WOHL-CD - History

History

The station signed-on January 26, 1989 with the calls W67CA. It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 67 from a transmitter west of Cridersville in Auglaize County. The low-powered outlet was initially an Independent but joined Fox on October 9. In 1995, the station changed frequencies to UHF channel 25 while adopting the call sign WOHL-LP.

W18BP launched on May 28, 1996 as a full-time repeater of this station. This was followed by another translator, W65DP, on September 22, 1998. W18BP was spun-off in 1999 and became low-powered UPN affiliate WLQP-LP. W65DP became a separate outlet in 2002 as CBS affiliate WLMP-LP. Also that year, this station upgraded to Class A status with the call sign WOHL-CA. All three stations maintained facilities on South Central Avenue in Downtown Lima.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.

WLIO operated the area's cable-only WB affiliate "WBOH" in partnership with The WB 100+. With the pending network shakeup, WLQP joined ABC as Lima's first locally-based affiliate. WLIO gained the area's CW affiliation for "WBOH" which joined the new network through The CW Plus and was added to a new second digital subchannel of WLIO in order to offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. This change took effect September 18. Two weeks earlier, WOHL added MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliate. It aired programming from the network Monday through Saturday nights from 11 until 1 the next the morning. Eventually, Saturday shows were dropped.

On September 17, 2008, WLIO dropped The CW from its second digital subchannel after the network reverted to a cable-exclusive status in Lima. This cable channel slot was eventually taken over by WBDT from Dayton as the network's de facto affiliate. As a result, WLIO-DT2 became a primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate essentially becoming a second outlet in Lima for the two networks. This resulted in a dispute between this station and WLIO. However, the latter's second subchannel served as WOHL's digital signal because this station did not receive a companion channel for digital transmission due to its Class A status.

On November 29, it was announced Metro Video Productions would sell its stations (WOHL, WLQP, and WLMO) to West Central Ohio Broadcasting. One of that company's heads, Allan J. Block, is the chairman of Block Communications (owner of WLIO). While Block assumed operational control of all three after the sale's completion, it was initially stated there would be no consolidation of newscasts or facilities with WLIO. It was then stated some consolidation would take place with WOHL, WLQP, and WLMO being integrated into WLIO's studios on Rice Avenue.

On June 12, 2009, a construction permit allowed WOHL to perform a "flash-cut" to digital and adopt the current calls WOHL-CD. It first operated its high definition digital signal on UHF channel 25, but due to possible interference with WRTV in Indianapolis, Indiana, the station moved to channel 35 for its digital operations. The allotment previously served as WLIO's analog signal and virtual channel display through Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP). As a result, the virtual channel assignment was displaced since WOHL opted to use the same channel number as its actual frequency. Lima is one of the few markets where two of the largest stations are currently using not only the same virtual channel numbers as actual RF channels, but also virtual channel numbers different from former analog channel number assignments.

Soon after on September 28, WLQP and WLMO terminated analog operations. Programming was shifted to WOHL with CBS on a new second digital subchannel and began to be offered in high definition for the first time. Programming from Fox and MyNetworkTV continue to be seen on WLIO-DT2 and cable. Currently, Time Warner Cable chooses instead to provide Toledo's WTVG high definition feed on digital channel 1013.