WBSF


WBSF, branded CW 46, is a television station licensed to Bay City, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Flint-licensed Fox/NBC affiliate WSMH, for the provision of certain services. Sinclair also operates Saginaw-licensed WEYI-TV under a separate SSA with owner Howard Stirk Holdings.
The three stations share studios on West Pierson Road in Mount Morris Township ; WBSF's transmitter is located at its former studios on West Willard Road in Vienna Township along the Genesee–Saginaw county line.
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History

A permit was issued by the FCC for a new station on channel 46 in Bay City to Vista Communications Group in late 2003. The station was expected to be the WB network affiliate for the Flint/Tri-Cities market.
On October 1, 2004, the station's construction permit was approved. In that same year, Barrington Broadcasting launched WBSF on cable and on WEYI's second digital subchannel, bringing The WB back to the market after a three-year absence. On February 2, 2005, the FCC transferred the permit to Acme Television then to Barrington.
With the merger of The WB and UPN to become The CW, WBSF became the area's network affiliate in September 2006 when the channel began broadcasting over the air. As a result of the network change, WBSF rebranded from "Mid-Michigan's WB" to "CW 46 Mid-Michigan". However, its call letters were not changed as the "B" in the calls also stands for Bay City which is the station's city of license. "S" and "F" stand for Saginaw and Flint, respectively. WBSF signed-on its analog channel on September 13, 2006, although it continued to be seen on WEYI-DT2. It was the only full-power television station to be built and signed-on by Barrington Broadcasting.
On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell its entire group, including WBSF and WEYI, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, due to FCC duopoly regulations, since Sinclair already owns Fox affiliate WSMH, Sinclair transferred the license assets of WBSF to Cunningham Broadcasting and of WEYI to Howard Stirk Holdings. WSMH took over the operations of both WBSF and WEYI through local marketing agreements when the deal was completed on November 25.

Programming

WBSF has served as an alternate NBC affiliate. In 2006, the channel aired an episode of Friday Night Lights on tape delay due to WEYI's broadcast of the second Michigan gubernatorial debate. The station may air any preempted NBC program should the preemption occur on WSMH-DT2 for a local special, breaking news story, any other emergency, or Detroit Lions preseason football.

Newscasts

WBSF once aired a weeknight newscast called The 7 O'Clock News on CW 46 which was produced by WEYI. This production was canceled in April 2008.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of sister stations WEYI and WSMH:
ChannelRes.AspectShort nameProgrammingATSC 1.0 host
46.11080i16:9CWThe CWWEYI-TV
46.2480i16:9Charge!Charge!WEYI-TV
46.3480i4:3ANTENNAAntenna TVWSMH

Analog-to-digital conversion

In June 2008, WBSF received its construction permit for its digital facilities with the station switching from analog to digital broadcasting on June 12, 2009.

ATSC 3.0 conversion

The station began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 on March 15, 2022, carrying the signal of that station along with WJRT-TV, WNEM, WSMH, and WEYI-TV.
ChannelRes.Short nameProgramming
5.11080pWNEMDTCBS
12.1720pWJRTABC
25.11080pWEYIRoar
46.11080pWBSFThe CW
66.1720pWSMHFox
66.21080pWSMHNBCNBC
66.101080pT2T2
66.111080pPBTVPickleballtv
66.20GMLOOPGameLoop
66.21ROXiROXi