Like other network stations serving Burlington and Plattsburgh, WFFF-TV has a large audience in southern Quebec, Canada.

This includes Montreal, a city that is 10 times more populous than the station's entire U.S. viewing area, as well as the Montérégie region.

WFFF-TV was originally owned by Champlain Valley Telecasting, but was operated by Heritage Media, owner of NBC affiliate WPTZ, through a local marketing agreement (LMA).

[10] In February 1999, WFFF-TV began airing thirty-second daily vignettes called Vermont's Most Wanted along with sister program Citizen's Patrol.

The efforts were produced in cooperation with local law enforcement and the Champlain Valley branch of the national Crimestoppers non-profit organization.

The station added a secondary affiliation with The WB in 1999, after WBVT-LP (now WGMU-LP) dropped that network in favor of UPN.

Due to an ongoing retransmission dispute, Time Warner Cable replaced WFFF-TV with WNYF-CD from Watertown and Massena, New York, on December 16, 2010.

[18] WFFF-TV was restored on January 8, 2011, after a new deal (the terms of which both sides refused to reveal) was reached with Time Warner.

[21] The transaction was completed on March 1,[22] leaving Utica NBC affiliate WKTV as Smith Media's only remaining television station property.

In addition, WFFF and WVNY also became sisters with fellow Fox and ABC affiliates WXXA-TV and WTEN, respectively, in Albany, New York.

The changes usually occurred with little to no advance warning, sometimes making local schedules in TV Guide (both U.S. and Canadian versions) outdated by the time they were published.

It temporarily ceased programming after September 30, 2013, and was replaced over the air by a standard definition feed of its parent station a few days later.

As was the case with the previous network, The CW would also be available on cable in the area through affiliate WPIX from New York City.

Despite having a similar logo to CW Plus affiliates and being on a digital subchannel, WFFF-DT2 was not part of that service during its tenure with the network.

The station dropped the brand name "The CW Burlington" and began referring to itself on-air as "44.2 EFFF".

After WVNY moved into WFFF-TV's studios in 2005, Smith Media made an announcement the company was planning to establish a news department for the two stations.

[14] However, after the 2006 creation of The CW and WFFF-TV initially airing the network's programming in prime time at 10, there was some doubt as to the status of the local news operation launch.

The broadcast, known as Fox 44 News at 10, originally ran every night for a half-hour but the weeknight show eventually expanded to 45 minutes on September 7, 2009.

On March 3, 2008, WFFF-TV added a weeknight and Saturday broadcast at 7 on WVNY known as Fox 44 Local News on ABC.

The Saturday edition eventually moved to 6:30 which has been the case on Sundays from the start in order to accommodate ABC programming.

Initially, the only "ABC 22" identification seen during the show was in the intro package and the "bug" in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Included in the launch were local news and weather cut-ins on WVNY during its airing of Good Morning America.

The station's signal is multiplexed: WFFF-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009).

As a part of the repacking process following the 2016–2017 FCC incentive auction, WFFF-TV relocated to UHF channel 16 on July 3, 2020.