The three stations share studios on 41st Street off the Jones Falls Expressway on "Television Hill" in the Woodberry neighborhood of north Baltimore. Through a channel sharing agreement, WBFF and WUTB transmit using the former station's spectrum from an antenna adjacent to the studios.[3][4] The 1,280-foot (390m) tall tower stands near the earlier landmark "candelabra tower" from the late 1950s in use by the city's original three main VHF stations (WMAR-TV, WBAL-TV, and WJZ-TV).
History
WBFF first came on the air on April 11, 1971,[5] founded by what was then called the Chesapeake Television Corporation, which was controlled by Julian Sinclair Smith. The original meaning of its call sign was "Baltimore's Finest Features" because it primarily aired old movies in its earliest years.[6] It was Baltimore's second commercial UHF station and second independent station, signing on four years after WMET-TV (channel 24, frequency now occupied by WUTB) began operations. Both stations aired general entertainment programming, but WMET's owners experienced financial problems and were forced to take channel 24 off the air in 1972.
Even without direct competition, and operating on a small budget, WBFF still struggled for strong programming during the 1970s as Baltimore's network affiliates—WBAL-TV, WJZ-TV and WMAR-TV—continued to acquire off-network syndicated programs during this period. It did not help matters that Washington's WTTG and WDCA were readily available both over the air (Washington stations all provided a strong signal into Baltimore) and on cable. Channel 45 did find an advantage in having a decent library of movies, sitcoms[5] and westerns at its disposal. Like other independent stations of that era, WBFF also ran network programs preempted by the local affiliates, local public affairs programs, and played cartoons and series reruns in the afternoon for the after-school kids crowd in a show hosted by nostalgic "Captain Chesapeake" (played by George Lewis) along with his side-kick "Mondy" the sea monster played by James Uhrin (who continued to work at WBFF under the alias "Traffic Jam Jimmy")[5] as they cruised through the Bay. "Captain Chesapeake" was a fixture on WBFF from its beginnings until 1990, with his famous cheery greeting: "Ahoyyy Crewmembers!!"
This WBFF logo dates to the mid-1980s. The "C" in the logo is for Sinclair Broadcast Group's forerunner, Chesapeake Television.
Despite its financial troubles, WBFF became profitable enough that Julian Smith decided to expand his broadcast interests. Through a Chesapeake Television subsidiary, Commercial Radio Institute, Smith launched a new independent station in Pittsburgh, WPTT (now WPNT), in 1978. In 1984, Commercial Radio Institute signed on Smith's third station, independent WTTE in Columbus, Ohio. That same year, WBFF received local competition again when WNUV-TV, then a two-year-old subscription television outlet, began to adopt a general entertainment schedule during the daytime and full-time by 1986.
In 1985, Julian Smith merged his three stations into the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and around this time one of his sons, David D. Smith, took a prominent role in the operations of the three stations. In 1986, Sinclair agreed to affiliate WBFF and WTTE with the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company, which debuted on October 9 of that year. The growth and rise of Fox coincided with that of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which expanded its reach beyond Baltimore, Columbus and Pittsburgh during the 1990s.
In June 1991, Sinclair opened up the station's news department with Baltimore's first 10p.m. newscast co-anchored by Lisa Willis (formerly of WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey) and Jeff Barnd. Then, in September, Sinclair took the bold step of challenging WMAR-TV's pending license renewal and filing its own competing application for a new station. As WMAR-TV had been sold the previous June to the E. W. Scripps Company, Sinclair argued that an out-of-town corporation could not effectively serve the city's public interest and the valuable channel allocation—a channel 2 analog signal traveled a very long distance under normal conditions—should be granted to an established local broadcaster instead. The gambit did not work, and WMAR-TV remained on channel 2.[7]
WBFF nearly lost its Fox affiliation in 1994 when Fox entered talks with WJZ-TV, but it opted to affiliate with CBS instead.[8]WBAL-TV was also considered after the station dropped CBS, but opted to affiliate with NBC instead.[9]
In 1996, Channel 45 began airing Baltimore Ravens games via the NFL on Fox; the station is given at least two games a season to air (usually when the team plays host to an NFC team at M&T Bank Stadium); starting in 2014, when the NFL instituted its new 'cross-flex' broadcast rules, games can be arbitrarily moved from WJZ-TV to WBFF. Additionally, the station aired all Thursday Night Football games involving the Ravens from 2018 to 2021 through Fox's exclusive contract.
WBFF and WNUV's combined studio and office facility, in Baltimore's Woodberry neighborhood.
Sinclair purchased Abry Communications, owner of WNUV, in 1994. As duopolies were not allowed at the time, channel 54 was spun off to Glencairn Ltd., a company owned by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards. However, Glencairn's stock was almost entirely owned by the Smith family. In effect, Sinclair now had a duopoly in Baltimore—and had emasculated its major rival in its hometown. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by taking over WNUV's operations under a local marketing agreement (LMA), with WBFF as senior partner.
Sinclair tried to buy Glencairn outright in 2001, but was unable to buy WNUV due to the FCC's rules on duopolies. Despite its relatively large size, the Baltimore market has only seven full-power stations (or six, if two stations licensed in the market that are operated by Maryland Public Television are treated as one)—two fewer than what FCC regulations allow to legally permit a duopoly (the FCC requires a market to have eight unique station owners once a duopoly is formed, effectively limiting duopolies to markets with at least nine full-power stations). Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting and retained ownership of WNUV. However, nearly all of Cunningham's stock is held in trusts owned by the Smiths. This de facto duopoly continues to this day, while the close relationship between Sinclair and Glencairn/Cunningham has led to claims that Cunningham is merely a corporate shell that Sinclair uses in order to evade FCC ownership restrictions.
While WBFF entered the new century thriving as both locally and as a Fox affiliate, its network partner threatened the station's immediate future. In 2001, Fox's parent company, the News Corporation, became the new owner of Baltimore's UPN affiliate WUTB (the former WMET-TV) through its purchase of most of Chris-Craft Industries' television holdings. Rumors abounded that Fox was considering moving its programming from WBFF to WUTB. In a move made clearly to protect its home interests, Sinclair persuaded Fox to sign a long-term contract to keep WBFF with the network. The same threat re-emerged in January 2006, when UPN owner CBS Corporation and Time Warner, owners of The WB Television Network, announced that those two networks would be shut down and replaced by the new CW Television Network. However, a month after The CW's formation, News Corporation announced that WUTB and its other UPN affiliates would become the nuclei of its new MyNetworkTV service.
On May 15, 2012, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's 19 Fox stations, including WBFF, that will run through 2017. This included an option (that was exercisable from July 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013) to allow Sinclair to purchase WUTB, resulting in the creation of a virtual triopoly with WBFF and WNUV; while giving Fox the option to buy any combination of six CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates (two of which were standalone stations affiliated with the latter service) owned by Sinclair in three of four markets: Raleigh (WLFL and WRDC), Las Vegas (KVCW and KVMY), Cincinnati (WSTR-TV) and Norfolk (WTVZ). Under the agreement and the WUTB purchase option, Sinclair would pay $52.7 million to continue WBFF's affiliation with Fox; however, if Fox exercised the option to buy any of the Sinclair stations that were included in the option, the affiliation payments would decrease to $25 million.[11] On November 29, 2012, Sinclair exercised its option to purchase WUTB through Deerfield Media for $2.7 million. Following the completion of the sale, WUTB began to be operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement, as with Deerfield's other stations.[12] In January 2013, Fox announced that it would not exercise its option to buy any of the Sinclair stations included in the earlier purchase option.[13] On May 6, 2013, the FCC granted its approval of WUTB to Deerfield Media.[14] Sinclair officially took over the operations of WUTB eight days later, although the sale was not formally consummated until June 1.[15] With the completion of the WUTB sale, this makes Baltimore the largest market where one company (outside of non-commercial public television station groups) operates a virtual triopoly between full-power stations. WBFF remains the only station in the Baltimore market never to change its primary network affiliate.
On the afternoon of April 28, 2016, WBFF's studios were evacuated in response to a threat by a person wearing a hoax bomb; the suspect also allegedly set his vehicle on fire in the station's parking lot. The suspect was later shot and apprehended by police; besides a desire to share end times prophecy content with the station (a USB drive with videos was confiscated by a security guard), no specific motive for the incident was determined.[16]
WBFF-DT2
On May 1, 2006, WBFF launched a new service on its second digital subchannel (45.2) originally called WBFF-2,[10] which was later renamed Good TV.[17] This digital-only channel featured classic television programs'[10] (its format predated the existence of several nationally distributed digital multicast networks focused on classic television programming such as MeTV, Antenna TV and Retro Television Network). In addition, "Good TV" offered expanded coverage of church services on Sunday mornings, local events, and paid programming.[10] This channel ceased broadcasting on or around September 30, 2008, to make way for This TV until 2017, when it was replaced with TBD programming. In July 2021, TBD moved to WUTB; that station's previous "My TV Baltimore" programming, including the MyNetworkTV lineup, in turn moved to the 45.2 subchannel.
News operation
WBFF presently broadcasts 55 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 9+1⁄2 hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and 3+1⁄2 hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Baltimore's broadcast television stations as well as in the state of Maryland in general. It is also the highest output of Sinclair Broadcast Group's stations (both out of its Fox affiliates and the company's overall television stations).
Sinclair decided to invest in developing a news department for WBFF, with the station launching a nightly 10 p.m. newscast on June 3, 1991, co-anchored by Lisa Willis (formerly of WWOR-TV) and Jeff Barnd. The station added a weekday morning newscast in March 2000. In February 2003, it added a weeknight 11 p.m. newscast that was broadcast from Sinclair's now-defunct centralized news service, News Central, located in Hunt Valley. The start time of the weekday morning newscast was moved to 5:30a.m. and an early evening newscast at 5:30p.m. was subsequently added to the schedule in January 2005. On June 2, 2008, WBFF became the first Baltimore television station to begin broadcast its local newscasts in high definition.
Jeff Barnd, a former WBFF news anchor, also hosted and provided commentary for the Sinclair-distributed syndicated news program American Crossroads. WBFF was featured in an episode during the third season of The Simple Life. On that episode, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie took control of the station's weekday morning newscast. The two read the weather forecast and messed with the teleprompter. Tony Harris, later a CNN anchor, was once WBFF's lead anchor (co-anchoring with Lisa Willis). In 2015, former WJZ-TV co-anchor Kai Jackson was named the station's lead anchor.
On January 24, 2011, WBFF expanded its weekday morning newscast from four to five hours to 5–10 a.m. weekdays, with the 9 a.m. edition called Fox 45 Good Day Baltimore. On April 9, 2012, WBFF expanded its early evening newscast by adding another half-hour at 5 p.m., shifting Judge Judy to a full-hour at 4 p.m.; the 5:30p.m. newscast remains, but is treated as a separate newscast. In 2015 the station added a 4 p.m. newscast pushing Judge Judy back to 3 p.m.[18] On January 20, 2013, WBFF debuted weekend morning newscasts, featuring a two-hour Saturday morning newscast and three hours of newscasts on Sunday mornings (with the third hour of the Sunday newscast airing after Fox News Sunday).[19]
Controversy
On December 21, 2014, WBFF's news operation came under criticism for airing a video that some allege had misleading edits.[20]
The video was of a protest over police brutality in the aftermath of the killing of Eric Garner, where protesters, led by a Baltimore woman named Tawanda Jones, chanted "We won't stop. We can't stop till killer cops are in cellblocks." The video, as edited and shown on the station's 10p.m. newscast, made it seem like protesters were chanting "kill a cop".[20][21]
A day after the video aired, WBFF issued an apology over the edited video online, saying the report reflected an "honest misunderstanding" of what the protesters were chanting, and that the report has been removed from the station's website.[22] A news anchor for the station later made an in-person apology to Jones, who appeared during the station's 5:30p.m. newscast.[21]
In the aftermath of the incident, reporter Melinda Roeder and photographer Greg McNair were fired from the station in connection with their alleged involvement with the video. The station's news director at the time, Mike Tomko, was suspended for one day.[23]
The station would again stoke controversy in June 2024, when the guild for The Baltimore Sun revealed that several stories in the newspaper had been repurposed from the news staff of WBFF without their prior knowledge, including existing content being edited around WBFF's own reporting rather than that of the reporter of The Sun. The paper had been acquired in February of the same year by a consortium led by Sinclair chairman David Smith and Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator who owns several stations that have shared service agreements with Sinclair and whose weekly program is carried by its stations. The station had come under fire at the same time for alarmism involving its coverage of crime occurring in the Fells Point neighborhood.[24]
WBFF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 45, 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 46,[28][29] using virtual channel 45.
WBFF announced in September 2015 that test broadcasts would begin in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., for ATSC 3.0 (dubbed "Futurecast") via a two-transmitter SFN with one transmitter in each city on UHF 43 delivering 4KUHDTV and mobile feeds to viewers.[30] This station, named WI9XXT, began experimental broadcasts on August 24, 2015, and the special temporary authority ended on February 25, 2016.[31][32] WI9XXT's broadcasts were from WRC-TV's tower in the northwest section of Washington, and from WBFF's tower in Woodberry, Baltimore.
WTTE is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, airing programming from TBD. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group—owner of ABC and Fox affiliate WSYX —for the provision of certain services, and is operated from studios on Dublin Road alongside CW affiliate WWHO. WTTE's transmitter is located in the Franklinton section of Columbus.
Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations, after Nexstar Media Group, owning or operating 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets, covering 40% of American households. It is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Sinclair owns four digital multicast networks, Comet, Charge!, The Nest, and TBD, and sports-oriented cable networks, Stadium, Tennis Channel, and Bally Sports Regional Networks. In June 2021, Sinclair became a Fortune 500 company, having reached 2020 annual revenues of US$5.9billion, equivalent to $6.8billion in 2023.
WRGT-TV is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of ABC/Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WKEF, for the provision of certain services. However, Sinclair effectively owns WRGT-TV as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The two stations share studios on Corporate Place in Miamisburg; WRGT-TV's transmitter is located off South Gettysburg Avenue in southwest Dayton.
WEAR-TV is a television station licensed to Pensacola, Florida, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northwest Florida and southwest Alabama. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fort Walton Beach–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WFGX ; Sinclair also provides certain services to Mobile, Alabama–licensed NBC affiliate WPMI-TV and Pensacola-licensed independent station WJTC under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Deerfield Media.
WNUV is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF, for the provision of programming and certain services. However, Sinclair effectively owns WNUV, as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. Sinclair also operates TBD affiliate WUTB under a separate shared services agreement with Deerfield Media. The stations share studios on 41st Street off the Jones Falls Expressway on Television Hill in the Woodberry neighborhood of north Baltimore; WBFF and WNUV are also broadcast from the same tower on the hill.
WUHF is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to dual ABC/CW affiliate WHAM-TV under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Deerfield Media. The two stations share studios on West Henrietta Road in Henrietta ; WUHF's transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill on the border between Rochester and Brighton.
KTVI is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV. The two stations share studios on Ball Drive in Maryland Heights; KTVI's transmitter is located in Sappington, Missouri.
KABB is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual NBC/CW affiliate WOAI-TV ; Sinclair also provides certain services to Kerrville-licensed Dabl affiliate KMYS under joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Deerfield Media. The three stations share studios between Babcock Road and Sovereign Drive in northwest San Antonio; KABB's transmitter is located in northwest Wilson County.
WJZ-TV is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, adjacent to the transmission tower it shares with several other Baltimore broadcast outlets.
WBAL-TV is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship property of Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to the company's sole radio properties, WBAL and WIYY. The three outlets share studios and offices on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, near the transmission tower that WBAL-TV also shares with WIYY and several other Baltimore television and radio stations.
WMAR-TV is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road in Towson north of the Baltimore City–Baltimore County border. Its transmitter and antenna, which is on a landmark three-pronged candelabra broadcast tower, is located on Television Hill in the Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore.
WUTB is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF, for the provision of certain services. Sinclair also operates CW affiliate WNUV under a separate local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WNUV as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The stations share studios on 41st Street off the Jones Falls Expressway in the Woodberry neighborhood of north Baltimore. Through a channel sharing agreement, WUTB and WBFF transmit using the latter station's spectrum from an antenna adjacent to the studios.
WCHS-TV is a television station licensed to Charleston, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston–Huntington market as an affiliate of ABC and Fox. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to WVAH-TV under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WVAH-TV as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The two stations share studios on Piedmont Road in Charleston; WCHS-TV's transmitter is located atop Coal Mountain, south of Scott Depot, West Virginia.
WTAT-TV is a television station in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, although Sinclair effectively owns WTAT-TV, making it an effective sister to dual MyNetworkTV/ABC affiliate WCIV, WTAT-TV is operated outright by Cunningham, and is one of only two Cunningham stations not operated by Sinclair. WTAT-TV's studios are located on Arco Lane in North Charleston, and its transmitter is located in Awendaw, South Carolina.
WVAH-TV is a television station licensed to Charleston, West Virginia, United States, serving the Charleston–Huntington market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Catchy Comedy. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of dual ABC/Fox affiliate WCHS-TV, for the provision of certain services. However, Sinclair effectively owns WVAH-TV as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The two stations share studios on Piedmont Road in Charleston; WVAH-TV's transmitter is located atop Coal Mountain, south of Scott Depot, West Virginia.
KOKH-TV is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KOCB. The two stations share studios and transmitter facilities on East Wilshire Boulevard and 78th Street on the city's northeast side.
WSYX is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to TBD station WTTE and Chillicothe-licensed CW affiliate WWHO under separate local marketing agreements (LMAs). However, Sinclair effectively owns WTTE as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The three stations share studios on Dublin Road in Grandview Heights ; WSYX's transmitter is located in the Franklinton section of Columbus.
Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation is an owner of broadcast television stations in the United States. The company currently owns fifteen stations – eight affiliated with Fox, three affiliated with The CW, two affiliated with ABC, and two affiliated with MyNetworkTV.
Woodberry is a neighborhood located in the north-central area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. A largely residential, middle-class area, Woodberry is a historic community bordered on the north by Cold Spring Lane, on the south by Druid Hill Park, on the west by Greenspring Avenue, and on the east by the Jones Falls Expressway and the Jones Falls. Woodberry is located within Postal Zip code 21211.
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References
↑ "Examiner disagrees with FCC hearing policy."[permanent dead link]Broadcasting, August 8, 1966, pg. 74: "Hearing Examiner Millard F. French recommended a grant to Chesapeake Engineering Placement Service Inc. seeking to operate on channel 45 in Baltimore and denial of Erway Television Corp.'s application for the same facilities."
(*) – indicates station is in one of Maryland's primary TV markets (**) – indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Maryland
2Formerly separately licensed as WCGV-TV and merged with WVTV's spectrum, but remains on its former channel number as a separate station
JVJoint Venture
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