WCLF (channel 22) is a religious television station licensed to Clearwater, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area. It is the flagship station of the nationwide Christian Television Network (CTN), which has owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. WCLF's studios are co-located with CTN's headquarters on 142nd Avenue in nearby Largo (with a Clearwater mailing address), and its transmitter is located near Riverview.
History
In August 1977, Bob D'Andrea, a local electric contractor and born again Christian, applied for a construction permit to build a television station on Tampa's then-unused channel 28.[1] The station would operate on a non-profit basis and telecast Christian programming.[2] However, a month later, a second group, Family Television Corporation, also applied for the channel—the application that would eventually result in WFTS-TV five years later.[3]