WBFF
kW | |
HAAT | 372.8 m (1,223 ft) |
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Transmitter coordinates | 39°20′10.4″N 76°38′57.9″W / 39.336222°N 76.649417°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | (DT2) |
WBFF (channel 45) is a
The three stations share studios on 41st Street off the
).History
WBFF first came on the air on April 11, 1971,
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
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
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 10 p.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.[6]
WBFF nearly lost its Fox affiliation in 1994 when Fox entered talks with WJZ-TV, but it opted to affiliate with CBS instead.[7] WBAL-TV was also considered after the station dropped CBS, but opted to affiliate with NBC instead.[8]
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.
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
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
On May 1, 2006, the station launched its .2 digital channel with retro programming, the first non-weather subchannel in the market.[9]
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:
On the afternoon of April 28, 2016, WBFF's studios were evacuated in response to a threat by a person wearing a
WBFF-DT2
On May 1, 2006, WBFF launched a new service on its second
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 5:30 a.m. and an early evening newscast at 5:30 p.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 WBFF'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 5:30 p.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.[17] 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).[18]
Controversy
On December 21, 2014, WBFF's news operation came under criticism for airing a video that some allege had misleading edits.[19]
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 10 p.m. newscast, made it seem like protesters were chanting "kill a cop."[19][20]
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.[21] A news anchor for the station later made an in-person apology to Jones, who appeared during the station's 5:30 p.m. newscast.[20]
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.[22]
Notable former on-air staff
- Tony Harris – later at CNN
- Sirius XM Radio's The Howard Stern Show
- WNYW-TV
- Amber Theoharis – now with NFL Network
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
45.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WBFF45 | Fox |
45.2 | MyTV | MyNetworkTV | ||
45.4 | 480i | Charge! | Charge! |
Analog-to-digital conversion
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,[26][27] using virtual channel 45.
WBFF announced in September 2015 that test broadcasts would begin in Baltimore and
As a part of the
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."
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WBFF". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Fybush, Scott (January 15, 2010). "TV Hill, Baltimore, 2008". Tower Site of the Week.
- ^ "Contact". My TV Baltimore. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
- ^ a b c Boynton, Christine (April 11, 2016). "WBFF-TV Channel 45 Celebrates 45th Anniversary". Fox 45 News.
- ^ Zurawik, David (September 13, 1991). "Smith family seeks to take Channel 2; WBFF owners' move could shift WMAR". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- ^ "Three suitors line up to call on jilted WJZ-TV". June 18, 1994.
- ^ "WJZ to join CBS in 3-station deal". July 15, 1994.
- ^ a b c d Madigan, Nick (February 8, 2006). "New WBFF digital channel to rerun local favorites". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
- ^ "TV News Check". TV News Check. February 3, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ "Sinclair Makes It A Triopoly in Baltimore". TVNewsCheck. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ^ "TV News Check". TV News Check. February 3, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ "WUTB". FCCData.org. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
- ^ "CDBS Print".
- ^ "Man wearing animal outfit shot by police outside Baltimore TV station". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
- ^ "History". sbgi.net. Sinclair Broadcast Group. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
- ^ "News wars: WBFF-TV to add early newscast starting April 9". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ "WBFF Fox 45 to launch weekend newscasts". The Baltimore Sun. October 24, 2012.
- ^ a b Zurawik, David (January 9, 2015). "'Kill a cop' video may undercut WBFF's big plans". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ a b Zurawik, David (December 22, 2014). "WBFF apologizes for misleading edit on videotape of protest chant". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ "Apology post made by WBFF-TV". WBFF-TV (via the station's Facebook page). December 22, 2014. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Zurawik, David (December 31, 2014). "WBFF drops Melinda Roeder, photographer after misleading edit of protest video". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- WJHG. February 12, 2008. Archived from the originalon September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
- ^ "Kristen Berset: Sports Anchor / Reporter". App. September 1, 2015.
- ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WBFF". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "CDBS Print". fjallfoss.fcc.gov.
- ^ Miller, Mark (September 5, 2015). "ONE Media To Test Next-Gen SFN Platform". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
- ^ "FCC". apps.fcc.gov.
- ^ "OET eLS Application Detail Report". apps.fcc.gov.
- ^ "Searchable Clearinghouse | National Association of Broadcasters". nab.org.