The station began broadcasting on January 31, 1989, as W56CC.[2] It was owned by WELY, Inc., which in turn was named for owner Edward L. Young, a former congressman.[3] In 1991, Young had filed to buy the construction permit for a new full-power station on channel 21 in Florence, WFIL, though no sale ever materialized.[3] Young expressed interest in building the channel as an NBC affiliate, which the market lacked,[4] or as a replacement for channel 56.[5]
Known first by its translator call letters and then as "WELY-TV", the station became known as WEYB-LP on December 5, 1995. However, some cable systems continued to carry Fox programming not through the local station but via Foxnet. Additionally, channel 56 itself served only Florence; Myrtle Beach viewers tuned to WSFX-TVinWilmington, North Carolina, while far southern portions of the market received either WTAT-TV from CharlestonorWACH from Columbia.[6]
Though the full-power channel 21 station, WWMB, eventually signed on in 1994, it did not affiliate with the new network, with WWMB being a primary UPN outlet.[7] However, on November 10, 1996, WEYB-LP lost Fox to the newly renamed WFXB (channel 43), which had been sold and converted to a secular station; that station beat out WWMB for the affiliation.[6] WEYB-LP was then sold, with the new owners—JME Media, which also owned WFXB—dropping all remaining local programming, including a daily community affairs program hosted by market veteran Doug Williams which had aired on the station for nearly all of its existence;[8] channel 56 was converted into a Network One affiliate in June 1997.[9] The new affiliation was short-lived, as Network One ceased operations on November 13 of that year. The station went off the air for a transmitter overhaul and returned as an affiliate of FamilyNet.[10]
In 2001, WEYB-LP became WPDF-LP, but the mix of programming—FamilyNet programs and some locally produced religious and sports content—remained unchanged. However, the station faced an existential threat that was technical. WPDF-LP lost its bid to be designated a Class A station and became liable to be displaced if a station was to use channel 56 for digital television. The displacement occurred when Florence full-power station WBTW was assigned channel 56. In March 2002, WBTW-DT signed on, displacing WPDF-LP and leaving it without a channel to broadcast, resulting in it going off the air. Even though Time Warner Cable carried the low-power station, owner Greg Everett opted not to continue on cable only, believing that most of its audience watched the station over the air,[11] and the FCC canceled the license on August 10, 2004.
