It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a handful of TV stations today to have locally-based ownership.

The station began broadcasting on March 18, 1954, owned by the family of taxicab magnate and Cleveland Browns founder Mickey McBride along with WINK radio (1240 AM, later used on 1200 AM; and 96.9 FM).

[3] It carried programming from the four major networks of its era: CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont in the first two decades of its existence.

However, viewers could watch the full ABC and NBC schedules via stations from Miami–Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Tampa–St.

WINK-TV was fortunate to gain that license, and as a result was the only local station that provided a clear picture to outlying portions of the market until cable television arrived in the mid-1970s.

This is due in large part to the extremely high penetration of cable and satellite in Southwest Florida—one of the highest in the nation.

On October 20, 2007, WINK-TV became the first television station in Southwest Florida to begin broadcasting in high definition.

[citation needed] During the landfall of Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022, the station's studio in downtown Fort Myers was inundated by storm surge flooding from nearby Billy Creek, knocking WINK-TV, WXCW and their sister radio stations off the air.

[citation needed] The McBrides have always devoted significant resources to channel 11's news operation, resulting in a higher-quality product than conventional wisdom would suggest for Fort Myers, which has always been a small-to-medium-sized market.

[citation needed] On May 26, 2011, WINK-TV debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, one of many added on television stations around the United States on that date to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ended its 25-year run the day before.