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WQMY
CityWilliamsport, Pennsylvania
Channels
BrandingMyTV WQMY
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
  • New Age Media, LLC
  • (New Age Media of Pennsylvania License, LLC)
OperatorSinclair Broadcast Group via MSA
WOLF-TV, WSWB
History
First air date
December 30, 1988 (35 years ago) (1988-12-30)
Former call signs
  • WDZA (1988–1990)
  • WILF (1990–2006)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 53 (UHF, 1988–2009)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID52075
ERP50 kW
HAAT243 m (797 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°12′1.2″N 77°7′11.8″W / 41.200333°N 77.119944°W / 41.200333; -77.119944
Translator(s)WOLF-DT 56.3 (45.5 UHF) Hazleton
Links
Public license information

WQMY (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based New Age Media, LLC, alongside Hazleton-licensed Fox affiliate and company flagship WOLF-TV (channel 56); New Age also provides certain services to Scranton-licensed CW affiliate WSWB (channel 38) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with MPS Media. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios on PA 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township; WQMY's transmitter is located on Bald Eagle Mountain. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station and CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana, since January 2017. There is no separate website for WQMY; instead, it is integrated with that of sister station WOLF-TV.

Although WQMY transmits a digital signal of its own, it does not reach the two major cities in the market, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Therefore, the station is simulcast on WOLF-TV's third digital subchannel (56.3) from its transmitter on Penobscot Knob near Mountain Top.

History

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As a WOLF satellite

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On December 30, 1988, the station signed on an analog signal on UHF channel 53. It was the second full-time satellite of Fox affiliate WOLF-TV (then on analog UHF channel 38) owned by Scranton TV Partners. Using the call letters WDZA, in which they changed to WILF in 1990, this station was established to improve coverage of its parent station in the northern and western parts of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market and serve portions of the Pennsylvania side of the adjacent Binghamton and Elmira markets, which themselves would not receive local Fox affiliates until April 1996 and mid-1997. On November 1, 1998, then-owner Pegasus Television changed channel 38's call letters to the current WSWB and made it the area's second WB affiliate after low-powered WYLN-LP in Hazleton dropped the network. Fox programming remained on channel 38's former satellite, WWLF in Hazleton, which picked up the WOLF-TV calls. WILF remained as a repeater of WSWB. WSWB/WILF also picked up UPN as a secondary affiliation. Select programming from the network aired on Saturday nights (since The WB did not offer programs then) without the branding. For the last three years of its affiliation with UPN, the station aired America's Next Top Model in the 8 p.m. timeslot, followed at 9 p.m. by WWE Friday Night SmackDown. Whenever Top Model was in repeats, it would air Veronica Mars instead. All UPN programming in pattern was available on cable via superstation WWOR-TV from New York City (which served Pike County, which is part of the New York DMA) or WPSG from Philadelphia (which served Lehigh and Northampton counties, which are part of the Philadelphia DMA); cable systems in some areas carried WLYH-TV from Harrisburg instead.

Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV, which was co-owned with Fox by News Corporation, over marketing of the satellite service in rural areas. The Pegasus station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-Barre for $55.5 million. Eventually, CP Media formed a new broadcasting company, New Age Media. For the first time in its history, WSWB was no longer co-owned with WOLF-TV. However, the new owner entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) so the stations could continue to be commonly operated.

As a MyNetworkTV affiliate; conversion into a separate station

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On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW Television Network, a joint venture between the two media companies that initially featured programs from its two predecessor networks as well as new series specifically produced for The CW.[2][3] Subsequently, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a network operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television that was created to primarily to provide network programming to UPN and WB stations that The CW decided against affiliating based on their local viewership standing in comparison to the outlet that The CW ultimately chose as its charter outlets, giving these stations another option besides converting to a general entertainment independent format.[4][5]

On May 1, 2006, in an announcement by New Age Media, WILF was named as MyNetworkTV's charter affiliate for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market and would sever its simulcast of WSWB to become an independently programmed outlet; concurrently, WSWB was announced as the market's charter CW affiliate, a choice that was made apparent as that station had already maintained affiliations with both The WB and UPN. Since WILF's signal was more or less unviewable in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, it was also announced that its programming would be simulcast over a new third digital subchannel of WOLF-TV. WILF changed its call letters to the current WQMY on July 7 to reflect the upcoming affiliation change. WQMY became a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV when that network launched on September 5, at which time, the station ceased operating as a full-time WSWB satellite and introduced a separate programming lineup and branding. WSWB became a CW charter affiliate when that network launched two weeks later on September 18. On May 8, 2010, WQMY began re-broadcasting live Philadelphia Union MLS telecasts from ABC affiliate WPVI-TV.

On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WQMY and WOLF-TV, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[6][7] On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WQMY;[8] the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of the stations it planned to buy from New Age Media and began operating them through a master service agreement.[9][10]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media, which had operated ABC affiliate WNEP-TV (channel 16) through a services agreement since 2014.[11] It intended to keep WNEP, selling WOLF/WQMY/WSWB and eight other stations to Standard Media Group.[12] The transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal the next month.[13]

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WQMY[14]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
53.1 480i 4:3 WQMY DT MyNetworkTV
53.2 720p 16:9 WOLF DT Fox (WOLF-TV)
53.3 480i 4:3 WSWB DT The CW (WSWB) in SD
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

WQMY multiplexes its signal in order to broadcast WOLF in HD and WSWB to the Lycoming County area.[15] In mid-2010, WQMY started routing direct HD signals to various cable companies in northeast Pennsylvania.

Analog-to-digital conversion

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WQMY shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 53, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 29,[16] using virtual channel 53.

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WQMY". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Jessica Seid (January 24, 2006). "'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September". CNNMoney.com. Time Warner.
  3. ^ Bill Carter (January 24, 2006). "UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network". The New York Times. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  4. ^ "News Corp. to launch new mini-network for UPN stations". USA Today. Gannett Company. February 22, 2006. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  5. ^ John Eggerton (February 22, 2006). "News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV". Broadcasting & Cable. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  6. ^ Haber, Gary (September 25, 2013). "Sinclair Broadcast Group to pay $90M for eight New Age Media TV stations". Baltimore Business Journal. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  7. ^ "Sinclair To Buy 8 New Age Stations for $90M". TVNewsCheck. September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  8. ^ Kirkpatrick, Daniel A. (October 31, 2014). "Re: New Age Media of Pennsylvania License, LLC…" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  9. ^ "Sinclair Reports Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results" (PDF) (Press release). Baltimore: Sinclair Broadcast Group. November 5, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  10. ^ "Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Form 10-Q". sbgi.edgarpro.com. November 10, 2014. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  11. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (May 8, 2017). "Sinclair Broadcast Group Sets $3.9 Billion Deal to Acquire Tribune Media". Variety. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  12. ^ Jessell, Harry A. (April 24, 2018). "Sinclair Spins Off 23 TVs To Grease Trib Deal". TVNewsCheck. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  13. ^ Flint, Joe (August 9, 2018). "Tribune Terminates $3.9 Billion Sinclair Merger, Sues Broadcast Rival". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  14. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WQMY
  15. ^ http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:17701#lineup_3845390 [dead link]
  16. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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