WKCF (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Clermont, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an affiliate of The CW.

The two stations share studios on North Wymore Road in Eatonville; WKCF's transmitter is located in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

During this time, Emmis acquired a 50-percent stake in the syndicated national morning show The Daily Buzz and moved production of the program from Dayton, Ohio, to the WKCF studios.

This group was a 13-investor consortium presided by Clermont councilman Nestor Cole and with Norris Woolfork—publisher of The Orlando Times, the city's Black newspaper—as a partner.

In spite of a $7 million outlay on programming, it ran into considerable difficulty because WMOD's transmitter site could not provide adequate full-market coverage;[6][7] In part, this was because of aviation-related height limitations on its tower.

[8] This prompted Press Broadcasting to lease 18 hours a day of airtime to the Home Shopping Network, which also received an option to buy the station in 1988.

Two months before acquiring the permit for WCLU, Press announced the acquisition and donation of a non-commercial educational station in Cocoa, WRES (channel 18).

Also objecting was a low-power TV station on channel 19 in Orlando, fearing displacement from the proposed WKCF facility in the Orlando-market tower farm at Bithlo.

[27] Kincaid also created a late-night monster movie series called Friday Night with the GraveMaster, which aired for several months in 1992.

[30] During the early 1990s, WKCF and Press Broadcasting emerged as the primary opposition to the construction of a new independent station in Orlando, WRBW (channel 65), which began airing in June 1994.

[34] The station also improved its kids lineup and emphasized comedy reruns under programming and promotions director Chris Wolf, who had previously worked at WOFL.

[36] The next year, WKCF relocated to the Orlando suburb of Lake Mary, building a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2) office and studio complex on a property that backed up to Interstate 4 and was adjacent to WOFL, its primary competitor.

[38][39] Emmis paid The WB for a 10-year renewal of its affiliation, the third station group to make such a reverse compensation payment to the network.

In 2002, Lake Mary became the home of a consolidated master control facility for WKCF and three other Emmis stations: WVUE in New Orleans; WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama; and WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.

[44][45] Moving The Daily Buzz to Lake Mary gave it access to more production capabilities and made it easier to attract quality guests for the program.

[46] Emmis secured The CW affiliation for WKCF in March 2006, shortly after the announcement that The WB and UPN would merge for the fall television season.

The announcement had been expected; WRBW was by then owned by Fox Television Stations, whose UPN affiliates had all been bypassed by the merged network and which instead started a competitor, MyNetworkTV.

[48] In May 2006, Emmis announced the sale of WKCF to Hearst-Argyle Television,[a] owner of local NBC affiliate WESH (channel 2), for $217.5 million.

Emmis retained the Lake Mary facility and half-ownership of The Daily Buzz in the sale,[50] and WKCF relocated to WESH's studios in Eatonville, which were renovated to add space for 40 staff associated with channel 18.

By 1997, the arrangement saw WKCF sell six of the 11 advertising minutes and pay the news anchors, while WCPX sold the remainder and handled production.

[62] Wayne Spracklin, WKCF's general manager, explained to Mediaweek that it had become too costly, was losing ratings ground to WOFL, and was mismatched with the younger viewers tuning in for WB prime time programming.