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|---|---|
| City | Williamsport, Pennsylvania |
| Channels | |
| Branding | MyTV WQMY |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator |
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| WOLF-TV, WSWB | |
| History | |
First air date | December 30, 1988 (36 years ago) (1988-12-30) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers | Analog: 53 (UHF, 1988–2009) |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 52075 |
| ERP | 50kW |
| HAAT | 243 m (797 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°12′1.2″N77°7′11.8″W / 41.200333°N 77.119944°W /41.200333; -77.119944 |
| Translator(s) | WOLF-TV 56.3Hazleton |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
WQMY (channel 53) is atelevision station licensed toWilliamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, servingNortheastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate ofMyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based New Age Media,LLC, alongsideHazleton-licensedFox affiliate and companyflagshipWOLF-TV (channel 56); New Age also provides certain services toScranton-licensedCW affiliateWSWB (channel 38) under alocal marketing agreement (LMA) with MPS Media. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement bySinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios onPA 315 in the Fox Hill section ofPlains Township; WQMY's transmitter is located on Bald Eagle Mountain. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station andCBS affiliateWSBT-TV inSouth 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 andWilkes-Barre. Therefore, the station issimulcast on WOLF-TV's thirddigital subchannel (56.3) from its transmitter onPenobscot Knob nearMountain Top.
On December 30, 1988, the station signed on an analog signal on UHF channel 53. It was the second full-timesatellite 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 adjacentBinghamton andElmira markets, which themselves would not receive local Fox affiliates untilApril 1996 andmid-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 secondWB affiliate afterlow-powerWYLN-LP inHazleton 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 upUPN 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 airedAmerica's Next Top Model in the 8 p.m. timeslot, followed at 9 p.m. byWWE Friday Night SmackDown. WheneverTop Model was in repeats, it would airVeronica Mars instead. All UPN programming in pattern was available on cable viasuperstationWWOR-TV fromNew York City (which servedPike County, which is part of the New York DMA) orWPSG fromPhiladelphia (which servedLehigh andNorthampton counties, which are part of the Philadelphia DMA); cable systems in some areas carriedWLYH-TV fromHarrisburg instead.
Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute withDirecTV, which was co-owned with Fox byNews Corporation, over marketing of thesatellite 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.
On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB,CBS Corporation and theWarner Bros. Entertainment division ofTime Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to createThe 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.[3][4] Subsequently, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch ofMyNetworkTV, a network operated byFox Television Stations and its syndication divisionTwentieth 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.[5][6]
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 livePhiladelphia UnionMLS telecasts fromABC affiliateWPVI-TV.
On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WQMY and WOLF-TV, to theSinclair Broadcast Group.[7][8] On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WQMY;[9] 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.[10][11]
On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered intoan agreement to acquireTribune Media, which had operatedABC affiliateWNEP-TV (channel 16) through a services agreement since 2014.[12] It intended to keep WNEP, selling WOLF/WQMY/WSWB and eight other stations toStandard Media Group.[13] The transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCCadministrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal the next month.[14]
The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:
| 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) inSD |
WQMY multiplexes its signal in order to broadcast WOLF in HD and WSWB to theLycoming County area.[16] In mid-2010, WQMY started routing direct HD signals to various cable companies in northeast Pennsylvania.
WQMY shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 53, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition 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, usingvirtual channel 53.[17]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Pennsylvania | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
