The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group and maintains studios on 16th Street in downtown Wheeling; its transmitter is located in Bridgeport, Ohio.

Another application was made by the Fort Industry Company—owner of WWVA—but before a hearing could be held, the FCC declared a freeze on TV construction permits that was to last four years.

The WTRF stations moved to Wheeling proper in 1950, and the application was amended to follow suit; it also was changed to specify channel 7 after the FCC lifted the freeze.

Polan opted to abandon the hearing and won a permit for UHF channel 51; to expedite the construction of a station in Wheeling, Tri-City and WKWK merged their applications, with the two groups combining.

[10] General manager Charles E. Sherman, citing the loyalty of many viewers to NBC, called the change the hardest decision he'd ever had to make.

[20] Before Benedek declared bankruptcy in 2002, a weak advertising market in the early 2000s recession had already led the company to sell WTRF-TV to West Virginia Media Holdings (WVMH).

[21] WVMH was a new group led by Bray Cary that was buying media properties, primarily in television, in major West Virginia markets.

[28] On November 17, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WTRF-TV, for $130 million.

[29] Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017.