WLFI-TV (channel 18) is a television station in Lafayette, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Yeager Road in West Lafayette; its transmitter is located on County Road 700 in rural northwestern Clinton County (southwest of Rossville). History The station first signed on the air at 6:00 p.m. on June 15, 1953 as WFAM-TV, broadcasting on UHF channel 59. It was founded by O.E. Richardson, owner of radio station WASK (1450 AM). The station originally operated as a primary CBS and DuMont affiliate. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. WFAM-TV's transmitter had originally broadcast at low power, making it unreceivable in parts of west-central Indiana outside of the immediate Lafayette area. Out of its original 20-person staff, only one person had any experience in television; the rest were radio personalities who pulled double duty. In 1957, both the television station and the radio station were sold to assistant station manager Henry Rosenthal and his partners, who filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move WFAM-TV to channel 18, but the station instead went dark in May 1959. Rosenthal sold the station to Sarkes Tarzian, a radio manufacturer based in Bloomington, which also owned primary NBC/secondary ABC and DuMont affiliate WTTV (now a CBS affiliate) in Indianapolis and ABC affiliate WPTA in Fort Wayne. It was Tarzian who finished the relocation to channel 18, returning WFAM-TV to the air on that channel on November 15 of that year. (The channel 59 allocation remained dormant until the FCC later reassigned the allotment to Indianapolis used by WPDS-TV—now Fox affiliate WXIN—in February 1984.) The station changed its call letters to WLFI-TV in 1967. In 1979, the station was purchased by Block Communications. In 2000, LIN TV Corporation acquired WLFI from Block in exchange for a 67% ownership interest in ABC affiliate WAND (now an NBC affiliate) in Decatur, Illinois (LIN TV later sold off its remaining 33% interest in WAND to Block Communications). WLFI's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009. On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would merge with LIN Media in a $1.6 billion deal. The merger was completed on December 19. Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced on January 27, 2016, that it would merge with Media General in a $4.6 billion acquisition; it then announced