Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of dual NBC/Fox affiliate WTWC-TV (channel 40), provides some engineering functions for both stations under a master service agreement and also programs WTLF.
WTLH began on February 12, 1989, airing an analog signal on UHF channel 49; the station immediately became Tallahassee's Fox affiliate.
Originally owned by New South Television, it was put into receivership due to owner Timothy Brumlik's arrest on money-laundering charges.
On June 15, 1998, WFXU in Live Oak, Florida was established as a full-time satellite of WTLH in order to improve its coverage on the eastern side of the market.
This took effect when the network premiered on September 18, 2006. Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV (then co-owned with Fox by News Corporation) over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite service in rural areas.
The station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for $55.5 million.
In order to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, since Sinclair already owns WTWC, its partner company Cunningham Broadcasting planned to acquire the WTLH license but Sinclair was slated to operate the station (as well as WTLF, which would have been acquired by another sidecar operation, Deerfield Media) through shared services agreements.