The three stations share transmitter facilities on Northwest 199th Street in Andover; WXEL's studios are located on South Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach.

A group eventually known as South Florida Public Telecommunications won the construction permit in 1979 after a settlement with WPBT, which long claimed the Palm Beaches as part of its service area and had also sought channel 42.

The station's spectrum was sold at auction in 2016; as a result, WXEL-TV is broadcast from WPBT's transmitter facility, south of the West Palm Beach market.

[11] One columnist for The Palm Beach Post, Alan Jenkins, wondered if the creation of a separate station merited the expense, particularly given the existing presence of WPBT among cable households.

[28] By that time, the projected start date had already slipped to the summer of 1982; Malrite was still negotiating with the Florida Audubon Society,[29] a situation that persisted into early 1982.

[30] Founding board director Sam Marantz would later regret not using the Audubon Society to coordinate the five environmental agencies whose permits were needed and thereby reduce what turned out to be 14 months of startup delays.

[43] The city of Boynton Beach deeded South Florida Public Telecommunications land elsewhere along Congress Avenue in 1986;[44] Protests from nearby homeowners over a microwave tower at the site led to delays;[45] ground was broken in May 1988,[46] but during the process, the original general contractor and the insurance company associated with the work both defaulted, the latter resulting in a month-long halt to construction.

"[49] WXEL considered that the agreement that led to its construction permit—and a promise not to pursue channel 21 in Fort Pierce—was voided when WPBT lobbied for cuts to state funding.

An affiliate of Palm Beach Atlantic College eventually obtained the channel 21 permit, for which WXEL at one point entered into negotiations to acquire.

On January 15, 1992, employees called for the resignation of chairman Sang over what they felt was misuse of funds and the hiring of a fundraising chief, John Dover—without a national search—in such a way that it could have jeopardized the public station's status and broadcast license by violating equal employment opportunity laws.

[58] An investigation by The Palm Beach Post, scrutinizing records of South Florida Public Telecommunications, found excessive spending on conference tables (more than $10,000 as compared to $877 for a similar purchase by WMFE-TV in Orlando the year before), lavish parties for donors, and on a fundraiser paid $25,000 more than a more experienced person in the same position at WPBT.

[60] The crisis dented a previously scheduled radio fund drive which only drew a third of the expected pledges, while at least one donor threatened to switch her support of public television to WPBT.

[61] At an eight-hour hearing held in WXEL's Studio A, Sang downplayed the grievances at play but referred to "anarchy, mutiny, and insubordination" in his testimony, while staff offered complaints ranging from gala events that failed to bring in significant money to funds spent on research studies and a request by Sang that the greeters for such events be "only white, preferably attractive women" on the station staff.

The WXEL stations had suffered financially in the preceding years, with the lightning strike and cuts to federal and corporate grants resulting in a net loss of $400,000 in assets.

A November 1996 financial report warned that either a merger or new revenue sources would be necessary to avoid cutbacks;[67] at one point in 1994, the station's bank account held less than $2,000.

One of those was WPBT, whose advisory board for Palm Beach and Martin counties recommended proposing a buyout to WXEL, though it was unclear what would happen to WXEL-FM, which was sharing programming with Miami's WLRN-FM.

The opinion from the attorney general found that a subsidiary created by Barry to facilitate the merger did not qualify as a state-authorized "educational or non-commercial broadcasting entity" to which the lease could be transferred.

[82] The Florida Cabinet voted unanimously to support such an ownership merger,[83] though the plan continued to languish amid disputes over the shape of a partnership.

[84][85] Ultimately, the state schools failed to find enough money to become equal partners with Barry University, which in August 1997 became the full owner of the WXEL stations.

[86] Station president Souder was removed by the new management, while a $2.5 million donation by Dwayne Andreas, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, erased all of WXEL's debt.

[93] From 1997 to 2001, WXEL steadily climbed out of its debt, though a decline in corporate giving after the September 11 attacks led to financial losses in 2002 for the first time since the Barry merger.

[94] Another task facing Barry as owner of WXEL-TV was replacing the station's aged equipment and raising funds for the transition to digital television.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration classed WXEL-TV in 1998 as having an "urgent" priority for an equipment overhaul, with many components being obsolete and replacement parts becoming harder to find.

[97] At the age of 75, Jeanne O'Laughlin retired as president of Barry University in 2004; during this time, the full-time staff more than doubled, while the stations' list of large underwriters had grown from several dozen to more than 200.

[112] Despite looming budget cuts at the height of the Great Recession, the Palm Beach County school board voted in December 2008 to authorize negotiations to purchase the station.

[122] At its first operational meeting in January 2013, the new community board immediately sought to renegotiate its 2003 settlement with NBC so as to receive what it was owed sooner and use that to pay down debt used to purchase the station.

[123] WPBT and WXEL, long competitors for viewers in Broward and Palm Beach counties, announced in July 2014 that they were once again exploring a merger, this time into an entity that would be known as South Florida PBS.

[125] On July 15, 2015, Community Television Foundation of South Florida and WXEL Public Broadcasting Corporation announced they had reached a merger agreement.

The merger, which was formally filed with the FCC on July 16, would enable the two stations to pool resources and fundraising efforts to offer more program content.

[131] The change to sharing with WPBT took place on August 22, 2018; since the transmitter was now much further south, many viewers in the West Palm Beach area experienced new difficulty receiving WXEL-TV.