WOLF-TV

For the television station in Scranton, Pennsylvania that formerly used this callsign, see WSWB.

WOLF-TV

CityHazleton, Pennsylvania
Channels
Branding
  • Fox 56
  • CW 38 (on DT2)
  • MyTV WQMY (on DT3)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
OperatorSinclair Broadcast Group via MSA
WQMY, WSWB
History
FoundedNovember 22, 1982
First air date
June 6, 1985 (39 years ago) (1985-06-06)
Former call signs
  • WERF (1982–1984)
  • WWLF-TV (1984–1998)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 56 (UHF, 1985–2009)
  • Digital: 45 (UHF, 2001–2019)
Independent (1985–1986)
Call sign meaning
"Wolf" (the animal)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID73375
ERP220 kW
HAAT510 m (1,673 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°10′58.2″N 75°52′11.5″W / 41.182833°N 75.869861°W / 41.182833; -75.869861
Translator(s)
Links
Public license information
Websitefox56.com

WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-owned with Williamsport-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WQMY (channel 53); 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; WOLF-TV's transmitter is located at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station and CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana, since January 2017.

History

[edit]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted an original construction permit for Hazleton's first full-service television station on September 30, 1982.[2] The new station, given the call letters WERF,[3] was owned by James Oyster and was to broadcast from a tower south of the city.[4] At that location, the station could serve its city of license but not the main cities in the market, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. In April 1983, WERF applied to move its transmitter to the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountaintop where WNEP-TV (channel 16), WDAU-TV (channel 22, now WYOU), WBRE-TV (channel 28), and WVIA-TV (channel 44) also housed their transmitters. The application was denied, however.[5]

Oyster changed the station's call letters to WWLF-TV on July 25, 1984,[3] then sold the construction permit to Hazleton TV Associates on December 13.[6] Two months later on February 20, 1985, the station was sold again, this time to Scranton TV Partners who completed construction of the station and brought it on-air on June 6. WWLF was a satellite of co-owned WOLF-TV in Scranton which was then on UHF channel 38 and was an independent station. That station had just begun broadcasting itself on June 3. WWLF, as a satellite of WOLF-TV, was independent for a little more than a year. On October 9, 1986, it became a charter affiliate of Fox.[7] In 1988, WWLF moved to a new transmitter on Nescopeck Mountain near the junction of I-80 and PA 93[8] but remained a satellite of WOLF-TV.

On April 27, 1993, WWLF was sold to Pegasus Television[9] and the new owners were able to accomplish something that the station's original owner could not: get permission to move the transmitter to the antenna farm at Penobscot Knob.[10] The completion of the new transmitter ushered in a new era for WWLF. On November 1, 1998, Pegasus moved the WOLF-TV call sign to channel 56 and made it the sole outlet for Fox programming in Northeast Pennsylvania.[3] It changed the call letters of channel 38 to WSWB and made that station an affiliate of The WB.[7][11] That station's owners had sought for many years to move either the channel 38 or channel 56 transmitters to Penobscot Knob.

On January 4, 2007, WOLF-TV, along with most of the Pegasus stations, was sold to investment group CP Media, LLC[12] with the sale consummated on March 31.[13] For the first time in its history, the station was no longer co-owned with WSWB. However, the new owners of that station signed a local marketing agreement (LMA) with CP Media meaning that the stations continue to be commonly operated.[14] Eventually, CP Media formed a new broadcasting group, New Age Media. More recently, WOLF-TV launched a new website using the Fox owned-and-operated station platform licensed from Fox Television Stations' interactive division; this lasted until some time in 2010 or 2011 when WorldNow took over the operation of the WOLF-TV web site. On December 4, 2011, the station's transmitter was damaged and for the next month WOLF-TV was carried on WBRE's channel 28.2 subchannel.[15][16]

On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WOLF-TV and WQMY, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Concurrently, sister station WSWB was to be sold by MPS Media to Cunningham Broadcasting, while continuing to be operated by WOLF-TV.[17][18] On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WOLF-TV;[19] 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.[20][21]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media, which had operated WNEP-TV through a services agreement since 2014.[22] It intended to keep WNEP, selling WOLF/WQMY/WSWB and eight other stations to Standard Media Group.[23] 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.[24]

Newscasts

[edit]

Fox required most of its affiliates to begin offering local news in 1990 to help the fledgling network. However, WOLF's facilities have never been large enough to accommodate an in-house news department. Rather than risk disaffiliation, what is now WSWB entered into a news share agreement with ABC affiliate WNEP-TV (then owned by The New York Times Company) in 1991. The outsourcing arrangement resulted in one of the nation's first prime time newscasts to debut known as Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 38. The show originated from WNEP's facility on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic featuring the ABC outlet's on-air personnel. When channel 56 became the sole Fox outlet for the area in 1998, the newscasts stayed here as well under the title of Fox 56 News at 10, with a secondary title of Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 56.

In November 2009, it was announced WNEP would move its production of the news at 10 to a second digital subchannel called "WNEP 2" which had recently gained Retro Television Network (RTV) affiliation. That happened December 31 of that year after which WOLF-TV and NBC affiliate WBRE-TV (owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group) entered into a new outsourcing agreement. After taking over production of nightly prime time newscasts on WOLF-TV starting New Year's Day 2010, WBRE expanded the show to an hour each night and changed the title to Fox 56 News First at 10.

The program later originated from a secondary set at the NBC affiliate's studios on South Franklin Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre. The space had previously been used to produce separate newscasts on CBS affiliate WYOU. On April 2, 2012, WBRE became the market's second television station to upgrade local news to high definition level. The WOLF-TV shows were included in the upgrade complete with an updated secondary set at WBRE's studios. As was the case with the WNEP-produced broadcasts, if there were network obligations or overruns of Fox programming that prevent WOLF-TV from showing the WBRE program, it was aired on WSWB instead. Its website posts video of the first segment of Fox 56 News First at 10 and the weather forecast segment. Along with its main studios, WBRE operates news bureaus in Scranton (on Lackawanna Avenue), Stroudsburg (Main Street), Williamsport (on Pine Street), and Hazleton (East 10th Street).

On October 5, 2016, the Hazleton Standard-Speaker reported that WOLF-TV would end its outsourcing agreement with WBRE on December 31, and was beginning to hire staff for a new in-house news department.[25] The newscast began on January 1, 2017, using local reporting staff, with anchors originating from a secondary set at Sinclair's CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana. Until May 2023, the anchors for WOLF's 10 p.m. show also hosted the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts for NBC affiliate WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio.[26]

Technical information

[edit]

Subchannels

[edit]

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WOLF-TV[27]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
56.1 720p 16:9 FOX Fox
56.2 480i CW The CW (WSWB) in SD
56.3 720p MyTV MyNetworkTV (WQMY) in HD
56.4 480i Charge! Charge!
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

WQMY cannot be received over-the-air in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas due to its transmitter being in Williamsport, so it can be seen on WOLF-DT3.

Analog-to-digital conversion

[edit]

WOLF-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, on January 19, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45,[28][29] using virtual channel 56.

Translators

[edit]

WOLF-TV serves one of the largest geographic markets in the country. This area is very mountainous making UHF reception difficult. However, the station is in unique situation since Scranton and Wilkes-Barre is a "UHF Island". As a result, it operates a digital translator to repeat its signal. W24DB-D on UHF channel 24 has a transmitter northwest of Scranton and I-476 in Lackawanna County. WOLF-TV also operates a digital replacement translator on UHF channel 27 in Waymart. This channel exists because wind turbines run by NextEra Energy Resources at the Waymart Wind Farm interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WOLF-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Original construction permit". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2007. - no details given
  3. ^ a b c "Channel 56 call sign changes". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
  4. ^ "WERF tower location". topozone.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2007. (reverts to home page)
  5. ^ "Denied transmitter move application". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2007. - no details given
  6. ^ "1984 assignment of permit". Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2007. - no details given
  7. ^ a b "WOLF/WSWB/WQMY Timeline". NEPA Today. Archived from the original on November 16, 2006. Retrieved March 16, 2007.
  8. ^ "1988 transmitter site". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2007.
  9. ^ "Sale to Pegasus". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2007. - no details given
  10. ^ "1997 transmitter site". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2007. - no details given
  11. ^ "Channel 38 call sign changes". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2007.
  12. ^ "Sale to CP Media". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2007. - no details given
  13. ^ "Sale consummation – CP Media". Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2007. - no details given
  14. ^ "Revised Joint Sales and Shared Services Agreement". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved March 16, 2007.[permanent dead link]
  15. ^ "WOLF-TV and WQMY-TV Signals Back On the Air". WorldNow and WOLF. Retrieved December 10, 2011.[dead link]
  16. ^ "Transmission – HD returned to over the air users!". WOLF. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  17. ^ Haber, Gary (September 25, 2013). "Sinclair Broadcast Group to pay $90M for eight New Age Media TV stations". Baltimore Business Journal. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  18. ^ "Sinclair To Buy 8 New Age Stations for $90M". TVNewsCheck. September 25, 2013. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  19. ^ Kirkpatrick, Daniel A. (October 31, 2014). "Re: New Age Media of Pennsylvania License, LLC..." (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  20. ^ "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.
  21. ^ "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.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Allabaugh, Denise (October 5, 2016). "Fox affiliate planning to build its own news team". Hazleton Standard-Speaker. Archived from the original on October 6, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  26. ^ Baird, Kirk (March 8, 2017). "Anchors away: WNWO, Channel 24, airs newscasts from Indiana". Toledo Blade. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  27. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WOLF". Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  28. ^ Local TV stations already switched, JIM DINO, Scranton Times-Tribune, January 18, 2009
  29. ^ "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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