Jump to content

WBOY-TV

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mvcg66b3r (talk | contribs) at 02:52, 26 September 2018 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

WBOY-TV is a dual NBC/ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States and serving North Central West Virginia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on virtual and VHF channel 12 from a transmitter east of downtown and U.S. 50. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios on West Pike Street in Downtown Clarksburg. It identifies on-air as "Clarksburg/Fairmont/Morgantown" even though the third city is considered part of the Pittsburgh market. This is because it operates a bureau in Morgantown which makes it the only commercial station to have facilities there.

History

The station was launched November 17, 1957. It was the second television station in its small market. WBOY was originally intended to be the ABC affiliate for all of North-Central West Virginia. However the area's intended NBC affiliate, Parkersburg's WTAP-TV, did not have a signal strong enough to reach Clarksburg and Weston. North-Central West Virginia is a very rugged dissected plateau and WTAP's analog signal on UHF channel 15 was not strong enough to carry across the terrain. After it became clear that Parkersburg and Clarksburg were going to be separate markets, WBOY joined NBC and remains with the network to this day. However, it retained a secondary ABC affiliation for many years.

In July 1981, WBOY was bought by Imes Communications of Columbus, Mississippi who also owned that city's CBS affiliate WCBI, as well as ABC affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire. In early 2001, Hearst Television (owner of Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV) acquired WBOY and WMUR from Imes; Hearst's acquisition of WBOY was finalized on April 30, 2001. In 2000, the FCC started to allow a company to own multiple stations with overlapping coverage areas. However, Hearst opted to keep WTAE-TV (one of its longtime flagship stations) and sold WBOY to West Virginia Media Holdings (which was creating a statewide "network" of stations to share resources) in September 2001; the sale closed on December 13 of that year.

WBOY launched a new second digital subchannel with ABC programming on August 1, 2008 known on-air as Your ABC. Sister station WTRF-TV in Wheeling also launched an ABC subchannel at the same time. Previously, both the Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont and Wheeling/Steubenville, Ohio markets were served by WTAE as the de facto affiliate while WDTV aired select ABC Sports programming.

On November 17, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WBOY-TV, for $130 million.[1] Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017.[2]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3]
12.1 1080i 16:9 WBOYNBC Main WBOY-TV programming / NBC
12.2 720p WBOYABC Your ABC
12.3 480i 4:3 Escape Escape
12.4 Laff Laff

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBOY-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 12.[4][5]

Programming

WBOY's syndicated programming includes Rachael Ray, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Dr. Phil. All are distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

News operation

After being acquired by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station upgraded its news operation and built secondary studios in Morgantown on Scott Avenue. A major emphasis was placed on news from that town in the hopes of increasing ratings and thus getting the town reassigned to the Clarksburg/Fairmont market. The move made WBOY the highest rated station in Monongalia County according to Nielsen ratings beating even Pittsburgh stations. The channel produces a large amount of sports content relative to West Virginia University, located in that town, for use by the other member stations. Today, it is the only West Virginia Media Holdings station to have the lead in local news ratings in its respective market.

West Virginia Media produces a half-hour evening newscast that airs at 5:30 p.m. The newscast, titled West Virginia Tonight, is broadcast live from WOWK's Charleston studios in high definition on all four stations and is anchored by Dan Thorn. When WBOY-DT2 launched, it resulted in the debut of the market's first weeknight 7 o'clock newscast. Known as 12 News Live on ABC, it broadcasts exclusively on the ABC station. Otherwise, WBOY-DT2 simulcasts the weekday editions of 12 News at 6 a.m., noon, 6, and 11 p.m. It does not simulcast weekend broadcasts from the main channel. In addition, there is a public affairs program called Decision Makers. Hosted by company president and CEO, Bray Cary, it airs Sundays at 8 a.m. on all West Virginia Media Holdings stations. In another arrangement between all of the company channels, weekend weather forecasts originate from WOWK's new facilities in Charleston.

On April 1, 2013, WBOY became the second station in the market and the last station owned by West Virginia Media Holdings to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition. With the upgrade came new graphics and a new music package (Aerial by Stephen Arnold).[citation needed]

Notable former staff

References

  1. ^ "Nexstar Buys 4 W.Va. TVs For $130M". TVNewsCheck. November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  2. ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rei was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Transmission Complete: WBOY Broadcasting In Digital, WBOY-TV, February 17, 2009
  5. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WBOY-TV&oldid=861241889"