WBRE-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WBRE-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, Pennsylvania | |
| Branding | WBRE WBRE News |
| Slogan | On Your Side |
| Channels | Analog: 28 (UHF) |
| Translators | W24BL 24 Pottsville W30AN 30 Williamsport W51BP 51 Clarks Summit W64AL 64 Stroudsburg |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | Nexstar Broadcasting Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | January 1, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Baltimore Radio Exchange (original owners, call sign was kept when radio sisters were sold and it unofficially means Wilkes-BarRE) |
| Sister station(s) | WYOU |
| Transmitter Power | 3,020 kW (analog) 30 kW (digital) |
| Height | 509 m (analog) 471 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 71225 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.pahomepage.com |
WBRE-TV, channel 28, is the NBC-affiliated television station for northeastern and north central Pennsylvania, licensed to Wilkes-Barre. Its transmitter is located in Mountaintop. Owned by Nexstar Broadcasting, the station has studios on South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre. WBRE is sister to CBS affiliate WYOU which is owned by Mission Broadcasting but operated by Nexstar through a joint sales agreement (JSA).
Contents |
[edit] Repeaters
Like most stations in Northeast Pennsylvania, WBRE must rely on repeaters to serve its coverage area. The market is one of the largest east of the Mississippi River and is very mountainous. In addition, Scranton/Wilkes Barre is a "UHF island" due to the fact that it is too close to Philadelphia and New York City for VHF analog service.
| Call letters | Analog Channel | Digital Channel | City of license |
|---|---|---|---|
| W24BL | 24 | 24 | Pottsville |
| W30AN | 30 | 30 | Williamsport |
| W51BP | 51 | 51 | Clarks Summit |
| W64AL | 64 | 47 | Stroudsburg |
[edit] History
On January 1, 1953, WBRE signed on becoming the first television station in the market. It was owned by the Baltimore family along with WBRE radio (1340 AM, now WYCK, and 98.5 FM, now WKRZ). Although it appears that the call letters stand for Wilkes-BaRrE, it actually stands for Baltimore 'Radio Exchange, the Baltimore family's company. The radio stations were sold off in 1980.
Channel 28 led the ratings throughout the 1950s until ABC affiliate WNEP-TV jumped ahead of it in 1959. However, WBRE jumped back in the lead in the early-1960s and went back and forth for first place with WDAU-TV (now WYOU) until 1978, when WNEP took a lead it still holds today. For most of the last 30 years, WBRE has been a very distant runner-up to dominant WNEP.
In 1972, disaster struck at WBRE when its offices were flooded by Hurricane Agnes. Most of the station's equipment was moved above ground and survived but a film archive located in the basement was destroyed.
After numerous changes of ownership, Nexstar Broadcasting Group acquired the station in January of 1998. Nexstar already owned WYOU, but opted to keep the higher-rated WBRE and sell WYOU to Mission Broadcasting. However, Nexstar continued to control WYOU's operations through a joint sales agreement. On January 3, 2007, Nexstar named Louis J. Abitabilo as Vice President and General Manager for the station.
[edit] News operation
Although most of WYOU's operations are based at WBRE's facilities in downtown Wilkes-Barre, WYOU produces its own newscasts from studios located on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. Since WBRE and WYOU have both trailed WNEP in the news ratings by a wide margin for most of the last 30 years, a major shakeup in format occurred in the fall of 2006. While WYOU went with a talk / debate format for its weeknight shows, WBRE News became more of the traditional news program. This set a more clear competition against WNEP. WYOU generally does a traditional newscast whenever WBRE has programming that bumps their newscast back by a significant amount of time.
In 2002, WBRE and WYOU dropped their separate morning and noon newscasts in favor of in favor of Pennsylvania Morning and Pennsylvania Midday which were jointly-produced and simulcasted on both stations. At the beginning of 2008, WYOU started airing the first hour of the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, at 6 A.M. It also debuted its own Noon news.
On June 9, 2008, there will be several major changes on the two stations. WBRE will re-launch its news operation as WBRE Eyewitness News. This will coincide with a new set, music package, graphics, and weather system upgrade. The station will be the first in the market to use a three-member anchor team during its weeknight broadcasts. Current anchor Andy Mehalshick will become a reporter. Candice Kelly, who anchors on WYOU, will move to the weeknight newscasts on WBRE beginning in mid-May. She will be joined by newcomer Drew Speier.
In addition, WBRE and WYOU’s midday shows will switch anchors. Mark Hiller will move from WBRE’s 11 A.M. news to WYOU’s Noon broadcast. Eva Mastromatteo will switch over to WBRE at 11 A.M. Hiller will also debut as anchor of WYOU’s First at 4 weekday broadcast. The station will be the first one in the market to broadcast local news at 4 P.M. This will be followed at 4:30 by The Insider which will move from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU will then drop their 5 P.M. newscast and air two episodes of Judge Judy.
Finally, at 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who currently anchors on WBRE) will join Eric Scheiner for the half-hour WYOU Interactive. That station will also launch a new weeknight newscast WYOU News at 7. WNEP already airs local news at that time on the weeknights. All of the preceding changes will attempt to better compete against WNEP and get more ratings.
Along with their main studios, WBRE operates two news bureaus. There is one in Stroudsburg on Main Street. There is also a Williamsport Bureau located on West 4th Street.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Mark Hiller - weekday mornings and 11 A.M.
- producer
- Eva Mastromatteo - weekday mornings
- weekdays at Noon (on WYOU)
- Andy Mehalshick - weeknights
- chief investigative reporter
- Lyndall Stout - weeknights
- Jill Konopka - weekend mornings
- reporter
- Dia Wallace - weekend evenings
- reporter
All Points AccuWeather Team
- Josh Hodell (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights
- Kristi Capel - weekday mornings and 11 A.M.
- weekdays at Noon (on WYOU)
- April Gonzales - weekend mornings
- Kevin Derk - weekend evenings
- Brian Fitzgerald - Stroudsburg Bureau
- seen Monday through Friday evenings
- Dave Skutnik - Lackawanna County
- Jeff Jumper - Williamsport Bureau
Sports
- Phil Schoener - Director seen on weeknights at 6 and 11
- Colin Riccobon - weekend evenings
- sports reporter
Reporters
- Jeff Chirico - consumer
- Joe Holden - investigative
- seen weeknights at 11
- Laurie Monteforte - Stroudsburg Bureau
- seen on weeknights
- Jeremy Deebel - Williamsport Bureau
- Mike Trim - investigative
[edit] External links
- WBRE channel 28
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WBRE-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W51BP
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W24BL
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W60AH
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W64AL
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W30AN
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WBRE-TV
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
