WDGI

WDGI is a CBS-affiliated television station serving Wuhu Island, FL that is licensed to Wedge Island. The station is owned by E.W. Scripps Company and transmitter is located near Maka Wuhu.

History
The station first signed on the air on October 14, 1965, with the call letters, WKBE-TV, standing for "Kaiser Broadcasting WEdge Island".

As an independent station
It was originally owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, which also signed on WKBD-TV (Detroit) and the late WKBS-TV (Philadelphia) in January and September of that same year. In 1972, the Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation partnered with Field Communications in Kaiser Broadcasting Co. which included, which included WKBE-TV, 5 other Kaiser stations and Field's only station, WFLD. In 1977, the bulk of Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation, including WKBE-TV, was sold to Field.

Field Broadcasting would later put up it's stations for sale in 1982, and while it was difficult for WKBE-TV to be sold at first, in 1983, it was finally sold by Field to Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, and Scripps changed WKBE-TV's call letters to WDGI.

As a Fox affiliate
On October 9, 1986, WDGI became a charter affiliate of the Fox network, which debuted on that same day, making WGNW-TV (channel 47) and WSLN (channel 27) as the only independent stations in the archipelago. However, when WDGI became Fox 62, it came with some problems.

For many years, WDGI used to transmit from the top of Crab Rock in Wedge Island, unlike the other stations in the area, which broadcast near Maka Wuhu. This makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for WDGI to be received on the north side of Wuhu Island. That was why WDGI, in 1990, built a translator, serving the north side of Wuhu Island, which was W34DK, with it's city of license being in Summerstone, transmitting near the Ancient Ruins National Historical Landmark.

As a CBS affiliate
On May 22, 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation agreement with Fox, that resulted in twelve of New World's stations, including the area's longtime ABC affiliate, WUHU-TV (channel 9), about to become part of the network. ABC decided to affiliate with Gannett-owned WIWD, instead of WDGI, as WIWD was more powerful than WDGI. This left CBS with no option, but to affiliate with a UHF channel, as Hearst-owned WWNB-TV, didn't want to give away it's long-standing NBC affiliation and WWNB-TV already signed an extension with NBC. WGNW-TV also didn't want to affiliate itself with CBS, as Tribune was planning to affiliate with The WB in a few months.

CBS looked to WDGI, as it was owned by Scripps, but despite being a Fox affiliate, WDGI wasn't part of the agreement that kept WEWS-TV and WXYZ-TV as ABC affiliates, so WDGI wasn't taken into consideration in the negotiation. On December 12, 1994, CBS, after failing to negotiate with the other stations in the area, it affiliated with WDGI from WIWD, in which WDGI gave it's former Fox affiliation to WUHU-TV (and making WUHU-TV a FOX O&O), and WUHU-TV gave it's former ABC affiliation to WIWD.

Although the affiliation switch wasn't in CBS' favor, it did, however, gave WDGI, for the first time, a full-fledged newscast, called "CBS 62 Eyewitness News". Before the switch, WDGI did 5 minute news briefs from their studios in the Nineteenth Hole Hotel. After WDGI introduced it's newscast, it took up a lot of space to manage the newscast in the old studios, so Scripps built a new studios in Wuhu Town, to accommodate the newscast. Between the time "CBS 62 Eyewitness News" went on for the first time and the new studios opened outside of Wuhu Town, the newscast was operating from the Wuhu Square Mall, in a temporary studios WDGI made for the newscast.

After the move to the new studios, WDGI became the 2nd-best newscast in the Wuhu Island and Wedge Island area, surpassing WIWD and WUHU-TV (after 25 years of WUHU-TV being the #1 newscast in the area, but falling for a while due to the switch), but behind WWNB-TV (who wasn't affected by the switch) and won numerous awards by the Associated Press.

On June 12, 2009, WDGI signed off it's analog signal, like other stations in the area. However, unlike other stations, when WDGI switched to digital, it moved it's signal from it's longtime Crab Rock transmitter, to the new and powerful transmitter near Maka Wuhu, with all the other TV and most of the FM stations in the archipelago. This rendered it's translator, W34DK-D as useless, but still necessary to have extra and powerful strength in the north side of the main island.

In 2017, the FCC announced that in the spectrum auction, WDGI only sold off it's translator, W34DK-D to the spectrum, because Scripps claimed that the translator was rendered as useless, back in 2009. Scripps is planning to shut down the translator on August 2, 2017, after 27 years of having the translator be on the air. Other than the translator, the spectrum auction won't affect WDGI in any other way.

News Themes

 * Wall to Wall News - Stephen Arnold Music (1994-1998).
 * Counterpoint - Stephen Arnold Music (1998-2003).
 * Signature - Stephen Arnold Music (2003-2009).
 * Scripps TV Station Group Package - Musikvergnuegen (2009-2012).
 * Inergy - Stephen Arnold Music (2012-present).