About WTHR 13

On October 30, 1957, the station went on the air as WLWI. It was founded by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and began operations as an ABC affiliate, taking up the affiliation from Bloomington-licensed WTTV (channel 4, once a CW station, now a CBS affiliate), which had previously joined with the network. The "WLW Television Network" consisted of four Crosley stations: WLWI in Cincinnati, WLWC (now WCMH-TV) in Columbus, and WLWD (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio. Crosley also controlled Cincinnati's WLW radio station, Atlanta's WLWA (now WXIA-TV), and San Antonio's WOAI-TV.

Channel 13 and its sister stations in Ohio had comparable on-air branding and shared content (such as The Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club, The Bob Braun Show, The Paul Dixon Show, Midwestern Hayride, The Phil Donahue Show, and Cincinnati Reds baseball game telecasts). Channel 13 renamed itself "WLW-I" to capitalize on its affiliation with WLW radio, which can be heard during the day in most of the market with a decent radio.