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| Programming | |
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| History | |
| Founded | July 1952[1] |
First air date | March 8, 1953 (72 years ago) (1953-03-08) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | William F. Maag Jr. (former publisher of theYoungstown Vindicator) |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 72062 |
| ERP | 740 kW |
| HAAT | 295 m (968 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°4′48.6″N80°38′24.4″W / 41.080167°N 80.640111°W /41.080167; -80.640111 |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WFMJ-TV (channel 21) is atelevision station inYoungstown, Ohio, United States, affiliated withNBC andThe CW. The station is locally owned by the Maag family. WFMJ-TV's studios are located on West Boardman Street in downtown Youngstown, and its transmitter is based in the city's Lansingville neighborhood.
From its inception until 2019, the station was owned by the Vindicator Printing Company, former publisher of Youngstown's lone newspaper,The Vindicator. On September 1, 2019; the Maags soldThe Vindicator toOgden Newspapers, which now operates it as an edition of theTribune Chronicle inWarren. The Maags retained WFMJ-TV.
The station was founded by William F. Maag, Jr., publisher of theVindicator, and went on the air for the first time on March 8, 1953, on channel 73.[3] The station was owned alongside WFMJ radio (1390 AM, nowWNIO, and 105.1 FM, nowWQXK). WFMJ-TV has always been an NBC affiliate owing to its radio sister's long affiliation withNBC Red Network. The Maags then purchased theconstruction permit issued for channel 21 (originally granted to WUTV) and moved to that frequency on August 7, 1954.[4][5] After moving channels, WFMJ was replaced on channel 73 byindependent station WXTV, which moved to channel 45 in 1959 (the former channel location ofWYTV, then WKST-TV, before moving to channel 33) and remained on-the-air until late 1962.
From its sign-on until 1957, WFMJ-TV served as the NBC affiliate for the far northern portion of thePittsburgh market, mainly areas not covered byWJAC-TV inJohnstown, Pennsylvania, andWTRF-TV inWheeling, West Virginia, for NBC programming (the latter station is now affiliated withCBS). This ended when Pittsburgh got its own NBC affiliate, WIIC-TV (nowWPXI), in September 1957. In addition to its main service area of extreme northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, WFMJ-TV can be seen as far as the eastern and southern suburbs ofCleveland with a good antenna, which allowed access to NBC programming pre-empted by KYW-TV from 1956 until 1965, when Cleveland's channel 3 was owned byWestinghouse Broadcasting, before the sale was undone and it returned to NBC ownership asWKYC.
WFMJ-TV has been the only locally owned and operated station in the market since CBS affiliateWKBN-TV (channel 27) was sold off in 1997. In fact, it is one of the few stations left in the country that is still locally owned and operated and one of three in Ohio, with the others beingWBNX-TV inAkron andWCPO-TV inCincinnati, withWBNS-TV inColumbus andWHIZ-TV inZanesville having been sold off in recent years toTegna Inc. andMarquee Broadcasting, respectively. Channel 21 points out often in advertisements noting that it is the "only locally-owned station in Youngstown". As a result, WFMJ has been a ratings juggernaut in Youngstown for several years.
WFMJ is the Youngstown market's carrier station for theOhio Lottery and its weeklygame show,Cash Explosion Double Play. In October 2010, WFMJ began carrying syndicated programs, and commercials in high definition whenever available in the format. In April 2011, the station started broadcastingCash Explosion in HD.
In 2006, WFMJ opened a satellite studio at theEastwood Mall inNiles, Ohio. Officially known as the Eastwood Mall Bureau, its primary focus is to cover news stories inTrumbull County, Ohio. It also features a retail store where people can buy WFMJ souvenirs, such asT-shirts embroidered with the WFMJ and/orWBCB logos.[6]
On July 6, 2012,Dish Network subscribers within the Youngstown market temporarily lost access to WFMJ-TV, the result of a breakdown in negotiations between the satellite provider and owner Vindicator Printing Company to renew the station's carriage agreement with Dish.[7]
WFMJ-DT2, brandedThe CW WBCB, is theCW-affiliated seconddigital subchannel of WFMJ-TV, broadcasting in1080ihigh definition on channel 21.2. The subchannel can also be seen on all local cable and DBS systems includingComcast Xfinity,Charter Spectrum andDirecTV channel 14, andArmstrong Cable channel 16. It uses the unofficialcall sign"WBCB" for identification andratings purposes. Despite being part of The CW through a digital subchannel affiliation, WFMJ-DT2 is one of the few small-market CW affiliates carried via a digital multicast or local cable channel that is not part ofThe CW Plus; syndicated programming broadcast by the subchannel is instead supplied by WFMJ-TV.
The subchannel launched in November 2004 as an affiliate ofThe WB (brandedThe Valley's WB),[8] and despite Youngstown's small market size (ranked #106 byNielsen Media Research as of 2008[update]), WBCB was one of the nation's first digital subchannels whose programming did not consist of 24-hour weather information (such asNBC Weather Plus). Around the time of launch, WFMJ chose to affiliate "WBCB" with The WB because the founders ofWarner Bros. had lived in Youngstown at one point;[citation needed] the market had also been underserved by the network as Cleveland's then-WB affiliate WBNX-TV (later also a CW affiliate, now an independent station) was only carried on cable in the northern fringes of the market (despite being one of that network's strongest affiliates without Youngstown) while Pittsburgh WB affiliateWCWB (itself now affiliated withMyNetworkTV) was not even available on cable at all in the market (by contrast, Cleveland's then-UPN affiliateWUAB (now also a CW affiliate) was and remains widely available on cable in Youngstown, whileWNPA/Pittsburgh was available in certain sections of the market).
Most of the market received WB network programming via "WBWO", a cable-only WB affiliate ofThe WB 100+ Station Group out of the Wheeling–Steubenville market, with systems owned and operated byTime Warner Cable (the largest cable provider in Youngstown) only receiving it duringprime time hours, otherwise sharing channel space withMTV2. Comcast and Armstrong Cable both offered both MTV2 and WBWO 24 hours on their own channel space. The "WBCB" calls date back to the station's WB affiliation (affiliates of The WB 100+ Station Group commonly utilized fictional callsigns).
On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced the two networks would cease broadcasting and merge to form The CW. "WBCB" would be chosen by default as the market's CW affiliate and for unknown reasons, the artificial call sign "WBCB" was kept after the subchannel affiliated with The CW in September 2006. With digital subchannels more common by this point,ABC affiliate WYTV launched a second digital subchannel affiliated with MyNetworkTV (under the branding "MY-YTV") that fall.
As of December 2024, WFMJ presently broadcasts31+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays, and3+1⁄2 hours on Sundays).
WFMJ's newscasts typically garner higher ratings than its competitors combined in the morning, 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. timeslots. The station founded the market's first Friday night high school football program withThe Overtime Report in the 1990s. On October 29, 2009, beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast, the station upgraded its weather graphics to Weather Central's 3D:LIVE system. On October 26, 2013, WFMJ launched the area's first weekend morning news withWFMJ Weekend Today. The newscasts air on Saturdays from 6 to 7 a.m. and 9 to 10 a.m. and on Sundays from 7 to 8 a.m. and 9 to 10:30 a.m.[9]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WFMJ-HD | NBC |
| 21.2 | WBCB-HD | The CW | ||
| 21.3 | 480i | DABL | Dabl |
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