It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 26 leasing space on the tower of ABC affiliate WWAY in unincorporated Brunswick County.

Prior to WJKA's start-up, Wilmington was one of the few markets in the United States without its own CBS affiliate and one of the few in the Eastern Time Zone without full network service.

Future sister station WECT had a secondary CBS affiliation until cable arrived in the area in the 1970s while Florence, South Carolina's WBTW covered most of the market with a Grade B signal.

Further complicating matters, Raleigh's WRAL-TV (now an NBC affiliate), which had been available on cable in Wilmington for decades, switched from ABC to CBS a year after WJKA's sign-on.

In 1994, WJKA along with sister station KECY-TV in El Centro, California–Yuma, Arizona switched their affiliations to Fox; while this occurred shortly after CBS lost broadcasting rights of the NFL's National Football Conference to Fox and before the inaugural season of the Carolina Panthers the following year, the change followed several disputes between Robinson O. Everett and CBS (including one over a planned upgrade of KECY's translator in Palm Springs to a full-power station).

Since the station's over-the-air signal does not reach Florence, the Pee Dee area had to rely on cable for Fox programming until WGSE-TV (now WFXB) in Myrtle Beach took the affiliation.

On May 8, 2008, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced five stations in Wilmington (including WSFX) had agreed to voluntarily cease analog broadcasting on September 8.

In 2024, WSFX reached an agreement with the University of North Carolina Wilmington to broadcast select men's basketball games and a coaches show.

Despite the efforts of WJKA and WWAY, WECT maintained a strong lead in the market ratings and viewership counts by consistently holding the top spot in Nielsen marks.

On August 31, 2008, WECT became Wilmington's first television outlet to upgrade local news production to high definition level and the broadcasts on WSFX were included in the change.

The station's signal is multiplexed: WSFX formerly operated an analog translator, W19CA channel 19, that was licensed to Lumberton and had a transmitter in Lumber Bridge.

The northern and western areas of Robeson County (St. Pauls, Parkton, and Red Springs) also do not carry WSFX even though its translator was located in Lumber Bridge.