As an Ion Plus and Ion affiliate
On February 1, 2019, WIFS added a ninth digital subchannel, affiliated with Ion Television, whose programming had been carried for the two years prior to that on WISC-DT3. That same day, primary channel 57.1 added a round-the-clock feed of Ion's sister network, Ion Life (which would rebrand to Ion Plus the following summer). The changeover was done without any advance word to viewers or local media. The only social media announcement occurred two days after WIFS joined Ion, when the station's Facebook profile picture changed to the default Ion Television logo.[15] (The station's website and social media accounts have been in active yet amber states since then.)
The placement of Ion Plus on WIFS' main channel and Ion on a lower-location subchannel, instead of the other way around, was rather unusual. One reason was to preserve WIFS' commitments to air the Weigel Broadcasting-owned Movies! and Heroes & Icons networks at their respective 57.2 and 57.3 locations. Exposure strategy may have been another reason: During the late 2010s, in markets where network parent Ion Media acquired a second station (mainly involving purchases and shuffles related to the 2016 FCC incentive auction), the company would keep Ion on one station's primary channel and move Ion Plus to the newly acquired signal, thereby taking advantage of the stations' must-carry provisions required of local cable/satellite providers. In the Madison market, WIFS' addition of Ion Plus put that network on equal footing with the national Ion feed that had already been on Madison's cable/satellite TV lineups for several years.[16] It also gave WIFS the distinction of being the only full-powered station that was not owned or operated by Ion Media to carry Ion Plus on its primary channel.
WIFS' move to Ion Plus meant the displacement of all syndicated programs, local features, and local advertising that ran on the station. Jessa Jeremiah, who had been the station's general manager and an on-air host, confirmed to the Northpine.com website that she and station manager Tony Virga were among those no longer employed at WIFS. However, as Jeremiah noted to Northpine.com, the lifestyle and other local programming that had been produced through WIFS would relaunch in February 2019 on TVW, WISC's MyNetworkTV-affiliated subchannel (3.2), either as originally titled (namely the horror movie showcase Bordello of Horror) or under different names (most notably Talk of the Town becoming Talk Wisconsin).[16] A handful of the syndicated content WIFS had carried would also move to TVW that same February.[17][18][19]
WIFS would continue its primary affiliation with Ion Plus until February 27, 2021, the weekend E. W. Scripps Company, Ion Media's new owner, indicated it would shut down both Ion Plus and Qubo (the station had just added the latter network at the beginning of 2021).[20] On the morning of the 27th, the programming of both Ion Plus on main channel 57.1 and Qubo on subchannel 57.5 were replaced with the Ion Television feed already shown on 57.9. It would be a permanent move for the main channel, but would lead to a shuffling of networks on the subchannels (see Subchannels below).
