Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Deerlake South in unincorporated Leon County, Florida, northwest of Bradfordville (with a Tallahassee postal address), and its transmitter is located in unincorporated Thomas County, Georgia, southeast of Metcalf, along the Florida state line.

Technical and financial battles dominated its first 13 years on air, including a malfunction with the station's tower that contributed to a four-year-long bankruptcy proceeding in the 1990s.

Vencap Communications of Chattanooga, Tennessee, made an application in August 1980 to build a new television station on channel 40 in Tallahassee, which would be the region's third commercial outlet.

[11] In 1986, the company had to agree to payment plans with a group of 11 program syndicators and faced trouble finding lenders, though the firm was able to refinance.

[18] The next year, Holt-Robinson and WTWC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; they had been forced to do so because one of the company's lenders, Greyhound Television, had asked in federal court for the appointment of a receiver, and the station owed some $600,000 to program producers and news services.

[19] Bankruptcy proceedings for Holt-Robinson and Holt-owned properties in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, stretched on more than two years; in the latter, WTWC-TV was cited as a drain on Holt's finances.

[21] Soundview Media Investments entered into an agreement to acquire WTWC and Holt-Robinson's other holding, WHHY-AM-FM radio in Montgomery, Alabama, for $7.1 million in 1994.

[23] As part of a $3 million investment in a long-stagnating outlet, Guy Gannett purchased transmission equipment, expanded the station's studios by 6,000 sq ft (557 m2), and added 37 new employees.

[24] In 2001, Media Ventures Management, the then-owner of ABC affiliate WTXL-TV, entered into a five-year[25] outsourcing agreement with Sinclair to combine sales and operations staffs with WTWC-TV.

[38] Emblematic of the station's woes at the time, the newscasts were pocked with technical snafus and drew criticism for questionable news judgment.

Station management felt the cutbacks would make a quality product impossible and decided to get out of local news altogether.

[43] While the NBC channel still does not offer any local news, the Fox subchannel does under arrangements that predate Sinclair operation.