#1 independent station in the United States, a feat that was especially remarkable since Fort Wayne was one of the smallest markets in the country at the time to have an independent station. Beginning in 1982, the station carried programming from CNN Headline News during various parts of the day, including the overnight hours on weekdays. It also provided some coverage of local events such as the Three Rivers Festival. The station also served as the official Fort Wayne outlet for Chicago Cubs baseball. WFFT was also remembered for its Happy's Place and Froggy's Pad children's programs in the 1980s and 1990s. Happy's Place was known for its two-hour block of syndicated children's programs that initially aired from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. During programming breaks, "Happy the Hobo" would emcee children's activities from the WFFT studios. Also on the broadcast were characters such as "Froggy", "Chester T. Fox" and "Lawn Boy". Froggy's Pad was a morning show spun off from Happy's Place that featured the raspy-voiced frog puppet presenting animated shows. Joining, leaving and rejoining Fox WFFT became a charter affiliate of Fox at the network's launch on October 9, 1986, and was branded as "Super 55 Fox" in the early to mid 1990s; the station was carried on cable providers in the southeastern portion of the South Bend market during that time, as that region lacked a Fox affiliate until WSJV affiliated with network in October 1995. In the late-1990s, amidst the station's shift away from programming that was produced locally at its studios, the Happy's Place program was retooled. Segments were taped on location (and sometimes even in transit) and featured area attractions such as the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. This format did not last long and the show was later cancelled. After this point, WFFT's programming apart from the Fox schedule was centered around syndicated fare including daytime talk and court shows, and reruns of network sitcoms. After the launch of UPN on January 16, 1995, WFFT began carrying the fledgling network through a secondary affiliation. The network's programming eventually moved to CBS affiliate WANE-TV (channel 15) full-time on a new second digital subchannel by the mid-2000s; when UPN and rival netlet The WB were shut down to form a combined network in 2006, WPTA gained the resulting CW affiliation for its own subchannel. WFFT changed its on-air branding from "Fox 55" to "Fox Fort Wayne" on