| Callsign: | WBSF |
| City: | Bay City, Michigan |
| Atsc3: | yes |
| Logo Upright: | 1 |
| Branding: | CW 46 |
| Digital: | 23 (UHF) |
| Virtual: | 46 |
| Founded: | as a digital subchannel |
| Location: | Bay City–Saginaw–Flint–Midland, Michigan |
| Country: | United States |
| Callsign Meaning: | WB Saginaw-Flint[1] or Bay City-Saginaw-Flint |
| Owner: | Cunningham Broadcasting |
| Licensee: | Flint (WBSF-TV) Licensee, Inc. |
| Operator: | Sinclair Broadcast Group |
| Sister Stations: | WEYI-TV, WSMH |
| Former Affiliations: | The WB (2004–2006) |
| Erp: | 600 kW |
| Haat: | 3650NaN0 |
| Facility Id: | 82627 |
| Coordinates: | 43.2169°N -83.7214°W |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
WBSF (channel 46), branded CW 46, is a television station licensed to Bay City, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Flint-licensed Fox affiliate WSMH (channel 66), for the provision of certain services. Sinclair also operates Saginaw-licensed NBC affiliate WEYI-TV (channel 25) under a separate SSA with owner Howard Stirk Holdings.
The three stations share studios on West Pierson Road in Mount Morris Township (with a Flint mailing address); WBSF's transmitter is located at its former studios on West Willard Road in Vienna Township along the Genesee–Saginaw county line (with a Clio mailing address).
A permit was issued by the FCC for a new station on channel 46 in Bay City to Vista Communications Group in late 2003. The station was expected to be the WB network affiliate for the Flint/Tri-Cities market.[2]
On October 1, 2004, the station's construction permit was approved. In that same year, Barrington launched WBSF on cable and on WEYI's second digital subchannel, bringing The WB back to the market after a three-year absence (WB programming in-market was last seen on WEYI on a secondary clearance from 1999 to 2001; Flint–Saginaw area cable systems piped in New York City's WPIX for WB programming from 2001 to 2004). On February 2, 2005, the FCC transferred the permit to Acme Television then to Barrington Broadcasting.[3]
With the merger of The WB and UPN to become The CW, WBSF became the area's network affiliate in September 2006 when the channel began broadcasting over the air.[3] Because of this, a chance existed that WKBD (which along with WBKP are the only other over-the-air CW affiliates in Michigan) would be dropped from this market's cable systems as both WBSF and WKBD would be CW affiliates. However, in the case of Midland, two CBS affiliates do coexist on the same cable system. This occurred on Charter's Tri-Cities systems which replaced WKBD with MyNetworkTV affiliate WNEM-DT2 that became the new home of Pistons basketball that year. As a result of the network change, WBSF rebranded from "Mid-Michigan's WB" to "CW 46 Mid-Michigan". However, its call letters were not changed as the "B" in the calls also stands for Bay City which is the station's city of license. "S" and "F" stand for Saginaw and Flint, respectively. WBSF signed-on its analog channel on September 13, 2006, although it continues to be seen on WEYI-DT2. As such, it is the only full-power television station to be built and signed-on by Barrington Broadcasting although Barrington acquired its construction permit from ACME Communications before construction began.
On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell its entire group, including WBSF and WEYI, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, due to FCC duopoly regulations, since Sinclair already owns Fox affiliate WSMH, Sinclair will transfer the license assets of WBSF to Cunningham Broadcasting and of WEYI to Howard Stirk Holdings (owned by conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams). WSMH will take over the operations of both WBSF and WEYI through local marketing agreements when the deal is completed.[4] The sale was completed on November 25.[5]
WBSF has served as an alternate NBC affiliate. In 2006, the channel aired an episode of Friday Night Lights on tape delay due to WEYI's broadcast of the second Michigan gubernatorial debate. The station may air any preempted NBC program should the preemption occur on WEYI for a local special, breaking news story, any other emergency, or beginning in August 2017, Detroit Lions preseason football.
WBSF once aired a weeknight newscast called The 7 O'Clock News on CW 46 which was produced by WEYI. This production was canceled in April 2008. The station, being operated by Sinclair and a CW affiliate, may carry sports from Sinclair Networks' Stadium as it was slated for its CW or My Network TV affiliated stations.[6]
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of sister stations WEYI and WSMH:
| Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46.1 | CW | WEYI-TV | |||
| 46.3 | Charge! | WSMH |
In June 2008, WBSF received its construction permit for its digital facilities with the station switching from analog to digital broadcasting on June 12, 2009.[3]
The station began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 on March 15, 2022, carrying the signal of that station along with WJRT-TV, WNEM, WSMH, and WEYI-TV.[7]
| Res. | Short name | Programming | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | WNEM | CBS (WNEM-TV) | ||
| 12.1 | WJRT | ABC (WJRT-TV) | ||
| 25.1 | WEYI | NBC (WEYI-TV) | ||
| 46.1 | WBSF | The CW | ||
| 66.1 | WSMH | Fox (WSMH) |