadcasting Company (known simply as Fox), the service was intended for American t ...

. Additionally, channel 56 itself served only Florence;

Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

viewers tuned to WSFX-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, while far southern portions of the market received either WTAT-TV from

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...

or WACH from

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

. Though the full-power channel 21 station, WWMB, eventually signed on in 1994, it did not affiliate with the new network, with WWMB being a primary UPN outlet. However, on November 10, 1996, WEYB-LP lost Fox to the newly renamed

WFXB WFXB (channel 43) is a television station licensed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States, serving the Grand Strand and Pee Dee regions of South Carolina as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by Bahakel Communications, the station mai ...

(channel 43), which had been sold and converted to a secular station; that station beat out WWMB for the affiliation. WEYB-LP was then sold, with the new owners—JME Media, which also owned WFXB—dropping all remaining local programming, including a daily community affairs program hosted by market veteran Doug Williams which had aired on the station for nearly all of its existence; channel 56 was converted into a Network One affiliate in June 1997. The new affiliation was short-lived, as Network One ceased operations on November 13 of that year. The station went off the air for a transmitter overhaul and returned as an affiliate of FamilyNet. In 2001, WEYB-LP became WPDF-LP, but the mix of programming—FamilyNet programs and some locally produced religious and sports content—remained unchanged. However, the station faced an existential threat that was technical. WPDF-LP lost its bid to be designated a Class A station and became liable to be displaced if a station was to use channel 56 for digital television. The displacement occurred when Florence full-power station WBTW was assigned channel 56. In March 2002, WBTW-DT signed on, displacing WPDF-LP and leaving it without a channel to broadcast, resulting in it going off the air. Even though Time Warner Cable carried the low-power station, owner Greg Everett opted not to continue on cable only, believing that most of its audience watched the station over the air, and the FCC canceled the license on August 10, 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wpdf-Lp Television channels and stations established in 1989 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2002 PDF-LP 1989 establishments in South Carolina 2002 disestablishments in South Carolina Defunct television stations in the United States PDF-LP