WDSI-TV
In January 1983, Jay Sadow sold the station to Roy Hess. The station immediately changed its call sign to the current WDSI-TV. It modified its then-hybrid religious/general entertainment format (which was leaning more on entertainment for the first time since about 1975) adding cartoons in the 7 to 9 a.m. time slot. The religious shows remained in the late mornings, but in the early afternoons, more old movies were added along with holdover classic sitcoms. Cartoons, older sitcoms, and drama shows continued in the late afternoons and early evenings. A prime-time movie was also added along with some older shows late at night. The station was on-the-air about twenty hours a day by then. Its on-air branding at that time was "Watch What We're Doing Now".
WDSI provided, free of charge, UHF antennas (which customers could obtain at local convenience stores) so viewers could watch the station. At that time, many households in the Chattanooga media market were still not wired for cable. After the overhaul in programming, the station was sold to Donatelli and Klein in 1985. Stronger, more recent sitcoms such as Benson, M*A*S*H, and better movies were added to the schedule and the religious shows were scaled back even more becoming relegated only to Sunday mornings. On October 9, 1986, WDSI became a charter affiliate of Fox beginning with The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, remaining with the network until October 2015. It was a typical Fox station at that time running a blend of newer cartoons, recent off network sitcoms, classic cartoons, old sitcoms, old movies, and drama shows. The station was becoming one of the strongest independents in Tennessee, the polar opposite of what it was just five years before.
In 1993, the station was sold to Pegasus Communications. As time went on due to changes in the industry, classic sitcoms and movies were gradually replaced by more modern talk/reality programs and court shows. Cartoons began to fall off the schedule from 1999 until 2002 and replaced by more first run reality programs. WFLI-TV dropped UPN in 2001, at which time it moved to air in late nights on WDSI, doing so until WYHB-LP became the affiliate the next year.[3] In 2002, WDSI began broadcasting a digital signal on UHF channel 40. On September 5, 2006, the station launched Fox's new sister network MyNetworkTV on a new second digital subchannel. It was not until March 2009 that WDSI-DT2 was added to area digital cable systems.
After filing for bankruptcy in 2004, Pegasus sold most of its stations, including WDSI, to investment group CP Media, LLC, on January 4, 2007;[4] with the sale consummated on March 31.[5] CP then formed New Age Media as the parent company for the former Pegasus stations.
