WFMJ-TV

WFMJ-TV (channel 21) is a television station in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW. The station is locally owned by the Maag family. WFMJ-TV's studios are located on West Boardman Street in downtown Youngstown, and its transmitter is based in the city's Lansingville neighborhood.

From its inception until 2019, the station was owned by the Vindicator Printing Company, former publisher of Youngstown's lone newspaper, The Vindicator. On September 1, 2019; the Maags sold The Vindicator to Ogden Newspapers, which now operates it as an edition of the Tribune Chronicle in Warren. The Maags retained WFMJ-TV.

History

The station was founded by William F. Maag, Jr., publisher of the Vindicator, and went on the air for the first time on March 8, 1953, on channel 73.[2] The station was owned alongside WFMJ radio (1390 AM, now WNIO, and 105.1 FM, now WQXK). WFMJ-TV has always been an NBC affiliate owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with NBC Red Network. The Maags then purchased the construction permit issued for channel 21 (originally granted to WUTV) and moved to that frequency on August 7, 1954.[3]

WFMJ-DT2

WFMJ-DT2, branded The CW WBCB, is the CW-affiliated second digital subchannel of WFMJ-TV, broadcasting in 1080i high definition on channel 21.2. The subchannel can also be seen on all local cable and DBS systems including Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum and DirecTV channel 14, and Armstrong Cable channel 16. It uses the unofficial call sign "WBCB" for identification and ratings purposes. Despite being part of The CW through a digital subchannel affiliation, WFMJ-DT2 is one of the few small-market CW affiliates carried via a digital multicast or local cable channel that is not part of The CW Plus; syndicated programming broadcast by the subchannel is instead supplied by WFMJ-TV.

History

The subchannel launched in November 2004 as an affiliate of The WB (branded The Valley's WB),[7] and despite Youngstown's small market size (ranked #106 by Nielsen Media Research as of 2008), WBCB was one of the nation's first digital subchannels whose programming did not consist of 24-hour weather information (such as NBC Weather Plus). Around the time of launch, WFMJ chose to affiliate "WBCB" with The WB because the founders of Warner Bros. had lived in Youngstown at one point; the market had also been underserved by the network as Cleveland's then-WB affiliate WBNX-TV (later also a CW affiliate) was only carried on cable in the northern fringes of the market (despite being one of that network's strongest affiliates without Youngstown) while Pittsburgh WB affiliate WCWB (itself now affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV) was not even available on cable at all in the market (by contrast, Cleveland's then-UPN affiliate WUAB (earlier also a CW affiliate) was and remains widely available on cable in Youngstown, while WNPA/Pittsburgh was available in certain sections of the market).

Most of the market received WB network programming via "WBWO", a cable-only WB affiliate of The WB 100+ Station Group out of the Wheeling–Steubenville market, with systems owned and operated by Time Warner Cable (the largest cable provider in Youngstown) only receiving it during prime time hours, otherwise sharing channel space with MTV2. Comcast and Armstrong Cable both offered both MTV2 and WBWO 24 hours on their own channel space. The "WBCB" calls date back to the station's WB affiliation (affiliates of The WB 100+ Station Group commonly utilized fictional callsigns).

On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced the two networks would cease broadcasting and merge to form The CW. "WBCB" would be chosen by default as the market's CW affiliate and for unknown reasons, the artificial call sign "WBCB" was kept after the subchannel affiliated with The CW in September 2006. With digital subchannels more common by this point, ABC affiliate WYTV launched a second digital subchannel affiliated with MyNetworkTV (under the branding "MY-YTV") that fall.

callsign	WFMJ-TV
branding	21 WFMJ; 21 News WBCB, The Valley's CW (21.2)
digital	33 (UHF)
virtual	21
affiliations	21.1: NBC 21.2: The CW 21.3: Dabl
founded	July 1952‡R1R‡
airdate	March 8, 1953
location	Youngstown, Ohio
country	United States
callsign meaning	William F. Maag Jr. (former publisher of the Youngstown Vindicator)
former channel numbers	Analog: 73 (UHF, 1953–1954), 21 (UHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 20 (UHF, 2003–2019)
owner	Maag family
licensee	WFMJ Television, Inc.
erp	740 kW
haat	295 m
facility id	72062
coordinates	41.08017°N, -80.64011°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	http://www.wfmj.com/

History

WFMJ-DT2

History

News operation

Notable former staff

Subchannels

External links

References