Founded in December 1998 and began broadcasting in September 2001, the station was originally owned by Equity Media Holdings.
During this period, UPN programming was also seen on Panama City–area cable services via off-market stations, including WBFS-TV in Miami and WJTC in Mobile–Pensacola.
On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS announced that The WB and UPN would merge to form a new network, The CW.
As WJHG-TV took an affiliation with both The CW and MyNetworkTV, WBIF became an owned-and-operated station of the Retro Television Network.
The station [was originally going to] cease analogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date.