cover the Grand Strand; Fox had even helped WWMB pick syndicated programming with a view to moving there. However, Fox's desire to use an independent business instead of WWMB, whose operations were managed by ABC affiliate WPDE-TV, steered the network to channel 43. Beginning on November 10, 1996, channel 43 became the Fox affiliate for Florence and Myrtle Beach; With this, the station changed its call letters to the current WFXB. Florence–Myrtle Beach had been the only area of South Carolina, and one of the few in the Eastern Time Zone, without a full-power over-the-air Fox affiliate. Florence proper had a low-power Fox affiliate, WEYB-LP channel 56, which was ousted from the network with WFXB joining; co-owned WSFX-TV had been serving Myrtle Beach-area cable systems since it switched from CBS in 1994, and some parts of the market received a signal from WTAT-TV in Charleston. The station retained the WB affiliation for another two years on a secondary basis, giving it up upon the launch of The WB 100+, which launched the cable-only station "WFWB" for the market. By this point, more talk and reality shows as well as recent sitcoms were added. Children's programming left the station in 2002 when Fox ended its weekday kids block. Current owner Bahakel Communications purchased the station in 2006. In late-February 2009, the station added a 24-hour local weather service on a new third digital subchannel and area cable systems. On June 7, 2011, WFXB began transmission of the 43.4 subchannel as a MeTV affiliate. Newscasts From the late 1980s to 1992, WGSE produced a local newscast. Shortly after becoming a Fox affiliate, WFXB once again started a local news operation, first producing short news updates at 10 p.m. and later expanding to a full 30-minute news broadcast. This was cut back in January 2001, owing to poor ratings and a slowing economy. In 2004, WFXB entered into a news share agreement with CBS affiliate WBTW (channel 13) for the production of a 35-minute 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights. On December 1, 2011, WBTW began producing an hour-long newscast for WFXB airing on weekday mornings at 7 a.m. titled Fox Morning News. That has since been expanded to two hours. The WBTW-produced newscasts are augmented by three programs produced by WFXB itself: 9 a.m. talk show Carolina AM, the half-hour Fox Midday News at 12:30 p.m., and the news and entertainment program Not