WTLX

**WTLX** (digital channel 39, channel 60) is the CW-affiliated television station for the Miami, Florida television market. WTLX is licensed to Fort Lauderdale and is owned and operated by Atlantic South Communications. WTLX can be seen via C-band satellite.

## History

WTLX began broadcasting on New Years' Day 1970. The station's original transmitter was located at its studios in Fort Lauderdale. The station operated from 3:00pm to 11:00pm daily and mostly filled its schedule with older movies, barter programs, or any network programs preempted by any of the market's network affiliates.

In its early days, WTLX had trouble attracting viewers. One reason was because it's UHF signal was very weak and couldn't be received very far outside of Miami. The station also lacked a lot of compelling programming. Technical difficulties were also the norm around this time. WTLX's original owners, TV60 Corporation of South Florida (a group of local investors), filed for bankruptcy and sold the station to the fledgling Tropical Telecasters in 1975.

Under Tropical Telecasters, WTLX expanded its hours of operation and improved the quality of its schedule. Most of the low-quality barter programs were dropped, and WTLX added much stronger off-network programs, dramas, westerns, and better feature films. By the 1980s, WTLX added cartoons, comedies, game shows, and eventually even some music videos to its lineup. From 1981 to 1985, the station ran programs from the Financial News Network.

In 1982, WTLX activated a new 5-million-watt transmitter in Andover, greatly improving its signal reach and giving it a signal comparable to the other Miami television stations. With the signal upgrade, cable companies in West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, and Tallahassee added WTLX to its lineup. Other cable systems throughout the state would follow suit soon after, After that, cable systems in Georgia and Alabama picked up the station as well, with cable coverage expanding to other states as time went on. By 1985, WTLX cemented its status as a regional "superstaion," as most cable systems in the eastern time zone had picked up the station. WTLX's superstaion status ended in 2006, with the launch of The CW.

As the 1980s came to an end, Tropical Telecasters began running into financial trouble. The company had to sell off its Orlando station, WOGN, in 1988. In 1992, WTLX was sold to GV Media Properties (now Atlantic South Communications) of Roanoke, Virginia.

In 1995, WTLX became a charter affiliate of the fledgling United Paramount Network (UPN). With its superstation status, WTLX provided UPN programs via cable to markets that didn't have a UPN affiliate of their own. With its good cable footprint in the eastern time zone, WTLX was recognized as UPN's strongest affiliate. As a UPN affiliate, the station began modernizing its lineup by adding first run talk and reality shows to its schedule.

In 2006, it was announced that both UPN and The WB would shut down and that the networks would merge to become The CW. WTLX became Miami's CW affiliate when it launched in September of that year.

## Digital Television

 60.2
 60.3
 60.4

WTLX previously carried TheCoolTV on its second digital subchannel until August 2017. That month, WTLX moved its Light TV subchannel from 60.3 to 60.4. WTLX-DT2 became Miami's affiliate for XTV when that network launched in September, and Retro TV was added to its third digital subchannel. Light TV was shut down on January 15, 2021, and Stadium was added in its place on WTLX-DT4

WTLX's broadcasts are digital-only as of February 17, 2009.