WDSI-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with True Crime Network and Comet.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of dual ABC/Fox affiliate WTVC (channel 9), provides some engineering functions for both stations under a master service agreement and also programs WFLI-TV.
[3] It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 61, and was sister station to WRIP radio in Rossville, Georgia (AM 980, now WDYN and FM 105.5, now WRXR).
It is the state's oldest television station in continuous operation to have never had affiliation with any of the big three networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC).
In analog days, UHF stations, especially those on high channel numbers, usually did not get good reception more than about 30 miles (48 km) away in rugged terrain.
The station then began selling huge blocks of time to mostly churches in the local area cutting back more on low-budget secular shows.
The station was basically profitable by selling thirty- and sixty-minute blocks of time most of the day to local religious broadcasters.
Shows added included off network dramas such as Kojak, Star Trek; sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, and The Munsters along with some movies.
WDSI provided, free of charge, UHF antennas (which customers could obtain at local convenience stores) so viewers could watch the station.
Stronger, more recent sitcoms such as Benson, M*A*S*H, and better movies were added to the schedule and the religious shows were scaled back even more becoming relegated only to Sunday mornings.
As time went on due to changes in the industry, classic sitcoms and movies were gradually replaced by more modern talk/reality programs and court shows.
WFLI-TV dropped UPN in 2001, at which time it moved to air in late nights on WDSI,[5] doing so until WYHB-LP became the affiliate the next year.
After filing for bankruptcy in 2004, Pegasus sold most of its stations, including WDSI, to investment group CP Media, LLC, on January 4, 2007;[7] with the sale consummated on March 31.
Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased the non-license assets of WDSI-TV and WFLI-TV from New Age Media for $1.25 million in September 2015.
During the early 1990s, ABC affiliate WTVC produced Chattanooga's first nightly prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on then-independent station WFLI through a news outsourcing arrangement.
Even though Sinclair does not have any other programming involvement in WDSI-TV's operations, the station does air a repeat of the 7–9 a.m. component of WTVC's Good Morning Chattanooga in the early afternoon.