Early years In early 1981, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated four applications for channel 39 for
comparative hearing. Four groups applied: Contemporary Television Broadcasting, Inc.; Florida Broadcasting Ministry, Inc.; Susan M. Jaramillo and Howard R. Conant, a limited partnership, doing business as 39 Broadcasting Company; and Sun Belt Broadcasting, Inc. Two applicants dropped out, and the Jaramillo–Conant group merged with Contemporary Television Broadcasting, owned by Irving Pollack and other stockholders, later in 1981 as 39 Broadcasting Ltd. WDZL began broadcasting on October 16, 1982, from studios in
Hollywood, Florida—at its launch, it was the only television station with studios in
Broward County. It was an
independent station—Miami's second, after
WCIX-TV (channel 6)—which featured classic action and adventure TV series as well as Spanish-language programs on Sunday nights. From the start, WDZL was hamstrung. When its antenna was first installed, it fell to the ground and was damaged. The station got on the air with an emergency antenna but suffered from financial difficulties due to the three-month delay in operating at full power and needed new investors. In a deal negotiated in 1983 and completed in 1984, 39 Broadcasting Ltd. sold 79% of the station to Odyssey Partners, a New York investment firm. After the sale, Odyssey hired
Big Wilson, formerly of WCIX-TV, to host a late night movie. Shortly after the purchase, the Miami market gained another independent station when
Milton Grant put
WBFS-TV (channel 33) on the air. Within months, WBFS surpassed WDZL in the ratings, making channel 39 the third-rated independent in the market. In August 1985, Odyssey Partners hired Harvey Cohen, general manager of WCIX-TV, to the same role at WDZL. Two WCIX executives followed him to channel 39. The new management revamped the station's lineup by airing more movies, including uncut films. Michael Finkelstein, who ran the TV stations for Odyssey Partners, founded
Renaissance Communications in 1988 with the backing of
Warburg Pincus. In addition to acquiring other stations, Renaissance purchased WDZL and
WTXX in Connecticut from Odyssey. When
Fox Kids began in 1990, Miami
Fox affiliate
WSVN (channel 7) passed on the weekend lineup, which aired on channel 39. Two years later, WDZL signed a five-year deal to air all Fox Kids programming. After
Hurricane Andrew, which blew down WCIX's tower, WDZL simulcast that station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts; WCIX, by this point a
CBS affiliate, was already rebroadcasting its late news on WDZL and producing prime time news breaks for channel 39. Beginning in late 1993,
Warner Bros. and
Paramount Pictures entered into a war with each other to launch new national television networks. Renaissance initially was said to have committed WDZL-TV to
The WB and was the network's first announced affiliate. However, it never signed an agreement, and in December, it announced it was going with
the Paramount network. While Paramount Television Group chairman Kerry McCluggage told
Broadcasting & Cable that Finkelstein had "felt he backed the wrong horse", executives familiar with the negotiations told the magazine that Paramount's partner in the network,
Chris-Craft Industries, was hinting that it might buy WBFS-TV, which earlier that year had been up for sale—an outcome that Finkelstein feared would put channel 39 at a disadvantage. Renaissance had previously explored a bid for WBFS-TV that would have combined it with WDZL. The switch surprised observers because Finkelstein had previously been a public supporter of The WB. Even though WBFS-TV entered into an affiliation agreement with The WB in April 1994, ahead of a January 1995 launch. WBFS-TV owner Combined Broadcasting reached an agreement to sell the station
Paramount Stations Group. As a consequence, WBFS-TV and WDZL swapped proposed affiliations to leave WBFS-TV with UPN and WDZL with The WB, and WDZL joined The WB at its launch on January 11, 1995.
Tribune ownership On July 1, 1996,
Chicago-based
Tribune Broadcasting announced that it would acquire Renaissance Communications for $1.13 billion (equivalent to $ in dollars). The deal came with a complication specific to WDZL. Tribune needed to pursue a newspaper–broadcast
cross-ownership waiver to retain WDZL and the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, published in
Fort Lauderdale.
Knight-Ridder, owner of
The Miami Herald, opposed the permanent waiver sought by Tribune, arguing that the waiver either not be granted or the rule be changed for all. In approving the broader purchase of Renaissance, the FCC denied a permanent waiver and instead gave Tribune 12 months to divest itself of either WDZL or the
Sun-Sentinel, with the company indicating its intention to keep the newspaper. Tribune appealed this decision unsuccessfully to the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which ruled that the FCC could require the sale even though it was considering lifting the cross-ownership restrictions. However, in light of the pending review and pressure from Republican lawmakers, Tribune received an extended waiver lasting through the commission's review. Fox Kids programming was dropped in 1997 to make way for an expansion of
Kids' WB, with the block moving to WYHS (channel 69, now
WAMI-DT), and the station changed its
call sign to WBZL on April 27, 1998, to emphasize its network affiliation. On January 6, 1997,
NBC affiliate
WTVJ (channel 6) began producing a 30-minute 10 p.m. newscast for channel 39. The
WB39 News at 10 was initially anchored on weeknights by WTVJ anchors Willard Shepard and
Jackie Nespral. It competed with WSVN's 10 p.m. news hour. By 1999, it drew about half the audience of WSVN. In 2001, a new, channel 39-exclusive anchor team of Julia Yarbough and
Micah Ohlman replaced Nespral and Shepard. Under the waiver, Tribune was forbidden from using
Sun-Sentinel resources in channel 39's operation. This changed in 2002, when the FCC permitted Tribune to combine the operations of the newspaper and the TV station so that it could offer its own TV news service. Tribune proceeded to do so, combining news, promotions, and advertising sales and placing the operation under
Sun-Sentinel publisher Bob Gremillion. The
Sun-Sentinel began promoting WBZL's 10 p.m. newscast, and the newspaper also began partnering with WTVJ, which had been working with
The Miami Herald. Advertising sales executives from WBZL were teamed with those of the
Sun-Sentinel, which had a larger, more specialized group of account executives. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (which had been formed from the split of Viacom in two) and
Time Warner's
Warner Bros. Entertainment division announced that they would dissolve UPN and The WB, moving some of their programming to a newly created network,
The CW. Sixteen Tribune Broadcasting stations, including WBZL, were selected as affiliates. A day before The CW began on September 18, WBZL became WSFL-TV, its new call sign representing
South Florida. In 2008, Tribune shuffled WSFL-TV's local programming and moved to increase its connection to the
Sun-Sentinel. In March, it announced that channel 39 and its 40 employees would relocate to the Las Olas Drive offices of the newspaper, and in April, it announced plans for a four-hour morning news program, from 5 to 9 a.m., focusing on local content and personalities and utilizing
Sun-Sentinel editorial resources. The WTVJ-produced newscast was discontinued effective September 1 to focus on the new program, which launched on April 13, 2009, as
SouthFlorida.com/Live, hosted by
Dave Aizer, Kristin Anderson, and
Amber Lyon. The program, later retitled
The Morning Show, was canceled on August 4, 2010, due to low ratings. It was replaced by new primetime news breaks and a relaunched public affairs program,
Inside South Florida. The next year, the station began airing Tribune's syndicated
Eye Opener morning news program, adding local news inserts. In 2012, Tribune rebranded WSFL-TV to no longer share logo design elements with the
Sun-Sentinel and refocus channel 39 on entertainment. On July 10, 2013, Tribune announced plans to spin off its publishing division into a separate company. When the split was finalized in 2014, Tribune Company changed its name to Tribune Media and retained non-publishing assets, including WSFL-TV and other stations, while newspapers including the
Sun Sentinel became part of the new
Tribune Publishing Company. In 2015, WSFL debuted another news program from Tribune,
NewsFix. In 2017, Tribune agreed to sell itself to
Sinclair Broadcast Group. In order to meet regulatory limits on national TV station reach, Sinclair agreed to divest WSFL to
Fox Television Stations in what was part of a $910 million deal; Fox executives declined to make any public statement regarding the status of WSVN, which had an affiliation agreement with the network through June 30, 2019. Both transactions were nullified when Tribune Media terminated the merger and filed a
breach of contract lawsuit against Sinclair; this followed FCC chairman
Ajit Pai rejecting the deal and the commission voting to put it through a hearing.
Scripps ownership After the Sinclair–Tribune deal fell through,
Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune Media on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. As part of the deal, WSFL was divested to the
E. W. Scripps Company in a series of transactions with multiple companies that totaled $1.32 billion. The sale was completed on September 19, 2019. Scripps added a second television station in Miami in 2020 with its acquisition of
Ion Media, owner of
WPXM-TV (channel 35). Scripps initially contemplated starting a news operation for channel 39 in 2020. Instead of its own news operation, however, Scripps partnered with
WPLG (channel 10) to launch a weekday morning newscast from 7–9 a.m. and a nightly 10 p.m. newscast in June 2021. This was later reduced to the 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights only. The contract for
Local 10 News on WSFL terminated on August 1, 2025. On April 19, 2024, Nexstar announced that The CW would not renew its affiliations with Scripps-owned stations, including WSFL-TV; WBFS-TV became the network's new affiliate as of September 1. ==Sports programming==