 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Myrtle Beach, South Carolina |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WMBF News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WXIV-LD | |
| History | |
| Founded | October 18, 2005 |
First air date | August 7, 2008 (17 years ago) (2008-08-07) |
Call sign meaning | Myrtle Beach–Florence[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 83969 |
| ERP | 530kW |
| HAAT | 183 m (600 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°43′50.9″N79°4′31.4″W / 33.730806°N 79.075389°W /33.730806; -79.075389 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WMBF-TV (channel 32) is atelevision station inMyrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States, serving as theNBC affiliate for theGrand Strand andPee Dee regions of South Carolina. It is owned byGray Media alongside low-powerTelemundo affiliateWXIV-LD (channel 14). The two stations share studios on Frontage Road East (alongUS 17) in Myrtle Beach, as well as a secondary studio andnews bureau on West Cheves Street inFlorence; WMBF-TV's transmitter is located on Flossie Road inBucksville, South Carolina.
Among the youngest full-power major network affiliates in the United States, WMBF-TV began broadcasting in 2008 underRaycom Media, which had inherited the construction permit fromLiberty Corporation. Its construction gave the region its first in-market NBC affiliate, replacing cable and over-the-air broadcasts of two co-owned stations in adjacent markets, and a third source of local news coverage. Due to technical restrictions, WMBF's over-the-air signal is not viewable in much of the market's inland portion, including Florence, the market's second-largest city; a network of five low-power translators extends WMBF's signal to much of this area for viewers without access to cable or satellite.
In 1984, Moore Broadcast Industries petitioned theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to add channel 32 to the table of allotments at Myrtle Beach, specifying the station had to be located 14 miles (23 km) southwest of town to protect two unused allotments inNorth Carolina, atHigh Point andWilmington.[3] Moore filed for the channel alongside seven other groups, but only three were still in the running in November 1986, when the FCC gave the nod to Coastal Carolina Broadcasting Company, a group of residents ofConway.[4] Coastal Carolina's proposed station got a call sign, WCRD, but little else, being unable to secure financing.[5]
The channel assignment lay fallow with no activity until 1996, when the FCC opened a last-chance window for filings to build new TV stations before turning the channels over to possible use for digital television facilities. An application was made by Cosmos Broadcasting, the broadcasting subsidiary of theLiberty Corporation and owner ofWIS inColumbia. The president of Cosmos toldThe Sun News that the odds were "fairly long" for Cosmos to actually be granted the channel.[6]
In October 2005, the FCC granted Liberty the permit. Two months earlier, though, Liberty had announced its sale toRaycom Media in a 15-station, $987 million transaction.[7] Under the radar, the deal included the construction permit for channel 32 in Myrtle Beach. The Liberty purchase by Raycom united WIS withWECT in Wilmington. These stations had, for decades, provided NBC service to northeastern South Carolina. WIS and WECT stations were on the Myrtle Beach cable system when it debuted in 1962;[8] said cable system was co-owned with WIS.[9] Beginning in 1995, WIS andTime Warner Cable had been engaged in a joint venture to produce a customized feed of the station for the market's inland portion, "WIS–Florence", complete with its own advertising sales staff.[10]
Facilities were approved in early 2007, and it was announced at that time that the station would replace WIS and WECT on regional cable systems.[1] Raycom selected a building formerly used by cell phone companySunCom on Frontage Road and began construction later that year.[11] For Raycom, the construction of WMBF served several goals. Because the digital television transition was looming—with the Wilmington stations, including WECT, part of a pilot switchover in September 2008—the Myrtle Beach station, built as a digital-only facility from the outset, would fill in gaps in coverage after WECT's analog signal shut down. It also would allow Raycom to sell advertising in the rapidly growing Grand Strand area for the first time and give NBC its first in-market affiliate for Florence and Myrtle Beach.[12]
The transmitter was turned on in late July 2008, and the station began programming at 11:59 p.m. on August 7, with NBC welcoming the station on-air the following day onToday,NBC Nightly News, andLate Night with Conan O'Brien. The sign-on of WMBF-TV occurred in time for theopening ceremony of the2008 Summer Olympics. The construction of WMBF cost Raycom an estimated $10 million.[13]
In June 2018,Atlanta-basedGray Television announced it had reached an agreement to merge with Raycom in a transaction valued at $3.6 billion.[14][15] The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019.[16][17]
As a new build, WMBF-TV went on the air with high-definition local newscasts from the outset, including live shots from the field. A number of its early personalities had roots in the area; general manager Ted Fortenberry said that it was important to "find people who know the lay of the land".[12] In the station's early years, managers elsewhere in the Raycom group were often instructed to seek advice from WMBF on technical issues related to HD news conversion.[18] WMBF was the first local station to launch weekend morning newscasts, doing so in the early 2010s.[19]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WMBFDT | NBC |
| 32.2 | 480i | WMBFBNC | Bounce TV | |
| 32.3 | WMBFPSE | Palmetto Sports & Entertainment | ||
| 32.4 | WMBFLAF | Laff | ||
| 32.5 | WMBFGRT | Grit | ||
| 32.6 | WMBFQST | Quest | ||
| 32.7 | WMBFION | Ion Plus |
The signal from WMBF's main transmitter, located on Flossie Road inBucksville, South Carolina,[2] does not reach much of the market's inland portion, including its second-largest city, Florence. To make up for the shortfall in coverage, WMBF is relayed on fourtranslators licensed to Florence—W06DK-D, W19FC-D, W24EX-D, and W35ED-D; all remap tovirtual channel 32. These translators, particularly W35ED-D, serve the few viewers in the market's inland portion without access to cable or satellite.[21]
On January 3, 2022, Jeffrey Winemiller's Lowcountry 34 Media reached a deal to sell W19FC-D, W35ED-D, and 21 other low-power TV stations to Gray Television for $3.75 million.[22]
| Call sign | City of license | Channel | Facility ID | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W06DK-D | Florence, SC | 6 | 185609 | 3 kW | 110 m (361 ft) | 34°16′18.0″N79°43′33.0″W / 34.271667°N 79.725833°W /34.271667; -79.725833 (W06DK-D) |
| W19FC-D | 19 | 185607 | 15 kW | 92 m (302 ft) | 34°22′5.0″N79°19′20.0″W / 34.368056°N 79.322222°W /34.368056; -79.322222 (W19FC-D) | |
| W24EX-D | 24 | 182022 | 102 m (335 ft) | 34°16′18.0″N79°43′33.0″W / 34.271667°N 79.725833°W /34.271667; -79.725833 (W24EX-D) | ||
| W25FQ-D | 25 | 182020 | 22.3 m (73 ft) | 34°10′51.0″N79°23′51.0″W / 34.180833°N 79.397500°W /34.180833; -79.397500 (W25FQ-D) | ||
| W35ED-D | 35 | 185608 | 231 m (758 ft) | 34°16′48.1″N79°44′34.4″W / 34.280028°N 79.742889°W /34.280028; -79.742889 (W35ED-D) |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofSouth Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of South Carolina | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNorth Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of North Carolina | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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