WFIE-DT2

WFIE-DT2 is the Me-TV affiliated television station licensed to Evansville, Indiana, USA, and serving the Evansville, IN/Henderson/Owensboro, KY media market. It is a digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WFIE owned by Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media. WFIE-DT2's parent station has studios on Mount Auburn Road in Evansville, and its transmitter is located in the Wolf Hills section of Henderson, Kentucky.

Availability ^[2]

WFIE-DT2 is broadcast over the air on UHF channel 46.2 (Virtual channel 14.2 via PSIP). In Evansville, this subchannel can also be viewed on WOW! (Wide Open West) channel 104. In the Henderson and Owensboro, Kentucky areas, it is also available on Time Warner Cable channel 301,^[3] while it is on channel 161 for Time Warner Cable customers in Webster County, Kentucky, including Dixon and the community of Clay.^[4]

History

As an NBC Weather Plus outlet

WFIE-DT2 was launched in Fall 2005 as an affiliate of the NBC Weather Plus service, a 24-hour weather channel that provided regional and national weather information forecasts in a continuous basis, along with cut-ins of local weather forecasts from WFIE's weather forecasting team. WFIE's weather team provided the cut-ins for WFIE-DT2 during the entire existence of NBC weather plus. The channel's original branding was First Alert Weather Now.

As "14Xtra"

In 2008, when the NBC Weather Plus was shut down and discontinued, it became a locally oriented weather channel until it was replaced by a local news-oriented format in the late quarter of 2008. It became an independent TV channel devoted to local news, weather, and sports in the Evansville media market, which consists of the Tri-State area around Evansville, including southwestern Indiana, the Wabash River valley of southeastern Illinois, and the Western coal fields of northwest Kentucky, including nearby Henderson and Owensboro. The channel was branded as 14Xtra. WFIE-DT2 also broadcast a prime time newscast weeknights at 9 p.m., which competed with CW affiliate WTVW's hour-long newscast.

Me-TV affiliation

MeTV was first carried as a secondary affiliation of WTVW after that station lost their Fox network affiliation to WEVV-DT2, and thereby becoming an Independent station in 2011. MeTV programming was only shown during the overnight hours, and during time slots where specific programming is not scheduled to air. WTVW dropped the partial MeTV schedule when that station became the Evansville market's new affiliate of The CW in January 2013. MeTV was carried in full by WTSN-CD from November 2011 until that station dropped that network in favor of a new network called Heroes & Icons on October 23, 2014. Until February 25, 2014, MeTV was also carried on WYYW-CD.

MeTV replaced the Movies! network on WFIE-DT3 (channel 14.3) for five days until it was replaced by a new movie network, Grit, a programming channel by Gender Networks that specifically targets men in the 25-54 age group. To make room for the new Grit network, and in order for MeTV to remain available in the Evansville market, the full MeTV programming lineup was moved up to WFIE-DT2 at 12 Noon C.T. on October 28, 2014 after Grit made its Evansville debut on WFIE-DT3. After the switch, 14Xtra was no more.

Current programming

WFIE-DT2 clears all of MeTV's programming since the subchannel switched to MeTV from a local news-formatted channel in 2014. Until 2016, the only other programming besides the full MeTV schedule was the syndicated Atlantic Coast Conference football and men's basketball provided by the ACC Network that is operated by Raycom Media's sports syndication division, Raycom Sports. This is due in part of University of Notre Dame's sports programs (with the exception of the football team) joining the ACC that year. ^[5] WTVW took over local rights to the ACC Network in 2016.

References

External links

• MeTV
• NBC14 WFIE Official Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WFIE
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WFIE-TV