[2][3] The location of its then-transmitter, outside the Rock County community of Evansville, accorded WHPN to serve as the UPN affiliate for both the Madison and Rockford TV markets.
In 2004, WBUW moved its transmitter to a new tower located on property owned by Gray Television and next to the studios of Gray-owned WMTV in the Greentree neighborhood of Madison's southwest side.
[8][9][10] The deal, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consummated in February 2012,[11][12] gave the Byrne Group its second TV property (after low-power station "WHHI-TV" in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina).
On-air wise, WBUW would begin its post-CW transition during the first quarter of 2016, when it first applied a simple "Channel 57" brand to its local programming.
During its last week as a CW affiliate, it unveiled a new branding of "Wisconsin's 57 Television" ("Your Home for Local"), and would adopt a new call sign to go along with that brand—WIFS—on December 1, 2016.
WIFS would retain its mix of locally produced and syndicated programming as an independent, mostly utilizing the latter to fill the prime time void left by The CW's departure.
On February 1, 2019, WIFS added a ninth digital subchannel, affiliated with Ion Television, whose programming had been carried for the two years prior to that on WISC-DT3.
Just prior to joining Ion Life in February 2019, WIFS' programming schedule included syndicated series Access Live, The Doctors, and TMZ as well as The King of Queens, How I Met Your Mother, and Bones.
Nightly email contests and sweeps-month "free gas giveaways" were also included, as were in-studio performances by local musicians during Friday editions of the newscast.
Never gaining notice against competing 9 p.m. newscasts on WMSN-TV and UPN14, WBUW canceled The WB57 Nine O'Clock News and its news-share relationship with WMTV in December 2005, restoring syndicated programming to the time slot.
[27] Emmy Fink served as the original host and producer of "Buzzed into Madison," doing so from the feature's 2007 launch until she departed WBUW in June 2011.
From February 17, the analog station acted as a "nightlight", broadcasting a loop of digital transition instructions until signing off for good the first week of March 2009.